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tales
>But what if someone writes a thoughtful, well-done, modern addition to
the the story? >Does it-- _should_ it-- become part of the folklore of
that hero?
Only if it does. (?)
>And if so, how?
Magic, of course. :)
Or else a massive submission of the community to the words of a brilliant
storyteller.
If the folk want to change the folklore, they should be allowed.
Actually, they can't be stopped. Trouble is, in Western culture, at
least, it's hard to find the folk, these days. Or maybe we demand too
much. It's hard to find the folk when you're looking at a massive thing
like AMERICA. It's a little easier to find the folk if you get involved
with a local community. But we don't tell tales to each other very
often, at least not where I've lived.
But we do tell stories to each other, all the time. If we didn't have
stories from Seinfeld and Friends and whatever to tell to each other, do
you think we'd make up more fun stuff? Mebbe.
Is Star Wars a folk tale?
Perhaps we should add a couple of minstrels to all the tales. And their
dog Willow.
Maybe modern technology gets in the way, too. I mean, "the sword in the
stone" is so much cooler than "the machine gun in the stone."
"Yesterday, down by the river, I encountered an amazing thing. Nothing
but a stone. Largish, but not extraordinary. But there, slantwise
through its top, I saw the handle a massive . . . sledgehammer. Try as
I might, I could not pull it free."
I guess that would be the Marxist version. Except no one would ever pull
the hammer free, cos Marxists don't like kings.
?
Did lads in England go around telling lies about how they'd actually seen
the sword in the stone? "I swear, it was right there, bigger than life.
I went to get my mates, to help me pull it out, and we couldn't find the
place again. Just couldn't bleeding find it."
What makes Star Wars good? Two words: laser swords.
Relevance? Anyone?
I always try to convince people that the Ameritech building in Muncie is
designed by and for vampires. 1) Except for the front door, no windows,
at all. 2) Doors coming out of the face of the building, two and three
stories up, with no apparent connecting stairs. 3) Bell-tower like
structure above the third story. 4) 24 hour 1-800 number. (?).
No one buys it.
What makes Star Wars irritating? Three words: George Lucas' dialogue.
What could make it better? A couple of minstrels and their dog willow?
Well . . .
Karin: "Into the garbage shoot, piano boy."
Maybe it doesn't work.
How about:
"Merlin, meet Linford."
or
Arthur: "What do you think of these young minstrels,
Sir-not-so-brave-as-sir-Lancelot?"
Kyle: "I think the bloke with the glasses is a [baby]wipe."
(Look! I bowdlerized my own story! Maybe we should bowdlerlize all of
Sir-not-so-brave's posts? Maybe not. :) )
"Bowdlerize, to: To expurgate. In 1818 the editor Thomas Bowdler
(1754-1825) published a ten volume edition of Shakespeare's works 'in
which nothing is added to the original text; but those words are omitted
which cannot with propriety be read aloud in the family'. He thus cut
Juliet's speech of longing for Romeo from 30 lines to 15, together with
many of the Nurse's comments, and in King Lear's speech of madness,
beginning 'Ay, every inch a king', he cutt 22 lines to seven. He removed
the character of Doll Tearsheet altogether." (Brewer's Dictionary of
Phrase and Fable)
You know what's interesting about that? It only happened in 1818. Not
that long ago. The colonials set up a new country and *bam*, the old
empire culture gets way uptight about propriety. Was it the emerging
cities? Maybe, cos suddenly the rich were really close to the poor and
needed to feel superior in some way. So they created manners. And maybe
manners are what destroyed the free evolution of folk tales. (?)
:p
Ever the fool,
Fred