Janet Taylor

June 16, 2002

Tall Tales

Definitions:

            Tall tales, stories that the narrator does not believe but that are supposed to dupe the naïve listener, are particularly associated with the U.S. frontier, although variants of such stories were well known in earlier times in Europe and Asia. In the United States, tall tales were presented to the city dweller as true pictures of life out West. They rely on their comic effect on the incongruity between sober narration and fantastic elements in the stories themselves. They feature two protagonists whose character traits are frequently interchangeable: the Roarer, a bragging, swearing, hard-drinking brawler, and the Yankee, a quick-thinking trader who is a rogue beneath a bland exterior.  Source:            http://encarta.msn.com

            Tall tale, extravagantly and humorously exaggerated story of the backwoods exploits of an American frontiersman. Originating in the 1820s, the genre remained popular well into the 20th cent. One of the earliest heroes of this type of folklore, Colonel Davy Crockett of Tennessee, boasted:

I'm that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half-horse, half-alligator, a little touched with the snapping turtle; can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride a streak of lightning, slip without a scratch down a honey locust, can whip my weight in wildcats . . .

These bold deeds were made famous throughout the West by Crockett's Autobiography (1834) and by his Almanacs (1835–56). Crockett also popularized the deeds of the gigantic Mike Fink, “King of the Mississippi Keelboat men,” who was said to have once slain with a single shot both a deer and a Native American who was pursuing it. From Canada came the tales of the hero of the lumberjacks, Paul Bunyan, whose Blue Ox “Babe” was “forty-two ax handles and a plug of chewing tobacco between the eyes.” The cowboys' hero was Pecos Bill, who “taught the bronco how to buck,” and Southern blacks told tales of John Henry, the railroader and steamboat roustabout who once won a contest against a steam drill. Source: http://infoplease.com

Example:      “Pecos Bill” segment of Walt Disney’s “Melody Time” feature length cartoon (1948)

                        Life on the Mississippi, Chapter III excerpt

Representational genre: Narrator (Walt Disney’s Pecos Bill), Narrator + Dialogue (Life on the Mississippi)

Narrative genre:Comedy:   Annie Oakley (Annie Get Your Gun) marries Frank Butler

                          Romance: Johnny Appleseed journeys westward and plants apple orchards along the way.

                                          Pecos Bill leaves society to live with the wolves once more.

Subject genre: American past, Western, legend, children’s story/movie, cartoon, musical, frontier story

Identifiable highlights of genre in example: hyperbole, unbelievable, humorous, bigger-than-life character

Related genres:  Folklore, “pourquoi” stories, legends

Research Sources:

Coffin, Tristam P. “Folktales.” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2002. 16 June 2002.

< http://encarta.msn.com>.

Magazinecity.net. 16 June 2002. http://store.yahoo.com/magazinecity/0748-52.html

"Tall Tale." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia 2002 on Infoplease.com. 16 June 2002.

 http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0847720.html.

“Tall Tale.” Encylopedia of Folklore and Literature. Ed. By Mary E. Brown and Bruce A. Rosenburg.

            Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1998.

Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. New York: P.F. Collier, 1917.

Questions:

1.         Although “Tall Tales” are seen in other cultures (Beowulf, King Arthur, etc), they are best known as part of the American heritage.  Why do you think this is so?

2.         Do you think that some of the stories printed in the tabloid magazines should be classified as tall tales? Why or why not?

Excerpt from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi, chapter III:

            Then he jumped in the air and cracked his heels together again, and shouted out:

            “Whoo-oop!” I’m the old original iron-jawed, brass-mounted copper-bellied corpse-maker from the wilds of Arkansaw! Look at me! I’m the man they call sudden Death and General Desolation! Sired by a hurricane, dam’d by an earthquake, half-brother to the cholera, nearly related to the smallpox on the mother’s side! Look at me! I take nineteen alligators and a bar’l of whisky for breakfast when I’m in robust health, and a bushel or rattlesnakes and a dead body when I’m ailing. I split the everlasting rocks with my glance, and I squench the thunder when I speak! Whoo-oop! Stand back and give me room according to my strength! Blood’s my natural drink, and the wails of the dying is music to my ear. Cast your eye on me, gentlemen! And lay low and hold your breath, for I’m ‘bout to turn myself loose!” (page 21).

 magazinecity.net

http://store.yahoo.com/magazinecity/0748-52.html

 Tall Tale Discussion

Q1:                  Although Tall Tales are seen in other cultures (Beowulf, King Arthur) they are best known as part of the American Heritage.  Why do you think this is so?

S1                   They are FUN! There is a definite appeal to kids, not that they even believe them completely, but there are some things to believe in them.

S2                   There is also the aspect of the hero—saves the world, the tribe, the women.

S3                   It is also the first story they are exposed to, the narrative structure and not matter how fantasy-like it still has the structure of the story.

Dr. White:       That is an interesting overlap between the narrative structure and the structure of the tall tale.

S2                   Did they get started because of the loneliness of West?  They had a lot of free time and these stories, or legends seem to have grown from that.

Dr. White:       That is a fact connected with the Westward expansion in the United States.  Remember there was a lot of contact with nature—it truly engulfed them.  The continent had been fairly subdued but these stories still had some rough edges that reflected the harshness of the land.

Janet:              I read also that Benjamin Franklin was even responsible for writing and passing along some of these tall tales to the people in England.  So even a ‘founding father’ got in on the action as well.

Dr. White:       I read a NY Times article last week that talked about the Allen Brothers’ first arrive to Houston.  They thought it was “wet but mild.”  They talk about it in such laudable terms, but those of us who know it well see it in another light.  This may be the same as the tall tale

Q2:                  Do you think that some of the stories printed in the tabloid magazines should be classified as tall tales?  Why or why not?

S4                   They see to be stories of people bragging about different things they have done.  It is like a travel brochure.  You are enticed to go on the vacation by what is in the pretty picture, but when you get there it is never quite as pretty as the picture.

S1                   To me they are a bunch of “fish stories!”  “I caught a fish THIS big.  No one believes those.

Dr. White:       The stories create a reliability and they assure a dominant attitude.  You know Beowulf is in charge.  They talk about their feats before they do them.  They talk more than they actually fight.

Janet:              Like Muhammed Ali

Dr. White:       Exactly, and they are visual rather than verbal so they have a more immediate effect.

S2                   When you look at the picture of the 3-legged skater, you think, “No way!”  But there is a grotesque curiosity.  You say to yourself, “Let’s read it anyway” and after you are finished, you put it back on the shelf.

S5                   It really is pure entertainment, not as instructional as a tall tale.  Tall tales did not originate with mass communication.  Tall tales are similar to the African folk tales i.e. “Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears.”  We are entertained by their picture.  Nothing is being explained to us.  We look at the picture and want to read the story.

At this point the class seemed quite divided as to whether or not they would actually be enticed to read the story of the tabloid.  We seemed pretty equally divided although those who said they WOULD NOT read and DO NOT read these stories were more vehement than those who said they WOULD and DO read they stories.