Comments | ysabetwordsmith: Poem: "Fool's Game"

ysabetwordsmith

Poem: "Fool's Game"

Mar 09, 2012 18:53

This poem came out of the March 6, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Anthony Barrette and sponsored by Anthony and Shirley Barrette.

Fool's Game

In The Lone Ranger,
things were upside-down and backwards:
the black mask was worn by a white hat
and the Indian was a hero, not a villain.

What I remember is that ( Read more... )

history, reading, writing, fishbowl, poetry, cyberfunded creativity, poem, entertainment, linguistics, ethnic studies

Comments 10

xiphias March 10 2012, 01:59:02 UTC

I wrote a Lone Ranger fanfic once . . .
http://archiveofourown.org/users/XiphiasGladius/pseuds/XiphiasGladius

Wow! ysabetwordsmith March 10 2012, 22:23:27 UTC

What a fabulous story! I have boosted the signal in a main post. I'd really enjoy seeing more of this.

Re: Wow! xiphias March 11 2012, 00:41:54 UTC

Thank you!

paka March 10 2012, 02:01:44 UTC

Oh wow, cool. I didn't know the word, but I could figure out that it probably wasn't Apache in origin.

Aha! There's a "Tonto Apache" tribe in Arizona - the Chiricachua, who are also Athapaskan speakers, name for the group is binii?e'dine', foolish people, and apparently the name carried over to Spanish. And I'd always assumed that he was supposed to be from this group, but check this out... apparently the same way Reid is a Texas Ranger and the two are lumped together because they're from The West (TM), original canon is that Tonto's a Potawatomi - with "kemo sabe" being an Ojibwa, term - these are guys nowhere near Arizona. Presumably the radio script creators (a Michigander and a New Yorker), assumed he was An Indian (TM), as well as being in The West. So your interpretation of him as trickster figure at least makes some coherent sense ( ... )

Thoughts ysabetwordsmith March 10 2012, 08:45:34 UTC

>>Presumably the radio script creators (a Michigander and a New Yorker), assumed he was An Indian (TM), as well as being in The West.<<

I remembered Tonto as being somewhat of a mishmash, bits from different tribes. So it fits.

>>Still... I gotta wonder whether they were unconsciously trying to imitate the Hero Twins stories a little.<<

Possibly. A determined scholar, even a hobbyist, could dig up all sorts of interesting things. It's surprising how much got recorded quite early on; fragments, much of it, but still usable.

And some myths retell themselves, especially if you're already standing on them.

the_s_guy March 10 2012, 22:21:40 UTC

That is a wonderfully gnawable memetic link.

Yes... ysabetwordsmith March 10 2012, 22:27:23 UTC

It has stuck in my mind all these years; I'm happy to be able to share it.

wyld_dandelyon March 11 2012, 16:01:18 UTC

I love the last stanza! It's perfect.

Thank you! ysabetwordsmith March 11 2012, 21:53:46 UTC

It's a summary of the sacred clown as described in several tribes, including Lakota and ... hmm, one of the southwestern ones, Hopi or Navajo maybe.

Re: Thank you! wyld_dandelyon March 11 2012, 21:58:29 UTC

It's definitely accurate for Hopi. I'm not sure one way or the other about Navajo.