Bruce's Fables: Fables of the American Southwest
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Authors
Saunders, Bruce
Issue Date
2014
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Book, Whole
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Abstract
Here is an engaging print-upon-demand book from a fascinating author. Bruce Saunders, the back cover reveals, is a retired sociologist with a BA from Reed and a doctorate in sociology from Berkeley. His stories are one step more concrete and personal than traditional Aesopic fables, but they have much of the same wisdom. I have read the first dozen or so. They represent a philosophy of enlightened coexistence. The Mexican Cowboy, who figures in almost all of these fables, feeds other creatures but they know, as Fable #14 tells us, that he will stop doing so if they attack another in his presence. That fable, Two of Life's Big Rules, tells us that the two rules are Learn and eat. Not bad! A good sample fable is #2, Runaway Sheep. Coyote's howling ends up protecting the sheep from the mountain lion, who fears that there are several coyotes. Coyote, another favorite figure here, even offers to take the sheep to the Cowboy, who will feed and protect them. When the sheep praise the coyote, he tells them that if there had been only one sheep, he would have eaten him. Fable #3 has Coyote learning that prey he has captured will be eaten by buzzards while he seeks other prey. So he proclaims out loud that he will use buzzards as his prey, and they take the hint. I would enjoy reading even more of these stories.
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Quartet Global Books
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Identifier
10136 (Access ID)