Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Slater
Julie, in Browning's telling, the moment the mayor says that he will not pay him the thousand gilders, the Pied Piper steps out onto the street and leads all the children in the town (except the lame child) into a portal in the mountain, never to be heard from again. That's a rather extreme reaction, I think. If you owed me money and refused to pay, I think you might call me a homocidal maniac if, instead of contacting a lawyer, I were to murder your children.
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There's a lot of humor to be had from taking well-known tales and viewing them through a modern, realistic lens.
In a country in which people daily express their grievances with guns, your version supplies a relevant lesson, Roger, but it ain't the original tale's lesson. If you were to murder Julie's children we'd call you a homicidal maniac, but if you took out your pipe and led them into a magical portal in a mountain, we'd have to take more nuanced view.