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A review by abomine
Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris, Robert E. Hemenway
3.0
I really wanted to give this book a higher rating than just three stars. The folk-tales themselves are wonderful and culturally significant classic trickster tales that, to quote the introduction by Robert Hemenway, "symbolically inverted the slave - master relationship and satisfied the deep human needs of a captive people". Brer Rabbit is a survivor, the Fabled Hare, a symbol of endurance and the triumph of the underdog over his big brutish oppressors. In other words, NOT RACIST.
However, Joel Harris did not understand the deeper meaning of these stories, and only saw Brer Rabbit's misadventures as silly nonsensical tales meant only to entertain children. He stripped these classic figures of almost all of their dignity, bogging down their words with that atrocious 'pidgin-speak' and cutesifying them almost beyond recognition.
However, in spite of all the pidgin-speak and the extremely outdated/insulting framing device of an ex-slave storyteller who actually didn't think being a slave was "all that bad" (Brer Rabbit is not a racist character, but Uncle Remus most certainly is), my three-star rating still stands. In spite of Harris's bastardization and complete misunderstanding of the importance of these stories, the stories themselves still manage to retain some of their dignity. Again, Brer Rabbit is a survivor, and the universal appeal of the conquering Trickster Hero shines through, even through the mess of Joel Chandler Harris's post-Civil War racism.
However, Joel Harris did not understand the deeper meaning of these stories, and only saw Brer Rabbit's misadventures as silly nonsensical tales meant only to entertain children. He stripped these classic figures of almost all of their dignity, bogging down their words with that atrocious 'pidgin-speak' and cutesifying them almost beyond recognition.
However, in spite of all the pidgin-speak and the extremely outdated/insulting framing device of an ex-slave storyteller who actually didn't think being a slave was "all that bad" (Brer Rabbit is not a racist character, but Uncle Remus most certainly is), my three-star rating still stands. In spite of Harris's bastardization and complete misunderstanding of the importance of these stories, the stories themselves still manage to retain some of their dignity. Again, Brer Rabbit is a survivor, and the universal appeal of the conquering Trickster Hero shines through, even through the mess of Joel Chandler Harris's post-Civil War racism.