Welcome to Gaia! ::

Shina walked into class and took her seat. Pulling out her copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard and her note-taking supplies, she waited eagerly for class to begin. It was a bit of a surprise to be the only student in this class, but she loved the opportunity to learn one-on-one from the cheerful professor.

"Of course," Shina replied. "A kindly, helpful old man dies. His selfish, conceited brat gets a lesson in playing nicely with others. Considered controversial because the father helped muggles, and the son was punished for being rude and haughty, considering the muggles to be beneath him, eventually coming to realize he was in the wrong, and making amends by helping the muggles. Pureblood supremacists consider this lesson to be completely against their ideology, as the basically have the same mindset as the immature and lazy son at the start of the story. Also the target of Bowdlerization by some storytellers who considered warts to be too horrid a thing for young minds to be exposed to," Shina summarized. "It also seems to be the most simple, and heavy-handed tale from Beedle that I read. Fairly straightforward, without the intricacy of the layered meanings that the Fountain of Fair Fortune had."

Shina listened, taking notes as the professor spoke. Shina nodded at the end. "I see. It does make sense that this might have been an earlier tale, or one meant to appeal to younger readers. I wonder...if the tale was one of Beedle's first stories, and it was immediately targeted by censors and twisted so completely from its original moral, if that might have been what inspired Beedle to layer the meaning in his later tales the way he did?" Shina suggested.

Shina nodded. "There are none so deaf as those who will not hear," she quoted. "Like the son in the story, prejudiced purebloods didn't want to change. Unlike the young wizard, they lack a hopping pot to convince them it is more trouble to be petty and lazy than to be polite and responsible. The son's punishment came immediately after the wrongdoing, and couldn't be put off until he fixed his behavior. Quite the proper track to teach a lesson. But petty, selfish behavior often does not have immediate consequences in the real world, and so wizards stuck their fingers in their ears and sang lalala and went about their business. And now, many generations later, we notice a pattern of insular, snobbish, close-minded behavior, leading to wizards being rather badly behind the muggles they so scorn in a variety of fields. I've never heard of a wizard on the moon," Shina pointed out.

Shina nodded as the professor spoke. "Well, we really should look into learning about planes, or some sort of mass transit. I for one have yet to find a satisfactory magical mass transit method that isn't based on muggle transportation," Shina said. "Brooms are exposed to the elements and move only one person. Apparition is suitable only for a single, trained, adult. Floo is messy, finicky, allows a single person at a time, relies on a proprietary substance that has never been explained, and must have both ends connected before hand. Portkeys are heavily regulated and can't transport more than a handful of people. Honestly, it's no wonder we are so insular, when we don't have a simple way to get out and see what's going on the next town over."

"As for punishment, isn't it better to try instead to teach our children to behave better in the first place, so they might grow into responsible adults? Punishing an adult for their poor behavior will likely always be a battle more likely to be lost. So if we truly wish to change our society, we need to focus not on the hidebound folk to stubborn to hear, but on those who are curious and eager to listen, the children. Indeed, this may be why Beedle chose to focus on children's tales. If he had become a politician and championed his cause in the public arena, his name would likely be but a footnote in history. Instead, he crafted lessons for those who would listen, and became one of the best-known magical tale-weavers," Shina said.