• 0 posts
  • 3 comments
Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: June 20th, 2023
  • d00ery@lemmy.worldtoBooks@lemmy.world•I'm currently reading the 1911 novelization of Peter Pan, and was completely unprepared for this passage in a children's book
    3 hours

    The use of the word molested has changed. Though I can totally understand the interpretation (maybe it is a warning to children, but it could just be down to the change in how we use language).

    somewhat old-fashioned : to annoy, disturb, or persecute (a person or animal) especially with hostile intent or injurious effect

    Who doth molest my contemplation?— Shakespeare

    Bees flew past him, bees flew into him, bees settled upon his coat, bees paused questioningly in front of him … but not a single bee molested him.— P. G. Wodehouse

    At a hearing last week, activists persuaded the commission that the porcupines were being chased, molested and “worried” for human amusement.— Kelli Anderson

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/molest

    Peter Pan cuts off Hook’s hand and feeds it to a crocodile, this is the reason for the vendetta.

    “I want Peter,” he flung back at him earnestly; "most of all I want their captain, Peter Pan. 'Twas he cut off my arm." He brandished the hook, which did duty for his hand, in the air.
    “I’ve waited long to shake his hand with this,” he said, “and oh, I’ll tear him!”.
    “And yet,” said Smee, “I have oft noted your unhappiness when the crocodile was about.”.
    “He liked my arm so much,” Hook said, “that he has followed me ever since, from sea to sea and from land to land, licking his lips for the rest of me.”.
    “In a way,” said Smee, “it’s sort of a compliment.”.
    “Well, I want no such compliments,” Hook barked. “I want Peter Pan, who gave the beast its first taste of me.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan_(play_and_novel)#Major_themes