Comments on: Everything You’ve Heard About Uncle Remus Is Wrong (Part 4) http://www.wrensnestonline.com/blog/everything-youve-heard-about-uncle-remus-is-wrong-part-4/ This Nation's Most Exciting House Museum Blog Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:33:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Lain http://www.wrensnestonline.com/blog/everything-youve-heard-about-uncle-remus-is-wrong-part-4/comment-page-1/#comment-101826 Lain Thu, 06 May 2010 14:54:05 +0000 http://www.wrensnestonline.com/blog/?p=7610#comment-101826 I don't think it's a coincidence at all, Len. Harris was very familiar with Aesop, and many even called him (or Remus, it's confusing who they're actually talking about) Georgia's Aesop. Several of Remus's tales are gussied up Aesop's Fables, filtered through the African American experience and oral tradition. And yes, there were definitely talking animals before Remus, but the complexity and development of these personages were something very new. It's as if everything pre-Uncle Remus was <i>Turner and Hooch</i> and everything after was more like <i>The Wire</i>. There are outliers like Aesop and Reynard the Fox, but with Remus there is a very definite paradigm shift in children's storytelling in 1880. I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all, Len. Harris was very familiar with Aesop, and many even called him (or Remus, it’s confusing who they’re actually talking about) Georgia’s Aesop. Several of Remus’s tales are gussied up Aesop’s Fables, filtered through the African American experience and oral tradition.

And yes, there were definitely talking animals before Remus, but the complexity and development of these personages were something very new. It’s as if everything pre-Uncle Remus was Turner and Hooch and everything after was more like The Wire. There are outliers like Aesop and Reynard the Fox, but with Remus there is a very definite paradigm shift in children’s storytelling in 1880.

]]> By: Len http://www.wrensnestonline.com/blog/everything-youve-heard-about-uncle-remus-is-wrong-part-4/comment-page-1/#comment-101154 Len Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:39:28 +0000 http://www.wrensnestonline.com/blog/?p=7610#comment-101154 Aesop, of course, created talking animals long before Harris. And Aesop was allegedly a slave. Coincidence? Aesop, of course, created talking animals long before Harris. And Aesop was allegedly a slave. Coincidence?

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