REVIEW: Aesop's Fables; A New Translation by G.K. Chesterton [Kindle Edition]

Aesop's Fables; A New Translation. G.K. Chesterton. Public Domain Books (2004), Kindle Edition, Print length: 145 pages.

I wonder if modern man has always anthropomorphized animals. I suppose that ancient religious beliefs and practices could point to valid explanations, but how many animal stereotypes can we trace directly back to the influence of Aesop's fables? Aesop's works are important, because as Chesterton notes, they are simple truisms that require a certain degree of humility. People are reduced to "chessmen" and animals to their most basic qualities. In addition, the fact that these are likely collected works, and not simply the product of Aesop's mind, matters. Aesop, then, serves as a sort of orator, and yet he was supposedly thrown off of a cliff for...who knows...being "offensive?"

I wonder how often we bother to question our standard characterizations of the animals and the people found in Aesop's fables, and our often blind acceptance of the morals at the end of each one. Chesterton supposes in his introduction that ancient man thought themselves too mysterious to depict in the same manner as the cave paintings at, say, Lascaux. I think that some of the politics in the fables are obvious, and I wonder if this is where Aesop had a greater role in their creation. There are fables about the gods, the Oracle at Delphi, and slaves...fables that speak of class differences that easily could have gotten Aesop in trouble, if he were a Phrygian slave. There are lots of contradictory messages, too: tales of birds in cages who yearn to be free, and slaves who value protection over freedom. There are stories of cocks whose necks are wrung because they can only tell time, while a tame partridge is kept because it serves as a decoy to catch other birds...and then another tale in which a partridge is killed for its treachery when it offers to be a decoy in the interest of self-preservation. At face value, people take these morals to be self-evident truths, but the people in these stories are always the ones who contradict themselves. On the contrary, an Ass is always an ass.

Like Grimm's fairy tales, violence is a factor. The natural world has always had a bit of the gruesome to balance out the beauty. We accept this as normal, and it is, but it is also strange when we give voices to beasts and birds, and then use them to teach children right from wrong. Nothing is so cut and dry in a modern world, and yet these fables have survived despite the differences. I think that simplicity is the key. We tend to complicate matters, when all people really seem to crave are simple answers.

Rating: 4/5

To be quite honest, I'm being polite with this review. I gave this collection a 4/5 for historical importance, but I really wanted to give it a 3. The short form of the fables was easy to read, but it got to be rather dull, after a while. (In fact, it was enough to turn me off of ancient lit. for a while. I started reading an 1000-page, sprawling and modern novel this morning, just to shift to the other extreme. I NEED this, right now.)

Aesop's Fables and Pop Culture

So yeah...I'm a slacker. I could spend a few sentences describing how desperately I need a new computer, but I would rather just update the blog. The long and short of it is that I think too much.

I'm about halfway through the collection of Aesop's Fables I've been reading, and I can't believe how many of his little morality tales have survived into present times. They pop up everywhere that children are bound to look, especially in cartoons. I'm sure that most of us remember Bugs Bunny as the fool from The Tortoise and the Hare, or at least I hope so!

Then, there is this Disney-fied version of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." (The video below has a running time of 00:09:22, but it is well worth it. Quite honestly, I am really hoping that the Wolf in Peep's clothing is an intentional pun, and not just a happy coincidence.)

I can't help but wonder if any of Aesop's fables have found their way into modern cartoons. Think Spongebob. I would love to see examples. I also noticed that so many of the classic cartoons emphasize simplicity in the same way that Aesop does. Foxes are always foxy; sheep are always sheepish -- with the exception of the "black sheep;" wolves are always dastardly. (These truths/assumptions are extremely effective, paired with snippets of appropriate classical music. Cartoons from the 30s and 40s always managed to sample from ALL of the classics. True, it might be derivative of everything and indicative of nothing, but WWII politics often creep into those cartoons, too. I can appreciate all of it.) There is an element of slapstick in Aesop's works, which might be why Aesop himself is so often depicted as a comic character by playwrights.

If you know of any other examples of Aesop's fables in books, cartoons, video games, songs...whatever...post them in the comments!

A Very Bookish New Year!

As the first day of the New Year drifts away, I -- like everyone else who has first world problems and first world guilt -- feel the need to start fresh. I haven't been here in ages. In fact, this blog was created in a frenzy of possibility during a very long break from the real world. Reading can be like that, too: an escape-artist's favorite dream. Unfortunately, the "real world" is often no more real than the words on this page or any other; it is just more immediate and demanding.

This holiday season has been full of books! I received a Kindle from my mother, and six new books, so far. I can barely contain my enthusiasm for future reading, but I am also overwhelmed by choice and a self-imposed responsibility to enjoy these new gifts as much as I possibly can. I have a difficult time knowing where to begin. It has been this lack of direction/focus/whatever you want to call it...that has made keeping up with reading and blogging a difficult endeavor. I have distinct urges to complete every available reading challenge and book list that I can find, online. In other words, my eyes are bigger than my stomach...er...if my stomach ate books for breakfast.

Basically, I am starting from no place in particular, but I am on a mission. I call it: Operation Read Everything I Currently Own. (OREICO? Sure, why not.) I have lots of different interests, so I'm not exactly sure how this could appeal to anyone who might be reading this, but I don't much care. I love you, but I need to get started, and I need not be concerned by theme posts, list-whittling, or anything else that could distract me from the whole point of these things: Durrrr. READ.

I'm going to post to this blog on Wednesdays, at least until everything starts moving along at a decent clip...and then, we'll just have to see where it goes.

Cheers!