Reading Notes Week 6 - Turkish Folktales A

Today's reading comes from Turkish folktales. Turkey is an area of culture I've experienced very little of in my life, so I was excited to get to experience the way another culture views itself and its values.
The first tale I found particularly interesting is Fear, a charming tale of (moderate antisemitism and) a young boy's journey to find the object of fear. To me, it almost reads like a continuing joke, as though someone is trying to keep you on the hook before a disappointing punchline. The boy goes through much tribulation, including making sweets in a graveyard, trespassing a robber camp, and fighting an ocean god, but what gets him is an unexpected sparrow in the soup. To me the moral of the story is that fear comes not from the setting, but from your expectations - surprise is scarier than suspense.
The second tale I enjoyed was that of the Fish-Peri. It's a charming tale about how conveniently loving a magical fish woman will bring your monarch great gifts as he attempts to take your wife from you, or maybe I'm too much of a cynic today. Either way, true love prevails once again as the poor fishmonger accomplishes tasks given to him by his fishwife to save their marriage from the tyrannical Padishah who wishes to take her from him. While he accomplishes the tasks to varying degrees of success (and takes no penalties for failure), a slip of the tongue by the baby-annoyed Padishah leaves the pair to happy matrimony. Perhaps the moral is love prevails, or perhaps it's a testament to the nuisance caused by infants, especially ones who can talk.
These tales all provide outlooks both unique and similar to the ones held in traditional Western fairy tales, never quite dropping the veil of nostalgic weirdness that seems to preclude the fables and tales.
I think I'd feel about the same about giving up here. UN-Textbook, Fish-Peri (cont), by Willy Pogany

Bibliography: UN-Textbook, Turkish Folktales

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