Martha Sims "Living Folklore"

Martha Sims’s “Living Folklore” gives us multiple perspectives on the term “folklore” and the different ways that it can be interpreted. “Living Folklore” was a very helpful piece of writing simply because Sims put explaining “Folklore” in a much unsophisticated method. Sims also gives us examples to distinguish folktales from non-folktales. Sims gives examples and directly gives back up to her claims. For example, she would give background information from famous folklorists, such as Richard Dorson, Alan Dundes, and Mary Hufford. This gave off the feeling of reliability and credibility for readers to truly believe what Martha Sims was talking about. It truly felt that the way she was writing allowed readers to understand what she was expressing with ease. However, it was very unusual that Sims’s writing was giving off a tone in which felt like she had something to prove. This feeling of the need for validation truly manifested Sims’s ideas upon the reader.

One of the more interesting texts in “Living Folklore” was when Sims’s had said:

“The discipline of folklore has evolved into a way of thinking about how people learn, share knowledge, and form their identity. Studying Folklore is a way of learning about people, of thinking about how we communicate and make meaning.”

This was one of the more interesting texts that I had picked up as a reader because it ultimately shows how folklore isn’t always real but tends to live in our everyday lives. In addition to giving readers a clear point of view of what folklore is, Sims also gives readers the origin behind folklore. Not only does she explain how folklore derives form tradition, Sims also gives readers multiple definitions of tradition and how it correlates to folklore. Though “Living Folklore” was a bit too extensive for me as a reader, it ultimately was very successful in being an informational piece of writing.