Plagiarism and Folklore

Slate has an interesting article on a bunch of nineteenth century writers stole from each other and how by using twenty-first century technology of Google Books will lead to more of this sort of thing. The funny part is England Howell stole a passage from Sabine Baring-Gould which she, in fact, had stolen from an earlier text on Northern Mythology. Y'all better make sure your disses and other stuff you'paraphrased' are vetted.

Oh yeah, I'm terrible at updating this

To my fan: I'm sorry I haven't been updating this. I promise to be a good boy. I'm going to kick this getting-on-with-my-real-life jag and start obsesssing over something as unprofitable (both monetarily and spiritually) as folklore.

On that note, let me rant about the most boring and misguided podcasts I have heard in a long while: The Myth Show.. I'm sure this guy means well, but he is so boring. His musical bed is jazzed-up New Age pap. He quotes wikipedia. He has a chub-on for Joseph Campbell. I considered recommending this to a friend who is developing a seventh-grade myth curriculum. But jeesh, I'm afraid this show would hold the interest of a class for even the scant seventeen minutes the show runs. I need volunteers to help me develop a folklore podcast that's both academically rigorous and interesting. I know, that's a tall order.

The folks at Hometown Tales have an interesting and funny show, but I would have a hard time either incorporating it into a folklore class or introducing a newbie into folklore studies.

Which brings me to the point about the point. What should the point of a folklore podcast be? Should it be geared to those outside of our admittedly small circle of folklorists? Should we evangelize to the unconverted? Or should we bicker among ourselves, becoming embroiled in silly internecine conflict over minutia and esoterica? (Personally I prefer the latter, that's why I wa a big fan of Lingua Franca while it lasted).

I just have this feeling that, as a folklorist, I am alone in this world. The discussion board over at Newfolk a couple of weeks ago was abuzz with talk about "Cultural Cringe." Well I personally cringe everytime I tell people I'm a folklorist. Especially since it is usually accompanied by "Would you like fries with that?" With colleges getting rid of folklore departments (as well as Russian departments), with English and Anthro departments looking down upon folklorists, and with the dearth of actual opportunity in the field, I can't help but feel that I chose the wrong vocation. With all my professed love for Lingua Franca, I never read that article that came out ten years ago asking "Whither Folklore?" Had I done so I might have just sold my soul and went to law school or ed school or culinary school.