Classics Narrated

This selection seems sensitive, possibly painful to some. Even though this may languish in obscurity, I want to articulate the reasons why it seemed worthwhile to do this, along with the almost equally compelling reasons for leaving it aside. Why not do it? Racism. This choice could be construed as degrading to black people, a reminder of oppression, subjugation, the southern (or American) system from the end of Reconstruction through at least the Civil Rights era that was paternalistic at best, and nothing short of state terrorism at worst (lynching, the Klan, segregation, poll tax, literacy tests.) However, these two stories are iconic; for an American to go through life not knowing the story of the Tar-Baby and the Briar Patch is miserable ignorance. In themselves, they show humor, intelligence, and the fun of turnabout. The frame story is another matter. Old black Uncle Remus tells these tales to a blond seven-year old boy, whose mother is “Miss Sally.? The boy is the child of the farm or plantation’s owner. Remus, as far as I can tell from quick reading, lives alone; no wife, no children, no close friends. This is Uncle Tom, of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin? all over again; sexless, dependent, there to serve the white folks, including their children. He is a convenient device for the transcriber, Joel Chandler Harris, to set down the stories that helped pass the time and lift the burden of care for the black folks. To me, this assumption that black peoples’ lives were meaningful and valuable only as far as they figured in those of white folks is the most pernicious aspect of the books. Mr. Harris may have felt guilt over this work. His biography notes his shyness and diffidence, not to be wondered at for a man who made his fortune exploiting oral tradition of the oppressed. Even the name of his storyteller, Remus, might refer to that. In the legend of Rome’s foundation, Remus was the other twin brother, supplanted, possibly murdered, by his brother Romulus. Even though Mr. Harris tried to identify with Harriet Beecher Stowe, weirdly calling Uncle Tom’s Cabin a “wonderful defense of slavery as it existed in the South,? giving his title character the name of the forgotten co-founder of Rome may have expressed recognition of the historic and continuing exploitation and oppression of black people. So, it’s for the folk tradition that I record this, and my belief that despite their compromised origin, these two stories at least are vital, and must be remembered. For my own imagination, I like to think of Uncle Remus telling these stories to his own folks, black as well as white. Of course, as authors like Faulkner remind, his kin could fall either side of the color line. Narrating them may seem odd, coming from a “white? man, but, appearance aside, I’d be surprised if my DNA didn’t show quite a bit of non-European ancestry; a mutt. In any case, they’re easier to understand when heard, since rhythm and emphasis help to clarify dialect hard to decipher on the page. Also, it seems to me that many black actors/narrators/voice artists, might find this beneath their dignity. I’m just going to try and render it as well as I can. For those interested in further reading, the scholar Julius Lester has rendered a version of Uncle Remus intended to preserve the folklore, while removing racially offensive content.

The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story, and How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp For Mr. Fox (the Briar Patch).

Of course you've heard of Rip's long nap; here's the whole story of the henpecked feckless farmer who went for a ramble, drank strange drink with strangers, drowsed off a loyal subject of George III, and woke 20 years later in the young USA.

Jack London's account of a foolhardy arctic Yukon trip, in late December of the early twentieth century.