Appease My Desires

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Description:

Once upon a time, in the olden days, heavy-set middle-aged men would congregate in their elitist clubs, sit in over-stuffed leather chairs, smoke air-choking cigars, and pitch story ideas and plots to each other. Problem was, these stories, many of which found their way into the general social consciousness, reflected the way in which these men lived and saw their world: that is, the stories were sexist, discriminatory, unfair, culturally biased, and in general, demeaning to witches, animals, goblins, and fairies everywhere.

Finally, after centuries of these abusive tales, which have been handed down - unknowingly - from one male-biased generation to the next, James Finn Garner has taken it upon himself (that’s right, yet another man) to enlighten and liberate these classic bedtime stories and retell them in a way that is much more in keeping with the society in which we live today.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, then is the fruit of Garner’s labors. We’d like to think that future generations of fairy-tale fans will see this as a worthy attempt to develop meaningful literature that is totally free from bias and purged from the influences of a flawed cultural past.

79 pages in the edition I read from.

My review:

I thought these were hilarious. I was given this book by an English Professor who was a proud feminist, and made all of her students and the people she interacted with very aware of the injustices of society and the privilege we have. She gave me this book as a gift after we had a pleasant political conversation. The stories were funny, and pointed out a lot of internalized things that I may or may not have noticed had I read over the original tales. The book is for humor, though, and it definitely made me chuckle. I recommend this to everyone and anyone who can get their hands on a copy.