Where's Trixi?

The story of the girl who wants the red shoes and skips church to get them and then dances until her feet wear off or the woodcutter cuts them off is a gruesome story that superficially has no message for us.

That twit who wrote the introduction to Animal Farm that I read the other day had no idea what a fairy tale is or it's purpose.

My interpretation of the Red Shoes is that sometimes we long for something even though we know it's bad for us. When we give in and get the something, at whatever cost, it can take over our lives. The only way to get rid of it is to cut out the part of us that feels empty and thinks this possession is the cure.

I think that Fight Club has elements of the Red Shoes. Jack wants something, in his case a new life. He has a vasty hole that he tries to fill with possessions. When that doesn't work Durden appears and starts to do things to remake Jack.

He wears a red jacket for much of the beginning of the film. Then he wears a red shirt. The soap on the poster for the film is red.

I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it but I think that those of you who have seen it will agree that like the red shoes a character has to destroy the part of himself he can no longer control.

Although really I think he could have just become one with it. There goes all my surety.