Byline: Sutapa Basu, author, TOI Write India and AutHer Awards winner
‘Folktales and myths, they’ve lasted for a reason. We tell them over and over because we keep finding truth in them, and we keep finding life in them.’
---Patrick Ness
What are folktales?
Folktales are stories passed on from one person to another by word of mouth. Sometimes these stories talk of real people and events or seek to explain the world around us. At other times, these stories rub shoulders with myths or legends. Imagination abounds as gods and demons mingle with common men and women in a magical world. Animals offer wise adages while clever, grumpy old women spin spells. There are tales that revolve around a popular figure such as the wise Birbal from King Akbar’s court or Anansi the spider from West Africa.
Is it true that people spent so much time hooked to screens that reading books is out of vogue? Then what explains the soaring sales of folktale anthologies from physical and online bookstores? Authors have taken to rewriting these age-old classics, they have become so popular with readers. Whether they are traditional stories from across the world or our very own regional folklore, this genre is garnering a wide audience not just with young readers but with adults, too.
Why are folktales popular?
Parents, teachers, and caregivers have discovered that these highly entertaining classics also impart core values and essential character traits. Since folktales were handed down over generations, they often epitomized correct attitudes and subtly wove attributes of trust, courage, resourcefulness, and caring into the fabric of stories. Without being preachy, these tales made folk heroes of people who stood up to injustice, dishonesty, and wickedness. Unconsciously, these characters became role models for young readers.
Protagonists in folktales often encounter conflicts and must make difficult decisions or actions to resolve them. Young readers find out how right decisions lead to positive outcomes while wrong decisions result in negative outcomes. Folktales provide paradigms to imbibe the elements of effective decision-making that help them later in life.
This erstwhile oral literature profiles diverse traditions of various countries and communities. Readers are exposed to history, cultural values, and traditions from around the world and get opportunities to compare them with beliefs that they have grown up with.
Since folktales were basically created for the oral tradition, they were whetted for rapt listening. Consequently, these tales are easy to remember, tell and share. Young readers can effortlessly follow the plotline or recall the sequence of events. Characters can be simply and clearly identified. When young readers listen to or repeat folktales, language skills of phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension develop spontaneously.
It is not surprising that books of folktales are flying off shelves for they are more than just entertainment. For the same reason, a lot of authors have taken to researching in this realm and selecting folktales they would want to rewrite. However, new avatars of these ancient parables need to be structured with care. After all, the rewritten folktales have to engage an audience habituated to entertainment at the click.
How can folktales engage?
There is no doubt that folktales are a rich source of plots, characters, and story ideas. But restructuring them into forms and styles that fascinate the modern reader is a challenge. I realized this first hand when I translated and thus, rewrote a heritage collection of Bengali folktales called 'Thakumar Jhuli'. Since I had read the original stories, I thought it would be a cakewalk to rewrite them. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Humongous research, proficient linguistic skills, and nimble ingenuity went into the creation of my collection of folktales titled 'Princesses, Monsters and Magical Creatures'. With time, I developed a few techniques that I am sharing here.
Rewrite the story to make it more palatable to modern readers but ensure it remains true to its original spirit and direction. Anchor it to the basic precept while you sheath it in appealing dimensions.
Expand the details of the original tale. One way is to vividly describe the setting. The folktales in my book are from Bengal. Therefore, I set each story in venues showcasing the topography of Bengal. One story occurs on the banks of the serene Ganga amidst green paddy fields. Another one is in mangrove forests or perched on verdant hills covered with tea gardens. The picturesque locales created unforgettable visuals in the reader’s mind as well as lent authenticity to the cultural setting of the folktales.
Flesh out the story's ideas and characters by adding twists and quirks. A king in one of my folktales unjustly punishes his innocent queen. I added a poignant twist to the tale by mentioning that not a single flower bloomed in his kingdom until the king repented and was forgiven by his queen.
Replace narration with dialogue. Often long exposition can be boring but replacing it with conversation takes care of the monotony. In one of my tales, I devised a ridiculous dialogue between a cunning fox and a foolish crocodile that would amuse a reader.
Change a point of view in the tale to make it adhere to modern perspectives. What if the hare was the tortoise’s friend? What if he let the tortoise win the race to bolster his friend’s self-confidence?
Remove cruel punishments, offensive words, and racist connotations. In my book, I did away with all the blood and gore for it would be completely unacceptable to readers today. I also replaced archaic words and nuances in the original tales with more comprehensible versions.
Rework tales to expose unique traditions of the region. My stories describe women drawing alpona patterns which is a typical Bengali folk art. I added into the texts the phonetic sound of conch shells usually blown for all auspicious occasions in Bengal. Funnily, I actually blew into a number of conch shells to get the right phonetic sound. Even more surprising, I found out that it resembles the sound of ‘Om’!
Playing around with the look and feel of folktales is fine as long the original idea and axiom do not alter. Besides, in the process of adding dialogue and descriptions, it is essential that the rewritten version does not become a long-drawn-out treatise. People have short attention spans today and wordy folktales will lose readership.
I agree that rewriting folktales is a true balancing act. Be honest with the original idea yet create a fascinating tale. It cannot be lengthy but still allow the writer’s style and voice to show through. An arduous task but rewarding in the end.
However, it is the reader who is the final judge. As I discovered when 'Princesses, Monsters and Magical Creatures' was published, readers interpreted stories in ways I could not guess or even intended. But I was content. As long as folktales engage readers, it fulfills the author’s mission.
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