Folklore Storytelling
Folklore refers to any shared cultural experience that connects people and helps make them who they are. These ‘experiences’ can be anything; beliefs, practices, jokes, music, traditions, sports, activities, art forms, food, festivals, languages, myths, expressions, etc. Anything that creates a shared identity can be considered folklore.
Since I define folklore as I do, I believe that any form of storytelling can be considered folk storytelling, which I deem a type of education. My artistic curation will focus on the relationship between folk storytelling and changes in nature. I will explore how storytelling can educate, impact, and change the way that we as humans think about our relationships with and how we view nature.
My first work is a novel I read this year that is very layered in terms of theme and is open to interpretation. This novel is described as being “hauntingly strange and utterly convincing” by Sarah Waters and lived up to that description because of the way that the story was told.
The People In The Trees, a novel by Hayana Yanagihara, follows the journey of a young doctor, an anthropologist, and an assistant who travel to a remote Micronesia island to study a group of people living completely detached from any outside society. The story is recounted by the doctor writing to a friend as he sits in prison. The doctor is in prison for charges of sexual assault against minors- his adopted children from the island he was on and studying. This novel has many depths to it, one being that age is a concept that is deeply challenged. The relations with the children are a part of this challenge, but even more prevalent throughout the novel is the idea of immortality. The people on the island that this doctor adopted his children are impacted internally by the consumption of a special turtle that causes aging to stop.
The format of this novel is very interesting because as I said, it’s written as a series of letters recounting the experience, but what’s captivating is the way that the story is actually told. The language used and comparisons of the village in the story to western society puts the diversity of the earth into a perspective in a way that is more digestible than the scientific language used in most writing we read that talks about climate change. As we discussed in class after reading Ghosh- it’s difficult for authors to write novels that include climate change and natural disasters. “This subject [climate change] exists only obliquely in my fiction… I have come to be convinced that the discrepancy is not the result of personal predilections: it arises out of the peculiar forms of resistance that climate change presents to what is now regarded as serious fiction” (Ghosh pg 9). Yanagihara doesn’t directly speak about climate change in the way that we would in our class discussion or in nonfiction work we might study in environmental science, but natural disasters through the lens of this islands’ stories and myths is a large part of the plot line.
The plot follows the characters on a journey of determining whether or not one specific tale from the islanders is a myth or if it’s a scientific revolution that has just been hiding in the jungle. Because this story is centered around proving this tale to be true (or false), it is to be assumed that the tales about natural disasters and the changing of the islands are true and that the language used to describe the changes is just as valid as scientific language. The following passage highlights this novel’s use of storytelling to teach the changing of nature. It is a small part of a much longer story about how islands originated from gods. Just before this passage, the gods noticed that land was being disrespected and harmed by the carelessness of humans.
“From below and from above, Ivu’ivu and A’aka grew first alarmed and then angry. Ivu’ivu sent towering waves to batter his children, and A’aka wept to see him do so, for although Ivu’ivu intended only to scare the humans into respect, by destroying them he also destroyed part of the gods’ children– chunks of all three of the islands crumbled into the sea. But still that did not change the humans’ ways. And so A’aka sent blistering waves of sun, ceaseless, remorseless. During the months that he normally retired and left the skies to his sister, Pu’uaka, the goddess of rain, he instead stayed on, hurling sharp daggers of burning light to the ground. And now it was Ivu’ivu’s turn to cry, for although A’aka’s efforts caused the humans crops to shrivel and many of them to die, he knew that his children were scalded and scorched and parched and that they longed for fresh water… [the humans continued to disrespect and harm the land that they lived on, so the gods continued to punish them]. With each attack, the gods watched their children grow weaker and smaller and more depleted, and with each attack, their sorrow grew.”
In this passage, it is clear that the punishments sent by the gods are the same thing as negative effects of human impact on the earth. The relentless punishment due to a lack of change by selfish humans is a direct parallel to the state of how we as a human race treat the earth. While this story may not be scientific, it communicates the same ideas as any other type of education regarding our changing earth. Learning through storytelling is folklore, it is educational and credible and shouldn’t be disregarded as something silly and not worth studying. This book is a work of fiction but we can directly see tales and stories that are similar to the ones told in this novel in cultures outside of America and Europe, especially in island communities. I believe that The People In The Trees is an excellent example of a piece of fiction that discusses nature in an enjoyable, digestible, convincing way and emphasizes the importance of acknowledging folk traditions and beliefs as valid and credible.
The next work I’ve chosen is the Disney animated film, Moana. Like The People In The Trees, Moana is a story about a village on a Micronesia island. Both including spoken folk tales passed down from generation to generation of villagers about the origin of the islands and the meaning behind different aspects of nature, these works are each excellent examples of how nature is at the center of many folk storytelling traditions.
Moana follows the life story of the village chief’s daughter on the island of Motunui. We are introduced to Moana as a toddler, interacting with and learning from the sea. We also witness Moana and other small children being taught through spoken tales, some accompanied by illustration. Through song, the way that the village functions is described, this being an educational tale in itself, teaching the audience what the culture of the village looks like.
An overview of the plot is this: Those in Moana’s village do not leave the island because it provides all that they need. However the once abundant fishing areas became barren of fish, the coconut trees that once provided many resources started to die, and along one side of the island, the plants started to die and a darkness seemed to take over. Moana and the other villagers were not supposed to leave the island because of the dangers at sea, many stories shared about monsters and gods who would make voyages away from the island very unsafe were some of the tales taught to the young children. However, the ocean gives Moana a gift, and she knows she must leave the island in order to save it from the darkness that seems to be depleting the resources.
On her journey to save the island, she mends relationships between people and a demigod (who was the creator of human resources in this story) and the relationship between a goddess and people. Each of these mended relationships speaks largely to human relationship with nature. Of course, we may not all recognize our relationship with nature to be a relationship between us and gods or goddesses, but it is the relationship that is universal. The way that these relationships are taught in this movie may not be how you were taught about interaction with nature, as each culture has their own form of education and folk storytelling. Going back to ideas from our class discussion of Ghosh, perhaps it could be said that if more cultures discussed human connectivity with nature from the beginning of life, then climate change wouldn’t be so difficult to discuss. I appreciate how this film deals with the fear related to the change in nature. The fear that comes with thinking about climate change is often, in my opinion, too heavy and overwhelming to be dealt with- or really even to talk about. Of course it is a children’s movie so at the end someone saves the day and its a happy ending and everyone gets to be friends and live happily ever after! But before the happily ever after, there is a lot of fear that Moana has to face bravely. I enjoy this movie for many reasons, but it’s parallels to emotions we feel today in regards to the world changing and it’s ability to communicate said emotions to children is one of my favorite parts about it.
This next work is vastly different from the first two I chose to write about. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a poetic novel by Ocean Vuong. This novel is one of my very favorite works of art, Voung produces the most profound thoughts and realizations out of everyday bits of life that might’ve otherwise gone unnoticed, without a thought at all. The contrast between how storytelling is done in this book and the last two works is incredible.
Ocean Voung writes a beautiful letter to his mother and that letter came to be this novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. This novel gained popularity the last few years for good reason. Usually books that are really popular are disappointing when I actually get the chance to read them but this book is truly a masterpiece. Vuong’s mother cannot read, so the whole point of this letter is that she will (most likely) never read it. He tells stories of his childhood, of growing up and becoming his own person. He shares insights about his own development that make you stop and think about your life, about what moments you might be writing about if this was your letter to your mom. Many details that Vuong includes are so vulnerable, heartbreaking, and genuine that you can’t help but feel safe in this story. What I mean by that is, the scarier and darker parts of life aren’t often talked about. It’s not socially acceptable to talk openly about the less than perfect things that occur in your household. May it be too much yelling, being ignored or neglected, uncleanliness, overconsumption of alcohol, exhaustion, poor hygiene etc, any of the things we deem shameful or embarrassing. When reading a story that shares all of the things we never feel like we can say aloud, a feeling of safety and reassurance surrounds you.
I chose to include this book not because there are clear stories of nature changing and human impact on the planet, but because nature and its changes and shifts are in every aspect of life even if we can’t see it. I won’t share too much of what happens in this book, but Vuong lived with his mother and grandmother. His mom was born after the Vietnam war and as mother and daughter, his grandma and mom migrated to America to start anew. Instead of the folk tales of the ocean changing and natural disasters shaping land as it is known, Vuong grew up hearing stories from war. He learned about nature through what his grandma told him, and by comparing those things to what he saw. He learned how to respect himself through the experience of disrespect. Disrespect of him, his mother, his grandmother, their culture, he learned through the disrespect they showed themselves. By watching the people in his life, listening to the stories told to him by his grandmother, by being treated differently than everyone else at school, and by lived experiences his worldview was shaped. Through the thoughts he shares, it is easily interpreted that Voung understands the interconnectivity of the world. Of people, nature, experience, privilege. He learned from the stories told to him and I learned from his telling of those same stories with his own contributions. My recognition of this shows in itself that storytelling can be mind opening unlike any other form of education.
Any human experience can be educational, and because experience is something shared by all human beings, recounts of experiences are a great way to learn. Storytelling is a fantastic way to teach and learn and allows the learner to easily digest information and take in concepts. Because of this, teaching about climate change through folklore storytelling is an extremely effective and important aspect of understanding and becoming educated on these concepts.
