Turning fables into sound practical advice

By
Randeep Wadehra

The ugly duckling goes to work by Mette Norgaard
Orient Paperbacks. Pages: 189. Price: Rs. 295/-

Every culture has its own genre of adventure stories, fairy tales, legends, myths, fables and parables. Most of these are multi-layered, in the sense that different readers read these for different reasons. For example – children would read the Gulliver’s Travels for sheer entertainment – the wonder of tiny sized Lilliputians “capturing” Gulliver, among other things. But for adults it is a savagely bitter satire that could occasionally transgress the boundaries of decency. We have our own literature like Panchtantra and Jatak Kathayein that provide different messages to different age groups. Such literature – oral or written – helps mould the worldview of a society, influences its cultural development and paves the way for its material and spiritual-philosophical evolution.

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author, whose fairy tales have been translated into more than eighty languages and have inspired plays, ballets, films, and works of sculpture and painting. His first literary success was A Walk from Holmen’s Canal to the East Point of the Island of Amager in the Years 1828 and 1829. Andersen’s first novel, The Improviser, was well received by critics, and his first book of fairy tales was published the same year, i.e., 1835. Andersen’s fantasy tales like The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Snow Queen, The Red Shoes and The Little Mermaid were pioneering in the usage of sophisticated thought processes and the application of vocabulary and constructions of spoken language. Experts point out that The Ugly Duckling is the most autobiographical of his works. His childhood days were pathetic – apart from being poor his family suffered dubious reputation. While his parents married just before he was born his grandmother was imprisoned for giving birth to several illegitimate children. His grandfather was an inmate of a lunatic asylum while his illegitimate half-sister worked in a brothel. He himself was ugly and effeminate. Scholars point out that, like the ugly duckling, Andersen was dependent upon benefactors who did not understand him. They tormented and ill-treated him. As he had to endure long and difficult times when he was harried by doubts about his self-worth he developed feelings of inferiority vis-à-vis his worth as a writer and person. Nevertheless he did not let go of optimism although, like the duckling, he remained full of self-pity and self-dramatization. His fortitude and talent eventually triumphed when, on sheer merit, not only did he gain royal patronage but also became the best loved authors in not just Denmark but the rest of Europe too.

Today his works are considered genuinely cerebral that provide profound narratives which appeal to all age groups belonging to different walks of life.

Norgaard has reinterpreted some of Andersen’s more famous fairy tales, using them as parables for modern day workplace – something that is indicated in the book’s title itself. For example, The Emperor’s New Clothes satirizes the underlings’ tendency to please their bosses even by praising his stupidity; this desire to fit into other peoples’ agenda diminishes one’s self. The Dung Beetle underscores the need for backing one’s claims with solid achievements; the author cites the former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali’s example who often used to say, “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.” The Nisse At The Grocer’s is based on a Danish farming community’s superstition but has been reinterpreted to send out the message that tension is good for creative action and that a theory with practical value must be treasured. Giving Peter Drucker’s example the book points out how eclectic knowledge can help develop practical management ideas and theories in different fields. On the other hand The Fir Tree suggests that regrets related to nostalgia prevent one from fully living in the present – thus missing the opportunity to live life to the full. The author points out that we

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