Just So Stories: Difference between revisions
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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
| title = Just So Stories
| image = elephanttrunk_1793.png
| caption = How the elephant got its trunk.
| author = Rudyard Kipling
| central theme =
| elevator pitch = A collection of short origin stories, suitable for reading to children at bedtime.
| genre = Origin stories
| publication date = 1902
| source page exists =
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
A series of origin stories [[Children's Literature|for children]] by [[Rudyard Kipling]], first published in 1902. Kipling's ''[[
==== The fables featured in this collection include: ====
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* ''The Tabu Tale''
''Just So Stories'' is now in the public domain and can be read [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2781/2781-h/2781-h.htm here], or [https://web.archive.org/web/20130926005059/http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/ here, if you want the illustrations].
{{tropenamer}}
▲[[Trope Namer]] for [[Just So Story]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Affectionate Parody]]: Of various kinds of oral history. For example, ''The Butterfly That Stamped'' parodies the style of the Koran ("Now listen and attend all over again!")
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* [[Happily Married]]: Suleiman-bin-Daoud and his chief wife, Balkis. Too bad he has 999 others...
* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: There's lots of this. Keep in mind it was published in 1902. For example, in ''How the Leopard Got His Spots''
{{quote|
'Oh, plain black's best for a nigger,' said the Ethiopian. }}
** ''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but do you happen to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'
** There's a swastika in a picture illustrating "The Crab that Played with the Sea", which is identified as "a magic mark". Remember the book was published decades before [[Those Wacky Nazis]], when the swastika was known only as a generic positive mystical symbol by many people, especially in India.
* [[Henpecked Husband]]: King Suleiman-bin-Daoud is henpecked by all but one of his thousand wives.
* [[Just
* [[Lamarck Was Right]]: All of the origin stories are heavily inspired by Lamarckian evolution. Most of the stories can be summed up as, "at some point in history a creature did something that caused it to change, and this is why nowadays all creatures of this type have this same trait". The only exception is ''How the Camel Got His Hump'', where the hump is given by a djinn as a sort of punishment for being lazy and missing three days of work at the start of Creation.
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Kipling's account of how the alphabet was made has the modern English Latin alphabet come into existence from the beginning, ignoring how it has evolved over time. Of course he was well aware of this and put in a cute explanation:
{{quote|
* [[Malaproper]]: Most of the characters, and indeed the narrators; it's part of the
* [[Non-Indicative Name]]: Small Porgies. He's large enough to eat all the food intended for all the other animals (excluding his brothers) on earth ''combined''. He's still the runt of his family, though.
* [[Noodle Incident]]:
{{quote|
* [[Omniglot]]:
{{quote|
** His wife Balkis is no slouch herself.
* [[Overly Long Name]]: Many of the characters.
* [[Painting the Frost
* [[Playing Pictionary]]: Taffy's attempt to send a message back to her cave in "How The First Letter Was Written".
* [[Public Domain Character]]: Suleiman-bin-Daoud, better known as [[The Bible|King Solomon, son of David]]. As in the one that performed the [[Judgment of Solomon]]. Pretty much everything about him in ''The Butterfly That Stamped'' is taken from The Bible, the Koran, or folklore about him. Balkis, of course, is the Queen of Sheba.
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** Also the Ethiopian in ''How the Leopard Got His Spots''.
* [[Fur Is Clothing|Skin Is Clothing]]: In ''How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin'', the rhinoceros can literally remove his hide like a suit. It even has buttons!
* [[Spell My Name
* [[Sssssnaketalk]]: The Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, of course.
* [[Take Our Word for It]]: How the Ethiopian changes his skin (of course, played for laughs). All we are told is that the Leopard is very impressed.
* [[Unwanted Harem]]: You really do have to feel sorry for Suleiman-bin-Daoud.
{{quote|
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Just So Stories]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:British Literature]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1900s]]
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