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We (the NGO I work for) put a survey on FB about adults who read folktales / fairy tales.

It's getting a bunch of trolls.
How is THIS a post getting the trolls?!

"Adults should read literature, not infantile gibberish."

"Tales for adults are called fantasy fiction. Or the news."

"Doesn't this organization do anything else but stories?"

What. The. Hell.

#WTF #folklore #folktales #reading #storytelling
Angry, Cynical, and Ignorant; sounds like three of the Seven Trolls to me.
what's up with that?

I know even usually thoughtful people are weird about how books and reading signal status or in-group out-group stuff.

Or they come out weirdly puritan. ( Books are supposed to be good for you in "eat your veggies" kind way. Pleasure and joy are self indulgent. )

But this reaction seems even more tone deaf than usual.
The interesting part is, adult folktale collections are actually pretty common in Hungary. And yet.
Any recommendations?
I don't know how "adult" these tales are, but if at least some of them could work for my 8yo, Hungarian would be nice.

Otherwise, English is also good.
Of my own books, Varjúherceg or Széltestvér és Napkelte are good for the 8+ age. My first adult (mythology) collection is coming out in November. Boldizsár Ildikó and Csóka Judit have a bunch of adult folktale collections, but I have some hesitations about those.
Pár javaslatot én is elfogadnék. O:)
Egy nagyon felnőtteknek szóló amit egy garázsvásárban vettem tavaly de eddig csak beleolvastam: A Legkisebb Királykisasszony Kívánsága.
ooh, right. There are a bunch of bawdy folktale collections too, but I kinda hate those... that's not what I generally mean by "adult" 😄
I love folklore. It's fascinating. I wonder about people like that--because most of the originals I wouldn't want a kid reading.
People can get very weird around what media you are allowed to consume. Like, sexual hangups levels of weird. People sometimes legit blush when they talk about watching a show that's not mainstream here (and not otherwise something to blush about). And when it comes to books, all that is multiplied by the majority's distaste for reading (at least reading anything that doesn't end after two lines), and everybody is suspicious of people who admit to reading for fun. Idk why that is, but it's something I notice often (as I get caught out in public reading often enough, though harder to catch now that I read on the phone lol).
There's an old folk saying I first heard at my mother's knee: "There will always be people who have done nothing, standing ready to criticize those who have."

"Huh?, I said.

"You know, idiots, " she replied.

The internet is essentially a giant proof of that concept.
FB is a cesspit.
People have been saying things like this to me my whole life. I loved to read as a kid, but I wasn't reading "real" books, according to my teachers (I was mostly reading science fiction).

As an adult, I read Harry Potter, and people told me that's only for kids. I read Twilight, and people told me that's for middle aged women. And I still read lots of science fiction, which apparently means I've "gone woke," according to some people.

There is something about books and literature that brings out the absolute judgiest of judgy people.