Cynthia Hill:
A tall tale is a tale

Tonya Browning:
What kind of tale Cynthia?

Kesha Fomby:
Twain defined humorous writing as an artistic skill. It required extensive thought and technique, not like comical or witty stories. A humorous story works because of the "manner" it was told (or written), as opposed to comical or witty which works depending upon subject "matter".

Sharron Rush:
Mark Twain absolutely epitomizes humorous writing as an American invention. His works are among those that one can read sitting all alone and end up laughing out loud like a complete fool. His written description of the differences between humor, as an American form, and the comic or droll European styles are illustrated hilariously. You can just see some prissy Englishman acting in the way he describes. The humorous style is one that Texans have very much made their own and can be found in writers like John Henry Faulk, Molly Ivans and others. Perhaps it is the way in which Southerners relate to dialect, but I don't find Twain use of it offensive. He is pretty egalitarian, as likely to characterize a black dialect as an English or French and sees all men equal in their absurdity.

Jennifer Walder:
Walt Whitman seemed to have written a lot about his wants and desires. He seemed to make a lot of inferences in his works to homosexual themes and from learning more about his life, it appears that he might have been homosexual. Additionally, he writes about astronomy in "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer. From hearing the presentation, it also appears that Whitman had a stong interest in stars and new sciences. Free verse helps his poetry by in my opinion making it read with a more creative appeal. His ideas and writings were in no way uniform or regular so it would make more sense for his poetry to have its own rhythm to it also.

Tonya Browning:
Good point Jenn. However, it also seems like Whitman plays it both ways with science. On one hand, he like science, but on the other hand his poem seems to be saying, "Ignore the astronomer and gaze upon nature." A very anti-science rhetoric.

Jeremy Baksht:
Mark Twain does use humorous writing in his stories. His definition of humorous writing emphasises on how a story is told rather than what is being talked about. The jumping frog story for example is not funny without the dialect and his descriptions. Instead of just writing a narrative he uses the "garrulous" old man to tell his story.

Kenneth Direkly:
I think a folktale is about a historical event or time period that has great importance to the future societies. A tall tale is more of a humerous writing that is used mainly for entertainment purposes, like a fish story. I think Mark Twain is the foundation for humerous writing because of the dialect that he uses and the content of his stories. For example, the simple small-town dialect that Twain uses in "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is a key factor in making the story funny. The reader is more likely to feel like this was an actual event because it isn't transcribed with large bulky words that many of the fictional writers use to show they have a vast vocabulary. Twain simply puts the story in plain context and, in the case of the story above, speaks directly to the reader asking for simpathy.

Maria Fuentes:
Walt Whitman used a lot of nature in his poetry, I think it was because he liked nature but also (I think) it was because nature is something beautiful and not fully understood. He was not an ordinary man of his time. i guesss in a wierd way, in nature animals do what they have to in order to survive, so Whitman was not ashamed to right about sex , and political issues in his writings becasue that is what people did and argued about in that time (does this make sense to you?)

Tonya Browning:
Texans have definitely incorporated Twain's style. His humor writing was amazing, mainly because of his use of dialect and the vernacular. He created the "American" style of humor writing, and nothing was sacred. His epistolary narrative about Adam and Eve is hilarious.

James Lo:
I think a tall tale is a compete fiction opposing fa folk tale might evolve from a real story and altered as time progresses. Twain uses local dialect while telling the stories. Like in Huck Finn Twain has used many southern dialect along with black dialect to enchance the effect of his story telling I don't find the way Twain uses dialects offense, instead, I found a story is more interesting with those elements. However I do find a little bit more difficulty to read the story since it's sometimes not in "proper English"

Heidi Korstad:
A tall tale is a complete lie where everyone knows it is a lie, whereas a folktale is a legend past down through generations either orally or written, which evidently was at one time thought to have really happened. Twain's humorous story tells what a humorous story is while at the same time acts as a humorous story. The way his description of the humorous story ,versus the witty or comical stories, follows directly with the actual story, is in effect very funny.

Billy Lynch:
Mark Twain: I enjoyed his distinction between 'comical' stories and 'humerous stories.' He takes a definite position in supporting the humerous stories not because of the content but because of the way they are told. He ends the reading with an example of a 'humerous' story emphasizing the delivery of the storyteller in "The Golden Arm.' He uses dialect in order to convey that this story is being heard by the audience rather than read by the audience.

A tall tale is obviously false and made up while a folktale is passed down and mixed with truth. A folktale may be inspired or based on, perhaps, a real person. Facts may be exaggerated.

Kris Desormeaux:
Whitman incorporates his more personal life into his poetry. He writes with homo-erotic elements to emphasize his affection for other men and was criticized for this. He also used his experiences in the war as a background for some of his poems. Free verse helps his expressiveness because it does not constrain him on what he wanted to say. I think it was more of a good style for his poetry because it was new and controversial just like the contents of his works. His work was more liberal and expressive than Dickinson's and was longer in length. Also more of his work got published than hers because he fought harder to get his work published, even going to lengths of publishing it himself. Dickinson did not have the advantage of being a printer and have access to pub. equip.

Kristin Keene:
I think that Whitman does incorporate his own background into his work in the manner that he speaks of or insinuates his homosexual tendencies. However, instead of blatantly saying things, he would beat around the bush and hide what he was trying to say. More than anything, Whitman's writings revealed his personality. As for Dikinson, her writings instead of opening up her past, were more brief and like a random thought that she decided to jot down. However, I believe that all writing must have a source and you can always find some link between the authors and their backgrounds. How else would they get the ideas for their writings.

Stacie Wright:
I think that a tall tale plays more on the reader's desire to read something for the sake of entertainment while a folktale tends to go beyond enteratinment towards educating the reader about cultural characteristics that the story relates. Both are seem to be characterized by humor as a means of presenting stories. Mark Twain uses humor in his stories and proves that the way any situation is described determines how humorous it is going to be.

Maria Fuentes:
tall tale is a long story that may have some truth or if not like a moral, a folktale is really exagerated .

Jennifer Walder:
I agree with Sharron in that Twain epitomizes humerous writings. He can take something as simple as describing how to tell a story and make it hilarious. I also agree in that his use of dialect gives his story a more interesting edge. I am not from the South and I while I may not totally identify with it, I surely am not offended by it.

Melonie Loeb:
A tall tale is a story in which the entire story seems a little absurd to the audience. It is outrageous to believe that the story could possibly be true. A folktale is more of a story that is told passing through the generations. A father, who heard it from his father, tells his son. There is a chance that these stories could be true. They are interesting to tell sitting around the fire one night. I found that Twain definately epitomizes humorous writing.

Kimberly Williams:
A folktale is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation that describes an event that occurred in some point in time. A tall tale is an exageration of a story for entertainment purposes. Pecos Bill is an example of a tall tale. Mark Twain does epitomize humorous writing because he is so direct and to the point in his work. It seems as if he just has the gift of having a funny sense of humor even if he was not making an effort to do so. Twain defined this type of writing skill that had to be learned and used wisely in order to be effective in storytelling

Garrett T. Crouch:
A tall tale is a story that is usually given supernatural characteristics to explain an actual event, place, or thing. What I think of off hand would be the story of Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill. These supernatural characters single handedly caused natural phenomenons to occurr, as the story goes. I think a folk taleis a lot like a tall tale but I don't think there is as much supernaturality as there is exaggerated truths to make a character's ethos stand out. Twain is a good example of humorous writing because he uses his wit and past experiences with real people that have made some impact on his own life to give life to the characters. His dialect is very necessary in my opinion to express the mind set of his characters. I personally don't find it offensive but I could see how some people might not agree with me.

Audra Leifeste:
I think Whitman incorporates his own background into his poetry which is easy to see when he "strays" a little out of what many would consider norm, especially for his time period! For example, Whitman writes, '"It is my mouth forever, I am in love with it, I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me." After reading about Whitman and knowing of his thoughts on things such as homosexuality, it is easy to see how he incorporates his own background into his writing. I believe free verse truly helps his expressiveness. I think he is much more at liberty to express himself better by using free verse. Dickinson's writings were much more incomplete and conservative than Whitman's. Both are similar in that they both used free verse. Wow, how interesting!

Kenneth Direkly:
Jeremy, that is exactly right about how Twain tells the story rather than talking about it. He speaks to the reader in country bumpkin vocabulary that his readers can understand. Twain makes his stories even more funny by adding simple exclaimations of surprise when the mans frog won't jump. That notorious frog was great.

Cynthia Hill:
A tall tale is an outrageous, larger than life story. It has a superhuman character that can do the impossible. An example of a tall tale is Paul Bunyun and his big blue ox. Tall tales are not true but are for entertainment. A folktale is a story that has a more realistic story line about more possible things but do contain some unrealistic elements. Mark Twain uses dialect very well to describe how to tell a humorous story. He uses the dialect as a humorous tool, making fun of those country poeple who do speak like that. Twain makes country people sound unintellegent and uneducated but this did not offend me because it was used to be humorous.

Sharron Rush:
In response to Jennifer comment, Whitman's wants and desires seemed to encompass a lot of the world though, didn't they? His interest in science and all the elements of life; physical, mental and spiritual, make him a truly engaging poet. Since the homoerotic was necessarily kept under wraps in his time, we have become fixated and fascinated by that part of his life, but when I first read Whitman and had no thought of the homosexual element, the spirit of his works practically leapt off the page! The energy and strength of his images and language are terrifically exciting...I love his poetry, it makes me joyous.