Living Folklore by Martha Sims

In this essay Martha Sims begins with a introduction that seemed to shock not only myself but other students in our English 1012 class. From reading some of your blogs I can assume that a handful of you (including myself) were a bit surprised by Sims opening paragraph for it was both defensive and angry sounding. Continuing through the chapters I learn why the author feels this way about Folklore and its misconception. The author feels that Folklore, as a form of spreading ones ideas to a group, is not informal or untrue but on the contrary does not have anything to do with the legitimacy of it all. Fast forward after a couple of pages of rants I see more clearly why the author feels the need to explain the “definition” of the word Folklore. Folklore definition, while generally important, is not what Martha Sims seems to feel the need to focus on. The author chooses to pinpoint how Folklore, even if interpreted otherwise, is of extreme importance to people and to society in general. Sims brings a great amount of importance to the role of Folklore but to understand this complex role she first explains how we can identify what is and isn't indeed Folklore. By definition Folklore is a form of transmitting “unofficial” knowledge to people of a group. Sims tells us that Folklore is important mainly because it has such a great impact on our society. In everyday life we use Folklore for simple tasks. To my dismay all this, although informative, was not fully helpful to what Folklore has to do with me in my life and how it not only affects me but how it can also help me grow and as person and college student. I don't know if you'll agree with me, but, in reading this essay I feel as if I have more questions now than ever before that I feel should be answered.