Talk:Folklore of the United States

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ɮ:"Folklore" itself is a term rife with contradiction and confusion, and does little to accurately describe what it seeks to describe. Certainly, storytelling in its many guises (from jokes to parables to movies to the library story hour) in included, as are the rhymes and songs learned by ear on the playground or around the campfire. The best way to characterize American Folklore is to say that it is comprised of those secular tales which, while possibly religious in nature in some cases, mostly conerned themselves with making mythic the mundane beliefs of an itinerant people. American Folklore is particularly interested in manufacturing a ready-made national identity for its disparate, multi-lingual, multi-cultural society. It seeks to create a big picture for the nation to rally around. It uses many tools, including false history, magical realism, satire and an almost maniacal obsession with the exoticism of "local color." Those tools can be deployed as a means of appealing to the "better angels" of the American conscience. But just as often, they can be abused for the agrandizement of a few at the expense of key groups within the whole. In many cases, both uses coexist in an interesting, beautiful, sickening and deadly "melting pot" of intentions.

I removed this paragraph to talk, because I see some serious NPOV issues here. It fairly reeks of postmodern condescension, and strikes me as inappropriately focused on identity politics. Questioning the validity of folklore as a meaningful category or a subject for study probably belongs on the folklore page itself, rather in any case. The history credits most of this text to the ever-prolific Conversion Script. What say ye? -- IHCOYC 14:30 Apr 24, 2003 (UTC)

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[edit] Pocahontas a Savage?

Surely some of the European settlers felt that Native Americans were savages, but should we really list Geronimo, Pocahontas, Squanto and Hiawatha under "Animals and Savages" as if there were no disputing that they were no more civilized than bigfoot? So I'm just going to remove them from that category, and if anyone feels they should be in this article, perhaps they can insert them somewhere not so demeaning. --Misfit 03:44, 8 Aug 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Currently, this article is awful

Isn't there anyone out there interested in writing a serious article about American folklore? There's not much content here right now -- and that intro paragraph is just plain nonsense. A major expansion is needed -- I hope a knowledgeable person will take a crack at writing a worthwhile article. --Kevin Myers June 28, 2005 04:58 (UTC)

I tend to agree. The opening paragraph still reeks of po-mo condescension. This may be a fruitful candidate for an article improvement drive.
Might want to begin with a section about sources: Native American, British Isles, African-American folklore, immigrant beliefs, contemporary legends. Individual articles could then be pulled from the long list of subtopics and discussed in text instead. Smerdis of Tlön

[edit] More tall tales

This article should be linked (if not merged with) The article on tall tales (let the Australian section be a seporate article). - Kevingarcia 08:36, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

So I picked up a travel map, sponsored by ENCO a "humble oil & refining company: America's Leading Energy Company" circa 1960, called "Happy Motoring. Travel maps were popular during the days of the road trip family vacations of the post WWII era (coinciding with the popularity of Route 66). It lists 62 folktales and legends ranging from Paul Bunyan to the Menehune of Hawaii. It also has several tales not mentioned here. Some include:

- Barney Beal a lobsterman of Main with arms so long and strong he could lift a half-ton anchor.
- Bowleg Bill (see Slue-Foot Sue), a cowboy who rode giant fish in the ocean, but was disappointed by how easily they could be tamed.
- Gib Morgan, an oilman that built a derrick so high he had to henge it to let the moon pass by and so deep he had to send a 20-block-long boa to retrieve dropped tools.
- Joe Magarac, an Industrial Revolution era robot that worked day and night. The map attributes this to Hungarian immigrants. (This character has an existing stub)
- "A knee-high man consulted people and all the animals on how to grow bigger. Finally a wise old owl told him: 'All you need is a bigger brain.'" (I have no idea what this refers to, but it's a Southern tale, possibly from Alabama. Sound familiar to anyone?)
- Steamboat Bill (unrelated to Captain Chesapeake), who tried to be the record set by the steamboat Robert E. Lee. A song was written about him.
- Frank McDarmit, a giant Paul Bunyan-type who could harvest an acre at a time.
- Febold Feboldson, the farmer who discovered popcorn during a drought.
- "In Kansas they tell the story of a farmer's son who climbed a stalk of corn to inspect the top ears. The corn grows so fast and so tall there, that the farmer had to send up a balloon to bring the boy back to earth." (Another one I'd like to know more about, if it sounds familiar to anyone).
- Frances Ella "Fizzy" Fitz, an apparently real person known for her storytelling skills (described as similar to Mark Twain or Abe Lincoln in reputation).
- Swiss John, one-armed (and one-hooked) frontiersman who defended his sheep from lynxes (bare-hooked) but was belittled by cattlemen.
- Sam McGee, a frozen Southerner who wakes up right before his cremation.
- Deadwood Dick Clark, a dime-novel cowboy.
- Finn MacCool in an Americanized tale.
- Daniel Webster in a mythic version of The Devil and Daniel Webster .

Each of these figures deserve entries in Wikipedia, but I don't have much more than this map to go by. More tall tales can be found at this website: http://inquiryunlimited.org/lit/ttalesbks.html - Kevingarcia 08:36, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Need Assistance

I am in a high school summer school class, and we were doing research from this page, and my friend thought it would be funny to edit the section under "tall men and their tall tales", "Most mythic" and "Most realistic" and write a ridiculous note. I was able to recover the "Most mythic" section, however, I wasn't able to recover the "Most realistic". I request that someone who knows this field best come and reconstruct this part of the page. I am very sorry about the loss.

~A student