Week 14 Reading Diary: Italian Popular Tales, Extra Credit

(The cover of the book via the Untextbook)

I decided to finish the unit that I started earlier this week instead of starting a new one, because I really enjoyed the stories in the last half! This half actually had a lot more stories with animals in them, and they all (or most of them, at least) seemed to be stories about little things that get passed from person to person and then at the end they've become a huge thing and gotten out of hand--until the narrator makes a wry comment, and makes the whole thing seem absurd! This actually occurred to me to be a really good metaphor for the perils of gossip, and that's probably what I would write about if I were writing any more stories this week...but instead I'll just talk about some of the other stories that weren't like the ones I described, because those were pretty good too...

The Language of Animals: I can actually sympathize a lot with the main character from this one, because he goes through 10 years of school far away (although at the end of it his teachers say they don't have any more to teach him, and I doubt that would ever happen for me!) only to go back to his family and find out that the stuff he's learned isn't, in a lot of cases, appreciated. Most people don't appreciate me yammering at them about what I've learned during the semester, or whatever, so a lot of the time what I've learned goes unsaid until someone needs an answer for things, and then I can't help myself and I shout out the answer! So basically what I'm saying is that I would make this story into a modern-day college/grad student story, because I think that would both be very amusing, in a slightly terrifying and true way.

An Incident in Rome: this is what happens when you go underground in Rome! Just kidding, kind of...actually, what I would probably do is set this story in an underground in Rome. Why do I like modern retellings so much? I guess I'll never know...anyway, this story had some potential for both the comic (I read somewhere that having two people who are both really set on their dialectically-opposed goals is one of the best recipes for comedy, and I agree) and the tragic (reading forever is probably hard on your eyes, and being the person that sentenced Jesus to be crucified probably is not the easiest thing, especially when you're being eternally punished for it)....

Source: Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane (1885). Untextbook.

Week 14 Reading Diary: Italian Folk Tales

(Medieval banquet, via Wikimedia Commons)

I really liked all the stories this week! I'm running kind of low on time, so this will have to be a quicker Reading Diary than most: here are two stories that I really enjoyed from this section, that intrigued me enough to be potential Storytelling material:

The Fair Angiola: so, Rapunzel is one of my favorite fairy tales and this is a very interesting variant of that tale--from the sentient housecleaning products in the witch's tower, to the fact that the witch bites off a part of Angiola's finger when Angiola keeps forgetting to tell her mother to make good on her deal with the witch, to the fact that the witch then turns Angiola's face into a dog's, everything is so interesting. But anyway, what I was thinking was to either write the story from Angiola's perspective the day that the prince arrives to climb up her hair and convinces her to run, beginning when she first sees him and ending with them both leaving would be a cool way to do this (also bringing this scene into the present day would also be very cool. Or maybe telling the story from the perspective of the household objects? Or maybe the balls of yarn? Or maybe telling the story from Angiola's perspective when she has the face of a dog? That must have been very, very weird...

Water and Salt: this is a crazy fairy tale. Every character in it is crazy. From the king that orders his daughter executed on a whim because she says that she only loves him as much as water and salt (although I've made this misstep with other people: if you're logical and not flowery-sounding about how much you love them sometimes they get very offended. Although I've never actually had one sentence me to execution), to the magician that the daughter (apparently?) falls in love with (or did I read the story wrong? I'll have to go back and check when I have more time) but then orders her to kill him for no reason the day before her father comes (is it his magical sacrifice that saves the kingdom? The story says that they quartered him and put his quarters in separate rooms. It also says that his quarters turned into precious stones and metals, which while great is not actually very helpful when we're trying to decide how he died after all). Anyway, I was thinking that it would actually be cool to tell this one from the king's perspective that had his daughter executed, during the final banquet....

Source: Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane (1885). Untextbook.

Week 13 Reading Diary: Russian Folktales, Extra Credit

(Leshy, via Wikipedia)

I really enjoyed the tales from this unit--I was looking for something written in a more colloquial style (see: I have reached exceeded my thinking capacity for this week, apparently, so stuff written in a higher style was out) and these stories all had really awesome characters--and so many twists! A lot of them deal with a sense of poetic justice, too, which is really satisfying to read when you're just done with everything! But anyway, here were some of the stories that I especially enjoyed:

The Water Snake: this one was actually really sad, but I thought it was interesting that, unlike so many other stories where the daughter is tricked into marriage, she actually ended up happier married than she was at home--I'm sure there's some kind of socioeconomic-situational stuff that I just didn't catch here, but that kind of ending to that particular kind of marriage isn't very common in fairy tales in general (at least not any that I've read, and especially not when the girl is tricked into marriage, as opposed to being sold/traded into it by a well-meaning but rather thick father). Anyway, the storytelling period for this week is over, but if I were to write a story about this one I would probably focus a bit on the snake's background--a legion of snake-people sounds really cool, actually--there might be more mythology out there that I could find...

The Leshy: I'm a sucker for stories that include "Green Men"--wild woodland spirits--although I find it really interesting that, in this case, the woodland spirit is related to the Devil (the spirit is the Devil's grandfather) as opposed to being a beneficiary of any of the characters in the story. If I were to write a story focusing on this one--although I suppose it would be possible to write a story that focused on a combination of some of these stories--I would focus on the priest's daughter's life after she goes to live with the huntsman as his wife. The story says that she was "given" in marriage to him, but I might change the story so that she ended up choosing him, or write one that focuses on the fact that she didn't agree to marry him. Or a story that focuses on the transition back to normal life from living with the man in the woods. That turned dark fast...I'll stop now...

Source: Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887). Untextbook.

Week 13 Reading Diary: Czech Folktales, Part 2

(Mortar and pestle, via Flickr)

Once again, so many cool stories in this unit! The narrator in these is really droll at times--like in one of the stories he tells us that the protagonist's name is Francis, but that it doesn't really matter if we know that or not--which might also be a cool angle to take for a Storytelling. I haven't really tried to do third person narration at all this semester except for one story, so I might want to try to do that this time around. There aren't that many weeks left, after all!

The Soldier and the Devil: this story was hilarious. The fact that the Soldier put the Devil and then Death in his knapsack, but had to let them go because he was causing too much trouble, was just too much for me, as is the part where he throws his cloak in the gates of Heaven when St. Peter refuses him entry, and sits down on the cloak and says it's his real-estate now...I could just imagine how everybody who dealt with the Soldier was probably simultaneously amazed and irritated by him. This might actually be a good story to do from another person's point of view--or maybe Death/The Devil's point of view, since they're actually both characters in this story?

A Clever Lass: I think it will come as no surprise to anyone at this point when I say that I'm a huge fan of stories with girls who are Tricksters, especially since there are so few of them. This was probably my favorite story in the unit, if only because of the King's fussiness and the Queen's awesomeness and the fact that he basically teases her with impossible tasks all the time and she bests all of them with her intelligence. This story might actually be a cool one to write a sequel to--because I bet the King isn't going to stop being a pill, even though at the end of this story he finally admits that the Queen can advise anyone she wants. In fact, it would probably be really interesting to see what their children got up to...I bet there were some hair-raising situations there...

Source: The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis (1922). Untextbook.

Week 12 Reading Diary: The Canterbury Tales, Extra Credit

(Dorigen and Aurelius, via Wikipedia)

I'd actually read part of the Canterbury Tales before in a Puffin edition, but I've always really wanted to read more tales from it and I had the excuse for this unit! The prose retelling actually worked really well for me--I'm not a big fan of prose retellings in general (I had several bad experiences with various versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey when I was younger and now I tend to avoid them like the plague), but this Week I read two and I liked both of them! Maybe I should give more of them a try...they tend to be easier to fly through than the actual poems, although obviously I adore the poem forms too...anyway, here were some of the stories I read and enjoyed:

1) The Friar's Tale: The Story of the Summoner--(I skipped the Wife of Bath's tale because I've already read it, but I really, really enjoy that one and there's a lot of overlapping mythology from various places and basically I recommend it highly)--This story was deliciously creepy, from the meeting on the road to the strange traveler being cagey and refusing to tell his story to the Summoner, to the bitter end when the Summoner finally got himself in over his head. It was very satisfying to see that someone as unpleasant as the Summoner got what he deserved, and strange for the fiend to almost come in as the hero of the story. I've already done a Storytelling this week, but if I had to do another one I would probably retell this one from the point of view of the fiend? Or the old lady? Or maybe the Summoner's horse...or pan...this one would be a good one to retell from a different point of view...

2) The Franklin's Tale: The Promise of Dorigen--I really loved this one, because it had so many generous people in it and it was largely due to them that Dorigen (or anybody else, for that matter) didn't end up in an unhappy situation. It's my pet peeve when ladies who do the littlest thing wrong are forced to leave their husbands and have unhappy endings--there are a lot of those stories out there--and I was worried, for a moment, when Dorigen made her promise to Aurelius, that this was going to be another one that made me want to throw the computer across the room after reading. But it wasn't! And Aurelius's sub-tale was lovely, with the moral magician, and Arviragus was great because he honestly loved Dorigen and he was a good person anyway. So, yeah...I loved all the characters, and if I were to write a story about this one I would probably bring it into the present day. Because I love doing that!

Source: The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908). Untextbook.

Week 12 Reading Diary: Britomart, Part 2

(Britomart, by Walter Crane, via Wikimedia Commons)

I think I loved the second half of this unit even more than the first! Britomart has completely and utterly won my heart, and Spenser's The Faerie Queen is now definitely on my list of things to read when I actually have time to read things for myself. It's an actual need for me to find out what's going to happen to Amoret--which is actually one of the ideas that I was playing around with as a storytelling idea as I was reading. Some other scenes that really hit me were:

1) The procession from the Evil Enchanter's castle: I feel like this could be really interesting if you drew from present-day metaphors for all of the traits that were represented in the procession. It would also be cool to bring Britomart into the present day and figure out why she might be trapped in a room with two doors that she's afraid to open. This scene actually reminded me a lot of the Lady and Tiger puzzles I used to do when I was younger--they're fun, if you like messed-up logic...

2) The tournament. There are so many ways this could be done: as a present-day thing (Medieval Fair, anyone?) or another type of contest/fight/etc. Or told from a different point of view (I vote Amoret's; I love Amoret). Basically, though, the fact that Britomart went through all of the trouble of fighting against all of the other competitors just to ensure that Amoret would have the chance to be admired and chosen as the most beautiful and faithful lady is one of my favorite things. Their friendship was really heartwarming, and I think it would also be cool to put a bunch of how much they meant to each other in the story.

3) The scene where Artegall realizes Britomart's a girl. And he just kind of kneels and looks at her for a long, long time. It's so hopelessly romantic, and I am so hopelessly sappy this late at night, but like I said this unit made me really happy and this page in particular...so, yeah, Britomart is awesome...

Source: Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916). Untextbook.

Week 12 Reading Diary: Britomart, Part 1

(Britomart viewing Artegall in Merlin's mirror, via Wikipedia)

I am so glad that I chose to read the Britomart unit this week--because I honestly don't know when I've read a more awesome story about a lady knight! (That's a lie; I've read some really awesome ones otherwise. But this one was written way earlier, so that counts for something, I guess?) There's literally nothing that I do not love about what's happened in the readings so far, from the fact that Britomart sets off on her quest not only because she wants to find Artegall, but because she also wants to see the world and gain fame and glory, to the fact that regularly challenges her fellow knights and wins all of her fights due not only to her enchanted spear but also to years and years of weapons training. I'm having such a hard time deciding what direction I might want to go this week, Storytelling-wise, because there's so many possibilities within this unit, but here's a few of my thoughts so far:

1) Any of the sections here would be excellent fodder for writing in a minor character's point of view. There are so many reactions to Britomart's disguise as a knight that it might be cool to tell the story from the perspective of one of the knights she fights, or maybe one of the ladies she rescues? It would also be possible to tell any of the stories from Glauce's point of view, awesome old lady/squire/companion to Britomart that she is...

2) It might be possible to add another episode to the story? Britomart gets into a lot of trouble, and a lot of it is because she doesn't stop and think before she rushes into things, so another episode would probably be comprised of some kind of challenge/castle/maiden/friendly or unfriendly knight that our heroine meets with gleeful courage and incredible fortitude and confidence...

Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916). Untextbook.

Week 11 Reading Diary: More Celtic Fairy Tales

(Page 78 illustration in the book: Owen O'Mulready, via Wikimedia Commons)

This unit includes a really wide range of genres in its tales, from the extremely tragic and poetic Children of Lir to the almost slapstick Story of the McAndrew Family. All of the stories struck me as completely retell-able, too--any of them would be really fun to do through a tighter point of view, or switched between that time and now, or told from the point of view from an unexpected character in the story...here were some of my ideas...

The Vision of MacConglinney: there is so much food in this story. I was hungry while I was reading it, and I had to get up and get a snack halfway through because my stomach kept growling and distracting me. Besides the victuals therein, though, the protagonist of this story is actually really funny--he describes an entire vision world constructed of food in order to lure a gluttonous demon out of the king, where it has been causing the king to basically eat his kingdom out of house and home. I don't know exactly what I would do this, but maybe it would work as a metaphorical story?

Dream of Owen O'Mulready: this is a short one, but it's really weird: a man who has never dreamed before tells his neighbor that he wishes he could dream, and the neighbor tells him that he should sweep out the fireplace and sleep there that night, and he'll be sure to have a dream...and boy, does he! It's a nightmare...and he wakes his wife up from trying to climb up the chimney in his sleep...I feel like this would have to be a really surreal-feeling story to work--or maybe it could be told by a narrator who was excessively practical and dry-humored? I feel like that would provide a funny contrast...

Source: More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1895).

Week 11 Reading Diary: The Mabinogion, Part 2

(Taliesin monument, via Wikimedia Commons)

The funny thing about this half of the unit was that it took me until about halfway in to get the joke: that Taliesin the bard, who speaks all of these words of wisdom and silences the best bards of the king and manages many other seemingly impossible things, is at most about seven years old. Then I read this entire section with a grin on my face, because honestly the image of a young child putting an entire courts' worth of nobles in their places, and advising a king and queen, and bullying the king into having a horse race just so that he can be even more tricksy win the king the race--that is the best image.

What I was thinking for this half of the unit was definitely including Taliesin in the story, but developing his character so that we see what people, generally, think about him. Elphin and his wife can't like taking orders from a child 24/7--especially a child with more snark in his little finger than most adults have in their entire bodies--so what would their reactions to Taliesin's advice be? What about Elphin's court? There must have been some people who hated him for being such a know-it-all, even despite the fact that he was the reason that the kingdom prospered as much as it did. Maybe a modern-day story, with a child genius? Or would it be funnier as a medieval fantasy-type story? Who knows?

Source: The Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest (1877).

Week 11 Reading Diary: The Mabinogion, Part 1

(Pwyll hunting with his hounds, via Wikimedia Commons)

The fact that I actually get to read the Mabinogion for this week is crazy exciting to me; I've been meaning to read it for years and somehow it just hasn't happened. That said, there's a lot of fodder for stories in this week's unit, and a lot of cool ways to turn it into stories, so here's my thoughts so far:

Pwyll and Rhiannon: this entire story is great. I chuckled the entire time I read it, because of the single-mindedness of all of the characters--Pwyll saying I'm going to the mound again today if it kills me, I'm going to finally catch this beautiful woman, and his servant saying I'm going to make my ruler happy if it kills me or my horse, I don't care, and Rhiannon coming by every day riding her horse and deliberately making it so that Pwyll can't catch her unless he asks her to stop first. Rhiannon is one of my favorite characters from any of the units we've read, because she's so incredibly opinionated and strong-minded and so willing to go out and get what she wants. So I was thinking that it might be interesting to do a piece where Rhiannon decides on her plan to go out and get Pwyll interested in her--maybe set in the present day?

Gwawl's Request: Once again, Rhiannon is the real reason why Pwyll succeeds in the first place. Also, the part where Pwyll agrees to give her suitor whatever boon he requests is priceless, because of the way she chews him out afterwards. I don't know that I want to write a story about this so much--I just wanted to mention this part because it's one of my favorites!

Gwri Wallt Euryn (these names are killer again): I really, really appreciate the fact that the royal child who accidentally ended up with the wrong parents was actually suspected of being royal by the parents--there are so many other stories where this isn't the case, and in all of them my suspension of disbelief takes a severe beating, because I honestly can't think of a situation where the foster parents couldn't put two and two together. Missing royal child + mysterious baby shows up on the doorstep + royal child is suspiciously strong and brave and handsome and looks incredibly like the king...gee, I wonder where the child could have come from? But in this case Teirnyon figures out what's happened pretty quickly (although not before Rhiannon gets framed for eating the baby) (although in Pwyll's defense he mostly only goes along with this explanation because the entire rest of his kingdom is incredibly outraged). But anyway, I was thinking that a baby switch story in the present day might be interesting...although I don't know how I would pull off the "royal" part...

Source: The Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest (1877).

Week 10 Reading Diary: Inuit Folk Tales

(polar bear, via Wikipedia)

This week's reading was (is?) really, really interesting--it's unfortunate that I'm writing this post so early in the morning, because I want to have more coherent thoughts about everything but in truth life is due so I'll just talk about some of my favorite tales and the thoughts that went through my head as I read them...

NUKÚNGUASIK, WHO ESCAPED FROM THE TUPILAK: (these names are killer). My immediate impression upon reading this story was that it was very, very creepy--and if it were brought into the present day it would be even creepier. The Tupilak is an interesting concept, and it might function well as a metaphor (I'll have to do more research on that. Tomorrow? I don't know if I have time to do research before this story is going to be due...but anyway...). The evocative nature of all of these stories means that they have the potential to carry a lot of sensory description, but I'm not sure if I want to fall back on that again this week or try something new for a change...brotherly dynamics, maybe? I usually don't end up with a lot of dialogue in my stories, but I really enjoy writing it, so that might be an option? Dialogue is always cool for showing family relationships...

THE WOMAN WHO HAD A BEAR AS A FOSTER-SON: this story was actually really heartbreaking. It made me miss my dog. The love that the old lady and the bear had for each other--and the fact that this love means that she lets him go in the end--is the highlight of the story, and I was thinking that a quiet story with just the two of them in it--or maybe the old lady worrying about the danger her bear-son is in while talking with someone else? Or watching him play with the children? Could it be a worry-for-the-future kind of story? Who knows; we'll see tomorrow--would function really well as a counterpoint to all the rest of my stories, most of which are really dramatic and sensory-focused (because that's how I experience the world: turned up to 100 on any given day. Ignore me. I'm rambling from tiredness).

Source: Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921).

Week 9 Reading Diary: British North America, Part 2

(Color composite picture of the Pleiades, via Wikipedia)

Once again, this week, there were a lot of stories that dealt with similar elements really differently--there were multiple stories about the origins of the salmon runs, and geese, and turtles--but two stories, once again, really jumped out at me, and these were "The Origins of the Pleiades" and "The Making of Lakes and Mountains." The Pleiades stories is Wyandot, but "The Making of Lakes and Mountains" is another Haida story, and I have potential Plans for both of them.

Firstly, "The Origins of the Pleiades" has a lot of potential for some really cool sensory imagery (which is always my favorite thing to write; see all of the previous stories about being swallowed by dragons and such)--it's about seven sisters who come down from heavens every night to dance on a deserted part of the beach, and about the man that watches them and convinces one of them to marry him. The sister agrees to the marriage, but says that he must come live with them up in the heavens. It would be cool to do some research on the Wyandot and see if they (were? are?) a matrilineal society, which would potentially be a very cool thing to write into the story (I promise that anthropological-social-relations-studying stuff is much more interesting when characters are acting it out). 

As for the second story, I really liked the potential for a close narration by the main character: a woman who has been captured by the Bears, and who is fleeing for her life from them with the few things she has managed to prepare for her journey. There's also a lot of cool potential for visual imagery in this story, because as she's running, the Bears pursuing her, back towards her homeland, she scatters her possessions--a comb, a whetstone, and some ochre--behind her, and they grow into the lakes and mountains and trees. Plus there's all the drama of actually running away involved, and also a really cool scene where she finally gets to the ocean and sees one of her people in a canoe, and when she gets in with him he drops his club into the water and it instantly kills all of the Bears. I had so many questions: why would just the presence of the club in the water kill the Bears? What happens after all the bears are killed? Does the woman get to see her home and family again?

Anyway, those are my thoughts on this half of the unit...

Story Source: Myths and Legends of British North America by Katharine Berry Judson (1917)

Week 9 Reading Diary: British North America, Part 1

(moon and stars, via Pixabay)

Hello again, after the break! I want to do this week's readings a little differently: the stories for this unit are all part of an anthology, and a lot of them have very similar elements in common. I'm thinking I could do one of two things (or anything, really, but these are the two ideas I have!): take these similar elements and recombine them with something else (maybe in the present day?) into something completely different, or take stories from one particular group (maybe the Haida?) and write my story on one or two of them...

Some ideas I have for the recombination story are to write a story about the creation of the world (from the creation of the land/sky/sea to the creation of the sun, moon, and stars, to the finding of fire, etc.), but to use all different elements--I was thinking maybe it would be interesting to write about a bunch of Native Americans from different tribes with these different creation stories attempting to make a movie about a single "Native American" creation story in the present day? A lot of people assume that Native Americans from the same tribe will have similar creation stories, but really there are a multitude of them, and they used to be very localized--which was really affected by all of the relocation and disease, etc. that went on during colonization. I really don't know...I'm still thinking about it...

The other idea--the one about using one or two Haida stories--is actually more developed. I really liked the story about Raven and the Moon Woman (actually any of the stories about Raven in this section I really enjoyed, because I love both Ravens and trickster myths, so a Raven trickster is actually right up my alley). It might be interesting to tell the story of how Raven (in disguise as a baby) came to be Moon Woman's child, and how she felt about this very loud and very demanding infant, and what she was thinking when she saw Raven escape with the moon. It might also be interesting to tell the story of exactly how she came to possess the moon in the first place...I'd have to do some more research into the topic to really get a handle of what I want to write, though...

Source: Myths and Legends of British North America by Katharine Berry Judson (1917).

Week 7 Reading Diary: Japanese Mythology, Part 2

(Japanese dragon, via Wikimedia Commons)

There were so many cool moments in this unit too--as usual, I'll only pick three, though, because the aim is to make it easier to choose story ideas, not harder...

The Grass-Cleaving Sword: Basically, I adore Princess Tacibana; she's brave and loyal as anything, and while I might not have made the choices that she does, she is the real reason why Yamato achieves anything in any of the myths, and he really doesn't even appreciate her until the end--and then she dies trying to save him again! In any case, I think that this story--or even a series of vignettes about her life and choices--would make for a good retelling from her perspective. It might even work for a modern-day retelling; with her being an unlikely hero--we don't usually think about unusually devoted people being heroes, but she really cares about not only her husband, but her kingdom, and her powers for forgiveness are amazing. In this story, she follows behind her husband in secret with his sacred sword--in case he needs her help/the sword--after he leaves to go on a quest so he can win the favor of another woman!--and then she runs through a burning field in order to get his sword to him when he needs it. That's devotion--like I said, not my kind of devotion, but if nothing else I can appreciate her incredible bravery when it comes to protecting the things she cares about.

The Dragon: This story is even more amazing than the last one--in this story, Princess Tacibana puts herself at incredible risk by staying in her palace, which is under attack by a dragon (the dragon is attacking because Yamato can't stop getting himself in trouble, but that's old-hat news by now), in order to perform a ritual that will help protect her people as they escape. Yamato may be the one that fights the dragon--after arriving back in the nick of time, because he gets captured getting into trouble again--but she's the real reason why he wins, and I think that's awesome. There's some retribution at the end: Yamato does figure out that the sorceress he's been pursuing was using him, and realizes, all of a sudden, that Princess Tacibana is awesome. But it's too late, because in the next part of the story he goes off to war again (for the last time, he assures his wife) and when she begs him to go along he laughs at her and says yes. But the joke's on him (the joke's always on Yamato; there's a really interesting trickster component to all of these stories), because she ends up dying while saving him from his own trouble. 

So yes. If anyone asks, in my opinion Princess Tacibana is the real hero in these stories...and no one can convince me otherwise...

Source: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Week 7 Reading Diary: Japanese Mythology, Part 1

(Susa-no-wo and the Serpent, via Wikipedia)

The language in this unit is beautiful! There were a bunch of stories that popped out at me this week--I suppose this is becoming a trend, but I think I come up with more story ideas every week, so choosing which to use is getting harder! Here were some of this unit's:

Izanagi and Izanami: what really struck me, halfway through this story, was that the story where Izanagi and Izanami circle the base of the earth and say hello to each other each time they cross paths is really cute. It reminded me of the modern-day flirtation between couples that you sometimes see and think is revoltingly cute. Likewise, I think that a scene like this, set in the modern-day, would also be revoltingly cute, and I want to write it! The only question is whether or not to foreshadow the awful stuff that comes later, where Izanami dies and Izanagi goes into eternal mourning. Maybe a series of vignettes of their life together, set in the modern-day, would work? Maybe not within the word count, though...

 The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi: As much as I loved this story, what I would really like to do is to rewrite this story so that the daughter has some kind of voice in it. Since she once had seven more sisters, and they all got eaten by the serpent, I feel like a story told from her perspective would actually be very poignant, and maybe a bit funny, because it can't really be all that fun to be turned into a comb and hidden in someone's hair? Even if that someone is trying to keep you safe...but, in any case, it would be interesting to try and figure out her thoughts! I think that the safest thing to do in that instance, though, would again be to switch the story to the modern-day, so that I wasn't projecting my values on her when that wouldn't be how she felt in a historical context...

The Rescue of the Princess: I don't really have much time to explain how much I loved this story--except the part where the princess gets locked up in the tower and doesn't get to join in the fun, but that's just one of my sticking points. Then it occurred to me: what is she doing in an attempt to make her own situation better? That might make an interesting story. But I would really like to do a scene where Yamato comes into that room in the palace dressed like a woman and she fails to recognize him for a moment, because I feel like that would be a little funny, and fun to write...

Source: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Week 6 Reading Diary: West African Folk Tales, Part 2

(Sun photo, by Simon)

There were so many wonderful stories in this section that I would feel really conflicted about which to write about, if one hadn't made me so excited when I was reading it that I ended up leaving my lunch on the stove for too long, and burning my food! That story was The Moon and Stars, and I'll talk about it a bit here, but I also want to talk about some other options I've been thinking about for this week's storytelling assignment this week, too...so, without further ado:

Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They Are Provoked: I really loved this story, from the tenuous beginnings of friendship to when the man falls down weeping over the tiger's imitated death. I have a weakness for stories about unusual friendship, and I feel like this story could actually be imitated through an anthropologist's field notes--but as a real-life scenario, maybe, as an unusual friendship between two humans who mimic the man's and the tiger's personas? Since, as is stated in the notes, there aren't actually any tigers in Africa...

The Ungrateful Man: once again, a story that I really enjoyed. It would also translate well into a field note/real life story, I think, as an allegory about humans and humanity and kindness vs. betrayal. It has the potential for some cool imagery, too, and maybe a colorful cast of characters...since I still haven't ended up writing any stories with larger casts...

The Moon and Stars: Like I said, I burned my lunch while reading this story! The style of narration really made me care about the characters and what happened to them--plus there was a dragon, and a fiddle, and a castle--basically, this story pushed all of the right buttons for me. It's also an Anansi tale, which means that it would be good practice for writing the later Anansi tales to come. I'm less sure about how it could translate into an anthropologist's field notes, but I'll think on that--I don't have time to write the story until tomorrow, but I'll let all these ideas stew in the back of my head until then....

Source: West African Folk Tales, by William H. Barker and Cecelia Sinclair, with illustrations by Cecelia Sinclair (1917).

Week 6 Reading Diary: West African Folktales

("Dew on a Spider's Web in the Morning, by Luc Viatour, via Wikipedia)

I picked this section this week because I'll be using the Jamaican Anansi folktales for my Storybook and I wanted to start feeling out what I want to actually do for the Storybook (because I'm still very much undecided on that front!). There were lots of interesting stories, and I think what I'll try to do is tell my story this week from the point of view of an anthropologist (see: me). I've actually read several ethnographies on various regions within West Africa, so we'll see how this goes...

As for the parts that really caught my eye this week:

How We Got the Name Spider Tales: origin stories are some of my favorites, and there are so many in this unit that I'll have a whole spectrum to choose from, but this one is really interesting because it's like the origin story or origin stories, and that kind of nested form would be really interesting to play with in a story. I was actually thinking about combining this story with How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race, because I felt that the Wisdom story would act as a nice coda/tie-in piece to the Spider Tales story. I don't really know how I would do this--I haven't had enough time to ponder it--but there's definitely a connection there in my head, so I'll roll with it...

Anansi and Nothing: I feel like this story would be really interesting to tell more from Anansi's wives' point of view (I actually thought that it would be really interesting to have a woman tell this story to an anthropologist in response to a question about either her marriage or the folk tales of the area, as a way to both say that her husband was either wonderful or a real jerk). It might be interesting to juxtapose the way that real life often echoes folklore, and I think that would be a really cool way to do it. There would also be a lot of opportunity to talk about other real-life details, which is also a cool way to mirror the events in the folk tale and tie everything together, I think!

Source: West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (1917).

Week 5 Reading Diary: Folklore of the Holy Land, Part 1

(Islamic Adam and Eve, by Manafi al-Hayawan, via Wikipedia)

Some parts that struck me as possible story potential from this week's readings:

The Disagreement between Adam and El-Karineh: this story has actually always fascinated me, but I found this version really interesting because of the way that El-Karineh explains why she won't submit to Adam's wishes: she says that, because she was formed from Adam's body after Adam himself was formed, that they are both made "of the same dust". This would be a really interesting dynamic to play on, I think, and it might even make a good contemporary story. I can see El-Karineh translating really well into modern times, and modern women identifying quite a bit with her.

The Tower of Babel: being a linguistics-lover, I think this story would be really fun to write--especially with a larger cast of characters. I don't really ever write stories with large casts, so that might be fun to try! This is also a fairly dramatic story, with lots of potential for description...I could focus in on one particular part of the story, or try to broaden my viewpoint. This story might actually be a cool one to try and write in third person, which is also something that I don't do often because I'm way more comfortable in the closeness of first person.

The Story of Habrun and Ibrahim: the parallels between this story and the story of how Dido won her kingdom in the Aeneid are crazy! The king might be a good point-of-view to tell this story from, or even some other person who watches Ibrahim's trickery go down. It would be interesting to see what the rest of Habrun's kingdom thinks of Habrun, too, especially after he cuts off all those people's heads. A cool thing that I noted in the story: the hill that the forty witnesses are executed on is called "Deyr el Arba'in", which translates to "Hill of the Forty" in English...

Source: J. E. Hanauer (1907). Folklore of the Holy Land.

Week 4 Reading Diary: The Life of Buddha, Part 2

("The Victory of Buddha", via Wikipedia)

Source: Andre Ferdinant Herold (1922). The Life of Buddha.

This section didn't have quite as many ideas that sparked my imagination as the last--but it was still pretty awesome! I really liked the descriptions and metaphors and similes used in the writing for this unit, so I was thinking it might be interesting to try something similar. I find writing in the 3rd person to be challenging anyway, so that would be something really interesting to try, I think, writing-wise...

But anyway, here were some of the parts that jumped out at me:

Gopa and Suddhodana Grieve: Chantaka was a wonderful character, as was Siddhartha's horse, and their return to the palace to tell Siddhartha's family that he has left is really moving. The characters here are all really well-drawn, and it would be really interesting to do a close-up on one of them--especially Mahaprajapati, when she tosses the gems into the pool.

Arata Kalama/King Vambasara/The Disciples Leaving: This is another nice example of threes; it comes full-circle and the arc shows that Siddhartha gets lost on his way to englightenment, as he starts to go the path of abstinence, and then when he realizes this isn't working he reasons his way onto the right path again. His disciples think this is hypocrisy, and they leave, which has cool implications for a dramatic story full of debate and meditation.

The Tree of Knowledge: I really like this whole section; it has sort of the same tension as waking up one morning and knowing it's going to be a good day, and you're going to accomplish your goals--you just have to wait until you come to the right point. Siddhartha's determination to not move from this spot would be a really interesting character study, too.

Buddha's Awakening: I really want to do something with this section, but I don't know what. One idea I was tossing back and forth in my head was doing a continuation of the story--what happens after Buddha awakens? Maybe I'll look for some texts that continue the story--or even make something up...

Week 4 Reading Diary: The Life of Buddha, Part 1

("Departure of Prince Siddhartha", by Nivedita, via Wikipedia)

Source: Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922). The Life of Buddha.

I've had so many favorite moments in this week's reading already--I can't wait to read the next half, and find out what happens! But in the meantime, here are some parts that seemed to have particular potential for a story:

Asita's Prediction: Call me crazy, but I think this story would be a particularly good one to do a present-day retelling of, because of the potential parallels to be made between the problems in the world of the story and the problems of the contemporary. I thought when I first read this part that it would be really interesting to tell the story from Asita's point of view, because he is, after all, so heartbroken that he'll never live in a world where the Buddha has reached enlightenment--that's some serious character potentiality! There's also some mentions in the next section of the extreme prosperity that the kingdom reaps when Siddhartha is born, which got me thinking that it might be a good idea to throw some of the details from the other sections into the story, if I were to base the meat of my story off of this section.

The Encounters: These are really powerful scenes that would function really well in either a story about the past or a story about the present (or possibly a story about the future--science fiction Buddha! With cyborgs! What an idea...) I was thinking that there are several potential interesting POV characters: Siddhartha, the charioteer, the king, any of the men from the three encounters...all possibilities! The story could focus on all three of the encounters, or only on one (probably either the first or the last--and I'm leaning towards the last as the best).

The Great Truths: Either Siddhartha's encounter with the monk (from the monk's point of view? I think that Siddhartha has some really interesting character development all throughout this unit so far, and I'm really curious so see how a narrator who doesn't know how he's going to turn out in the future would see him...) or when he pleads with his father to let him become a hermit sound like good scenes to focus on here--it might even be interesting to throw in Gopa's dream beforehand, because these three events are really what starts to drive the story (and Siddhartha) forward in a more optimistic way.

Like I said, so many choices...already...