The Life of Disaster Bisexual Hans Christian Andersen
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- Опубликовано: 15 ноя 2023
- Head over to @wayfair and watch the new A Style is Born episode on Southwestern style! astyleisborn.link/ASIBs2e6Kaz
You know him from his dozens of legendary fairy tales like The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling, but in life, people also knew Hans Christian Andersen as a disaster bisexual who spent decades chasing one sided love obsessions and generally being a pest. Come learn with me about yet another WeirdGuy.
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Sources
Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life by Jens Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen : the life of a storyteller by Jackie Wullschläger
The diaries of Hans Christian Andersen by Patricia L. Conroy and Sven H. Rossel
Hans Christian Andersen, a biography by Fredrik Böök
The fairy tale of my life : an autobiography by Hans Christian Andersen
How Enigmatic Is Hans Christian Andersen? On Three Recent Biographies by Niels Ingwersen
A Man of the World: Hans Christian Andersen by Karin Sanders in “Danish Literature as World Literature”
Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller by Jack Zipes
Critical Reflections about Hans Christian Andersen, the Failed Revolutionary by Jack Zipes
The craziest thing is, I can perfectly imagine running into a modern-day Hans Christian Andersen at any moment. His breed of “slightly delusional but genius chaos bisexual” lives on
Honestly. No matter how often Kaz did the quotation movement, I could say "Real" or "Sounds about accurate"
Somehow we all know at least one Disaster Gay who is both irrationally romantic and repulsed by most prospects of sex 😅 Usually a drag queen who is waaaayyy too overcommitted in the local Pride center 😂
Hideo Kojima being a likely example
@@Donovaneagle2098he’s bi? Wow never knew
@@TerranceDaBuddha it's not confirmed which is why I phrased it as "likely". He made his male character's butts very defined to "have something nice to look" at while playing, for example.
It's misleading to say the original Little Mermaid wanted to be immortal. What she wanted was a soul, which is not exactly the same. She would still die, but she would have the ability to have a relationship with God, to go to heaven, and to be able to continue her relationships with humans in the afterlife. That's what made the seafoam death so sad - it's not just death but a soulless death.
The translation I read said she yearned for an “immortal soul”. Which is exactly what you’re saying ☺️.
I think I learned of a version where due to her not willing to kill the prince and therefore showing to be a good and virtuous person, that god rewarded her with a soul and she went to heaven 🤔
@daphne8406 actually she was given transformed into a fairy (?) Or something similar, to serve a certain amount of years of penance then would be able to gain an immortal soul i think? I could be wrong though
She does escape the seafoam fate! She leaps from the ship into the sea, expecting to dissolve into foam, but instead she was welcomed by the "Daughters of the Air", who are good spirits that, after 300 years of service, are rewarded with a soul and sent to heaven. So yes, she does get her chance and doesn't have to murder her love to do it either. If we take 1837 as the ruling year of Little Mermaidom, she will achieve her soul and join the angels sometime in 2137.
Bummer about her sisters' hair tho.
Although that tale did undergo a pre-Disney bowdlerization (or possibly a walking back?) in a later version, which let her be caught up with the spirits of the air, where she could still earn her way to a soul after 300 years.
Taking on a matron is the high brow phrasing of milf hunting
Never heard that term before, his mom was only a decade older than his dad.
I’ll be using this phrase going forward.
😂
Reminds me of the first time I heard someone say *GILFY* - I was very confused! Were they saying GILF-y ? As in, Grandpa I'd Like To F*** ? And using it like an adjective to describe the person?? 😂
Nope. Turned out, they were saying *Gylfie* - character from that animated owl movie with the long-ass title:
_Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole_ 😆
(Edit: added the long-ass title 😆)
@@cocoaorange1Anderson was bisexual because I heard that besides writing love letters to men he wrote the snow queen after the singer Jenny lind (the one who is seen as a homewreker in the greatest showman) rejected him after he tried to hit on her.
The moment I heard Edward Coulin, my brain made it into Edward Cullen, as if Hans was the Bella of a twilight novel.
HCA's friends name is Edvard Collin
@@lakrids-pibe coincidence? I think not!
Given enough time, I think that HCA could have written something like Twilight.
@@fruitygarlic3601 Except with Bella dying at the end for whatever reason (and staying dead).
OK glad I’m not the only one.
As a big fan of the tabletop RPG “Trapped In Your House Due To Hans Christian Andersen,” I’m so glad to see the Dickens incident get some attention.
Oh my gosh, someone used the incident as inspiration for a tabletop RPG I love this!
Oh God, there's a *entire tabletop RPG* about this?!
I think I found my first RPG to play, fantastic, thank you!
@@This1sS0Stup1d Lots of good tabletop RPGs out there nowadays; we seem to be in a golden age.
Creator “Oliver Darkshire” seems to have a lot of interesting ones
As an autistic asexual queer person with religious trauma Hans Christian Andersen is hella relatable 😂 he is another level of chaos in some ways but there are so many ways moments where I was like "yep, I get it, if I didn't have coping mechanisms and people who cared enough to teach me how to human I might do something similar"
All day, every day: "don't diagnose random people, especially dead ones." After two sentences about Hans Christian Andersen: "Autism!" 😂
I think he was definitely autistic too (so am I). He’s one of the reasons I’m so interested in Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries.
@@bean2046lmao I felt caught out by myself when I went oooh autistic ace biromantic demiromantic queer gender fluid ? Why did I tag so many labels on him so quickly?
@@marlyd too little representation for all of those. Gotta cling to a dead disaster bicon sometimes. Also with him the whole "well, we can't KNOW that" isn't completely applicable because that man told us and everyone who didn't run away fast enough every detail of his life. Especially autism seems striking (for the modern eye, educated on autism). Many of his stories are centered around being vastly different (and super extra special). Most importantly, in my opinion, Hans Christian Andersen sounds like a comfortable choice to tag an array of labels on because I could imagine him reacting to that with "yes, go ahead. Elaborate on how I am a very special boy" I love this man
@@bean2046 it's true that we can't diagnose historical figures, but there's nothing wrong with identifying commonalities or relatable aspects of their experiences. This boils down to the same argument as "don't call historical figures queer/bi/gay etc"
The ugly duckling always spoke to me because I grew up with undiagnosed autism. I was always weird. I was never exactly like other kids and they never seemed to like me for it. Even adults seemed to notice that there was something different and I never ever quite fit in anywhere with anybody. I was 19 when I met someone online who was just like me, same obsessions, same awkward and not-instinctive social behavior, same issues with day to day things like clothing and food. They are autistic. A few conversations with professionals later, and I learned that I was never just a duck who was terrible at life, but in fact I am a very typical autistic swan and there are many others who are just like me.
If you feel awkward and like nothing social has ever come naturally to you, research neurodivergence. You might find other swans too.
Same here. I wasn't diagnosed until I was in my late teens. But still don't feel like I'm a swan yet.
@@AnimeAngel88as an adhder I'm telling you are a swan! or maybe a beautiful eagle, a falcon, a canary, anything that you would like to be! ❤
AuDHD here and same. I feel like a swan now, but as I child it was just like...shit, what's so wrong with me?
I have adhd, but as a kid I felt much the same. Only, instead of accepting how much I related to such stories, I HATED them. They made me so uncomfortable. Because of the fear I had of being noticeably different.
And I never really knew it at the time, but my family had been kind of worried for my social skills. These days, I'm doing just fine and my social skills no longer suck. But I still have that internal feeling of, even though I get along with most everyone and am well liked, I'll never quite fit into anywhere.
Which may also be bc of my inability to stick to just one thing. I always have to have 100 different hobbies or interests at once.
But still, it's really interesting to me to see two sides of the same coin, ig? One person who related to certain stories, and one who ran from them.
Feel this so hard. I always related to the ugly duckling too. I don’t have an official diagnosis per se but my therapist and I both agree that I’m most likely on the spectrum. Knowing that this is just who I am and there’s nothing wrong with me has been so freeing and has allowed me to feel so much happier and more confident
As a Dane, I find it funny when foreigners (not you here) try to discredit him as being weird, socially awkward, sexually off.
Yes, yes we know. It has always been known. That is part of who he is, and likely a big part of the reason, that he was able to write stories that transcended "normal" society and proved everlasting - because he wasn't "normal". He was able to see things from the outside.
And for all the pain that it brought him, I am grateful how it fuelled his art.
"The line between genius and mad is very thin".
Good reply.
Like our gay Shakespeare in England
@peetsnort yes let's rewrite history
Mr. Anderson would have been so much happier if he was born today. I see him as a Queer asexual man who reminds me so much of me. I’m autistic and the switching between thinking I’m the most amazing person ever to depressive romantic spirals is very relatable.
I definitely also see him as neurodivergent. It explains why he found it difficult to relate to people and his attempts to connect were often rebuffed.
BIG MOOD! As a queer ace man who is very much a soft romantic & neurodivergent, this really speaks to me ❤
As I was watching, it become more and more clear he was probably ace
@@zoeyc5851 I've learned about neurodivergency, but I don't know what "ace" means?
Couldn't agree more!
The man was so chaotic, there is a tabletop RPG game that is just trying to survive having him as a house guest. 11/10 deranged bisexual icon.
What is the name of this game?
I'm an historian who's largely focused on the nineteenth century, and to me, Andersen is such a prime example of the kind of craziness you get in early- to mid-nineteenth century Romanticism. (I mean that in a loving manner.) His personality and behavior were of a kind that were not only uniquely tolerated in that time, but also idealized...at least by some...perhaps not by those who were the object of his affection, lol.
I see other people commenting here about how much happier he would have been in the modern day, and that's likely true. However, if he had been born even a generation earlier than he was, I don't know if we'd have ever heard of him. I don't feel like the 18th c. would have accommodated and praised him nearly as much.
Lovely video, btw, and I hope you have a great and well-deserved holiday break. :)
He was a career houseguest for a reason. They liked having interesting houseguests in that era.
@@lakrids-pibe I hadn't thought of it like that, thanks. Really isn't that much different than those rich people who would hire a "hermit" to live in a folly out in their palatial grounds.
Such a fan Kaz. Another super documentary. A really insightful and sympathetic bio. Thanks.
So you are not ugly, you are just born in the wrong time. And you are not no celeb, you are just born in the wrong time xD
@@PurelyCoincidentalthat was a thing? Being the token eccentric in a rich guys wood sounds like we've missed opportunities in our days...
As an unhinged bisexual man, I approve
I hope you are getting help for your mental help.
real
@@cocoaorange1 Go away.
same as an unhinged bisexual woman🙏
Andersen is such a titanic figure here in Denmark that he often comes across as a character more than a real person. I think many danes do not have a very whole picture of who he actually was as a person, they mostly know the romantic character of Andersen. We love to see him as the small town boy who grew to be a world traveling writer. Since he is arguably the most famous literary figure Denmark (where I am from) can boast about we often see people play into the myth of Andersen. There is a whole ride dedicated to him and his fairytales in Tivoli Gardens and he is so ominpresecent in the danish school system that we seldom put much thought into Andersen as a writer and an individual. Which is too bad because he really is a very interesting person and he has left such a plethora of written records that we can examine to form a picture of him. I would think some of the more close-minded danes would have a hard time accepting any discussion of Andersens's sexuality, he is simply too ingrained in the cultural canon as this whimsical weaver of fairytales and not a person with flaws. As a historian it is almost indescribable how stoked I am that my favorite history youtuber would cover anything about our small country. Love the video.
Kinda like Shakespeare for us native English speakers. He's not a real man, but one of the great figures of making English...English
When I was studying abroad in Odense, I couldn’t help but think about how the city was so proud to be his birthplace…but he hated it there are ran away to Copenhagen at the first fucking chance. It made me realize that if I somehow ever gain a level of fame, I am putting it in my will that my “hometown” is not allowed to brag about me 😂
Romanticised but also eventually loathed/found tiresome by some, at least that was my experience. I was 12 when there was the 200th birthday jubilee year, and our curriculum was STUFFED. But I agree, it’s not the man himself, it’s HC Andersen the commodified ‘national literary hero’ that was propagandised.
omg @@annaselbdritt7916 yes! it got old very quickly. maybe because they cleaned him up so much. no brothels, fear of death or homosexuality! he wrote "the story of a mother" after all. 😂
My Grandfather was born and raised in Denmark. I’m 68 and grew up loving Hans’ stories. As an adult, it’s interesting to learn of his life story. I still love the magic of his stories. Thank you Hans
"Platonic romance" is a wonderfully paradoxical phrase, and it makes so much sense. I've felt it before!!
honestly i've always been confused about the modern english use of the word platonic. Platonic love in a platonist sense has everything to do with 'eros', desire, to an extent even lust, and i think would be considered romantic in modern terms of understanding.
Or as my gay friend said ("straight" women), chivalrous lover.
The Shadow is honestly my favorite fairytale. It's such an eerie and psychological story. I have such sympathy for such a trashfire man.
And it was written before Robert Louis Stevenson made Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (in 1886)
I don't know if I find HC Andersen ending satisfactory. The shadow is defeated. Hooray!
I don't think "defeating" your subconscious urges is a healthy solution in the longer term.
But I'm not on board with many of the HC "happy endings". Like the little match girl who (spoiler alert) dies of hypothermia and meets her grandmother in the afterlife. I HATED that story when I was a child lol
Poor little matchgirl.
@@lakrids-pibe I'd say the worst one of all is the ending to "the travelling companion". It involves a guy basically lobotomizing an unwilling bride to make her love him.
The Tale Foundry did a lovely presentation of The Shadow.
@@lakrids-pibe Shadow was not defeated though? At least in book with Andersen's 'Shadow' story that I have SPOILER the learned man is executed (people believed he's a delusional shadow) and his shadow lives as him so to speak, marrying the princess and living as human.
I know it's right at the beginning of the video, but The Little Match Girl was actually adapted into a short cartoon by disney, set to a Borodin string quartet, and it is the most heartbreaking thing that you will ever watch. They don't sugarcoat it. The girl freezes to death and they make sure you know she's dead
Joe WolfArth says: Thank You for mentioning this - I have always found that story Deeply Profound. That child is ignored, left to suffer and die in a Scandinavia that has yet to come up with the construct of a Social Welfare Society, and because of this her suffering goes unnoticed while the people who surround her in this place go on living their "Good Christian Lives." [When in my mind a voice is screaming, "Wasn't That The Sort of Behavior That INFURIATED Jesus?!? People living lives they were so proud of, and simultaneously being Bereft of COMPASSION for others?!?"] Damn, Hans Christian Andersen, you May Have Been a crazy self-obsessed (Narcissistic?) Bisexual/Asexual person on the autistic spectrum, but STILL you managed to NAIL This Observation!
Good Job, Sir!
I was watching their shorts one day and was not prepared for it. I think I watched the pride one next and had to fully turn off the TV afterwards cause I was just done emotionally.
I watched it for the first time on a disc 2 DVD from the little mermaid and I had no idea what was coming. My mom and I cried for a very long while after watching it😭
It broke my heart when I read it.
Dickens: oh what a a cool up & coming writer, I can't wait to have tea with him in my abode
[4 weeks later]
... PLEASE stop sobbing on my lawn.
the fact that his name sounds like edward cullen makes this video ten times funnier😭
this is what i came to the comment section for
i had to go back to make sure i heard right, cos now all i can picture is Twilight but make Bella a danish disaster bi
As a Dane I also find this immensely funny. I have NEVER thought about that before until I heard it pronounced in English.
Andersen falls for Edward Cullen and writes a fairytale about wanting to be immortal? 🧐
Please make a “disaster bis of history series” I need this 😂
there’s a podcast called “bad gays” if this a niche you’re into! obv it focuses a bit more on the “disaster” but there’s a bit more of a gay element than many other bios of people they cover
I would honestly love a Hans Christian Andersen biopic, with the first scene of Dickens walking into his house, a grumpy look on his face, feint crying in the background, asking his son "He's still crying, isn't he?"
I am a simple woman. I see Kaz Rowe upload a video about Hans Christian Andersen and I will drop everything (including office work) to watch it lol
Hi, I'm actually a descendant of the Andersen family! I just wanted to say that I'm a huge fan, and it's wonderful to see you talking about his life!
Honestly, I would watch a show about hans life, Imagine it would be written like our flag means death, with the costume direction of gentleman jack, but hans is the most melodramatic thing to grace the screen since any of Tim Curry's roles.
I would definitely watch that
Yes please! 🥳
"Forward, forward, or die. That is my constant thought."
When I was at one of the toughest and most heartbroken points in my life, I wrote the line "just like sharks that swim in the sea, if I stop moving I'll die immediately". I feel like that has the same energy. Sure, he's riding the high of his recent play's success, but he's heartbroken. He's trying to focus on everything BUT the heartbreak.
Don't know if the story of him visiting Charles Dickens, and then just not leaving to Dickens' frustration is true, but it's my favorite thing to think about in relation to HCA
The houseguest who stays forever and don't understand a hint.
Yeah it's hunny. Hehe !
HCA: *sobbing* But why won't your eldest son shave me Dickens? Do you not respect me? 😢
It's true. He supposedly also left his paper cuttings around the house, and sobbed on the lawn over night about some criticism he received.
I really like his story "Marsh King's Daughter". It's so out there - storks, vikings, Egyptians, frog -curse, a priest, and the ending is unexpected.
Dyndkongens Datter. I need to read that at some point soon-ish.
That one has always been one of my favorites!!
I heard once how H. C. Andersen handled critique by being found by people face-down in a ditch. I believe this anectdote to be true, because he also wrote the Water-Droplet, a story in which a critic is seen as a hideous troll who is wildly wrong in his assessment of something.
That Emporor's New Groove comment made me spit out my lunch LOL thank you for that
the emperors new groove was originally gonna be a movie called kingdom of the sun a prince and the pauper adaptation
I had an old book as a child containing the complete works of Hans Christian Anderson. They were so fascinating.
The one that sticks with me still that has never been mentioned by anyone I've heard, is The Bell. It's an almost plotless story about a prince and a commoner who forge through a forest of thorns, called by the sound of a beautiful bell. And when they come to the end of the forest, the bell is shown to be some kind of heavenly sound, ringing from all directions. The two men stand together listening to the heavenly music.
It's such a strange story but so beautiful.
I also remember one about a lamppost, and another one about the Danish equivalent of King Arthur.
Also
I always loved The Bell, and The Old Street Lamp! I loved his "inanimate object" stories. Also another little-known one I like is The Marsh King's Daughter.
I remember that story!
I can totally relate to Anderson. As a child I was so in love with the idea of love, but struggled with shame over my homosexual feelings. I fell "in love" with almost every female near me, but nothing ever happened. I fell for a couple straight male friends, managed to stay platonic but nothing more.
I'm saving up for a robot.
Potentially a bisexuality asexual here and the idea of love is so tempted but actaully going about it is so difficult and not very rewarding anytime I've tried. I thought personal robots were already supposed to be here 😭
This is a prose poem.
@@chaiteamhmm me fr i always say love/sex, drugs and Gd are the pillars of art. Nobody is interesting enough (including me) for love/sex to be transcendental, i tried a few drugs and they just make me bored bc i cant do shit when im under the influence. Like wtf am i supposed to do bruh do i just try to become a Rabbi now or what 🤕😭
As a very awkward, too-tall, unattractive, intersex, early-onset Bipolar, sickly and very queer child, I absolutely loved his fairytales.
I used to curl up in my dark bunk bed cave on sick days and listen to audiobooks of his and Jules Verne's work. It was my safe place and my sanctuary, the one time when the world left me alone.
It took me another decade to understand that bisexuality existed, and I was not some kind of freak.
It took me a decade and a half to discover I was intersex; nearly two to come into my own as andro-nonbinary; nearly three to be diagnosed with a congenital spine defect and a full three to find my home in the land of Schizoaffective Disorder.
I salute you, trashfire predecessor.
Thank you for giving so many of us a home.
OMG my heart skipped a beat when i saw the title!
I am from and still live in the city H.C.Anderson is from. It's a bit of a running joke in the rest of the country, that we are a bit too obsessed with him at this point 😅
We have a festival every year named after him and it is just amazing! I specially love the punk/goth alternative rendition of his fairytales that are done each year. Very queer coded 😍
Dane here, and I must say that you did a really good job with this portrait of our national icon :D He's our version of Shakespeare and in my opinion, he did a pretty good job at leaving a legacy as almost an idealised version of himself as a classic from-rags-to-riches character. I didn't know he met Charles Dickens so that was a nice tidbit but I do remember learning these facts about him in school as well:
1) Besides the things you mentioned in your video, his writing was also inspired by his fear of both death and his "crazy (old word for mentally ill)" (paternal) grandfather who was locked up in an asylum for most of H.C.Andersen's life - Andersen feared the other people in the asylum.
2) His mom wouldn't let him travel to Copenhagen before a wise woman had read his future in a coffee-ground reading which showed that if he went to Copenhagen he would become a person so famous that the whole city of Odense would be filled with light in his honour (happened later with processions through the city where people were carrying torches).
3) Due to his nose and his height, he was often considered ugly, clumsy and/or gangly by people at the time
4) While living in Copenhagen he and Kierkegaard lived within a short distance of each other and even though they never interacted with each other they both owned literary works written by the other and criticised the same works in the Danish newspapers.
I know it's a whole different era and maybe not your cup of tea, but you should make a video about Lou Reed. Dude was a "bisexual disaster" that basically created alternative music as we know it, and spoke VERY openly about queerness in his music. He also had a very troubled life which included electroshock treatment as a teen to "cure" his depression and homosexuality.
As someone who has grown up in denmark a majority of my life, this is WILDLY informing to me. Andersen is almost an unchangable classical icon here, and I’ve never heard anything more “controversial” other than him being a little fruity. I can only imagine the shock and horror on the average dane’s face if I told them anything I learned in this video lol. Thank you so much Kaz!!!!
Lol, we were told in school about the masturbation notes, his sexuality and how insufferable he was
That might just be your area. We got all the juicy details.
“Fruity” 💀
None of this is surprising, I'm sorry to disappoint you 😁 I never knew the intricate details of his life, but it's no secret that he was a virgin, bisexual and insufferable.
@EmilReiko yes! I think he marked the pages with lines every time he masturbated.
I don't think it's that we Danes don't know, I think it's more so that we still think Anderson was dope lol
I never realized how many influential stories Hans Christian Andersen wrote. I just knew him as the Little Mermaid author.
That's exactly how my queer platonic episodes are! I just have a conversation with someone and suddenly I want to crawl inside them and merge with them. It's an intense feeling of companionship and compassion but completely removed from physical attributes like gender or attractiveness or anything. I diagnose him with asexual same as the guy who wrote about him being removed from sensuality.
Yesss probably ace and biromantic. Definitely gender-queer.
Yea I was thinking ace and biromantic
@@kagitsune yes! Very gender queer! Considering 60 percent of asexuals are also some flavour of trans, it checks out!
“A polycule that no one wants to join” 🤣🤣🤣 omg I love this and I love you! All poly people know at least one polycule that no one wants to join and I feel so seen ❤
Polyamory is never spoken about, especially with such levity and clear knowledge
Haha! Yes.
@@lakrids-pibelove your icon ❤
Thank you for spreading awareness of the horrible little queer wench known as H.C. Andersen!! It cannot be underestimated that he is the equivalent to Shakespeare here in Denmark, absolutely THE writer. Every child is made familiar with him almost from birth, and that ever-present darkness in his tales is important to our culture I think. The Snow Queen will probably never get the international adaptation it deserves because of Disney's popcornification of it (rip the original draft where Elsa was actually the villain). But I used to be obsessed with this very unique Danish adaptation that's half live action and half paper cuttings made by the Queen and also narrated by her. Beautiful and just a little creepy, like European Christmas should be lol. Also, well done on pronunciation in this video. Danish is insanely hard and I'm grateful for the respect you showed by learning!
I reccomend checking out the soviet 1957 adaptation of the Snow Queen, its the version I grew up watching and its so beautiful
@@Pollicina_db I like the animation, but unfortunately that one removes the religious elements, which I feel are necessary. I mean, the ending is the ice fragments forming the word "eternity"
for anyone interested, the comment seems to be talking about the 2000 short film directed by Jacob Jørgensen and Kristof Kuncewicz
I grew up poor in the 50's & 60s in Appalachia and I was fortunate to have HC Anderson's tales to help me grow up. I'm not gay and I didn't know about Anderson's personal life but none of this mattered. His stories spoke to me. I was a lonely kid and that's what I heard about in his stories... the struggles of an outsider. Years later, as an adult and an artist, I made a sculpture in honor of the gentleman I call Mr. Andersen. I think of him as one of my... oh I don't know, maybe one of my helpers, my spiritual guides. Here's the thing... as a person he was clearly less than what we might have hoped. The same could be said for Mr. Dickens, another of my "helpers," and pretty much every one of those members of the arts who I always turned to for guidance. The beauty of poetry and poets is that their "Better Angels" speak through them. For all his limits and faults Mr. Andersen was still able to channel the angels speaking through his life experience to create a legacy that speaks to others in ways only poetry can. The sorrow of The Little Match Girl, standing outside the window of the house with the beautiful Christmas tree, lighting all her matches to keep warm... the transcendent realization of Little Kay in The Snow Queen, finding the ultimate answer in the puzzle of the ice that melts his frozen heart... these remain lessons for this world today and will always be lessons for me. And for that I say, thank you Mr. Anderson for having existed and for listening to your angels. Bless you.
Nice. Hans Christian Andersen was bi? Yeah Little Mermaid explains aloooooooooot lol.
Heh. I thought the same thing. Not to mention The (Ugly) Little Duckling.
@@Jazz41173 Oh my God that one is just on the nose lol
I long knew of his inclinations toward men (thanks Little Mermaid), but this is the first I heard of his inclinations toward women-this does, indeed, explain a lot!
same here, I thought he was gay until now@@kazeboiii
@@Tsotha I myself am bi so I should've seen the signs when I was watching Disney film.
This is really funny to watch as a dane, in Denmark he is really idolized so i had only heard very few things about his disaster behavior.
I grew up in Odense, and HC Andersen is a pretty big deal around there.
I had no idea that Odense was especially depraved and amoral. I clearly missed out.
Fellow Dane here, and yeaa.. I only knew most of the things in the video because I went out of my way to read up on him a while back. What you learn in school, even as a teenager, is a pretty sanitised version and usually mostly about his works themselves. I don't think it an intentional conspiracy or anything, just good ol' idolisation, but it really does feel like his status as a cultural icon and export means most Danes don't actually know much about him or his life.
Never have I clicked on a video so fast, only because it was about a Danish guy from the 19th century 🇩🇰LOVE BEING DANISH🇩🇰
I love Danishes, too
Well, Time to drop everything and watch a new Kaz video
as a baby queer, I felt like his Little Mermaid was deeply formative for me. I still think about her washing up as seafoam and feel all the feels.
He truly was an unhinged biromantic asexual
What an icon, he just like me fr 😌
I have a 1963 copy of Andersen's Fairy Tales that has inscriptions from both my mom and I as children. The spine is totally broken at The Red Shoes because it was my mom's favorite. Having grown into a fine disaster bisexual myself, this is DELIGHTFUL.
I don’t think I’ve ever related more to a historical figure
When I was little whenever I would ask my mom about any Disney movie with a Hans christen Anderson tail she'd look super disappointed abt what Disney turned it into and she'd tell me that 'I'll tell you the real story when you're older' lmao
Thank you so much for the video. I grew up near Solvang, California, where Andersen is celebrated as a local folk hero. There is a museum about him connected to the town's bookstore, statues in the main hubs of tourist activity, and gift shops named after his most famous tales. I attended many birthday parties and mass picnics in the park that bears his name. His image is a part of daily life for all the residents. I never knew about the real inspiration behind the themes of rejection and isolation in his stories, and it gives me a whole new appreciation for him.
Ahh, a Kaz Rowe video about my favourite guyyy. Tusind tak! I loved it. As a Dane I've grown up with his stories and I know them intimately but never knew much about him other than that he was queer and died alone. Reading about him I relate so much it hurts and I wish the best for him in the afterlife. (Den lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne er min favorit af hans værker
Been excited for a video about this. I think I remember you hinting at it
he was such a weird little baby girl i am proud to have him as a national icon
i was just thinking about you because i saw someone talking about europeans eating mummies! so glad to see a new upload :D
Your danish pronounciation is absolutely amazing. Some of the names are a bit off (as one would absolutely expect for someone who doesn't speak danish), but it's still very easy to understand who you're talking about. I have no doubt that you've spent a lot of time practicing to get it right, and I just want to let you know that it shows.
I haven't finished watching the video so I don't know if you talked about it, but I love the story of Hans Christian Andersen staying at Charles Dickens' house, annoying him and just refusing to leave. Oh and then apparently he got a bad review and started crying face down in the dirt in Dickens' yard.
So yes, our favourite chaotic, disaster bisexual
I JUST bought a book of all his fairytales the other day bc I love old fables/stories for inspiration in my own stories/poetry and now knowing that he was a CHAOTIC BISEXUAL JUST LIKE ME, i couldn't be more excited to dig in 🥰
He's very known in the Nordics and here he's often called H.C. Andersen so me and my friends just call him Hardcore Andersen. Now even more so.
José Andersen. ¡Olé!
My two teens just got done performing in a play based on " The Snow Queen." I'm going to send this video to them because I know they will find it fascinating! {One kiddo is non-binary, queer}
Thank you for your detailed, compassionate, and nuanced work! ❤
One of my favorite youtubers covering my favorite author from my home country🥲 I feel so blessed. Thank you for the wonderful presentation Kaz❤️
Fantastic video!! I knew he was queer and that The Little Mermaid was about him, but I hadn’t taken the time to fully read and learn about his whole life. This 30-minute video went by so fast because of how engaging and well-paced it was!! Thank you for presenting this so beautifully. Gonna read some of his stories now
In danish we call them kunsteventyr “art-tales” to distinct them from eventyr/folkeeventyr “fairytales” … fairietales being reserved for peasant oral tradition stuff
Ever read Oscar Wilde's THE FISHERMAN & HIS SOUL? It was Wilde's response to THE LITTLE MERMAID; is has a fisherman who gives up his soul to be with a mermaid.
when you said "that one dude who wants to start a polycule no one wants to join" i legit had to stop what i was doing, that felt personal lmaoo
Going into this video (I am Danish) I thought i knew everything about H. C. Andersen as it's on every schools curriculum. A couple seconds in, I realised that i didn't even know he was bi🤯 Thank you for teaching me new stuff in your, as always, great video and happy new year!
Have a good rest of 2023, Kaz. Wash your hands, wear your mask, stay safe and I can't wait to learn with you in 2024!
Gods, it's so affirming that you're still saying "Wash thy hands, Wear thy mask". I can't tell you how deeply my partner and I appreciate a youtuber who is still Aware and Careful and Speaking about Covid, even casually like you.
Also, just, love ths video. Thank you for telling our Demented Bisexual History 💜
Came here to say the same thing
Incredible work (as always)! I’d love to get your take on Lewis Carroll and the weird rumors surrounding him 😬
I wonder if they ever will. I've seen two pretty well researched docs through the BBC that mention so many worrying things about his photography and letters. I wanns protect Kaz's mental health
even if they don't cover it, i would "love" to educate myself, i am to curious for my own good. what do you recommend that i look into
@@bananapuding866RUclips has a search option.
@@bananapuding866So, I would say understanding him as a mathematician over a novelist gives a little bit of new reflection to how Wonderland is constructed.
The Mathematical World of Charles L. Dodgson by Robin Wilson is a good start.
As a person? There are collections of his diaries in print. Morton N. Cohen is one of the most notable biographies.
I think one thing that is hardest about studying someone as a history is how to explain their life without lionising them nor straight out cancelling them. Somewhere along that list I think you get a fuller picture. I know the docs I saw were based on Morton and his direct diaries.
definitely the craziest "he just like me fr"
The mermaid didn't want immortality, she wanted a soul so she could go to heaven
Yeah, an immortal soul.
@@junjunjamore7735 I'm not a native english speaker but from my understanding there's a big difference between immortality and an immortal soul, just saying immortality implies she wanted to live here on earth forever
@@CanIswearinmyhandleI'd agree. I also fear a lot of people have read the downgraded version that was popularized in English speaking countries. My childhood big book tried to stay as close to the Danish version as possible. It definitely made it clear she wanted an immortal soul.
As someone who feels sometimes like they are the last person on earth still wearing a mask, thank you for your traditional sign off. It makes me feel really seen
This just goes to show that bisexual yearning is the cornerstone of so many cultures...
i know way too much about this topic thank you for finally doing a video on it! ❤ i’m like the biggest little mermaid fan ever and it’s so much more tragic through the lens of hans’s life
Where is my HBO prestige Our-Flag-Means-Death-style queer romcom series about this man!? I need it!
I think (as others have also remarked) Andersen would have been far happier - and possibly far more likely to find love - if he had been born today.
However, that doesn’t make up for his gopping lack of self-awareness when he visited Dickens and others. He does seem to be the sort of charming man who can entertain with tales if not with drama!
I remember seeing the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen (as well as the Lego Statue of Andersen himself) and although I liked the stories, thought he looked a little dour. It seems like I was very wrong!
disney babygirlifying original fairytales will forever be a crime
Worked for me. I still have trauma from Bambi.
Why? They didn’t do a book burning of the originals. We still have them. I found it to be a interesting way of growing up. I enjoyed the reimagined version… and then I got scared by the original!
Ooh here's something to make this even more bittersweet: In a "full-circle" coincidence, Jonas Collin's great-granddaughter danced the role of the Little Mermaid in a ballet adaptation in 1913. 😢
I love the Little Mermaid!
And the underlying queerness became very clear once I realised I'm queer myself!
I'm glad that, at the end, you finally had some charitable things to say about Andersen. He was a great writer.
one of my most treasured possessions is a book titled "A Treasury of Has Christian Anderson." I read through it so many times as a kid. Front to back. I abandoned the illustrated jacket at some point because it tore, I think. Other kids would ask me if it was a bible, which I always scoffed at. I'm kind of astonished that I've never really read anything, or seen anything, anything at all about this author as a person. So, I'm really thankful that I found your channel and this video.
I lived the same experience as a kid, but all the way in Costa Rica. It’s amazing how connected the world is, and the things that bring us together, so far apart. I’m so glad Kaz is here to bring it back out and teach us even more about him
I'm so happy you made a video about him - I'm Danish and he's such a big part of my childhood. Still I feel very connected to him somehow.
When you say Edvard Collin I cannot help to hear Edward Cullen and it's like a mini jumpscare every time :D
I read the OG Little Mermaid story when I was in first grade, and it utterly ruined me.
My little six-year-old heart was seriously not ready for that level of tragedy.
this video comes at an unbelievably perfect time!!!!! i've been inexplicably interested in hans christian andersen's weird romantic life lately and searching for articles. also - i've had to practice a lot to incorporate pieces of historical menswear into my outfits without them looking tacky and im still learning!! so when i see your outfits i get totally inspired since theyre gorgeous elegant and fun Every Single Time!
Had no idea Hans Christian Andersen wrote so many classic stories… ESPECIALLY the Princess and the Pea!
Haha yep pretty much 90% of the popular childhood “fairytale” canon in the west is either Brothers Grimm or Andersen.
@@mad8598 brothers Grimm simply collected tales already told orally by hundreds of storytellers, while H.C. Andersen wrote his own tales.
king wouldve done numbers on tumblr
AYO, i'm danish! Its so cool to see my favorite history channel cover one of my country's idols!
Like many academics and interested people who've pondered over which labels he'd fit, I consider he would have probably been biromantic asexual, like some comments have already mentioned. I don't know why asexuality wasn't brought up in the video (maybe I'm missing/missed something), but that's where I gravitate.
Something about his Little Mermaid I've always found fascinating is that it is also a retelling, of Undine, and he changed the ending from the mermaid becoming sea foam to her becoming a Daughter of the Air and gaining immortality through her sacrifice and other good deeds rather than depending on other's love. He talked about the change and it's very interesting, I think retellings, especially those of folklore and fairy tales, are an amazing way to see the social, cultural and personal perceptions of the same archetypes through time.
Thanks for another insightful video! ♥
I’m Danish and I literally jumped out of my seat when I saw this !!!!!
Here i am playing a nice educational video in the background while working when i hear "...and thats when he met Edward Cullen. " 👀👀👀
Trails of a non-native English speaker 🤦♀️😂
The Little Matchgirl was just devastating when my dad read it to me as a child
I live in the town where he was born and there are these footprints scattered around so you can “follow in his footsteps”, and let me tell you; his feet were ginormous and his steps wide
insert: "Llama homoerotic move" 😂
Edit: I'm so bummed this is your last video of the year on this channel.
Loved this! I just had a pretty long week but you have a way through your writing and delivery to truly transport people into another time and place.
You have the skill of a true story teller.
If i had a nickle for evertime I learned that Jenny Lind was the traget of unwanted romance advacments from problematic famous men, I'd have two nickles, which isn't a lot but it's wierd that it happened twice.
Can’t wait to get into this one! Hope the rest of your year is lovely and we’ll see you next year! 😊
Thank you for all the quality you brought to us in 2023. Wishing you a perfect new year!
Happy and safe holiday season to you, Kaz! This was an amazing video, as always. Thank you so much ❤
I cackled so inelegantly at "llama homoeroticism" 🤣
Kaz…your content is my contentment. It satisfies me deeply with its particular tone and eclectic rubric. Thank you for your generous administration of such lush sensibilities.