Just read the Gingerbread Man with my nephew. I'd always remembered it as the tale of a little guy getting cocky and receiving his comeuppance when outwitted by a shrewder and more worldly fox - but I now see the Gingerbread Man as a hero and an existential Titan…
That poor little fucker was born into a rigged game of bullshit where he was made only to die.
Everyone thought they had ownership over him and a right to eat him.
The old lady made him for her fat, spoiled kids to eat.
What was the Gingerbread Man to do?
Just lay down like a servile slave and be eaten?
He chose fuck this - and he legged it.
He made a bid for freedom.
And along the way everyone wanted to eat him.
And his response? “No - fuck you - I will not die today - I'm the Gingerbread Man!”
And they hounded him and pursued him.
But he remained chipper.
He learned to sing in the face of death.
“Run, run as fast as you can” he joked as the jaws of destruction snapped at his ankles.
“You can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man” he laughed as the adrenalin of existence flowed through him.
And the things he saw!