February 28, 2005
Shockheaded Peter
I was horrified to learn that a major source of my childhood terror has been set to music. "Shockheaded Peter" , the musical, is currently unnerving audiences in New York, after a long and successful London run.
I have written about this subject before, because it is so near and dear to my psyche, but in honor of it's resurrection on Broadway, I will risk repeating myself.
I always knew the collection of German rhymes on which this romp is based, as "Struwwelpeter" . I thought it meant Sloppy Peter, but that was my mother's judgement about his hygiene overlaying the facts. Shockheaded Peter is both the correct and more descriptive translation.
This little book was created to convince children to obey adults, through the graphic depiction of the consequences of disobedience. It is a very convincing document.
"Struwwelpeter" scores a 10 of 10 on the Dakota Fear-Factor Scale. I am trying to understand why it had a much more profound impact on me as a child than did the usual tales of cruelty and misforture that are abundant in the classics of children's literature - to which I was lavishly exposed.
When I was little, the very sight of "Struwwelpeter" was enough to cause a wave of dread to course through my tiny viscera.
Don't get me wrong, Struwwelpeter himself was not a threatening entity, like a cruel stepmother or a troll, even though his long hair and dragon nails were initially startling. No, he was just a young fellow who let himself go - relaxed , didn't shower and groom as often as he might have. He wasn't much of a perfectionist, and just look what happened to him. Now THAT was terrifiying.
What makes this collection of cautionary tales uniquely horrifying is that the child is bad. Therefore the child is properly, rather than wrongfully, punished. In contrast, something like Lemony Snicket fearures quite an evil uncle, under whose guardianship the children suffer, but the children themselves are good. The small reader can identify with their pure little hearts .
The children in Struwwelpeter, on the other hand, just brim with inherent badness. They do not pay attention , they play with matches , they suck their thumbs, they are unworthy of their parent's trust, and as a result, they get their just desserts.
These poems are meant to control children with fear, fear about childlike behaviors, curiosity, inattention, poor hygiene - you know, the naturally occurring sins of most children (and we're not even talking about masterbation). I am here to report they work like a charm.
Childrearing practices that involve scaring and shaming children into compliance have negative results. They kill the spirit, create obedient followers, cause children to model their behavior after the cruelty of the adults around them, identify with the aggressor, become bullies. The Swiss psychologist, Alice Miller would argue that childrearing practices of this ilk lead to even more ominous cultural phenonmena like Hitler's rise to power and religious fundamentalism - Christian and otherwise.
I was lucky. I just had my spirit squashed by a little book (and a few adults). I also grew up in a, peaceful, middle class environment where repair services were available for squashed spirits with financial means. There are far too many children in the world who are terrorized by the violence and cruelty around them, corporal punishment (oft practiced by the religious right), war, poverty, urban violence, natural disaster who will never have the opportunity be lifted from their trauma.
When we start a war, or humiliate a child we need to understand the damage
that we do for generations to come.
As a simple first step, I urge the theater going public to leave their children at home when they go to see "Shockheaded Peter", and to hide the program when they get home.
See how badly you have been affected by fear and trauma, take the morality test. I am of the upper left quadrant.
Photo note: Jagged, cold and ominious seemed to fit the bill. If you really look you can spot a few triangles, just to keep your finger in sacred geometry .
Posted by Dakota at February 28, 2005 08:29 PM