Author Archives: schropp

German Proverb: Den Wald

The informant is retired but worked as a secretary for quite some time. She is of German descent and has a great deal of German folklore knowledge that she had learned from her relatives.
The informant shares a German proverb:
In German: Du siehst den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht.English Translation (literal): You don’t see the forest for all the trees

 

This is explained to mean that one does not see their life for the big picture, but rather the minutia, which can cause someone to lose sight of where they should be going or who they are as a whole entity.

The proverb was told to the informant when she was a young woman. She went to visit her grandmother in Austria. At this time the informant was caught up in some small social ordeal at school which bothered her doing her trip to Europe. This proverb was shared with her to give her perspective on the insignificance of this matter and how it is your life on a bigger scale that must be currently worried about.
Since this it of advice, the informant went on to use it as a means to keep perspective of her life outside the immediate. The informant notes that post WWII when many cities were destroyed, it seemed like all was lost. For many this proverb acted as a reminder of the long term growth that will take place to restore Europe.
This proverb is so simple yet a very apt metaphor for its meaning. It’s function as a reminder for the people to transcend their negative thoughts about post WWII is something to note because it is this sort of circumstance that gives the proverb such a strong purpose which enables it to be subject to great use amongst those effected by the war. Folklore is always passed down for some reason, most notably tradition, but here it is a tool for healing.

Das Billige ist immer das Teuerste

German proverb: Das Billige ist immer das Teuerste

Literal translation: “The cheapest is always the most expensive.

 

According to the informant, this proverb means that opting for quality is always of greater value, speaking long term,  than opting for something cheap or for greater abundance. This is because quality will sustain if it’s an object and you will learn and improve to a greater degree if dealing with a teacher of some sort.

This is said to be a very old saying in Germany that has been passed down for both personal benefit but also civil. This acts as a reminder that even the property, means to a cause or service must be value in terms of quality and that the people should invest a greater deal of resources into these things to insure a prosperous collective.

The informant values this proverb greatly because when she was young she was subject to dealing with many faulty things and horrible teachers here in the states because of the disregard for quality. Part of this had to do with living through the Great Depression  but looking back she says that there were many instances where procuring quality would have saved her family a great deal of time, energy and money.

 

I selected this proverb from the informants repertoire because I felt it carried a great deal of merit in an age of synthetic and cheap knockoffs of quality products. Some people obviously still value nice well made things but too many fall for the short term trap. From a business end cheaper is better because it can ensure sales long-term. But if you look to the past many companies and groups of people made solid products regardless of the price. It is as though there’s been a shift of values for the sake of profit.

If we look at the creations of their German people, they are notorious for producing quality products  it is likely this proverb transcended its folk roots into mainstream production philosophy, at least to a good degree

 

The informant is retired but worked as a secretary for quite some time. She is of German descent and has a great deal of German folklore knowledge that she had learned from her relatives.

 

 

 

Aus Schaden wird man klug

German Proverb: Aus Schaden wird man klug

English translation: Failure makes smart

According to the informant, Aus Schaden wird man klug is a proverb that reminds one of the essentialness of failure. We live in a world where many cultures devalue missteps instead of seeing them as being just as integral to progress as success.

The informant states that she came to know this proverb from her father who learned it from his German native father. It was when she first pursued playing the violin. She believed she could easily bypass others who found the instrument difficult to play well. Little did she know how difficult it really was. Ironically she played more poorely than her friends. After giving a few months she was ready to give up until she told her father of her intentions. This irked her father who then shared the proverb. This opened up her eyes as to how perceive failure. She embraced it and eventually came out of her learning rut. Since then she studied her failures more closely to better inform her next steps. This proverb she says holds an enourmas amount of value because it has fundamentally changed how she approaches mout things in life.

I found this proverb worth capturing because it provides a type of perspective on a matter, that is achieving success, that often comes from old and often overlooked wisdom, such as embracing failure. That is not to say there are cultures around the world who do not embrace failure today, but in the mainstream westernized way of thinking it has certainly been suppressed by many. What we must take away of from this is that understanding and appreciating antiquated thought may serve us in surprising ways. It is not something to reserve for the recepticals of time.

The informant is retired but worked as a secretary for quite some time. She is of German descent and has a great deal of German folklore knowledge that she had learned from her relatives.

Krampus (Annotated)

Throughout the informants childhood, she would learn about the mythological creature, Krampus, a half devil half goat like creative who would punish children who were naughty during the Christmas season. This was at least the a popular rendition of the creature, but it has been said to pre date Christian times and others have brought variation to the creature. In the informants case, she stated that her German grandparents who were each grew up with the Krampus tradition, would be the ones to share the stories, only they would tailor them to fit their own disciplinary mold for their granddaughter. Krampus in the informants eyes acted more like a God who oversaw her year around. Her belief in these tales during adolescents were so strong that she would preach to her friends to be good because “Krampus is watching”.  Parent’s of her friends would get upset with her and subsequently her parents for scaring their children. Despite this, the idea that the Krampus as the all seeing eye stuck with her and her friends for years. Later in life it formed into a long running joke – Whenever they got together and someone would do something they deemed shady or un agreeable they would then bring up the Krampus.

 

I’ve noticed a trend in my collection of folklore regarding parental figures using some sort entity as a source of disciplining children; Essentially exploiting their naivety. This is in a way is a fundamental concept of religion as well as societal discipline. Something else to note is that the informant grew up in America where Krampus is not nearly as prominent a tradition as in Europe. The essential nature of the creature is contrary to the sort of way Christmas is articulated in mainstream American culture, even back in the mid 20th century. The children’s parents being offended by the sharing of this story seems like a sort of tesetment to the disapproval of this creature within that context. I further inquired with the informant about this perspective and she confirmed that the community she surrounded herself in was very much that of mainstream America and that the creature was not well regarded or understood. Halloween was when it got the most notoriety even though it’s intended associated Holiday is Christmas.

 

The informant is retired but worked as a secretary for quite some time. She is of German descent and has a great deal of German folklore knowledge that she had learned from her relatives.

 

Krampus has been subject to many narrative, including a 2015 Chrismtas horror comedy film titled after the creature. It was put out by Uniersal picture in December and was met with mixed reviews. In the film the creature is presented in the traditional manor of the goat demon but his motives for haunting what is a family stuck in a snowed in house during Chrismtas are to punish the family for losing the Chrismtas spirit. This is contrary to its most popular motive where the creature terrorizes those who acted badly. COnsidering this is a corporate product which has ties to many things regarding Christmas, instilling this sort of message that not carrying  about Christmas will lead to punishment could be a profit driven story decision on behalf of the studio.

 

Krampus. Dir. Michael Dougherty. Perf. Adam Scott. Universal Pictures, 2016. DVD.
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Unimpressed Lizard

 

The unimpressed lizard is a meme that depicts a hand holding a lizard the size of a finger. This lizard’s careless facial expression lead it to become one of the internets most sought after memes in 2014 – starting on the website Reddit. Like most memes, the people gave it a sense of variation by cutting out the head and placing it on human bodies in various contexts (see photos). The informant is an avid Redditor and it is he who showed this piece for the first time. He states that it isn’t connected to any sub-culture beyond those who use memes It is used by many as a way to express their lack of care or coolness towards something.

When it comes to memes there seems to be this gravitation towards almost exagerated expressions or if mild in nature are associated with some absurd context, such as the Unimpressed Lizard. In fact the expression of being unimpressed is a frequent thematic in meme expressions.

The informant states what he finds so appealing is as mentioned, the absurd association of a lizard acting unimpress. It is the human like nature applied to such a small and insignificant creature who is emulating human nature. Furthermore the contexts that people put this lizard in adds greater value he believes.: “What’s better than an unimpressed lizard in crude form? An unimpressed lizard in sponge bob pajamas.” Each scenario the lizard has been put in is more absurd than the next.

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