Okay, sure, maybe much of what is written herein is a bit more “folksnorey” than “folklorey” but perhaps that’s not such a bad thing. See, folklore as it appears in print is a wee bit different than the folklore that originated it. Folklore, that is oral folklore, is spoken, fluid and spontaneous whereas folklore elsewise tends to be written, fixed and meticulously plotted out. And this is to say nothing of performance issues.
Meaning, of course, that folklore is a performative art. For embedded in the storyteller’s yarns and balladeer’s songs were the hidden gestures, inflections, improvisations, emotional intensity, &c. that help set them apart from the next schmuck down the road. Indeed, it is an art all but lost in a digital age of fixed type.
Sure, I could have recorded myself telling a story, but then this wouldn’t be much of a book, now would it?
But in addition to this, the hangouts and hovels from whence came many a story and many a song was host to a different sort of oral tradition. You guessed it! The rich art of chin-waggin’! What is chin-waggin’ you may ask? Well, if you’re askin’ then you’re already half way to an answer!
For chin-waggin’ is what some of yuns might call, "small talk." Also known as blab and blather of which comprises the general bulk of this work here. For actual folklore in its traditional setting is ’round abouts eighty-five percent chin-waggin’ and fifteen percent story. ’Cause folks don’t get to tellin’ no stories nor singin’ no songs unless they get to talkin’ first. And not just exchanging pleasantries, goodness no, I’m talkin’ ’bout wagons load of talkin’ ’bout all what there is to be a-talkin’ ’bout.
No foolin’. And now, you’re probably wonderin’, or at least I am, what that comes down to. Well, generally speakin’, a whole lot of nothin’. See, that’s part of the rich legacy of folklore. ’Cause IRL, as the yougin-folks say, folklore wasn’t just given it was earned. You earned it by having to weed through a whole lot of yakety-yak and lip-flabbin’ smack between a whole lot of sweaty dudes before anything interesting ever happened.
Which it seldom if ever did.
Naw, I’m just messin’ with ya (not really). But seriously though, and think hard now, when was the last you actually had to sit through a buffet of balderdash before you actually got treated to anything moderately interesting? I’d hesitate to guess, in an age where a cell phone is in arm’s reach and a video a click away, seldom if ever. And so, like most things, we take it a bit for granted.
And speaking of which, I direct your attention to this book, which, hopefully, at this juncture is starting to make more sense in its design. This leads to a sensible thought. After all these chapters, after all your ramblings, after all your blab and foolishness, “Lenwood, when are you finally gonna tell us a proper story!?" — To which I reply, “As soon as I figured you’ve earned it.”
Now, get to work on your punctuation.
Sincerely, I’d sing another verse but haven’t got the time,
Lenwood S. Sharpe, Director
Lumberwoods, Unnatural History Museum
Parts Unknown, The Woods, U.S.A.
Lenwood S. Sharpe, Director
Lumberwoods, Unnatural History Museum
Parts Unknown, The Woods, U.S.A.
