I don’t know this story but in Poland, books that were mandatory to read in primary school included:
story about a poor kid who really wanted to play violin, dared to touch violin belonging to the landlord and was beaten to death as a punishment (Janko muzykant)
story about a young girl that gets sick, as a “fold remedy” is put into an oven for the duration of a prayer and dies (Antek)
story about a kid who goes to school under German occupation and studies so much he gets brain inflammation and dies (Syzyfowe prace)
story about a dog that gets left behind when his family moves, starts running in a desperate attempt to find his owner, finds her and dies of exhaustion in her arms (what was the title??)
story about a horse working in a coalmine that can’t ever get out because he entered when he was younger and now the ceiling is too low, the horse dies (Łysek z pokładu idy)
story about a kid how gets pneumonia from playing outside with friends and dies (Chłopcy z placu broni)
story about a kid who fights Germans during occupation, gets caught, is tortured and beaten up so badly that he dies shortly after his friends rescue him (Kamienie na szaniec)
story about a teacher working in a small village, trying to teach poor children science. she gets sick and dies because there’s a blizzard and they can’t deliver medicine in time (Siłaczka)
story about a dog that rides trains. the dog is hit by a train and dies (O psie który jeździł koleją)
I’m probably forgetting about couple more “fun” stories. So yeah, I would love to have read about spiders fucking instead.
The Polish lullabies include a song about a royal family (king, page, princess) who live in happiness and love until they get eaten by a cat, a dog, and a mouse. Only after singing about this massacre does the parent do a big reveal that they were made out of sugar, gingerbread, and marzipan, respectively (“Był sobie król”/“Once there was a king”)
story about a dog that gets left behind when his family moves, starts running in a desperate attempt to find his owner, finds her and dies of exhaustion in her arms
I don’t know this story but in Poland, books that were mandatory to read in primary school included:
I’m probably forgetting about couple more “fun” stories. So yeah, I would love to have read about spiders fucking instead.
I wonder why alcoholism is a problem there.
what i’m taking from this is that Polish morality tales basically go “you do anything, you die, probably ironically”
Yes and also “Poles have to suffer for the greater good of Europe”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_of_Europe
It’s all pretty depressing and fucked up.
TIL
that was fascinating in a horrifying sad kind of way
thank you for sharing
brb falling down a rabbit hole of looking up other countries’ … I don’t even know how to typify this. self identity narratives? national copium?
For a modern example you can look at China post Century of Humiliation, although I wouldn’t call China’s progress copium.
You okay Poland? Those are some depressing kids stories.
Polish primary school is metal.
The Polish lullabies include a song about a royal family (king, page, princess) who live in happiness and love until they get eaten by a cat, a dog, and a mouse. Only after singing about this massacre does the parent do a big reveal that they were made out of sugar, gingerbread, and marzipan, respectively (“Był sobie król”/“Once there was a king”)
:(