Talk:Stone soup
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[edit] Fraud
Isn't "Stone Soup" also possibly a tale of hoodwinking people by making them believe something exists when nothing does, and then "selling" them the result of their own contributions?
- No, because in the most popular version of the story, the travelers share the soup with the villagers and the value of the labor (cooking) itself should not be discounted.
Does this article violate the policy against self references in articles? Ellsworth 23:58, 30 Apr 2004 (UTC)
- I don't think so. Edward 18:47, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)
But the only versions I ever heard were about a single traveller hoodwinking a well-off household (or cook at a castle or similar) with a 'magic soup stone'. And then his cunning is rewarded by a benevolent King (or similar) being impressed with his skill (or he is punished, depending on the version). I'd never heard the cooperative version before, but had heard several of this. The traveller [i]did[/i] share the soup, but received food for free, having only contributed the stone. I heard several versions of this, and suspect it needs a mention somewhere, but won't take this step as an individual...
I think someone should write something about the origins of the story. Is it a portuguese fairy tale, Aesop's fable or something else? --U.U. 17:22, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
In Russia, this story is normally told of a honorably discharged soldier (back in XIX century, where a footsoldier's term of service would last many years) on his long way home to a far-off village. On the way he encounters a lone old man (or woman) too squeamish to part with his food reserves and pretending that there's no food at all in the house. The crafty soldier offers to help with food preparation, finds a wood-chopping axe lying around and uses it to make a kasha in the same manner as described here, by progressively soliciting his host for further ingredients to improve the flavor and eventually sharing the result. I have no idea nor source to cite on whether this story is derived from it's foreign structural equivalents or from a more ancient common ancestor, but I remember at least two film versions - one children's cartoon and at least one fairytale live action movie made use of the concept verbatim. Mihara 13:26, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
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- In the canadian scouting movement, we're taught this story as being of a bunch of soldierrs returning from a war in the 1800's, where a group of soldiers are refused food by the villagers, and using the stone trick, they get a large pot of soup going for the whole town. It is taught as a lesson on cooperation and how people should take care of one another. Plus its damned good soup when we make it ourselves! --Papa Jones
[edit] Ending?
I concur with the others, I always remember it having the sort of "twist" at the end where the traveler robs everyone while they enjoy the soup. If I remember correctly, the idea is that the people were all angry at one another and refused to cooperate. Then the con man comes and tells them he has a magical stone to make soup for all of them despite their difficulties. He tastes the soup over and over again saying it would be improved by some carrots, salt, some potatoes, etc. Then as they all try it and hail him and his rock he takes not ony the money they give him but their personal belongings from the houses they have left with open doors to see what all this about stone soup is about.
Of course, this being a folk tale makes it so there isn't really one "right" version, and there are probably many. But if anyone can actually find these different versions it would be useful to add that bit. Russia Moore 21:05, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Nutrition/Diversity interpretation
I figured the lesson was about trading and exchanging, rather than hoarding what you have, in times of scarcity... the lesson being that having the-same-amount-but-more-diversified was better overall. Each villager had only one thing; potatoes, salt, meat, etc.. but none of what the other villagers had, and they were all hoarding.. This could be applied literally to nutrition, or figuratively to ethnicity or the economy (better to trade the little you have than to keep it to yourself where it's only going to stagnate).
[edit] What Kingsolver?
Hey... Why do we care 'bout Kingsolver's essay? That's totally out of place in here!!!
- I agree... The essay is not even about stone soup; it uses the concept as a (stretched) metaphor. It should definitely be deleted or moved elsewhere. I put in the appropriate merge template, for now. Freederick 16:38, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
- The Kingsolver section is essentially an unsourced review of a work largely irrelevant to the article. I flagged it as such. If nobody steps forward to clean it up, I will delete this section soon. Freederick 11:03, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
Deleted. Freederick 10:51, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Emperor's New Clothes
Another interpretation again of this story was used in a 1977 electronics magazine. First was a straightforward telling of the story, but in a way more akin to The Emperor's New Clothes, where the travellers were demonstrating the power of their magic stone. But of course they used a pot that still had food from a previous meal, used vegetables and seasoning to enhance the result, used a meaty bone to stir the soup etc. Following this, the story was retold with the magic stone replaced with a microprocessor, which could do all sorts of wonderful things, but of course you also need a UART, a DMA controller, an interrupt controller, bus interface, bus driver, etc.
Reference: Stone Soup - A Modern Parable, Electronics Australia, Vol. 38, No. 11, February, 1977, pp. 80-81.
I think there are enough alternate variations on the main story, as mentioned in previous entries and here, that reference to them is worthwhile in the article. Stephen.frede 07:59, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
