When reviewing yesterday's post, I noted that some of the text appears to have been eaten by my text editor. I have now remedied this, marking the new sections with bold type.
As you will see, there are some ideas about the Suan tales I do not agree with. Please remember that this is only my opinion, and that the author in question has more grounding and experience.
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Stage 3—Homophony and the Ejaculation Guess
After the events listed earlier, we come to stage three, where our protagonists are faced with an immediate problem and no hope of truly diving the answer. Startled and afraid, it is here they make what Fansler calls the ejaculation guess, muttering a word—most usually their name—that sounds like, or close to like, the name of the object. Such homophony is a key part of the Doctor Know-All tale type; indeed, it appears that no recorded tale is without it.
Suan the Guesser—wanting to win his money back, Mayabong fills a bottle with dun, covers it, and again challenges Suan and the King. At first, Suan refuses to take part, but the King threatens him with execution if he does not guess, saying, "I let you marry my daughter, because I though that you were a good guesser." When Mayabong then presents Suan with the bottle, the now angry and frightened Suan throws it upon the ground cursing, "I consider that you are all waste to me", and this is accepted as a correct guess.
Note: sometimes the Suan Eket story ends with the events listed above, while it is sometimes ended with the same events listed in Suan the Guesser.
Goldhair—still distrusted, Goldhair is told he must guess the contents of a bag the Emperor shows him to earn his reward. Frightened, he sighs to himself, "Goldhair, oh Goldhair". As the bag contains a golden haired cat, this is accepted as an appropriate answer.
Harisarman—one of the King's ministers does not trust Harisarman, and advises the King to administer a test of his skill. The King then asks Harisarman to guess the contents of a covered pitcher. Afraid, and believing that he will be killed as a result of his inability to guess correctly, Harisarman recalls his father's pet name for him, Froggie, and begin to mumble about the pitcher to himself, all the while calling himself Froggie. As the pitcher contains a frog, this is accepted as an appropriate answer.
Crab—seeking a further demonstration of Crab's skill, the King asks him to guess the contents of a certain dish. Seeing that he is about to be found out, Crab says to himself, "Oh, Crab, what a plight you are in!" As the dish contains a crab, this is accepted as an appropriate answer. Note that the story tells us crabs were quite unknown in the country at the time.
Crab[Ger]—seeking a demonstration of Crab's skill, the nobleman asks him to guess the contents of a certain dish. Seeing that he is about to be found out, Crab says to himself, "Oh, poor Crab!" As the dish contains a crab, this is accepted as an appropriate answer. Note that the story tells us crabs were quite unknown in the country at the time.
Note: the events in Crab[Ger] are reversed, with Crab asked to determine the name of the dish before the thieves reveal themselves to him.
Elements
Retherford—Suan the Guesser as a tale of sexual maturation and societal integration?
In his work, "Suan the Guesser": A Filipino Doctor Know-All, Robert Retherford suggests that the Suan stories are tales of sexual maturation and societal integration, asking us to consider the element of marriage and the way in which Suan comes to it, the sexual symbolism present in the stories, and finally, and that of the "male figure, a ruler at some level whose favor[sic] needs to be gained" [Retherford, p.108.].
Marriage
In the stories discussed here, we see that the protagonists, with the exception of Suan, are already married; indeed, in the case of Crab[Ger], it is the conversation with his wife that ultimately leads Crab[Ger] to discover the thieves. It is here that Retherford points to Suan's bachelor status in Suan Eket, noting that "his placing of the ring within the body cavity of a bird[1] and then 'miraculously' locating it can be interpreted as a seduction scene, since Suan first finds the daughter's ring through guile and later openly discovers it in a more socially acceptable way," [Retherford, pp.105-106].
He continues,
The physical connection between the ring and the internal organs supports the sexual interpretation, and it can be no accident that Suan acquires the daughter through finding her ring: the action of inserting one's finger into a ring is a direct analog with intercourse [Retherford, p.105].
But is this enough to say the tale is representative of sexual maturation? Perhaps, though Retherford also mentions the earlier Suan stories and the symbolism therein, focusing particularly on Suan's Good Luck and Suan Eket. In the former, he notes that the Suan "spies on his mother in order to see what se has inside her bag or jar, which indicates curiosity about female sexuality," [Retherford, p.105], while the stolen plough and carabao, "male objects used in preparing fields for seeding, have connotations of male sexuality and so indicate the theme of sexual awakening" [Retherford, p.105].
And so we have, it seems, a theory of sexual maturation—Suan moves from bachelorhood to marriage throughout the tale, becoming sexually aware of women and intercourse along the way.
But is there enough data to support this theory? Certainly, sexual symbolism has been discussed in relation to folklore many times over—it is quite a popular subject in today's world, and many interesting and well-researched books about the subject are easily available. Yet it seems that while Retherford's hypothesis is interesting, the discussion of symbolism and representation applies only to the Filipino tales and not to those of other cultures—in the tales discussed here, all the protagonists, with the exception of Suan, appear to be married. Indeed, in the case of Crab[Ger] and Harisarman, the wife plays a somewhat important role, facilitating certain events. Marriage is unique to the Filipino tale type.
While tales within a tale type vary, it seems unusual for there to be such a great difference in theme from one culture to the next, with no discernible reason. Moreover, the way in which he has arrived at his hypothesis is questionable to this reader, and he seems to have failed to meet the burden of proof.
Indeed, Retherford is aware of the lack of cross-cultural support, writing,
A lack of cross-cultural support for one aspect of an analysis does not reduce the validity of this aspect for the culture it appears in, nor the general validity of the structural analysis of the tale. There is no reason why every culture should put the same interpretation on the same structure within a tale; a fundamental quality of narrative is its plasticity, which enables the teller and his or her audience to determine the appropriate allomotifs and narrative forms.18 What is clear across cultures is the structure of AT1641: a development, or progression, from lesser to greater integration, maturity, and security. How this security is interpreted is up to the narrator and audience [Retherford, p.110].
While this is perhaps true, his causality, drawing on structuralist, semiotic, and psychoanalytical ideas, seems forced to this reader. In my studies as a scientist, I have often been tempted to consider ideas and problems from various perspectives and approaches, but have found that drawing too many major ideas—particularly those as diverse as the approaches listed above—often results in a biased and flawed analysis that fails to address key issues. It is important to note, however, that my experience is as a scientist and sometimes researcher, not a folklorist, and I advise readers to come to their own conclusions as appropriate.
Social Integration
Retherford's discussion of the Doctor Know-All tale type as a tale of social integration is both interesting and persuasive. As he writes,
In each variant the alliance with a powerful male is part of the steady movement to a more secure position, toward joining society, achieving recognition, and reaching maturity. This alliance is threatened by a challenge, a problem that the trickster must solve correctly to preserve his acquired prestige. The authority figure goes along with the challenge to determine if the young man is worthy of leaving his earlier family-based relationships and entering the larger social realm. This reinforces the authority's function as initiator, thus supporting the theme of maturation and integration. [Retherford, p.109]
Suan also hides and learns from the actions of his parents and others, suggesting that his learning concerns that which is not in books.
Suan the Guesser Variants
Fansler notes several variants after his recorded Suan the Guesser (I have added these notes under the post heading Suan the Guesser Notes and Variants, cross-linked to the original post). Perhaps the most interesting variant is this,
A concluding adventure is sometimes added to version c, "Juan the Guesser." King and queen of another country visit palace of Juan's father-in-law and want their newly-born child baptized. Juan is selected to be godfather. When called upon to sign the baptism certificate, he instantly dies of shame, pen in hand: he cannot write even his own name.
Shame is a central theme for Suan—shame drives him to attempt to drown himself in Suan the Guesser, shame leads him to leave school and resort to trickery to earn respect in Suan Eket.
Footnotes:
[1] In many Doctor Know-All stories, the protagonist is asked to discover the location of a certain ring (see Suan Eket, Crab, above).
References:
Retherford, Robert. "'Suan the Guesser': A Filipino Doctor Know-All (AT 1641)." Asian Folklore Studies 55.1(1996): 99-118.
Text kindly provided by JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1178858
Retherford, Robert. "Review: Philippine Folk Literature: The Myths, by Damiana L. Eugenio". Asian Folklore Studies 56.1(1997): 191-192.
Text kindly provided by JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1178808
Crane, Thomas Frederick and Zipes, Jack. Italian Popular Tales. USA: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Jacobs, Joseph. Indian Fairy Tales. n.p. Forgotten Books, 2007.
Calvino, Italo. Italian Folktales. n.p. Harvest Books, 1992.
Fansler, Dean S. Filipino Popular Tales. n.p. Dodo Press, 2007.
Thanks also to D.L. Ashliman's Folklore and Mythology Online Texts for providing easily accessible online versions of many of the tales discussed here.
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