WITH A TWIST IN THE TALE |
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WITH A TWIST IN THE TALE Stories, Folktales, Folklore, Fairy Tales, Legends, Myths, History, Nursery Rhymes, Fantasy & Facts Scroll down or click on your choice below: • SOS-Searching Out Stories/Information - With a Twist in the Tale Advice, Comments and References from Storytellers, Teachers and Librarians |
SOS - SEARCHING OUT STORIES AND INFORMATION - WITH A TWIST IN THE TALE
Advice, Comments and References from Storytellers, Teachers and Librarians
(excerpts from Storytell posts plus original research)
Book titles and online links are in dark blue and underlined. Click on them to get more stories/information.
In performance, always credit your sources.
To retell these stories, get permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain.
Posts are listed chronologically as they are received by Story Lovers World.
1) Query: I need contemporary stories, sinister, quirky, with a twist in the end.
Responses:
a) Consider Saki's The Open Window ("Saki" H.H. Munro's). I have heard it told effectively in first person.
b) I'd put a vote in for Saki, too. Once when I was starting off in storytelling, and tried a couple of literary tales instead of traditional tales, I did two from Saki: The Un-Rest Cure and Other Beastly Tales (Prion Humour Classics)and "Quail Seed." Both are quite long and complex and with subtle bits, so they take a lot of learning to put across the full effect. But Saki did loads of short tales, and many of them are twisty and clever. I also suggest Urban Legends - they are twisty, sinister, contemporary.
c) I love hearing Jeffery Archer stories. Roger Rose in St. Louis tells them. There's one actually called A Twist in the Tale(tail) - very sensual, until the very end when you find out it's a cat. There's another about a pearl-handled, Swiss Army pocket knife that is about a man who desires a woman more than anything, but she requres him to bring her a pearl-handled Swiss Army pocket knife. He goes to extreme measures to get it. When he returns and gives it to her, she opens a drawer and it's full of P.S.P. K.'s He asks why she had this one when she has so many. She responds that it's insurance for her old age. Something about .."do you know what a young man will do for a P.H.P.K. ? It is always a sure laugh.
Responses to c):
a) Another twist to that tale-- there was a bit of a stink in the UK a while ago, when a young girl claimed that Jeffrey Archer stole that plot from her-- it turned out he had been the Celebrity Judge at her school's annual mystery story contest.
b) A week or so ago, I wrote about possible "middle-age, adult women" stories and told you about Jeffrey Archer's book A Twist in the Tale. (Thanks Barbara Kellogg for the reference) I also mentioned another story about a "Swiss Army knife" that some of you asked about. I wrote to Roger Rose who tells it and here's his reply: "The Six-Bladed, Pearl-Handled, Gold-Inlayed Boy Scout Knife" I did not get the story from a book. My source was a story told by Rosalie Sorells, not original with her, in a private gathering after hours at the Illinois Storytelling Festival, maybe 15 years ago. I have developed and told a much more elaborate version of that story. I have told it many times in various places, including a swap session at the National Conference in Indianapolis a few years ago, but never in a public performance setting, and I have never published it. Since it is basically just a "shaggy dog" anecdote and is certainly in the public domain, anyone is welcome work up and tell their own version. I do feel a proprietary interest in my own version.
Rogerd) What about The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre
? There are also some stories like TALES OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE: The Chaser; August Heat; The Ransom of Red Chief; Suspicion; The Devil and Daniel Webster; The Benefit of the Doubt; The Lady or the Tiger; Unreasonable Doubt; The Stolen White Elephant; The Mauscript of Dr Arness
by John Collier, which you can tell with a somber atmosphere or O. Henry's "After Twenty Years": A Study Guide from Gale's "Short Stories for Students" (Volume 27, Chapter 1)
that is only a possibility out of many .
e) I was just talking with someone today about that wonderful story about the dog not being allowed into "heaven" which turned out not to be heaven. I couldn't remember who the real author was -- it's one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes. It certainly has a twist.Response to e)
I found this, "Isle Of Crete" when looking for the "Dogs in Heaven" story. Although it has Crete as its place in the story, I suppose you could substitute a modern city -one that might fit your birthday party honoree.
f) There is a story I believe by William Bausch called "The Isle of Crete" that I think is very inspirational. The story is about a man from Crete who loved his beloved isle and when he is dying, has his sons carry him outside and lay him on the ground. At the moment of death, he reaches down and takes a handful of earth and dies a happy man. At the gates of Heaven, God comes out and invites the man in but tells him he must first let go of the dirt. The man refuses, holding his fist shut tight and God goes back inside, sad. Years pass and God comes back outside the gates in the form of an old friend. They chat it up and God/friend suggests it's time for them to enter the bounty of Heaven. The man starts in but God/friend says he must let go of the dirt in his hand, holding his fist shut tight. Again the man refuses and God goes back inside, sad. Eons go by and the man gets older and older, arthritic and bent with age. God comes outside in the form of a little granddaughter who tells the man she is waiting for him. Won't he please come in and enter the bounty of Heaven. The man is very old and crippled. He agrees to enter but needs assistance. As he reaches to take the little girl's arm for support, his arthritic fingers open and the dirt slips through his fingers. The man enters the gates of Heaven and the first thing he sees is his beloved isle of Crete.
g) Another story, I *think* it's o'henry but it's definitely called The Green Door: Short stories (Hello, reader!)fairly tellable though literary:
Bones:
Regular businessman type walks past a man handing out flyers. Gets slipped a business card and all it says is "The Green Door"... the man is confused-- Walks past again-- everyone else is getting flyers, he's getting this fancy business card. Goes past three times (magical number) and finally goes into the building the flyer guy is standing in front of. Goes up the tenement stairs, dimly lit, sees a green door and knocks... a pale woman opens the door and falls into his arms. She hasn't eaten in a while, and he takes care of her and goes out to get her groceries, all the while thinking something magical is happening... on his way back from the store, he passes The Green Door stripjoint, and he realizes what happened... but at the same time, he kinda feels like he still found some magic.
2) When I was a school librarian, I had a fun unit with my first graders. Since many of them were unfamiliar with the original folktale, I read it to them. When I read/told the parody, they enjoyed it so much more because of their familiarity with the original. Here are the parodies/twist of the original tale.
Jim and the Beanstalk
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig
The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza)
Somebody And The Three Blairs (Orchard Paperbacks)
Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale (Stories to Go!)
The Frog Prince, Continued (Picture Puffin)
With the original folktale under their belts, the kids absolutely loved them all!
Lynn M. 1/29/10
Created 2003; last update 2/10/10
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