An interesting post over at Chapel Perilous, about how the story of Rudolph the reindeer teaches kids a shitty message. There were also some related comments by readers about violence in fairy tales, to which I added my own lengthy diatribe, as I would like to record below. I have been thinking about this a lot especially since I finished that Von Franz book on Shadow & Evil in Fairy Tales:

but violence in fairy tales is NOT about doing violence to real people and kids intuitively know that difference. these stories teach kids about the interplay of archetypal figures, forces and patterns inside of them. violence here is just one of many forms of energy exchange, and its a psychological necessity to be able to make healthy use of those feelings within yourself and to understand how they can be translated into the real world and how they cannot. if you keep your kids away from these stories, i believe they are actually more likely to not know how to handle anger and violence in their outer lives, because they have no interior experience and intuitive understanding of it. not letting them hear stories like this robs them of a certain amount of cultural heritage.

that said, i also agree that the tale of rudolph contains a typically christian message of humility and self-sacrifice. the underlying message is that even if you suffer on earth (get made fun of by the other reindeer), god will reward you in heaven (santa praises you and lets you guide his sleigh). the real flaw of the message i think is not that its selfless, but that its not complete in its selflessness. it only asks you postpone your reward till later, when if it followed its own interior logic, then it should teach you not to act out of hope of any reward at all

I was gonna launch into something about Rudolph’s nose reminding me of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but thought that was probably too much at the moment. Maybe I’ll pick this all up again later though, cause I think there’s a lot of important stuff locked up in here.