Even Grimmer Tales Read Online Free Page A

before.
    Different people.
    Different values.
    Different tastes …
    So very true.
    Once you come to realise
    it’s just a matter of what people say,
    that really ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are only words
    and have such varied meanings …
    Well, many aspects that once bothered me
    now seem quite ordinary.
    No, Gretel, if you’ve finished dusting,
    now you can sweep the floor.
    It’s very bad, the way some parents
    treat their offspring.
    There’s animals that care far better
    for their young than many humans do.
    But then,
    let’s face it, we’re all animals.
    Just different breeds of living species,
    that’s the truth of it.
    I know that there are people
    who won’t eat the flesh of animals.
    A special virtue?
    Yet vegetarianism takes so many forms.
    I’ve made it quite a field of expertise.
    There’s ovo, lacto, and there’s veganism;
    there’s some who are fruitarians,
    or even pescetarians … it shows you
    that it takes all sorts to make a world.
    Can’t really understand just why
    the family dog or cat in some societies
    is held as quite forbidden fodder
    while others see these as a tasty treat.
    You’re following my reasoning?
    The whole thing’s cultural. Depends entirely
    on the way that you’ve been reared.
    I think a lot about these things. I’ve had
    the time to contemplate the strangeness
    of it all.
    Taboo! It’s curious –
    the way what in one age
    or one society seems normal,
    part of daily life,
    in others may be frowned on …
    We make the rules,
    and then pretend that they’re god-given.
    What presumption!
    The floor’s swept? Mop it next,
    and then you can make lunch for Hansel.
    For me the most important thing
    is to keep others happy.
    Sheer misery – some children’s lives.
    The happiness I bring them
    is worth the price they pay.
    I won’t pretend it’s altruistic,
    but here at least they get a time of pleasure
    that they’ve never known before.
    Warriors in ancient races
    took advantage of the enemies
    they’d slaughtered –
    scavenged bodies
    for new strength.
    Today the Korowai are remnants of the many
    through the ages who have known
    that flesh brings strength – no matter what
    its source – especially when it comes
    from those who have proved weaker.
    (That’s not what I’m about!)
    Eat more meat? So advertisers trumpet,
    And dieticians tell us frequently:
    Red meat is good for us – it’s iron for the blood.
    Then what about straight need?
    Consider history: sieges where,
    in desperation and starvation,
    to survive one fed from any source.
    The faint of heart, or those too squeamish,
    raise hands to lips in horror at the thought.
    We realists say one does what one has to.
    Plane wrecks.
    Survivors of Flight 571
    managed to obliterate taboos
    and emulate those on the raft of the Medusa
    or at the Siege of Leningrad.
    They ate what was available.
    They had to.
    Had to? An interesting thought.
    We all have different needs,
    and different ways of meeting them.
    Anthropophagy –
    quite a word. It sounds more scientific
    than a term like ‘cannibal’.
    We all know well, what science can explain
    is more acceptable than grosser concepts …
    No more apologies.
    There are good precedents for how I live.
    And how I satisfy my needs.
    I’m not the first to see the logic of these arguments.
    In times gone by I read how Swift,
    yes Jonathan himself,
    the one we think of when we mention Gulliver,
    created a solution to Ireland’s over-population crisis.
    Quite logical –
    just think of all those surplus children!
    I could have cheered – until they pointed out to me
    that he was known for irony. A pity, that!
    Perhaps you have no stomach for considerations
    of this sort … a bad pun, I’ll admit! But note –
    the flesh should be a tender young one’s,
    nothing old or stringy.
    In my experience,