Absolutely love this book ( )

Hilarious! Pokes fun at all those who would take childhood enjoyment away from us. ( )

Following in the footsteps of "Politically Correct Bedtime Stories", this book retells classic bedtime stories, stripped of any elements that might be offensive to women, gays, short people, minorities, giants, or wolves, as well as any details that might encourage aggression, cruelty, sexism, prejudice, littering, and so on.
At the same time he pokes fun at our politically correct sensitivity, the author points out biases in our traditional stories that we may not have been aware of.

The titles of the stories will give you insight:

- A Politically Correct Alphabet
- Hansel and Gretel
- The Ant and the Grasshopper
- The Princess and the Pea
- The Little Mer-persun (Mer-maid is a demeaning title)
- The Tortoise and the Hare
- Puss in Boots
- Sleeping Persun of Better-than-Average Attractiveness (to call her a beauty demeans all others)
- The City Mouse and the Suburban Mouse (the countryside having been ravaged and now no longer exists close to cities; the country mouse has become suburban)

The politically correct alphabet I will list below--this gives a flavour of the rest of the text.

A is an Activity itching to fight
B is a Beast with its animal rights
C was a Cripple (now differently abled)
D is a Drunk who is 'liquor-enabled'
and so forth...

The story of "The Sleeping Persun of Better-than-Average Attractiveness " was my favorite especially when the 13th member of the magick sorority bestowed upon the princess this curse: "May you grow up thinking you can't be complete without a man, put unrealistic hopes of perfect and total unhappiness on your marriage, and become a bored, dissatisfied, and unfulfilled housewife!" A curse indeed.

He tongue-in-cheekedly uses spellings that avoid the word "man" ("persun" for "person," "wommon" for "woman,") and has his heroes and heroines (excuse me, she-roes) adopt anti-capitalist, pro-environment and pro-animal rights stances.

Book Details:

Title Once Upon a More Enlightened Time: More Politically Correct Bedtime Stories
Author James Finn Garner
Reviewed By Purplycookie ( )

These stories, for anyone who appreciates the satire, are hilarious. As one who loves fairy tales and has many of them memorized, I felt every change and "pc upgrade" knock brazenly at my funny bone. At the same time, of course, one realizes (as with most satire) that the ridiculousness is not that far off -- this is, after all, only a few steps farther than the sanitation of the Victorians or the early edits of the Brothers Grimm themselves, historical moments that enabled the "stories-for-children" designation that now defines fairy tales. In all seriousness, take a minute to compare the Disney versions to Garner's laughable and delightful spoofs -- not that different, are they? Fun to read and fun to realize. :)

Hilarious collection of fairytales given the PC treatment. ( )