By Simon Brooks
By Simon Brooks
There is so much publicity and cheer leading for
personal narrative that I feel we might be getting away from folk and fairy
tales, and losing focus. There is much craft that goes into a well-told
personal narrative to make it work for an audience. It is also easy to simply
tell a personal story for self-gratification. I was into the poetry open mic
scene back in the day and you would hear beautifully crafted poems and some
crass work which should have been kept within a bedroom or therapists office. I
feel the same at some slams, or open mic storytelling too. There is some high
art, and there is some rubbish. It can be the same for folk and fairy tales
too. I have seen stories ruined for me
with a bad telling.
I have been asked about the relevance of folk and
fairy tales, myths and legends these days, and this saddens me. A growing
number of kids don’t know Little Red
Riding Hood, and have not heard of King Solomon. There are, in many works,
references to such tales, and if the youth of today are not hearing these
stories then those references are lost. Reading Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series of graphic novels, you
know Gaiman has a deep level of understanding of mythology. As someone who
knows these ancient tales and stories I gain another level of enjoyment of the
books. It is not only literary references which are lost but a level of
understanding too.
Hansel and
Gretel is set in reality. In the days
when the story was created, young children, the sick and elderly were given
over to the forest in times of starvation, or even when the fear of lack of
food became apparent, so that the strongest survived. This does not happen
these days, although some cultures as recent as 100 years ago still did this.
But children, and the elderly are abandoned, or it can feel like that to them,
when parents work three jobs to pay bills, or travel away from home for work,
or are just ignored, and the elderly are placed in homes. This story can help
young folks process what they might be going through.
Stone Soup is also set in fact. A study of warfare in Europe up
to the 1700’s will show you that many battles were fought over the same
territory, and the same routes were used to march to these places. Soldiers had
to find their own food on route and often stole food (appropriated?!) as they
passed through villages and towns. Often these soldiers were starving. Only the
officers were well fed and clothed, the conscripted soldiers were not
professional soldiers but men gathered by force from their homes to fight a war
they were not interested in, nor whose stakes would have any effect on them
other than the fighting. If stray soldiers found their way into a town, they
would have been ignored, in fact there are historical records stating that some
soldiers were hung, or even beaten to death. Understandable when some armies
burned crops to stop another army from feeding itself, sending a village or town
into starvation. This happened to the same villages and towns, year after year.
The story of Stone Soup could have
been a true personal narrative at one point. Homer, in the Iliad describes what is now known as PTSD. There is truth and power
in the old tales.
These stories can be used to teach about our histories
and how our cultures have changed, but they also teach about compassion, and
how some things have been happening since time began. Sure, some are pure
entertainment, the same as some personal narratives are, but there is a depth
which, I feel, folk and fairy tales go to and reach in which personal narrative
does not. One can lose oneself in a folk or fairy tale and become any of the
characters and be safe, so if the subject is hard, you are one step removed.
Personal narratives do not necessarily have that. Listening to a personal story
can plunge the listener back to their
own trauma, or fear more directly.
As human beings we need to be exposed to many different
types and styles of telling. We need to hear different stories just like we
need to hear all different types of music.
We need a foundation to build from, not just in telling stories, but in
life, and the ancient tales, the myths, legends, folk and fairy tales can do
that. They teach us that we can survive, we can process things we do not
understand through the ancient stories, they can explain the world around us,
and they can, most importantly give us hope. So when
someone says to me, ‘Why folk and fairy tales?’ I tell them – hope. They always
give us hope, and sometimes a really good laugh, too!
Simon Brooks will be a featured storyteller at theFlorida Storytelling Festival in Mt. Dora, FL, January 23-26, 2020 He recently performed at the National Storytelling Festival where his animated style drew much praise.
