Reading Notes: Laos, Part B

I liked Part B's reading more because of how mischevious some of the stories were. One had an interesting prose of "One woman in deceit and craft is more than a match for eight men" and proceeded to describe how one woman had played a handful of dudes to building houses for her and then sold them as slaves and pocketed the money. Unlike the first unit, there were a number of deceitful people who lived profitably by cheating others, but they're written in such an entertaining way that you don't see them as a bad person. Perhaps because it was always a woman or a young boy doing the deceiving, someone who didn't have a lot of their own. It stuck a chord on how beneficial cleverness is, imbeciles who have a lot are nothing in competition next to someone witty. I also particularly liked The Lazy Beggar, who had nothing and yet ended up with everything. The ending really stuck in my mind: "when a poor man does nothing, he is called a lazy beggar, but when a rich person or a prince does not work, he has power, and people do him reverence". How true is it that we worship and idolize people for what they have rather than what they are. This is a super interesting topic, that I could definitely see myself writing about. What pops into my mind first is how media affects our views of others. From a young age, we are taught to pursue a certain standard of beauty and personality. Attractive people are seen as friendlier, more confident, more successful. This is a great parallel to this story. Of course, this is only successful if there are foolish people to trick. People who do not think for themselves and quickly follow the guidance of others. So many fads in media are successful because of people wanting to become like the priviliged majority rather than the original individual. I'm looking forward to exploring this idea more.

Tad Fane Waterfalls. Photo by Justin Foulkes/Lonely Planet

Katherine Neville Fleeson, Laos Folk-Lore. Photographs by W.A. Briggs (1899). Web Source.