#writerscoffeeclub 20 Sep: How might your work be seen as a criticism of the present moment?
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#writerscoffeeclub 20 Sep: How might your work be seen as a criticism of the present moment?
Oh boy. Let's do this.
Among other things, #folklore is the study of folk narratives - how they arise and spread. Often such are harmless or even fun, but sometimes they are very harmful indeed. Consider how many German folk tales spread and reinforced #antisemitism . Or how many bad things that happened to people or animals were ascribed to witchcraft - people did not have the knowledge to explain, say, cattle diseases as a natural cause, so they came up with a narrative that blamed a harmless old woman in the village who might have suffered from dementia.
People got _killed_ by many such folk narratives. And they still do.
Contemplate many folk narratives of today - how they are created and how they are spread in both offline channels and on social media. The modern world is an enormously complex place that contains many frightening things - so a lot of people will listen to the first simple narrative they hear, as long it identifies a target for their fears. And then the body count rises.
So I study folklore, and talk about it, but I do not assume that such studies are only relevant to the 19th century folk tales I translate. Indeed, the more I learn about this subject, the more I feel that this is vital to understanding how the modern world works - and, perhaps, how to counter some of the most vile narratives out there.
Though sometimes the links between old folklore and new folklore are more obvious. For instance, there is now a widespread narrative that pregnant women using painkillers causes their children to develop autism.
Now consider the following fragment from a 19th century German text:
"If a mother uses a spell in order to ease her birth, then the Evil Enemy tries to lure these children in particular..."
