baba-prague
It's thought-provoking to read this - I'm grateful to hear these posts.
We worried quite a lot about this card as The Little Mermaid is in many ways such a harsh story. I remember being terribly upset by it - for days in fact - when I was a child. In the scene that we've depicted the Mermaid is about to give up her tongue in order to gain the ability to walk on land. It's the moment in the story when the reader feels very much like a helpless bystander - it always makes me want to shout out "Don't do it?" because it's such a cruel bargain and you know that there will be no going back. We didn't depict this graphically at all - but if you know this story you know exactly what is about to happen - and this knowledge hurts.
But the story has an odd lesson as well, because in fact the mermaid, as it turns out, gains the most important thing of all, a soul. She seems to lose everything - her love and her life and even her family - but she does gain something more important. It's bitter-sweet, as I think this card can be.
We worried quite a lot about this card as The Little Mermaid is in many ways such a harsh story. I remember being terribly upset by it - for days in fact - when I was a child. In the scene that we've depicted the Mermaid is about to give up her tongue in order to gain the ability to walk on land. It's the moment in the story when the reader feels very much like a helpless bystander - it always makes me want to shout out "Don't do it?" because it's such a cruel bargain and you know that there will be no going back. We didn't depict this graphically at all - but if you know this story you know exactly what is about to happen - and this knowledge hurts.
But the story has an odd lesson as well, because in fact the mermaid, as it turns out, gains the most important thing of all, a soul. She seems to lose everything - her love and her life and even her family - but she does gain something more important. It's bitter-sweet, as I think this card can be.