Status Updates From Sprookjes van Godfried Bomans

Onnozele sprookjes met een grappige bedoelde wrange draai aan het einde: haha Grimfried!

”Once upon a time there was a man who longed to fly, not in a balloon, and not in an airplane, but with wings of his own... So he bought a dead swan and cut off the wings. He tied the wings on his arms and jumped out of a window. He had plenty of time to think it over in the hospital.”

I do appreciate how Bomans tends to roll his eyes at the colossally bad fairy-tale logic his characters devise.

I’m not so sure I would read these fairy tales to children - and even the illustrations have plenty of nudity and gore. Still, my school library had this when I was a kid (which is where I first encountered it), and I remember thinking it was the coolest, weirdest book ever.

The Wily Witch riles up the villagers:

”Look here: I can understand her enticing strangers in to make them fat and then baking them in her oven. I don’t approve, but I can put myself in her place, and we all have our faults. But the fact that she speaks the truth about it is too much for me.”