Outwitting the Devil: Jack Tales from Wise County Virginia

by Charles L. Perdue (Editor)

Book by

121 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

Reviews

[Marta E C R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in 1992 in Shenandoah National Park, but only now got around to reading it. The author is an academic folklorist, interested in presenting these tales as they were told (which of course is different every time and by every storyteller, and thus includes some tales that have several versions). I read this book aloud to my husband on our annual trip to Shenandoah this year. Some of the stories got a little tedious, and one of them was disturbing in its repeated use of a racial slur; I wish the author had chosen to leave that one out of the book. We particularly enjoyed the essay/article at the end, called Old Jack and the New Deal: The Virginia Writers’ Project and Jack Tale Collecting in Wise County, Virginia. Since we were reading during a road trip, we augmented our enjoyment of this book by listening to a number of Jack Tales on YouTube after we finished reading it.

[Godlarvae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although fascinating, and, understanding that I have barely scratched the surface of folk tale telling, I found that the stories lacked the life given in a "story telling" situation: the intonations, cocking of the head, shoulders, eyebrows, and hand movements required to raise and keep interest of the audience.
I can, however, also appreciate the project because I agree wholeheartedly with the quote given within; ". . . the primary purpose of education is to place the children of the present generation in possession of the cultural achievements of the past, so they may . . . enter into their inheritance . . . To deny them these is to cut them off from the past and to rob them of that which is theirs by right of birth." Our "new" schooling, focused on whatever is new coming down the road, admirably does the "robbing" quite well, leaving a technically advanced, culturally bereft population.
Shame!