The Ant And The Grasshopper, fabulist, Aesop

I’ll Still Be An Ant

By Jimmy Reed
Friday, December 3, 2010

In the minds of some, the word fabulist has negative connotations, referring to people who fabricate elaborate, dishonest stories. Even so, I aspire to be a fabulist, not because I want folks to think I’m a liar (although many do), but because fabulists write concise, brief stories emphasizing incontrovertible truths.

I gave up on being a novelist because I don’t have enough self-discipline, and my feeble poetry efforts never developed beyond doggerel. But, because I’m afflicted with the psychological aberration known as obsessive compulsiveness and because Mama taught me to turn that problem and any others into opportunities, I may qualify as a fabulist, since my stories are concise and brief, never exceeding five hundred words.

Among the great writers of the fabulist genre, Aesop is best known. Children enjoy this ancient Greek slave’s stories without perceiving their moral; adults — especially cynics like me — enjoy them because, with stick-poked-in-the-eye effectiveness, they point out human follies.

Recently I read a modern version of “The Ant And The Grasshopper,â€