The People Could Fly

Favorite Quote: “Cause he know Trouble when he hear it. For true.” p 41

While riding the bus, I am often approached by fellow wayfarers with questions as to what I am reading. More often then not, the questioning ends within seconds after I tell them the title, author, and main points of the plot. However, that was not the case while reading The People Could Fly. It seems that the idea of folklore is just what the genre declares, the tales of the people. The intrigue that my fellow bus-goers was echoed within myself as I eagerly turned the pages, and read the lines of stories that related to some of the mysteries of life. Granted little of the truth comes out clean, but it gives at least some understanding to the universality of the human experience.

            I cannot relate directly to the experience of the despicable horrors that were the slave trade, the tales that have been passed down and written into this book give me the opportunity to learn some of the sufferings and the soothing ointment that is the narrative story. The use of the vernacular with the spoken dialect of the tales, really made me feel like I was hearing these stories first hand.

            There has always been a fascination for myself, in regards to some of the peculiar animal traits that evolution has caused. While the science is all fair and critical, I have a loving affection for stories like Tappin, the Land Turtle and Bruh Alligator meets Trouble, where the animals receive their characteristic looks. Even more personal, some of the stories remind me of tales my grandfather had told me. Jack and the Devil reminds me of the tale that I have heard about the origin of jack-o-lanterns.

 However, there are some slight differences and variations in these stories compared to folk tales that I heard as a kid. It is in these dissimilarities that The People Could Fly really shows through. The anthologist takes into careful consideration the use of the vernacular and tries to use it as much as possible to remain as true as they are able to stay with the original tale. This I feel is a major plus for the book, and I could see it as a tool in showing that there are many languages that need to be accredited and not looked down upon, instead of just sticking to the hierarchical standard American English.

This collection is a fantastic example of folklore. With this exemplary status come the qualities that folklore can help teach, namely universality. As I mentioned before my own relation to the story of Jack and the Devil, there are many other instances that can teach a more worldly perspective. Human characteristics attributed to animals depict moral values, and likewise the human characters tell what society sees as just. More elegantly, I fine that the pictures do an outstanding job of progressing and connecting the tales. I had absolutely no idea what a sea-horse was until the picture was shown on page 46. Similarly, I feel that the authors additional comments following the tales do a great job of providing clarification and additional knowledge that is extremely useful in understanding what is going on with the work. 

An important aspect of folktales is the adaptivity, as many variations exist for each basic narrative. Along those same lines, each story-teller brings different details and expressions to the text. Here is a video of such a telling of the title story, The People Could Fly.