Episode 171 of the Letters Page: Creative Process: American Tall Tales

Got to plant those seeds round the country

1 Like

What, no Emperor Norton? Maybe he’s too much of a west coast thing.

Love the Johnson bit. Feels like something out of Supernatural or McGuire’s Incryptid (or her other Road Witch stories).

3 Likes

I was glad they hit on some more obscure legends, and ones I’d never heard of. :slight_smile:

The Disney Paul Bunyan short is on my YouTube recommendations. I bet a lot of you have watched it in the last 24 hrs.

Sentinels book club suggestion- Tristan Strong punches a hole in the sky by Kwame Mbalia features High John the conquer. ( the man who writes Percy Jackson has an imprint that supports other authors doing YA stories of hidden world of mythology )

I was very pleased by the Captain Stormalong story, yes. An eldritch being doing a bunch of crazy BS to mess with the minds of mortals is 100% on brand for New England. :3

I had to laugh at Daniel Boone being demoted to dweeby sidekick, was not seeing that one coming…

The Robert Johnson and John the Conqueror stories were both awesome. I am here for this.

Fun fact about Davy Crockett: if you visit the Alamo, their museum displays explain that Crockett was very likely captured by the Mexican army and died in their captivity. They don’t exactly show him laying down his arms in the Disney movie!

Also, a good thing to remember is that the reason there was a fight at the Alamo was because the Texans inside really, really wanted to have slaves. So…not so much the good guys…

And finally, I can’t resist saying that Johnny Appleseed was born in the town next to where I grew up! Leominster, MA.

3 Likes

Entertaining ep! :grin: I was a little surprised they started into any native American legends, though, as once that door is opened there is a nearly-infinite collection of amazing characters that can be tapped. :smiley:

2 Likes

Oh good, I’m glad someone else pointed out how… problematic the stuff around the Alamo and Crockett were. Very much not the good guys. I say the same thing about the “Swamp Fox.” He was pretty horrible even for a 1700s slave owner (this historian isn’t going to get into all the issues), no matter how good Mel Gibson wanted to portray him in that horrible movie.

For the question of “who fired the missile from Heroic Interception”, I’d think that would be about the right era for it to be Iron Curtain (the father, not the daughter).

That reminds me; I’ve seen the Google Drive with previews of some of the Definitive Edition cards, but the questions on this podcast referenced a bunch of cards and art that…must be floating around on the Discord, I guess? Where do I go look to see what the letter was talking about?

1 Like

Christopher has been cheerfully revealing a bunch of cards every so often on the Letters Page server.

(My favorite instance of this was this one card with Argent and Cosmic on it that turned out so unintentionally slashy in the flavor text that we all teased Christopher about it.)

1 Like

@Trajector, on the Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition Kickstarter, there are a handful of videos that one can pause to see some Cards in them. Additionally, that Kickstarter’s Update #3 has a link to the SotM: DE rulebook, which also contains some new Cards. (Although that same Update also has some pretty shocking news, so be ready if you haven’t already read it.)

First, I want to say that I love Bear Davy Crockett, Captain Stormalong, and Robert Johnson. Especially Robert Johnson, who is wonderful and I learned something new!

But since no one else has said it, I feel the need to: a question was asked about the Windigo, and the answer to that question is “no, it should never appear in our stuff, sorry.”

It’s not just a folklore monster. It’s an extremely sacred and complex thing that is a part of many Algonquin and Ojibway traditions. You’re not even supposed to tell the stories if it is not the proper season and context, let alone use them as monsters of the week.

There is a very good article about this written from a white perspective, and I do encourage people who don’t know the background to read it, but the short version is: it’s okay to have some monster that’s vaguely inspired by this, but it’s really offensive to the people that the story is from to see it appear in mass culture, and I strongly encourage everyone to stop doing so.

Yes, that whole imprint is great. I need to read more of them!

2 Likes

@FrivYeti the Native American one is the only one besides the African one that I have read.
The Greco-Roman and Norse gods are not really members of modern American culture or the bronze/iron age people who worshiped them but the Navajo sky people today are culturally modern Navajo

And the African diaspora stories really touched me. They are not the stories of my Germanic or Celtic ancestors but the stories of Black America are still a part of the patchwork of America so the stories are in my blood. At least as far as African Story magic would recognize it.

Looking forward to the Babylonian book

1 Like

Yeah, a lot of First Nations lore and myth has been run roughshod over for so long, I don’t blame A&C for not wanting to touch it. It’s VERY difficult to get right, while showing the level of respect it deserves. But it’s very easy to get wrong…

1 Like

You mean on Discord?

Yeah, on the Letters Page Discord server. Sorry for the ambiguity in phrasing. Went back and checked for the question askers and yeah, they’re Contributor level folks.

So, I guess that’s advertising for donating to the Patron? You get to see sneak previews of things and make fun of Christopher for his clear subconscious Argent/Cosmic shipping tendencies.

I probably should make an addendum doc of all the publicly shown images from the various vids, though, once I’m done going through the interview vids. (Unless whoever made the first doc wants to do it for me, lol.)

Yeah that’s part of why I suggested Tall Tales specifically in my episode suggestion. They’re already intentionally ridiculous and widespread. You almost literally can’t come up with anything about say, Pecos Bill or Captain Stormalong that is more ridiculous than what has already been come up with by previous folk storytellers, so there’s no reason to not go wild.

The unofficial Discord, Realm of Discord, has collected a lot of previews as well. Adam has also posted a lot of art on Twitter. I suggest checking both out! :grin: