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| (Sun photo, by Simon) |
There were so many wonderful stories in this section that I would feel really conflicted about which to write about, if one hadn't made me so excited when I was reading it that I ended up leaving my lunch on the stove for too long, and burning my food! That story was The Moon and Stars, and I'll talk about it a bit here, but I also want to talk about some other options I've been thinking about for this week's storytelling assignment this week, too...so, without further ado:
Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They Are Provoked: I really loved this story, from the tenuous beginnings of friendship to when the man falls down weeping over the tiger's imitated death. I have a weakness for stories about unusual friendship, and I feel like this story could actually be imitated through an anthropologist's field notes--but as a real-life scenario, maybe, as an unusual friendship between two humans who mimic the man's and the tiger's personas? Since, as is stated in the notes, there aren't actually any tigers in Africa...
The Ungrateful Man: once again, a story that I really enjoyed. It would also translate well into a field note/real life story, I think, as an allegory about humans and humanity and kindness vs. betrayal. It has the potential for some cool imagery, too, and maybe a colorful cast of characters...since I still haven't ended up writing any stories with larger casts...
The Moon and Stars: Like I said, I burned my lunch while reading this story! The style of narration really made me care about the characters and what happened to them--plus there was a dragon, and a fiddle, and a castle--basically, this story pushed all of the right buttons for me. It's also an Anansi tale, which means that it would be good practice for writing the later Anansi tales to come. I'm less sure about how it could translate into an anthropologist's field notes, but I'll think on that--I don't have time to write the story until tomorrow, but I'll let all these ideas stew in the back of my head until then....
Source: West African Folk Tales, by William H. Barker and Cecelia Sinclair, with illustrations by Cecelia Sinclair (1917).
Just a quick note, Kathryn: I am so glad you looked at this lovely book! You can see here the huge range of how researchers have treated their task in retelling the stories: people who transcribed (like Martha Beckwith did) but also people who did not see their job so much as transcribing but rather to convey the story to a new audience. If you look at this book, the introduction explains how they solicited the stories from local informants; it's very interesting! Looking at that might help you sort out what you want to do with your own project! Here is the book's Introduction which explains some of the context. :-)
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