Have you ever dreamed about candy meadow, marzipan castle, dolls kingdom, rose lake and a seashell carriage pulled by two golden-scaled dolphins?
As for Marie, this was not a dream at all. No one believed her that she had given up to talk about this “dream”. At this moment, the “truth” (dream) knocked at her door.
Welcome to the fairy tale … sorry, the true story of “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A Hoffmann. In this story, I enjoy the reality and dream transformation writing techniques of Hoffmann the most.
You might have heard of the popular ballet The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It’s a wonderful production with music and dance. However, it is a simplified version of the original work. Since I read the original text, I realized that I had missed many interesting details, thus increasing my enjoyment of the story even more.
In the original story, the toy-maker played a more important role. And he is coming from Nuremberg, the global centre of toy industry since 600 years.
I visited the Toy Museum in Nuremberg, a house full of toys! In “The Nutcracker”, the toys, including the nutcracker came alive at night and fight with the 7 heads mouse king. It sounds like a fantasy, but if you have been to the toy museum in Nuremberg, it was not very far from reality.
Sometimes the movie, music, dance and stage adaption of story makes a piece of writing popular, but I think the real essence is still in the original. What do you think?
