After looking for many years, I found a complete of the complete stories of Joel Chandler Harris, written in the dialect he claimed accurately reflected the character of Uncle Remus. I always loved the Brer' Rabbit stories, and they are a permanent part of my vocabulary. When my sons were young, I took them to see Song Of The South and they loved the Brer' Rabbit stories. A few years later, there was a strong negative reaction to the movie, and the stories, and they were taken off the market. To this day, Song Of The South is not available in this country (I found a source to get it on DVD from Canada, if anyone is interested.) Julius Lester rewrote some of the Brer' Rabbit stories a few years ago, and I bought the book. He put the stories in proper English, even giving a little bit of a homeboy spin to the language. I thought it was an interesting, completely unsuccessful excercise. I owned a complete stories book back in the sixties which didn't make it through one of my various moves, over the years. Now, I'm excited to be getting a new copy, written as Joel Chandler Harris wrote it. Which is another angle on the whole issue of writing in dialect.
Reading other threads in here, and adding my two cents, I realize how subjective my reaction is to preserving songs and literature in dialect. Not being black, I can't understand the rejection of the Brer' Rabbit stories, as they are clearly African in origin and a rich, wonderful part of ALL of our heritage by this point. The little I've talked about all of this with black friends and family, I realize (not to my surprise) that there are almost as many opinions as people I ask. Some people don't see anything wrong with the Brer' Rabbit stories, and some are very uncomfortable and turned off by the dialect.
But man, I LOVE those Brer' Rabbit stories. Being a little kid who had to use his brains and his feet to survive, I really identified with Brer' Rabbit. He always outsmarted the fox and Bear, no matter how bleak his prospects looked. I didn't have nearly as much success. I got caught and pummeled more than Brer' Rabbit, and there was never a briar patch around when I needed it.
Any other lovers of Brer' Rabbit in here? Does the dialect bother you?