A book review of “Feathers, Fools and Farts: Manipuri Folktales Retold” By L. Somi Roy and Thangjam Hindustani Devi, Published by Penguin Random House India Private Limited, Oct/2023, ISBN: 9780143459118, Pages: 128, MRP: Rs. 399.00, Language:English
By Dhiren A. Sadokpam
Retelling folktales in modern or ‘post-modern’ times is influenced by several factors that distinguish it from the traditional modes of storytelling. While traditional folktales were typically passed down orally within the family or the communities and closely linked to cultural, historical, and communal values, modern retellings are influenced by contemporary socio-cultural factors, literary trends, and formats of dissemination. The act of retelling itself involves reinterpretation and recontextualization, where stories adapt to new settings, ideologies, and audiences. This is exactly what L. Somi Roy and Thangjam Hindustani Devi set out to achieve in their book, Feathers, Fools and Farts: Manipuri Folktales Retold. The two authors, each with differing experiences, seem pretty well aware of the debates on the key differences between modern and traditional retellings and how popular versions of folktales might not follow traditional narratives or even referencing key folklorists and literary analysts.
One of the major debates is related to the traditions of orality and textuality or literate traditions. In traditional storytelling, folktales were often transmitted orally, with significant variation in each retelling. However, we know that oral cultures have preserved stories in fluid, mutable forms, whereas literate or textual cultures often attempt to structure stories resulting in fixation of the narrative. In contemporary times, the shift to written or multimedia or digital formats tends to formalize folktales, reducing the inherent variability that once existed in oral traditions. Nevertheless, the preservation of folktales through a written culture represents a significant shift from the oral tradition, allowing for the documentation, standardization, and dissemination of stories that might otherwise change or fade over time. While oral cultures rely on memory, performance, and communal participation to pass down stories, written culture provides a stable, enduring medium that captures these narratives in a fixed form. One may also argue that even in the so called enduring medium or rather the attempt at fixation of narratives are always open to multiple interpretations. Hence, the stabilization of narrative variability or rather the writing down of folktales can still be subject to certain amount of dynamics and fluidity depending on the storyteller, audience, or context.
Leave the polemics for a while and straight away reflect on this reviewer’s first impressions after reading Feathers, Fools and Farts: Manipuri Folktales Retold. Even as both the authors and the illustrator Sapha Yumnam set out to retell folktales from Manipur in the textual form, one is struck by an apparent feeling of awe with the techniques adeptly used in the book. Despite a personalised and subjective understanding of the folktales that they textually narrate, the two authors have used their own innovative “hooks” or “attention-grabbers” as distinct from the conventional forms like starting a story with a provocative question or releasing a startling fact or even telling a compelling anecdote within the folktales they are textualizing. In short, the two have not resorted to the technique of vivid description while being uniquely stylish in presentation.
Both L. Somi Roy and Thangjam Hindustani Devi opted for what this reviewer calls a convincingly “persuasive prodding”, stimulating and arresting their readers interests. For instance, from page one (1) to 90, they have directly addressed their readers with key catch-phrases addressing their own readers from all walks of life. These include addressee phrases like Dear Geological One (p1), Dear Lover of History (p2), Dear Trustworthy One (p6), Dear Animal Lover (p8), Dear Sporty One (p9), and even Dear Feminist One (p16), clearly specifying their audience or readers.
Chapter One, The Autumn Lamp, begins with a folklorist interpretation of the terrain and topography of Manipur directly addressing the value of such understanding to the Dear Geological One. What is being retold is the story of Mera Wayungba, a story depicting how two brothers were separated by the hills and the central valley while in search of habitable land and occupation. The separation in many ways strengthens the bond between the Tangkhul and the Meitei through a memory kept alive via an annual ritual-like tradition. The core principle or rather the functional role of a folklore has been succinctly covered in the way this tale has been textually narrated. In the same manner, the rest of the folktales like Kong, The Warrior Toad; The Demon, The Tiger and The Crybaby; The Hornbill Girl; The Mother Birth, The Demoness with the Long Arms; Good Sister, Bad Sister; The Tiger Man; and The Farting Old Couple have been told/written without losing the traditional essence of Manipur folktales. However, any astute reader would also be able to read the not-so-parallel narratives in their own unique ways.
Here, this reviewer is literally burdened to use the idea of parallel narratives for the want of a better conceptual frame. For instance, the folktale of the Houdong Lamboiba amasung Pebet (The Holy Monk Cat and Pebet, the bird) is even by general standard considered a satire on dominance and subservience binary. This is the story of how the cat tries to hoodwink the mother bird so that her children would be enslaved to be eaten by the cat. No wonder, in this tale, the textual narrators opt to address only the Dear Ornithological One, Dear Cat Lover, Dear Honest One, or Dear Little One without resorting to Dear Politically Correct One or Dear Political One or Dear Social One. While the motif of dominance and subservience is clear, the authors choose to hide behind the curtain of the ideal political correctness influenced by the greater pan-Indian cultural-nationalist discourse. Burdened with such a condition, the authors comfortably use the ploy of homophonic words—words that sound the same but have different meanings. Despite describing the cat as donning the “saffron robes” (p38) and “cap of saffron” (p35), the subsequent utterances of the cat “Hari Om, Hari Om” has been skillfully changed to “Hurry home, hurry home” and “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna” to “Hurry Christmas, hurry Christmas” (p36) and later “Om Hari, Hari Om” to “Om money, money come” (p37). There obviously is a semantic shift while retaining the satirical elements intact in this retelling of the folktale.
The dangers of semantic shift involving homophonic words even in folktales, be it oral or textual, lie in the potential for confusion, miscommunication, and ambiguity. As the meanings of words evolve, homophones can create misunderstandings, especially in spoken language, where context might not immediately clarify which meaning is intended. This can lead to errors in interpretation, especially in legal, technical, or academic texts, where precision is crucial. Perhaps, in the case of textual folktales, much liberty can be exercised by the authors.
Despite some stark critical pitfall, the conversational mode of story-telling adopted by the authors addresses a wide range of topics with differing audiences in all the ten folktales. Those of us who are familiar with these stories as part of our growing up, would immediately immerse into that world of infinite dreams contingent upon temporal arbitration. This means listening to folktales have been restricted by the way how we have traditionally conceptualised time. However, it should be remembered that the Meitei’s conception of Phungawari is akin to an eternal flame that defies time as we understand now. These folktales must have been told and retold during evening hours after dinner and before one retires for the day. With textualized form and produced as a book, one can well read them at anytime of the day or night.
Therefore, written culture enables folktales to be transmitted across vast temporal and geographical distances, expanding their reach beyond the immediate community where they originated. While oral tales rely on interpersonal transmission, which can be disrupted by migration, conflict, or cultural change, writing allows these stories to be recorded and disseminated to different audiences. Kudos to the authors for making a wonderful attempt at allowing future generations to access narratives that might otherwise have disappeared. At the same time, the reviewer acknowledges that in modern retellings of folktales, cultural hybridity plays a critical role. Globalization and the interconnectedness of modern societies lead to the mixing of cultural traditions, where folktales are reinterpreted to resonate with diverse audiences.
(Dhiren A. Sadokpam is the Editor-in-Chief, The Frontier Manipur)