Thursday, February 20, 2020

Reading Notes: Wardrop's Georgian Folktales B

Source: Teeth and No-Teeth from Georgian Folktales by Marjory Wardrop

I chose this section not because it was the most interesting, but because it felt incredibly peculiar. I didn't expect the ending at all. It was quite jarring and kind of strange, which I liked? I think that memorable is the best word to describe this story.

The shah wanted to see who the hungriest man in his kingdom was and set out to find him. He also wanted to see how much of the "daintiest" food he could eat for some reason. I guess I don't really understand that part. He lets his people know that he wants to do this and its a big deal.

On the decided day, a bunch of people gather. The king has laid out a lot of really nice food and asks for the hungriest men to come forward. Two men who have not eaten in a long time, one who is twenty seven, and one who is very old, come forward. The younger one says that he cant find work and is ashamed to beg. The old man says that his children have died and he's exhausted. Both haven't eaten in three days.

The shah begins to bring out food on one plate and in small portions. I still don't understand why, but okay. They look at each other and start crying. The shah is confused and asks them what's wrong. The old man is having a hard time eating and the young man is eating everything up. The young man says the old man is lying and that he while he is chewing his meat, the old man is swallowing everything whole. I do not understand at all.

In terms of story potential, I would want to make it very clear what the point was or maybe even do something a little bit different. I would want to tweak it in some way that maybe strayed a bit from the original source material in some capacity.

Small Plates (Wikimedia Commons)

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