Fables are used to make a point. A moral demonstrated by a short narrative. But the narrative does not prove the point but merely provides an illustration of it, an example more easily remembered, one that may lend some substance and colour to our arguments. The art of rhetoric. The Panchatantra is full of dialogues […]

‘The Rule of the Lion’ or ‘The Monkey and the Lion’s Breath’ is a little-known fable attributed to Aesop. A critique of power and the folly of our attempts to pander to it. It goes something like this: The lion makes himself king of the beasts but seeks to be known as fair and just. […]

Late last year, I wrote a wholesome, inspirational fable. I was reluctant to promote it though, because the postivity placed it outside my comfort zone. As an original, there was no antecedent to be over-written or challenged. No reference. Nor was there any inherent aggression, no punishment or cruelty. It was whimsical. It was hard […]

Last week I began to poke around in the distant corners of the land of fables, the hinterland. I went to the bottom of the Perry list* and started to work my way up. I can report most of these fables were unfamiliar and forgettable, as you might expect, but at number 559 (out of […]

I came across this accidental masterpiece in ‘Lives and Deaths,’ a collection of Tolstoy’s shorter works translated by Boris Drayluk. It surprised me, hidden away at the end like an afterthought, its simplicity and brevity (only nine half-pages) proving more potent than the longer texts preceding it. The story is an unpretentious, plain-spoken account of […]