Status Updates From Der Goldene Topf

I am rather loving this (and remembering it as I read), but annoying that the villain is a very stereotypical witch, and reading it so close to Caliban and the Witch, it's glaring.

That said I had completely forgotten that ETA Hoffmann's buried in Berlin and pretty close to where I recently moved, just 18 mins away on foot :D

One thing I did not notice when I was a kid is how this subverts the Adam and Eve story. When we meet Anselmus, literally first sentence, he clumses into a basket of apples and ofc, then sits by the Elba and sees these three serpents in a tree. (And since I know a lot of what happens, I know it's a subversion) Then we have the very Genesis story of Phosphorus and the Lily (Phosporus = Light)

Nervous about this, since I read it obsessively as a pre-teen and idk how it holds up, but been thinking about it and how Anselmus is pretty good rep for ADHD, albeit two centuries ago, with his clumsiness and intense emotions and hyperfocus a bit later in the book when he's doing his thing 😅