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That is awesome! The Mark Twain translation is the one I read just now, and that was hella cool. Funnily enough, there's a lengthy diatribe by the venerable Mr. Clemens regarding German:

 

Every noun has a gender, and there is no sense or system in the distribution; so the gender of each must be learned separately and by heart. There is no other way. To do this one has to have a memory like a memorandum-book. In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl. See how it looks in print--I translate this from a conversation in one of the best of the German Sunday-school books:

 

Gretchen. 'Wilhelm, where is the turnip?'

Wilhelm. 'She has gone to the kitchen.'

Gretchen. 'Where is the accomplished and beautiful English maiden?'

Wilhelm. 'It has gone to the opera.'

 

To continue with the German genders: a tree is male, its buds are female, its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless, dogs are male, cats are female--tomcats included, of course; a person's mouth, neck, bosom, elbows, fingers, nails, feet, and body are of the male sex, and his head is male or neuter according to the word selected to signify it, and NOT according to the sex of the individual who wears it--for in Germany all women have either male heads or sexless ones; a person's nose, lips, shoulders, breast, hands, and toes are of the female sex; and his hair, ears, eyes, chin, legs, knees, heart, and conscience haven't any sex at all. The inventor of the language probably got what he knew about a conscience from hearsay.

 

Now, by the above dissection, the reader will see that in Germany a man may THINK he is a man, but when he comes to look into the matter closely, he is bound to have his doubts; he finds that in sober truth he is a most ridiculous mixture; and if he ends by trying to comfort himself with the thought that he can at least depend on a third of this mess as being manly and masculine, the humiliating second thought will quickly remind him that in this respect he is no better off than any woman or cow in the land.

 

In the German it is true that by some oversight of the inventor of the language, a Woman is a female; but a Wife (Weib) is not--which is unfortunate. A Wife, here, has no sex; she is neuter; so, according to the grammar, a fish is HE, his scales are SHE, but a fishwife is neither. To describe a wife as sexless may be called under-description; that is bad enough, but over-description is worse. A German speaks of an Englishman as the ENGL

Gretchen. 'Wilhelm, where is the turnip?'

Wilhelm. 'She has gone to the kitchen.'

Gretchen. 'Where is the accomplished and beautiful English maiden?'

Wilhelm. 'It has gone to the opera.'

 

XD

 

Anyway, Twain would be shocked to know that the Finns have only one word for "he" and "she" =) that is to say "h

Der Struwwelpeter has been turned into a touring musical titled Shockheaded Peter, and it has a cult following, sort of like Rocky Horror Picture Show. I've seen Shockheaded Peter more than once, myself, as an off-Broadway production. The band that provided the music for this self-described "junk opera" when it played in New York is The Tiger Lillies. If you're into the humorously macabre, you don't want to miss this show, if it you get the opportunity to see it.

 

-- Nephele

I found some stuff on YouTube, lol

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=sh...p;search=Search

I found some stuff on YouTube, lol

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=sh...p;search=Search

 

I didn't know that was on YouTube! Awesome! Now you see why I like the Tiger Lillies.

 

On the stage, there are also cast members acting out the stories of the naughty children, and what happens to them. The story of Harriet who plays with matches and burns up is very creatively down, with her dress appearing to turn into flames on stage. There are lots of creepy puppets used in the performance as well, and Peter eventually comes up from the floorboards of the house (you see his fantistically long fingernails first). The falsetto singing of Martyn Jacques of the Tiger Lillies really adds to the surrealism of the entire performance.

 

-- Nephele