Current Events > For years when I heard about The Giving Tree...

(+) Yeah! (+)

...I thought it was this other book I read as a kid.

A woman had a fussy husband. Every time she made dinner, he would ask for 7 or 8 other dishes because he kept changing his mind about what he wanted to eat - and of course, he wouldn't eat any of the other food that was prepared for him.

She told a shopkeeper about this, who gave her a seed to plant in her backyard. After tending to it for a while, it grew into a full sized tree. And eventually, it began to talk to her. It turns out it's a magic tree which can create any dish, and it tells her to take food out of it to serve her husband.

So dinnertime comes around, and the husband's being his usual prickish self. He asks his wife for steamed beets, she goes to the tree which produces a plate of steamed beets. Then it turns out he didn't want steamed beets to begin with - he wanted silverside. So she goes to the tree, which produces silverside. But he doesn't want silverside either - he wants meatloaf. This happens a few times, until he finally gets what he wants.

But when he goes to get up and leave all that extra food to get thrown away by his wife, it comes to life and starts shaming him for being wasteful. "Excuse me, I was made for you to eat!", "Where do you think you're going? You're not going anywhere until we get eaten!" - shit like that. So he sits at that table and eats every last dish he asked for, down to the last bite.

And after that horrifying encounter, he was never fussy again. He got one meal at dinner, and he sure as fuck ate that meal right then and there. All thanks to what I assumed was the Giving Tree.

But then I learned that the famous Giving Tree story was about a tree that produces gifts, and people take and take from the tree until it has nothing left to give. This is treated as noble.

What the fuck are with America's values? Do you guys not have stories about trees who produce sentient food to shock fussy eaters into reducing their food waste? Is all of your locally-produced beloved holiday media that type of selfish, self-congratulatory "Christmas Shoes" nonsense?

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The Grinch who stole Christmas is a rather wholesome American Christmas story.

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...I thought it was this other book I read as a kid.

I remember that version.

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pikachupwnage posted...

The Grinch who stole Christmas is a rather wholesome American Christmas story.

I guess. And you guys have Peanuts too, which is well worth mentioning.

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MrMallard posted...

But then I learned that the famous Giving Tree story was about a tree that produces gifts, and people take and take from the tree until it has nothing left to give. This is treated as noble.

It is about a boy and a tree and the passage of time. What happens simply happens and you can take away from it what you want. Some see it as a portrayal of a toxic relationship. Some see it as a story about our society and the environment. Those who told you about it saw it as a story about why being foolishly selfless is a good thing.

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