Talk:Sun, Moon, and Talia

possible anachronism

"He finds Talia, tries unsuccessfully to wake her up, and rapes her."

The word "rape" here seems incredibly anachronistic and out of sync with the tone and style of the story in question. Here is a translation that seems to better capture the spirit of the tale:

"At last he came to the salon, and when the king beheld Talia, who seemed to be enchanted, he believed that she was asleep, and he called her, but she remained unconscious. Crying aloud, he beheld her charms and felt his blood course hotly through his veins. He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love." (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0410.html)

I guess the question is, is this about modern values or traditional literary storytelling? Just raising the question of tone for discussion. Heavenlyblue (talk) 00:24, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

I notice there has been some back and forth in the terminology. That discussion should be taking place here on this Talk page. Heavenlyblue (talk) 22:15, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

I don't think it's about either modern values or traditional storytelling, as the passage is synoptic. I think "has sex with", which was previously used, was fine. The word "rape" makes it sound like the king was made out a villain in the original story. The he wasn't may cast the moral context into unflattering light, but so it is also with many other tales (like the princess and the pea — I think it's frankly irresponsible to teach to a child, say, that there's anything glorious about being so whiny), yet there's no need to comment on it in the synopses.

If somebody can source some analysis on how the story or its wording reflect its cultural context, I'm completely behind that. But the synopsis should just describe what happens in the story, not comment on it. Alcedine (talk) 08:13, 12 January 2014 (UTC)