With Aesop Along the Black Border
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Authors
Aesop
Gonzales, Ambrose Elliott
Issue Date
1924
Volume
Issue
Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
An excellent, delightful, challenging presentation of some sixty Aesopic fables in strong Black dialect. The sampling I tried (five fables) took time but made wonderful reading, especially as one gets the hang of the pronunciation. These fables elaborate significantly. They may even lose some of the punch of surprise as they develop many of the story's details. So the grapes are very ripe in FG, the fox and stork do their thinking out loud before the guest appears, and the two women being considered for marriage want much different things from the man. That fable, 2W (149), seems to me to be typical. There is a long figure about how deep one has to plow with each woman. Taking two women was the man's first mistake; taking two of different ages was the second. One wants dancing and the other liniment! As the story moves along, the younger woman notices him going white fast. The introduction is curious, to say the least. For Gonzales, the Negro has a racial contempt for the truth (X). This seems to me a strange way to describe a gift for exaggeration. I think the racism grows stronger when he explains himself on XI. Against those who assume that the Black saw in the Rabbit and the weaker creatures the poor slave forced to resort to cunning and lying to protect himself, Gonzales argues But the slave brought these myths from Africa, whence, also he brought his race characteristics! T of C on VII. These stories first appeared in The State.
Description
Citation
Publisher
The State Company
License
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DOI
Identifier
1847 (Access ID)