Ever tried to tell a story and had it flop? I am reminded of a time that I had a story flop. It was a year or two ago when I was in full time language study. I was translating one of Aesop\u2019s fables into eMwinika as a language exercise. It went something like this:<\/p>\n
A bat was flying along and happened to fall to the ground and was grabbed by a genet [a type of wild cat]. The bat cried out: \u201cPlease don\u2019t eat me.\u201d The genet refused. He said: \u201cNo, I will eat you, since I am an enemy with any type of bird.\u201d The bat replied: \u201cBut I am not a bird. Look at me. I am a type of mouse.\u201d So the genet let him go. A little while later the bat was caught by a different genet. He started to cry out again saying: \u201cAaah, please don\u2019t eat me.\u201d The genet said: \u201cI will eat you, since I am an enemy with all mice.\u201d The bat replied: \u201cBut I am a bird. Look at me. I have wings.\u201d So the genet let him go.<\/p>\n
Well, the word for bat and the word for mongoose sound similar, and since neither one is a word that I frequently use, I got a little confused. I was telling the story with the word mongoose substituted for bat. Try reading the story again with mongoose in the place of bat.<\/p>\n
A mongoose was flying along and happened to fall to the ground and was grabbed by a genet [a type of wild cat]. The mongoose cried out: \u201cPlease don\u2019t eat me.\u201d The genet refused. He said: \u201cNo, I will eat you, since I am an enemy with any type of bird.\u201d The mongoose replied: \u201cBut I am not a bird. Look at me. I am a type of mouse.\u201d So the genet let him go. A little while later the mongoose was caught by a different genet. He started to cry out again saying: \u201cEe, please don\u2019t eat me.\u201d The genet said: \u201cI will eat you, since I am an enemy with all mice.\u201d The mongoose replied: \u201cBut I am a bird. Look at me. I have wings.\u201d So the genet let him go.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense. I kept getting a confused look when I told it. I asked people to explain it back to me which they did, but since they told me back what I had told them, I never caught the mistake, however I did catch the vibe that they were clearly not impressed by the story. I can imagine what they were thinking. \u201dA mongoose fell to the ground? What was a mongoose doing flying in the air in the first place? What is the connection with the mongoose and the genet being the enemy of all birds? How on earth was the second genet fooled by a mongoose claiming to be a bird and showing off its wings? What wings? I wonder how this Aesop fellow got famous for his stories?\u201d<\/p>\n
Needless to say, my story was a flop. Fortunately for me I went home and expressed my frustration to my wife. When she heard my troubles she said: \u201cI didn\u2019t know x was the word for a bat, I thought it was the word for a mongoose.\u201d Then the light bulbs went on. Oh yes. Of course. No wonder I am getting such blank looks. When I went back and told it again correctly people liked it. They said, \u201cNow, it makes sense. That was a pretty smart bat. In fact, we have a traditional story just like it but it didn\u2019t turn out so well. It is about the hippo and how it got a short tail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ever tried to tell a story and had it flop? I am reminded of a time that I had a story flop. It was a year or two ago when I was in full time language study. I was translating one of Aesop\u2019s fables into eMwinika as a language exercise. It went something like this: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":300,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-mwinika-language-and-culture","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-henderson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-henderson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-henderson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-henderson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-henderson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-henderson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-henderson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-henderson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-henderson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}