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A review by ayavandenbussche
Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris
2.0
It has taken me a long time to write a review for this book that I have finished reading a while ago. I should point out that I listened to the audiobook and I admit it has left me somewhat stumped. But perhaps not quite as stumped as I felt after reading some of the reviews on here and coming face to face with some of the ignorance regarding Harris and the subject matter.
It is true that Joel Chandler Harris had a significant role in the documentation of the Afro-American folktales and putting them into writing. His books, for good or bad, have brought attention to these tales. His use of what he thought was 'authentic' dialect and slang in his writing is definitely interesting if not somewhat problematic. Whether these stories would have been lost without him, I cannot say other than looking into this I am not convinced they would have. It is not a far stretch to think that we should be grateful for slavery for creating those folktales.
It is important to note that Harris was a problematic figure and a supporter of slavery, even if it was a 'liberal' kind of slavery. He romanticised the South and its values, which included slavery. He is considered to be a prominent spokesman of the 'uncle Ben and aunt Jemima' type of view of slaves. He ignored, most likely on purpose, the contradiction between the extreme violence and insanity of the stories, attributing them to 'the roaring wild nature of the animal kingdom' and his romantic view of the South and slavery.
Furthermore, he was highly misguided and quite single-minded. He was convinced he had a 'hotline' to the life of the Afro-American folktale and that his and his alone were the 'authentic' and true stories. Despite researcher, even in his time, pointed out that some of the stories he documented, most notably the famous Tar Baby story, did not and could not have originated in Africa, but rather in India, possibly America, or Europe. There is some mistral aspect to Harris too, he prided himself on his ability to speak in the same accent and dialect as the African-Americans and often spoke in this way in real life. He wanted to be identified as uncle Ramous and often sign his letters as him. Most importantly perhaps, Harris has taken what were meant to be adult stories, for Black people and turned them into children's stories for white children. It is this, I think, that brought Alice Walker, author of The Colour Purple, to accuse him of stealing her heritage.
Many of the reviews on here consider these stories a piece of history, which I think is as misguided as Harris himself was. This is not a history, this is a point of view about a history. I would not recommend reading these stories out of context, or without background. The language and dialect are difficult and to modern ears could sound even offensive. After listening to this book that has left me confused and uncomfortable, I was loaned another book Annotated African American Tales. This book is an in-depth overview of African-American folktales. This book has a clear distinction between folktales that originated in Africa and those that were told by the African-American slaves. It gives a lot of background to the legends and has a whole section about Joel Chandler Harris, it includes his notable stories. It is thanks to this book that I learned, for example, that there were hundreds of Tar Baby stories, only one version is told by Harris. The Annotated African American is a better book, better researched and really interesting. Thankfully, we live in a time where we don't have to and we shouldn't rely on Joel Joseph Harris and his worldview to get to know these interesting stories. I would recommend reading those books instead.
A little note about the stories themselves, despite Harris' best effort to make them seem like they are for kids, they are not. They are extremely violent and brutal. It is part of what is interesting about them. But while the Annotated book provides context to this extreme and often seemingly unjustified brutality (the rabbit attacks innocent animals as well as those who are trying to kill it), the Uncle Remus books do not.
It is true that Joel Chandler Harris had a significant role in the documentation of the Afro-American folktales and putting them into writing. His books, for good or bad, have brought attention to these tales. His use of what he thought was 'authentic' dialect and slang in his writing is definitely interesting if not somewhat problematic. Whether these stories would have been lost without him, I cannot say other than looking into this I am not convinced they would have. It is not a far stretch to think that we should be grateful for slavery for creating those folktales.
It is important to note that Harris was a problematic figure and a supporter of slavery, even if it was a 'liberal' kind of slavery. He romanticised the South and its values, which included slavery. He is considered to be a prominent spokesman of the 'uncle Ben and aunt Jemima' type of view of slaves. He ignored, most likely on purpose, the contradiction between the extreme violence and insanity of the stories, attributing them to 'the roaring wild nature of the animal kingdom' and his romantic view of the South and slavery.
Furthermore, he was highly misguided and quite single-minded. He was convinced he had a 'hotline' to the life of the Afro-American folktale and that his and his alone were the 'authentic' and true stories. Despite researcher, even in his time, pointed out that some of the stories he documented, most notably the famous Tar Baby story, did not and could not have originated in Africa, but rather in India, possibly America, or Europe. There is some mistral aspect to Harris too, he prided himself on his ability to speak in the same accent and dialect as the African-Americans and often spoke in this way in real life. He wanted to be identified as uncle Ramous and often sign his letters as him. Most importantly perhaps, Harris has taken what were meant to be adult stories, for Black people and turned them into children's stories for white children. It is this, I think, that brought Alice Walker, author of The Colour Purple, to accuse him of stealing her heritage.
Many of the reviews on here consider these stories a piece of history, which I think is as misguided as Harris himself was. This is not a history, this is a point of view about a history. I would not recommend reading these stories out of context, or without background. The language and dialect are difficult and to modern ears could sound even offensive. After listening to this book that has left me confused and uncomfortable, I was loaned another book Annotated African American Tales. This book is an in-depth overview of African-American folktales. This book has a clear distinction between folktales that originated in Africa and those that were told by the African-American slaves. It gives a lot of background to the legends and has a whole section about Joel Chandler Harris, it includes his notable stories. It is thanks to this book that I learned, for example, that there were hundreds of Tar Baby stories, only one version is told by Harris. The Annotated African American is a better book, better researched and really interesting. Thankfully, we live in a time where we don't have to and we shouldn't rely on Joel Joseph Harris and his worldview to get to know these interesting stories. I would recommend reading those books instead.
A little note about the stories themselves, despite Harris' best effort to make them seem like they are for kids, they are not. They are extremely violent and brutal. It is part of what is interesting about them. But while the Annotated book provides context to this extreme and often seemingly unjustified brutality (the rabbit attacks innocent animals as well as those who are trying to kill it), the Uncle Remus books do not.