Micky von Maus

I came across an amazing article today in a reactionary Viennese Catholic journal from 1932 (never thought I would type a sentence like that!). This was right when Walt Disney announced that he was going to make Mickey into the star of some of Grimm's fairy tales. Predictably, German nationalists were furious about this. This makes perfect sense, given the role of these fairy tales in the development of 19th-cent. German nationalism, although I'd never thought about it before. Anyway, here's my translation of (most of) a short article about Mickey.

Note: In the part that I didn't translate the author suggests that Mickey star in the Book of Job, or that Marlene Dietrich play Joan of Arc. It is probably a sign of decadence that these parodic suggestions seem perfectly reasonable and profitable. And now, on to the Kulturkritik!

"Every moviegoer knows Mickey Mouse, the creation of the artist Walt Disney. We often see this grotesque image of soulless buffoonery between the news and the film, and every time we become furious that the German public has fallen for this un-German idiocy with such zest. But Mickey Mouse achieved national fame. There are Mickey Mouse brooches, Mickey Mouse tie pins, in short, Mickey Mouse ornaments of every variety; in a place of pilgrimage near Vienna, we even saw Mickey in a devotional shrine between the crucifix and the rosary beads! A hideous heresy. But the soullessness of American filmmakers has become uncontroversial to such a degree that nobody senses any more the the miserable forsakenness of this mouse-creation, completely abandoned by God. It has nothing of the spirit of German fairy tales or ancient myths. Mickey Mouse is a product of cold virtuosity; only idiots can laugh at the adventures of this black and white forgery."

[for those of you in cultural studies who might happen onto this through Google and want the citation, it is: Anonymous [probably Joseph Eberle], "Micky-Maus entdeckt die Grimmschen Märchen." Schönere Zukunft 8, 43 (23 July 1933), 1037)