traditions

  • Rooting for Folk Tales

    But the question that’s been on my mind for a while now is how and why we’ve come to recognize certain tales as perennial (and universal) and have relegated others to complete obscurity. Or, to be more exact, how we’ve…

  • R.I.P.: Odd Habits

    R.I.P.: Odd Habits

    I would really like to see a coming back or recreation of funeral rites. Let’s create new ones. Let’s take this matter into our own hands.

  • Rumpus Original Fiction: On Documentation

    Rumpus Original Fiction: On Documentation

    What is it like to be you? he was always asking, in his way, and it seemed a stupid question then. I didn’t know. I could lie better than I could tell the truth. I hadn’t left yet.

  • A Japanese Heart

    A Japanese Heart

    If you follow the script, people will judge you as having a genuine Japanese heart.

  • Iceland, Nation of Readers

    Holland isn’t the only Northern European country with unusual Christmas traditions. Icelanders pride themselves on being a nation of readers—93% of residents read at least one book a year, and one in ten publishes one in his or her lifetime.…

  • The Rumpus Interview with Chinelo Okparanta

    The Rumpus Interview with Chinelo Okparanta

    Chinelo Okparanta talks about her debut novel, Under the Udala Trees, her upcoming appearance at Portland’s Wordstock book festival, and LGBTQ rights in America and worldwide.

  • The Evolution of Fairy Tales

    Fairy tales are a fundamental part of the human experience, an extension of the oral traditions of the earliest storytellers, and part of culture that becomes internalized. In part, the importance of fairy tales is their ability to change with…