http://clevermsbennet.livejournal.com/ (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
clevermsbennet.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2009-01-29 12:57 am
clevermsbennet.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2009-01-29 12:57 am
Entry tags:
Literature, Class 4: Period 3, Thursday, January 29
"It's good to see you all again," Miss Bennet smiled at her charges. "Especially in a slightly warmer temperature than previous. I'm afraid there's no hot cocoa this week, but, as always, we will make do as best we can." She picked up the chalk and began to write.
"Five hundred years before the birth of Our Lord," Eliza said, "a man named Aesop lived. He is the credited author of a number of fables, though I should note that it is not at all conclusive that he was their originator. he might have simply collected the stories he heard from other sources. Many of the tales had a long and rich oral tradition, which relates nicely to our discussion last week on story-telling." How very nice when one class moved to the next in that manner.
"Those of you not from this world may not recognize the stories themselves, but even so, the basic premises should be familiar to you. Fables are simplistic stories in which there is a very clear moral. For example, one of Aesop's tales features a young shepherd boy who cries "wolf!" to alert the villagers of a wolf attack, only to be chastised when it is discovered that no such attack occurred. Predictably, when the day arrives that a wolf does threaten the flock, no one believes the boy's shouts. Another story involves frogs who wished for a king to rule them. They plead to Zeus, the creator-deity, to send them a king. He sends them a log. The log, they find to be dull, and so they once more importune Zeus. He provides them with a stork, who promptly eats a number of the frogs, as storks are wont to do. The moral there is that one must be careful in what it is that one wishes."
"Fables are similar in some ways to stories known as fairy tales," she continued, "but there is a marked difference between the two. Fables are crafted to illustrate a particular moral; to that end, Aesop included a separate paragraph after each story, explaining the moral for those who may have missed it. Fairy tales, by contrast, seem to evolve. They come out of our collective thought processes. We take our hopes and fears and dress them up in fantastical clothes, where they become witches and elves and fairy queens. Most fairy tales do have a moral, though it isn't the point of the story. For fairy tales, the story itself is the point."
"Some of you may be familiar with the tale of the red-cloaked girl. She is traveling to her Grandmother's house, and she is warned repeatedly that she must stay on the path, lest she wander into the forest and fall prey to wolves. She fails to listen, and speaks her destination aloud before a well-hidden wolf. He arrives at her grandmother's cottage, devours her grandmother, and lies in wait for the red-cloaked girl herself. In some versions of the story -- as there are many, you'll find -- a hunter saves the girl; in others, she outwits the wolf, while still others leave the girl to be eaten, just as her grandmother was. The moral may not be expressly laid out, but it's apparent: in straying from the path, she has damned herself. The possibility of her redemption varies, according to who tells the tale." She smiled at her students. "I trust that I needn't point out the more allegorical aspects of the story. While wolves do lurk in forests, this is, at its base, the story of a young, naive girl falling under the sway of a dangerous creature. Her virtue must be guarded as closely as her life."
"In recent times," she added, stopping briefly to allow herself an amused glance at her students, "that is, in recent time periods to this one, and not my own -- fairy tales have been largely considered to be stories directed at young children. With that shift, the stories have undergone some fundamental changes. The tiniest sea-maiden, for example, did not win her human prince's hand in marriage; in the original tale, he loved another, and her only hope was to take his life, that she might take her place in the ocean with her sisters once more. Unable to kill the one she loved, she was transformed into sea-foam. Many other stories have similarly been prettied up in one way or another. Removing the more gruesome aspects of these stories may seem a good idea, to nervous parents, but if there are morals lurking under the surface, if these stories are truly about our own unspoken horrors and dreads, then replacing all unpleasant consequences with the same bland happy ending destroys the significance of each."
Eliza looked around the class again. "If these stories really are universal, then perhaps those of you from other worlds have your own versions to share. Many cultures in this world came up with similar stories, the same stories, so much so that there is now a classification system for folkloric tales. Number 310 is all of the stories involving a maiden trapped in a tower, while 518 is quarreling giants who lose their magical objects. There are plenty of archetypes to go round, if any of you have more to suggest?"
"Five hundred years before the birth of Our Lord," Eliza said, "a man named Aesop lived. He is the credited author of a number of fables, though I should note that it is not at all conclusive that he was their originator. he might have simply collected the stories he heard from other sources. Many of the tales had a long and rich oral tradition, which relates nicely to our discussion last week on story-telling." How very nice when one class moved to the next in that manner.
"Those of you not from this world may not recognize the stories themselves, but even so, the basic premises should be familiar to you. Fables are simplistic stories in which there is a very clear moral. For example, one of Aesop's tales features a young shepherd boy who cries "wolf!" to alert the villagers of a wolf attack, only to be chastised when it is discovered that no such attack occurred. Predictably, when the day arrives that a wolf does threaten the flock, no one believes the boy's shouts. Another story involves frogs who wished for a king to rule them. They plead to Zeus, the creator-deity, to send them a king. He sends them a log. The log, they find to be dull, and so they once more importune Zeus. He provides them with a stork, who promptly eats a number of the frogs, as storks are wont to do. The moral there is that one must be careful in what it is that one wishes."
"Fables are similar in some ways to stories known as fairy tales," she continued, "but there is a marked difference between the two. Fables are crafted to illustrate a particular moral; to that end, Aesop included a separate paragraph after each story, explaining the moral for those who may have missed it. Fairy tales, by contrast, seem to evolve. They come out of our collective thought processes. We take our hopes and fears and dress them up in fantastical clothes, where they become witches and elves and fairy queens. Most fairy tales do have a moral, though it isn't the point of the story. For fairy tales, the story itself is the point."
"Some of you may be familiar with the tale of the red-cloaked girl. She is traveling to her Grandmother's house, and she is warned repeatedly that she must stay on the path, lest she wander into the forest and fall prey to wolves. She fails to listen, and speaks her destination aloud before a well-hidden wolf. He arrives at her grandmother's cottage, devours her grandmother, and lies in wait for the red-cloaked girl herself. In some versions of the story -- as there are many, you'll find -- a hunter saves the girl; in others, she outwits the wolf, while still others leave the girl to be eaten, just as her grandmother was. The moral may not be expressly laid out, but it's apparent: in straying from the path, she has damned herself. The possibility of her redemption varies, according to who tells the tale." She smiled at her students. "I trust that I needn't point out the more allegorical aspects of the story. While wolves do lurk in forests, this is, at its base, the story of a young, naive girl falling under the sway of a dangerous creature. Her virtue must be guarded as closely as her life."
"In recent times," she added, stopping briefly to allow herself an amused glance at her students, "that is, in recent time periods to this one, and not my own -- fairy tales have been largely considered to be stories directed at young children. With that shift, the stories have undergone some fundamental changes. The tiniest sea-maiden, for example, did not win her human prince's hand in marriage; in the original tale, he loved another, and her only hope was to take his life, that she might take her place in the ocean with her sisters once more. Unable to kill the one she loved, she was transformed into sea-foam. Many other stories have similarly been prettied up in one way or another. Removing the more gruesome aspects of these stories may seem a good idea, to nervous parents, but if there are morals lurking under the surface, if these stories are truly about our own unspoken horrors and dreads, then replacing all unpleasant consequences with the same bland happy ending destroys the significance of each."
Eliza looked around the class again. "If these stories really are universal, then perhaps those of you from other worlds have your own versions to share. Many cultures in this world came up with similar stories, the same stories, so much so that there is now a classification system for folkloric tales. Number 310 is all of the stories involving a maiden trapped in a tower, while 518 is quarreling giants who lose their magical objects. There are plenty of archetypes to go round, if any of you have more to suggest?"
Discussion Topic #3: Folklore Categorization [LIT-3]
Re: Discussion Topic #3: Folklore Categorization [LIT-3]
Re: Discussion Topic #3: Folklore Categorization [LIT-3]
Re: Discussion Topic #3: Folklore Categorization [LIT-3]
She shrugged. "There ARE lots of similarities, though, probably because people are people and we all have certain things in common.
Re: Discussion Topic #3: Folklore Categorization [LIT-3]
Re: Discussion Topic #3: Folklore Categorization [LIT-3]
Re: Discussion Topic #3: Folklore Categorization [LIT-3]