He was the cutest little fawn! A sweet bambino with “foggy eyes” nestled beside his mother, feeling secure in the thicket of a verdant forest. Surrounded by the instant love of future friends ---- Thumper the spunky hare, Flower the adorable skunk, a family of opossums swinging by their tails, orioles warbling songs of adoration, grasshoppers jumping joyously and butterflies fluttering with happiness ----- jubilantly celebrating the arrival of a supernova into their utopian world, a darling child sweetly named Bambi.
Children flocked to watch Bambi, Disney’s animated movie-version, more beloved than today’s Frozen, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid or even Barbie. But the novel on which Disney based his popular film has had a contentious history both for its creator and criticism for the “bowdlerized” Disney version of the original.
The Original Bambi The Story of a Life in the Forest by Felix Salten, newly translated with an insightful introduction by Jack Zipes is a dark tale, an existential clash between defenseless animals and hunters, whose “sport” often terminates the animal’s life. Nothing like the Disneyesque lovefest, Salten’s forest is a hazardous place in which animals must keep a safe distance from omniscient humans whose “third arm” (a gun) communicates death.
Published in 1922 Salten’s novel was banned by the Nazi regime, confiscated and burned with other “degenerate books” written by Jews. Though there are several interpretations of the novel – one of these is the quest for animal rights---Salten’s work clearly parallels the never-ending “sport” to hunt, persecute and kill Jews and by extension the cruel treatment of other minorities.
More tragic than the “syrupy” Disney film Salten posits not only human but animal nature is hostile and in a scene where the author describes Bambi’s ferocious battle with a buck to win the love of Feline, his “mate”. The death of Bambi’s friend, the fragile Gobo, a gullible fawn taken in by the sly words of a hunter is particularly heartbreaking to read. Naïve Gobo believes hunters can be kind. He becomes a temporary “pet” for indulgent, elite masters but eventually “game” handily shot in the open meadow.
Written in exquisite, lyrical prose Salten’s touching saga unlike Disney’s utopian playground exposes a Hobbesian world riven with violence, savagery, “nasty brutish and short.” Though Bambi’s father, “the old prince”, a proud stag with a gorgeous crown of antlers tutors Bambi in the art of self-reliance, a skill required to protect himself against other animals, Bambi can never defend himself against unchecked freedom in the open meadow. There he is always a target for the hunter’s deadly “thunderbolt.”
