Tall Tales 8211 taller than super heroes
Posted on Monday 1st October 2007 by Lee Siemon. Hits: 78
I guess there's always a little kid left hiding in all of us. Some of us just can't seem to leave Superman and batman behind, while grown little girls still want to believe in fairytales and princes. Myself, I love the Tall Tales of early America. Not surprisingly, Australia developed their share of Tall Tales and bigger than life heroes.
I can still get enthralled by Paul Bunyan's feats, love Johnny Appleseed, and John Henry is still my hero; who can forget Calamity Jane! The tall tale is a fundamental element of American folk literature. A Tall Tale is like today's super heroes in that they are bigger or stronger than real people and they solve problems in super-human ways. That is where the similarity ends. Super Hero stories and movies weave the story to be somewhat believable, as if sometime in the distant future it could happen. A Tall Tale is a competition between story tellers to see who can exaggerate the most, and pepper it with sarcastic humor. They solve everyday, unsolvable problems in a bigger than life, humorous way (Paul Bunyan hooking his ox to curvy logging roads and pulling them straight, or Pecos Bill lassoing a tornado to subdue it).
Tall tales are all American. The Europeans had their Fairy Tales, Arabic countries had their Genies the Irish had Goblins – America sat around campfires in the hot outdoor evenings and told tall tales, each one outdoing the last one. Each one meant to bring a laugh and a taller tale from the person next to you.
Although the most popular of the tall tales originated in the west and seemed to flourish everywhere the tough men of the American Frontier would gather, many came from east of the Mississippi. There was Joe Magarac - A Pittsburgh steelworker made of steel, Tony Beaver - A West Virginia lumberjack and cousin of Paul Bunyan, and Mike Fink - Toughest boatman on the Mississippi and a rival of Davy Crockett.
The best thing about a tall tale is that everyone could join in. They were all in simple English, and it didn't take anything but a good imagination to spin one. You could invent your own character, add to one someone else started, or take a real live character (Calamity Jane) and make them larger than life. It was all fun, and helped take the edge off of some pretty rough days trying to scratch a living.
Unfortunately, since these were passed along from campfire to campfire, many got lost forever. Fortunately, as America settled into a civilized society, some of these wonderful tales were written down by our literary-minded keepers of the past. You can find compilations of Tale Tales in any library, or quicker yet, by typing "tall tales" in any search engine you can get a whole gaggle of them to read and laugh at.
Tall Tales, a truly American Tradition. Read the latest Pecos Bill Tall Tale episode at http://www.pecosrivertraders.com/pecosbill.asp Lee comes from a family of creative writers with a brother who has a novel on Amazon. His hobbies include writing poetry and short stories. Lee is available for Freelance consulting through the DPS Group. Lee’s specialties are content writing and E-commerce. Contact Lee at Http://www.thedpsgroup.com
I can still get enthralled by Paul Bunyan's feats, love Johnny Appleseed, and John Henry is still my hero; who can forget Calamity Jane! The tall tale is a fundamental element of American folk literature. A Tall Tale is like today's super heroes in that they are bigger or stronger than real people and they solve problems in super-human ways. That is where the similarity ends. Super Hero stories and movies weave the story to be somewhat believable, as if sometime in the distant future it could happen. A Tall Tale is a competition between story tellers to see who can exaggerate the most, and pepper it with sarcastic humor. They solve everyday, unsolvable problems in a bigger than life, humorous way (Paul Bunyan hooking his ox to curvy logging roads and pulling them straight, or Pecos Bill lassoing a tornado to subdue it).
Tall tales are all American. The Europeans had their Fairy Tales, Arabic countries had their Genies the Irish had Goblins – America sat around campfires in the hot outdoor evenings and told tall tales, each one outdoing the last one. Each one meant to bring a laugh and a taller tale from the person next to you.
Although the most popular of the tall tales originated in the west and seemed to flourish everywhere the tough men of the American Frontier would gather, many came from east of the Mississippi. There was Joe Magarac - A Pittsburgh steelworker made of steel, Tony Beaver - A West Virginia lumberjack and cousin of Paul Bunyan, and Mike Fink - Toughest boatman on the Mississippi and a rival of Davy Crockett.
The best thing about a tall tale is that everyone could join in. They were all in simple English, and it didn't take anything but a good imagination to spin one. You could invent your own character, add to one someone else started, or take a real live character (Calamity Jane) and make them larger than life. It was all fun, and helped take the edge off of some pretty rough days trying to scratch a living.
Unfortunately, since these were passed along from campfire to campfire, many got lost forever. Fortunately, as America settled into a civilized society, some of these wonderful tales were written down by our literary-minded keepers of the past. You can find compilations of Tale Tales in any library, or quicker yet, by typing "tall tales" in any search engine you can get a whole gaggle of them to read and laugh at.
Tall Tales, a truly American Tradition. Read the latest Pecos Bill Tall Tale episode at http://www.pecosrivertraders.com/pecosbill.asp Lee comes from a family of creative writers with a brother who has a novel on Amazon. His hobbies include writing poetry and short stories. Lee is available for Freelance consulting through the DPS Group. Lee’s specialties are content writing and E-commerce. Contact Lee at Http://www.thedpsgroup.com
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