Reading Notes: Lang's European Fairy Tales, Part B

Wow, so Peter Bull was just really sad, if you care about animals. I can't believe that clerk got away with killing that couple's cow that they loved so much. Like, yeah, it was weird that they thought of the cow like a son and tried to have it taught how to speak, but still. They were just peasants, and they didn't know any better, and the clerk didn't face any consequences. At least the merchant went along with it, even if only for the money, so their hearts weren't broken. That story just sucked. I don't even want to rewrite it because thinking about it makes me sad.

I liked the Master and Pupil, but I don't know that I have any interest in rewriting it. I don't think there's anything I'm just burning to change, so I guess I'll leave it alone.

The Cottager and His Cat was also a cute little story. It could be interesting to rewrite it where the young man doesn't take heed of his dream, but I think I like this story too much to make it sad.

I thought Andras Baive was pretty cool, and it could be a really interesting story to tell from the perspective of the bailiff or a townsperson, maybe a little kid. Since Andras Baive was a legend, a kid in town presumably would have been really excited to watch him get into a contest with the bailiff. I haven't really written from a child's perspective before, so it would definitely be a challenge. I would start with the kid rambling about how amazing Andras Baive is and then have him be present for the bailiff's challenge and give him a first row seat to the action, with maybe a little hint that the bailiff isn't all that he seems.

Image: Cat.

Bibliography: Lang's European Fairy Tales, by Andrew Lang. Source.

Reading Notes: Lang's European Fairy Tales II, Part A

This week I read some of Lang's European Fairy Tales. In this first half there were actually only a few stories, most of them broken into two parts. That's nice because then there's more room for detail, but it's also harder to figure out what part of the story to rewrite, since most two-parters are too long to rewrite the whole thing.

I didn't like the first two stories very much. Half-chick was mostly annoying, though it was kind of funny to think about him hopping everywhere on one leg. His comeuppance just seemed way too harsh. He was rude, not a murderer or anything. If I rewrote his story, I think I'd probably try to either make him less of an asshole or change his punishment so that it wasn't permanent, even though the point of the original story is that it explains why there's a rooster on weathervanes. I just think he should have more of a chance to grow as a character, I guess.

Clever Maria didn't make any sense to me. It was like whoever came up with it kept forgetting what they had said before? So Maria's dad gives her and her sisters plants but after her sister's plants die that's just never mentioned again? It's so freaking weird. I didn't at all understand why she ended up with the king. If I were rewriting this I don't think I would even know where to begin, so I'm striking it off the list.

I think my best possibility for rewriting would be the Seven-Headed Serpent. It would be kind of fun to try writing a fight scene, since the main story entirely skips it. Not that it's an actual fight, just the hero chopping the serpent's heads off one by one, but it could be cool to narrate.

Image: Seven Headed Serpent.

Bibliography: The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1894).

Tech Tip: Bookmarking

I use bookmarks a lot, for everything from quick links to my email inboxes to important links for classes like this one. I also use bookmark folders to keep track of links to sources for papers, especially when I'm first looking for sources and am just skimming. During those times, I'll add anything that looks promising to the folder, and then I can go through later and narrow the sources down to the ones I'll actually use.

Image: Bookmarking. Source.

Week 14 Story: The Girl Who Became a River

5/1/18

Dear Diary,

It was another boring day, like every day in this stupid town. I went to work, put up the new display for May, which is just the April clothes with the mannequins in opposite windows, helped the same boring customers, ate a grilled cheese for lunch, went to class, and went home. In class, Marianna said my sweater was “interesting” and that kind of hurt. I know she’s my friend, but sometimes she just seems like she hangs out with me because it makes her feel better about herself. Anyway, I made nachos for dinner, and watched Netflix for three hours. There’s just nothing to do here, and no one to do the nothing with, and it freaking sucks. Maybe something new will happen tomorrow. Or not. Probably not.

5/5/18

Dear Diary,

I went for a walk today, through the forest on the edge of town. Marianna told me not to go, but I just felt called, you know? Like there was something in the forest I needed to see. So I went down this little path, until I got to a river, and then I just sat by it for a bit. I listened to the flow of the water and after a while I thought I heard it whispering to me. I don’t know how I understood, but I think it told me it wasn’t always a river? That it was a person? I know that’s really weird, but it also didn’t feel strange at all. Talking to the river felt perfectly natural and I don’t know why. I’m going to go back tomorrow, and talk to it again if I can.

5/7/18

Dear Diary,

The River and I have been talking a lot. Her name is Laurel, and she used to live in town, but she hated it, like I do. One day she walked into the forest and just…never left. She sat up against a rock and let her thoughts flow, like water, until suddenly she was water. She says I can do it too, if I want. That’s why she can talk to me, because I could do it.  I could be a river, or a tree probably. I just have to go back out to the forest and let myself really join with the world around me. I want to. My job sucks and Marianna is my friend but she isn’t very nice and hanging out with Laurel in the forest all day sounds so much better. I think I’ll try tomorrow. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just come back.

5/8/18

In a forest outside a small town, a girl sits next to a river, legs crossed. She has been sitting for several hours, but they have passed like minutes, and the edges of her form are starting to blur. Slowly, she begins to dissolve.

5/9/19

In a forest outside a small town, where one river flowed, two now cross, waters mingling as one for an instant before returning to their separate channels.

Author's note: The original story I worked from is about three orphans, two sisters and a brother, who always had to work really hard and were never lucky. Their lives were very difficult, so they decided to wander and become great rivers, because that's just a thing that was possible then. They go to sleep in a swamp, and the sisters sneak off to take the best places to flow, and when he wakes, the brother angrily chases them in river form until he runs into the sea. Essentially, the story explains how three Russian rivers came to be.

I only took the part of the story that says people are able to turn into rivers, and wrote a story about a girl that lives in an ambiguous small town, hates her life, and learns that she can turn into a river from one that used to be just like her.

Image; River. Source.

Bibliography: The Metamorphosis of the Dnieper, the Volga, and the Dvina from Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887). Source.

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales, Part B

Well, I was rather horrified by the story where the loyal dog gets killed after he defends the master that abandoned him. Were I the dog, I'd hold a grudge too. I don't see why he should have been killed instead of just given to someone else, but as I said in my last post, Russia's a harsh place, I guess.

There's such a strange mix of stories with happy endings where a risen corpse or demon is defeated and stories where a bad thing happens and that's all. Or at the least, there doesn't seem to be any sort of happy or satisfying conclusion, at least not to me. I have lots of possibilities if I decide to use one of my favorite rewriting strategies and change an ending to suit morals that I like better, but I feel like I've gone that route so often during the semester that I don't know that I have any interest in doing that sort of rewrite again in the class.

My other go-to is to change the perspective a story is written in. Almost all, if not all, of the readings for this class are in third-person, which makes it relatively simple to just tell the same story in a different voice. This is a viable option for any of the Russian folktales, which are all in third-person. The method can make for an interesting character study, particularly if put in a format other than the character seeming to narrate directly to the reader. I haven't done a diary entry kind of rewrite yet, though it's a bit similar to the letter I wrote for Amten. As mentioned in Part A of my reading notes, the river story would be a great candidate for this format, and is currently what I'm leaning towards. I also will be trying to keep it on the short side, since I have a lot of other assignments this week.

Image: Russian Moujik (peasant). Source.

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

Reading Notes: Russian Folk Tales, Part A

This week I decided to read Russian folk tales, and boy were they strange. I was both surprised and not surprised about the sadness of many of the endings. Russia is a harsh place. A couple of the stories just didn't seem to make sense at all. They felt a little like anti-jokes.

I did find the stories about Wednesday and Friday kind of fun. Either one could be interesting to try and update to a modern setting, or tell from the perspective of the day/demon/goddess? I'm also interested in doing something related to the story where the siblings turn into rivers. With that situation, I think I'd like to write some sort of first person perspective for a character that knows they have the ability to just turn into a river forever if they feel like it, and does. I could get into how they knew, and how they came to the decision to do it, and how they feel about it afterward. That could play out as a series of diary entries + 3rd person for post-river thoughts, or something closer to a stream-of-consciousness with first-person all the way through. I'm actually pretty into this idea.

I could also try my hand at something creepy, and try to write a more suspenseful and dramatic version of the story where the dead mother is found suckling her living child. I don't go in for scary stuff very much, so it would definitely be a new experience for me as a writer.

The story about the bad wife was also amusing and intrigued me, but I don't know that there's anything I particularly want to do with it. I think right now my number one choice is actually the river story, though I found it kind of boring initially.

Image: Anti-joke Chicken. Source.

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

Growth Mindset Acronym

Try Often, Don't Abandon Yet

This is an acronym of TODAY to remind me to do things now instead of putting them off, to always keep trying, and to never give up or stop adding "yet" when I feel like I can't do something.

Meme Generator Tech Tip

Meme created using ImgFlip.com

Reading Notes: Beowulf, Part B

One of the main things I've noticed about this telling of the story is how full of detail it is - the setting is given so much attention without being boring, and that's something I want to imitate in my own writing. 

I'm also growing more attached to the idea of rewriting a chunk of the story with elementary school kids. For example, the scene with Beowulf and his men setting up their beds in Heorot could be kindergarteners about to take a nap. It could be really fun to do it from a limited third-person perspective, where a kid is just really tired, but he thinks he's being put under a spell. I have to figure out who Grendel would be in that situation. A teacher? A bully? Who lurks during naptime? 

If I just do the "Grendel attacks" portion, that's all I have to figure out logistically. I'm leaning away from anything later than that, just because I don't want to mess with finding something to be the kindergarten equivalrent of losing your arm in a fight. At the same time, if I can come up with something, the playground would be an easier place for a fight scene...

I'm still kind of tempted to do something with Unferth, though. He has an actual character arc and his story would work well with diary entries, one from each time he appears in the narrative. That's similar to stuff I've done before, but it could still go in my portfolio, probably better than anything else I've done recently. The elementary concept isn't something I would necessarily put in my portfolio, but you never know. I'm trying to have a diverse set of storytelling subjects and styles to make sure I'm really taking advantage of the portfolio format. Elementary has a lead in that respect over Unferth diary, because I've already done first person and I feel like I have more ways to creatively distinguish with third. I definitely have a lot of thinking to do.

Image: Grendel. Source.

Bibliography:  The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry Pitz (1933). Source.

Reading Notes: Beowulf, Part A

This week I've decided to read the legend of Beowulf! Last week when I was commenting I saw someone's story based on it, and it made me want to go read the original. Granted, this is a retelling, but I'm still very excited to see what it contains!

Not to tie in with Skyrim again (my first attempt blending that game with a story didn't go very well, to say the least), but I did immediately notice that the game actually references and draws inspiration from this legend. There are several common names and themes, like Hrothgar, and it's actually pretty cool to see how art/literature influences other art/literature.

Unferth is only barely mentioned so far as the king's friend and a coward. I'm thinking that could be fun to explore and turn into a stream-of-consciousness or diary-style story about how/why he doesn't want to face Grendel. It depends on what's said later, though, as it looks like he'll show up more later.

It could also be fun to take part of this tale and transplant it to a setting where the stakes are made to feel the same for the character but in context it's ridiculous, like an elementary school footrace or something.

Okay, so I was thinking about making Unferth a relatable character but clearly he's a jerk and I don't particularly feel like giving him sympathy anymore. I could still write from his perspective - I haven't tried writing an asshole without redeeming him in some way - but I just don't know that it would work. I can always give it a shot, I suppose, and just go for unsettling. If it fails, I have the elementary school idea to fall back on. Alternately, I could do Beowulf's arrival in Daneland from the Beach Guardian or Hrothgar's perspective and get a different take on things. I suppose what I do depends at least a bit on what Part B holds!

Image: Beowulf. Source.

Bibliography: The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry Pitz (1933). Source.

The True Fate of Johnny-cake

Brandon was walking through an alley on his way home from work when he spotted something strange: a pancake, balanced perfectly on its edge, a lit cigarette poking out the front. Excited to have some new material for his social media, he pulled out his phone to snap a picture. As he typed the caption, he read the words aloud to himself, "Looks like this Johnny-cake is an es-crepe artist!"

"Johnny-cake? I haven't heard that name in years."

Brandon dropped the phone.

"What the hell?"

"Relax, man, I'm not going to hurt you. That's just my name. Johnny-cake. Not that anyone knows who I am anymore."

"Seriously, what the f--

"--Can't you just roll with this for like, two seconds, man? I can't remember the last time someone noticed me and I get that you humans don't really go in for magic anymore, but I just want to have a nice, friendly conversation for once.

Brandon considers this for approximately .7 seconds. "You're a cake...that talks. I can't just let this go dude. Was I drugged? I have to be drugged. Go away, hallucination!"

"I promise it's okay, bro. You aren't drugged, I'm just magic! Which really never sells anyone on the "not drugged" angle but I'm not really sure how else to communicate that I exist and you aren't crazy, so here we are! Now tell me, how was your day?" Johnny-cake takes a drag of the cigarette and rolls a little toward Brandon.

"Nah man, this is too weird. I bet Paul slipped LSD into my food or something. Wait, wouldn't I have noticed that? I don't know. I just gotta get outta here!

With that, Brandon takes off down the alleyway, leaving his phone on the ground. Johnny-cake sighs, rolling over to it.

"Man, if only I had arms."

Author's Note: So the original story here is essentially The Gingerbread Man but with a Johnny-cake (a pancake). The pancake escapes a house and is chased by a boy, some well-diggers, and so on and so forth, all the while yelling about how he's faster than everyone. All of his pursuers tire and are forced to stop until he comes to a fox, who tricks him into being eaten.

I'm in a weird mood, so I was imagining what would happen if Johnny-cake survived, was immortal (he already talks and rolls really fast, so why not?), and was hanging out in the 21st century trying not to be eaten or experimented on while he tried to find some company. I also wanted to flip the narrative, where someone ran from the pancake instead of the other way around. It came out like a strange exercise in dialogue, and probably not my strongest work, but fun to write nevertheless. Also, I know the pic doesn't perfectly match my description but Johnny-cake is only a single pancake anyway and that picture was too good to pass up. Pancakes smoking cigarettes are not easy to come by.

Image: Pancake w Cigarrete 1. Source.

Bibliography: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890). Source.

Reading Notes: English Tales, Part B

This week I'm reading English stories, and to try and figure out which one I'd like to write about (I've been having trouble with deciding these things lately), I'm going to add a little to my notes after reading each, just whatever strikes me about the story. I read part A but 100% forgot to finish my reading notes, so we're going to start this method with Part B.

Henny-Penny - I'm pretty sure I remember reading a version of this story as a child. It didn't involve snapping necks though. The dark turn the story takes is interesting but I really can't get past the rhyme-y names.

Molly Whuppie - What's with the English and stories about dead children and animals? I really enjoyed this story asides from the kids dying, but that's something I could fix in a rewrite.

Mr Fox - These really are just terribly dark stories. At least the evildoer is killed, but I'm not diggin' the serial killer vibe.

Johnny-Cake - Somehow a rolling cake trying to escape is so much funnier to me than a gingerbread man. I kind of want to rewrite this story where the cake gets away? Or where the cake never talks, it just rolls away and no one can figure out why or how or how to catch it.

Mr Miacca - I'm really concerned about the English people. Mr. Miacca sounds like someone I wouldn't want a reward from even if he offered it. I could write about his good side, though, and juxtapose it with the bad. That would be fun to write probably, but maybe a little long.

The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh - This was a cool story, but I don't think I want to mess with the exposition.

The Ass, The Table and the Stick - I was so into the story until Jack beat and robbed the other neighborhood girls and I instantly hated him.

Fairy Ointment - For whatever reason fairy stories kind of bore me, so I guess it's looking like Jonny-Cake or Mr. Miacca.

Image: Henny Penny. Source.

Bibliography:  English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890) Source.

Week 11 Story: The Woodpeckers

Tell me, do you hear the tapping in the trees? That is the sound of the woodpeckers, pecking away as they always do. They are mournful creatures, trapped for many ages by the mistake they made so  long ago. Let me tell you the story.

When the world was much younger, woodpeckers did not yet exist. There were men, however, like you and I, living in tribes as they should. These tribes also had medicine men. The medicine men could eat the strange orange moss that grew on some trees, but the rest of the tribe was forbidden. The moss could be helpful, but it could also ensnare the user in addiction. One day, the medicine man of a tribe fell sick. He could not get out of bed or even speak. Everyone prepared for the worst. One boy decided that he would try to save the medicine man by sneaking out to the woods and taking some of the moss. After he put it in his mouth, he fell to the ground and began to have visions. When he came to, the boy ran back to the village, crying, "I saw the medicine man! I saw him! I can fix him!" He ran into the tent where the man lay and placed some of the orange moss into his mouth. He said the moss had given him a vision, and that it would heal the medicine man in three days.

The rest of the tribe knew that the moss was dangerous. Still, seeing that the boy had taken the moss and learned much, they decided that they also wanted to try it. They all had many colorful visions of many events that would and would not come to pass. When they woke, they wanted more. The whole village became addicted to the strange orange moss, except the medicine man. He woke after three days, and, seeing the people in such a state, decided he must do something. So, he cast a spell to separate their souls from their bodies, and hid them in the trees. Then, one by one, he enacted a curse upon the tribe. Their skin turned black and feathery, their hair bright red. Arms turned to wings. Mouths turned to beaks. As they became aware of their predicament, the medicine man explained, "I have put your souls inside the trees of the forest. You must search each one until you find your own, and only then will you become a human again.

To this day, many woodpeckers still search the trees, looking for their souls, and in some parts, strange men come from the forest, as if they had awoken from a dream. Stay away from the orange moss, my friends. It will bring nothing but trouble.


Author's Note: In the original story, there is no sick medicine man. instead, some boys playing in the woods just decide to try mescal, a hallucinogen used by medicine men. In a nod to a Phineas and Ferb episode (The Ballad of Badbeard), I changed the drug to orange moss. I added the sick medicine man to make the boy that starts the moss-taking more sympathetic. Also, in the original story a god hides the tribe's children in the trees, rather than a medicine man hiding their souls. I didn't like the thought of children who did nothing wrong being stuck in trees, so I changed it. And now, if a woodpecker finds its soul, it can turn back into a person, so there's more chance of a happy ending.


Image: Woodpecker. Source.

Bibliography: "Why the Woodpecker Pecks" from When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936). Source.

Reading Notes: Tejas Legends, Part A

I'm really interested in emulating the children-oriented style of the Tejas stories. I tend towards writing longer stories and always try to use complex sentence structure and a rich vocabulary, so I think paring down and writing something more simplistic will be a really good challenge for me.

These stories are very plain-spoken, and it's an aesthetic I really enjoy. I especially want to work on cutting down my sentence length. These stories will often have several sentences with no added clauses in a row, and then one compound sentence or two every now and then. I also want to make sure I choose an explanatory legend. I haven't done any of those yet, but I keep seeing them from other people in the class and they seem like fun. I liked the story of the north and south wind, because it's really funny to think about two old dudes fighting like that, so that could be a fun one.

The story about the woodpeckers would also be a good possibility. It's told simply, but it's also very sad. However, I'd also want to change the ending, because while the sad ending is the one that warns about the dangers of drugs and is explanatory, I'd want to reunite the kids with their families. I don't want to compromise the explanation though. I could have it be a trick, and the kids just went to other tribes and the parents were punished by being told they were hidden in the trees.

I also just had another idea, which is to frame the story by writing from the perspective of an oral storyteller who is telling it around a fire. Then, when it comes time to add another story to my portfolio site, this one will be ready to go. It should add even more variety to my portfolio than the site already has.

Image: Woodpecker. Source.

Bibliography: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

Week 10 Story: The Devil and the Seven Dwarves

One day, seven dwarven princes were walking in the forest when they heard a woman singing so beautifully that they immediately began to follow the sound. As they entered a clearing, they saw her: A fair maiden with hair as dark as night and skin as white as snow, singing to a little bird that flitted about her. The princes had fallen in love the moment they heard her voice, and when they saw her, they immediately began to argue about which one of them would marry her. Upon seeing them, the girl ceased her song and hurried over. The dwarves were caught up in their argument, however, and missed the red gleam in her eyes (for, enchanting as she was, the maiden was truly a devil, and the bird her husband). Reaching them, she exclaimed, “Oh, please stop arguing! I am Snow White, and I can marry all of you!”

At this, the princes stopped talking, stared up at her, and began to smile. “That sounds great!” They chorused, and, taking her arms, led her and the bird on her shoulder to their palace, where they lived happily ever after.

Until the oldest brother died.

After a period of mourning, however, they lived happily ever after.

Until the new oldest brother died.

They tried again to live happily ever after, but the brothers continued to die, year after year, until only the youngest remained, and even he was very ill. The princes’ subjects, worried, sought out the huntsman, who moonlit as a fortune teller.  He didn’t actually know anything more than a few garbled phrases of real witchcraft and the better-known divination methods, but it worked to fool the locals, who would accept bad outcomes so long as they were predicted through the proper channels. Still, as far as the subjects knew, he was the genuine article, so off he went to try and cure the last remaining prince.

Upon his arrival at the prince’s bedside, the huntsman performed a traditional prayer ceremony as he had seen other fortune tellers do, but he only felt sick, and nothing else happened. In an attempt to continue the charade, he shooed the others out of the room. When Snow White left the room, his illness left with her, and that frightened him deeply. He decided to sneak out the window, but as he leapt out to the ground, he collided with the little bird that had come with the woman, knocking it to the ground. The huntsman ran, but as he did, he heard Snow White go to cradle the bird in her hands, lamenting, “Oh no! He has discovered us! Tomorrow he shall tell them to burn us at the stake, and that will be the end!”

Though he was no fortune teller, the huntsman was no fool, and so the next day he fetched the men who had brought him and told them the beautiful woman and her bird were the cause of the final dwarf’s illness. The devils were immediately burned, and the dwarven prince, Sneezy, was healed almost immediately, though he still retained some allergies. Sniffling his was to the huntsman, Sneezy asked how he could repay him for ending his torment, to which the huntsman replied, “Oh, just give me some new traps and I’ll be on my way.” And so it was done, and the huntsman and the remaining dwarf remained friends for the rest of their lives.

Author’s note: The original story is that of The Two Devils, which has none of the Snow White/Dwarven details. Instead, seven princes meet this woman and her yak, who are actually a devil and her husband. All seven brothers marry her, but afterwards one brother dies each year until only the youngest is left, because the devil woman is eating their souls. His men fetch a fake fortune teller, who agrees to try and heal the prince on the advice of his greedy wife. When he gets there, he gets sick and scared and when he tries to hide on the roof, he falls through and lands on the yak, prompting the woman to freak out, thinking they’ve been discovered. In doing so she gives away that the way to defeat them is to burn them alive, which the fake fortune teller proceeds to do. The prince recovers, and the fortune teller asks for yak nose rings as payment, which he gets, until his greedy wife demands more, and the prince ends up giving him half of the kingdom.

In my story, I made the devil woman Snow White, the yak a bird, and the princes dwarves. The huntsman became the fortune teller as well. I was initially going to add the evil queen as the wife, but it didn’t seem to fit with the story, so I left her out, which had the added benefit of letting the huntsman accept a humble reward.

Bibliography: The Two Devils from Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925). Source.

Image: Snow White and her devil bird. Source.

Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part B

I would really like to write a story from the perspective of the Uktena and the other animals that the medicine man encounters on his way to find the Ulûñsû'tî. The medicine man was arrogant and dismissed them, but I thought they seemed fearsome and would like to give them the attention they deserve. Also, I don't understand how the people were following the medicine man everywhere? Why would they follow him in his search for the giant scary snake that kills your family if you look at it? The logic is not sound, and it's something I would fix in a rewrite. I also didn't quite understand how the Uktena's blood was poisonous, but fine for dyeing clothes in after it formed a lake? However, that's an easily fixable detail. I also wasn't really a fan of the medicine man as a character, and if I were writing a story based off these readings, I would also consider changing him to be more humble and respectful of all of the animals that he encounters.

I was also incredibly surprised that it was only barely mentioned that the rattlesnake is sent to kill THE SUN!?!? If that doesn't have it's own story, it needs to. I'm almost regretting doing a planning post last week because I would love to come up with an incredibly dramatic tale for that. I can't believe that part of one of the Uktena stories only got one line, and I want to know or create more.

Out of curiosity, I google the Uktena, and found out that similar horned serpents appear in a lot of Native American and even European mythology. I feel like there has to be some sort of real creature that existed at some point. Granted, we have mythological creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster today, so maybe it wasn't real. Or maybe the aforementioned do exist...hmm.


Image: Uktena. Source.
Bibliography: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900). Source.

Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part A

I decided to read Cherokee Myths this week. I'll be honest, I had to look up what a terrapin was (spoiler: it's just a turtle). I was surprised to see the story of the tortoise and the hare here, though in a different form. I heard the story growing up as part of Aesop's fables, and I think it's really fascinating that a completely different culture has the same setup of a race between a turtle and a hare where the turtle wins. The values illustrated by the stories are different, however, since Aesop's version teaches perseverance, that, "slow and steady wins the race," while the Cherokee version seems to praise the cleverness of the terrapin in tricking the wiley rabbit and the other animals.

Were I writing a story on one of these myths this week, the terrapin and the hare would definitely be in the running. I think it would be fun to try and find a place between Aesop and the Cherokee for the story, perhaps in which both the rabbit and the terrapin cheat.

There were a lot of stories about the rabbit and I don't understand why, in many myths, the rabbit is a boastful and mean character. They seem pretty cute and nice to me in reality, but hey, maybe I'm completely misunderstanding them. Anyway, the Cherokee myths often seem to be explaining the ways of the world more than focused on character development, but I'd be interested in exploring the rabbit's character by having him learn his lesson from one of the stories, and then he could pass the lesson on. For example, after the deer wins the antlers, instead of being jealous and grinding down the deer's teeth in the next story, he could realize he shouldn't have cheated and perhaps go have a conversation with the terrapin on playing fair - even though in the terrapin's original case, cheating worked just fine since he was a "good" animal.

Image: Terrapin. Source.

Bibliography: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900). Source.

Week 9 Story Planning: The Devils and the Seven Dwarves

Rather than following the plot of the origin story in excruciating detail, I plan to write more from a general summary, with Snow White characters inserted. The basic plotline I intend to follow goes as such:

Seven brother princes find a beautiful girl in the woods with her yak and decide to all marry her, which is a terrible idea because she's actually a demon and the yak is her demon husband. After the marriage, the brothers begin to die one-by-one every year (because she's eating their souls). When there is only one brother left, concerned yet clueless people call a fortune teller to help. The man they call is actually a fraud, but he tries because he doesn't want to give himself up, and he ends up, through a combination of accident and luck, uncovering and defeating the devils. After his success, he is rewarded by the remaining prince, but his greedy wife asks for more for him, and receives it .

Since it's been an incredibly long time since I've actually watched Snow White (and yes, I'm going to use the Disney version here), I refreshed myself on what happened using the synopsis here.

So for character transposition, this is what I'm thinking:

1. Seven Brothers = Seven Dwarves

2. Beautiful Girl/Devil = Snow White

3. Yak/Devil = A forest creature, either a bird or a squirrel

4. Fortune Teller = Huntsman

5. Fortune Teller's Wife = Evil Queen/Hag

I may switch four and five, but as of right now I am relatively certain this is how I'm going to do it.

I've also spent some time looking up details on the tsamba and prayer beads used in the original story, as well as the Tibetan Devil Dance, which is used to expel demons and bring good luck. This research will hopefully give me the necessary info to depict the exorcism of the two devils accurately.



Bibliography: The Two Devils from Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925). Source.

Image: Snow White and her devil bird. Source.

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk Tales, Part B

I'm going to write my notes as I go this time - I normally will make small notes as I go, but write the post after I finish. This time, I'm going to add my thoughts on stories as I read them right in the post.

What I'm really noticing with these stories is that, when there's a moral, it doesn't really match what you'd expect to be. Lying, for example, is a apparently a highly rewarding activity if you ask the Tibetans. The fortune teller from Part A lies, he gets half a kingdom. The rabbit in the first story of Part B is lazy and lies, and he never has to kowtow to the lion again.

Okay, story two: killing is bad (when it's for no reason), but polygamy is good. This makes a bit more sense at least. I'm trying to figure out if these stories functioned as entertainment more than teaching tools. That would explain it, maybe.

Third story makes sense, because you shouldn't be too hasty to make decisions or assume you know what's going on if someone tells you otherwise.

Oh, so The Golden Squash takes any confusing morality and tosses it out the window, making it very clear that envy is sinful. I think it's interesting that these stories are occasionally framed with vaguely Christian ideas. I wonder if that's something added by the translator or if Tibet has a history with Christianity at all. I may also just be taking things that have their own holy meaning in Tibetan religion and assuming they hold Christian associations. Either way, looking up some of the religious elements mentioned might make for an interesting Wikitrails post.

As I'm getting through these I am more and more certain that I want to stick with my Snow White idea, so I'm going to push pause on the notes and just read now.

Bibliography: Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925). Source.

Image: Tibetan Snow Lion. Source.

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk Tales, Part A

This week I decided to read Tibetan Folk Tales, and the tale that has most interested me thus far is The Story of the Two Devils.

I thought this story was so weird, just because the fortune teller was a quack and still ended up with so much. It seems like a weird moral for the liar to come out on top. Not to mention, his wife's greed also paid off. I really can't figure out the message this story is trying to send, besides, "demons are bad and eat people's souls." This definitely could be something to address in a rewrite.

I also found it strange that one woman marrying seven men wasn't more socially unacceptable. Speaking of...Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, anyone? That could be a really interesting crossover, actually, if Snow White were a demon, the witch the fortune teller, and the prince the yak. It would take some twisting of both stories to make it work, but I think the parallel may be too good to pass up. I'd maybe have to change the plot also, though, because I can't see the dwarves not getting suspicious if they let this woman into their home and suddenly started dying one by one. Granted, she is very charming and could have them ensnared. This would also be a fun opportunity to invert the traditional good princess and evil witch narrative. I'm not sure if I should give the witch a significant other or just merge the wife's greed into the witch. I could ditch that part altogether, though. Maybe she'll ask for a lot right off the bat. Oh, I need a king/prince to split the kingdom...hm. It could somehow be the huntsman? Or, again, I could just leave that part out. Either way, it's something to think about.

Bibliography: Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925). Source.
Image: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Source.

Tech Tip: Canvas Mobile App

I've been using the Canvas app on my Samsung Galaxy S7 since we made the switch from D2L. I personally welcomed the change, since D2L was a bit of an eyesore and Canvas is so much more streamlined. Anyway, the app, while occasionally buggy, has generally been very convenient. It's so nice to be able to open an app to check my grades rather than have to navigate and log into the website every time. What I really love about the Android app (I can't speak for iPhone/Apple) is that it has widget options, which let me view my grades and recent notifications on my home screen rather than even having to open the app! Here is a screenshot of what that looks like! And yes, I know I need to charge my phone.

Week 8 Progress

I'm not currently super satisfied with my progress, and it's mostly because I keep forgetting to do the Canvas declarations, think that I've done them, and then miss the points for that, even though I put in the time and effort on the assignment. Other than that, I have a general weekly routine, but it involves getting stuff done the day it's due, which has worked fine except for Sunday night, oddly. Ideally, I need to be doing my project work and feedback on Saturday, because Sunday has been functioning more as a meal prep/clean around the house kind of day. I haven't done nearly as much extra credit as I want/need to, but I'm hoping to knock some out this weekend to get in the habit of doing it.

The main changes I want to make are getting the end-of-week assignments done on Saturday instead of Sunday, add in some sort of reminder for myself to do the Canvas declarations, and start doing as much extra credit as I can every week.

Image: Motivation. Source.

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

In general I think the feedback I've gotten has been pretty helpful, though there have been more than a few comments on Samael where the main feedback was, "Please write more of this character in the future and give us more information about him," with suggestions on what they'd like to know, which isn't really helpful unless I write more Samael. I'm committed to experimenting, however, so I don't think that will happen in an official class capacity. The especially useful comments regard ways I could tighten up the story in terms of word count or areas where the reader found it confusing or difficult to read, as those are more concrete. I understand how other feedback, particularly when the reader wants more backstory, can sometimes be useful, but at the same time it sometimes feels like that's the easiest kind of feedback to come up with when you're just trying to get the assignment done, and it's hard to incorporate it without compromising plot. I already know I'm going to get at least one comment on my story about Princess Otohime that asks how she ended up in the palace and why she can't leave. It's a purposely left out detail meant to accentuate the her tragedy because she does not know, but also is obvious to ask as a, "what if you told us this?" to check that box on the feedback assignment.

I'll be real, the feedback and blog comment posts are the first thing to not get done if I'm having a busy week (I'm preparing to go hard on the extra credit assignments in the coming weeks), so I haven't left as much as most of the class probably has. My preferred feedback strategy is to express what I like (that comes to mind first), then point out any issues that really stuck out to me, normally if a plot point doesn't make sense, or if I notice a contradiction or a place where the author seems wordier than necessary. Honestly, I don't comment on grammar and spelling as much as I'd like to, and it's something that really bothers me, especially given that spelling and grammar checks are a literal part of the assignment that people seem to ignore? It's one thing to miss or add a comma here and there, but blatant misspellings and run-on sentences make me so sad, and it's hard to say anything without feeling like you're coming across as "that person."

I have really enjoyed reading people's introductions and getting a sense of who my classmates are. Personally, I think my own introduction gives a general sense of me, though the way I organized it is weird. I tend to be a fairly private person, so that's part of it, and I've also just always found it difficult to describe myself. It's not that I don't have interests or a life or a personality, it's that I forget all of these things any time I try to define them and can't think of anything. The aesthetic of my blog definitely fits my personality though. I was very excited to find that template because I like it so much.

Well, I need to do the feedback assignments earlier, that's for sure. I have a tendency to prioritize my more immediately due assignments over things that aren't due yet, which is of the type that's hard to get ahead on, because if I do a reading more than a day or two ahead, I won't have as much to say in class about it, and my Latin homework is always assigned the night before it's due, so there's no chance there. Other than tinkering with my homework schedule, I might mess with my blog some for some sorely needed extra credit, but I'm generally happy with how it presents me.





I particularly like this feedback cat because it's a good reminder that even when you think your work is at it's best, there's usually room to make it better in some way I strive to constantly improve not only the specific story I'm working on, but also my storytelling from week to week.

Image: Feedback Cat. Source.

Week 8 Reading and Writing

So far, I think the reading and writing assignments for this are going pretty well. The readings have all been interesting to date, and have provided excellent source material for my own writing. My favorite reading has probably been Twenty-Two Goblins, since I love a good riddle. Overall I think my reading notes have been pretty helpful. Though I've experimented with more segmented reading notes, I prefer to write stream-of-consciousness, which helps me generate and refine my ideas. It's always a little tricky to do notes for Reading A, because I don't want to commit to a story idea when I don't know what I'll find in Reading B, but I think I've done alright thus far. I'm working on just spitting out a bunch of ideas rather than just picking one thing I think I want to do for a story.

I'm very pleased with how my class project is going. When I first started the site I wasn't sure were I was going to go with it, but at this point it has a definite aesthetic and I'm really enjoying adding to it. As for what I'm most proud of, it has to be Samael. This story was a lot of fun to write and I've gotten such a positive response to it, which has really boosted my confidence in my writing. I've had several people ask for more Samael, and while I would love to oblige, I'm more interested in experimenting and trying different styles. Maybe when I have some free time, though.

This is my favorite picture from my blog thus far. I think it perfectly captures the anguish of Pygmalion and it really inspired me as I was writing my own version.

Going forward, I definitely need to stay more on top of my time. I end up prioritizing things that are due more immediately rather than getting ahead in this class, and then I end up doing the assignments for this class a bit more last-minute than I'd like to. Getting a bit more ahead would also allow me the chance to take a little time away from a story before going back to edit and post, a process that inevitably makes my writing better.


Image: Pygmalion and Galatea (statue). Source.

Week 7 Story: She Always Hoped

This story has moved, and can now be read at my portfolio site!

Image: Uraschimataro and Otohime. Source.

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang), Part B

In Part B, my attention was caught by one fairy tale in particular, Uraschimataro and the Turtle.

This story was so tragic, and it made me think of how much I would miss my own family if something like this happened to me. I think it's so strange that the lesson of this the tale is that Uraschimataro loved his parents so much that he gave up life in the underwater palace with the princess. If he truly loved them that much, then why did he stay in the palace in the first place? I get that time passed strangely there, but he also seemed very unconcerned about getting home until he suddenly got caught up in his feelings.

A more interesting take, however, could be that the beautiful princess was actually evil. That could be fun to write from her perspective, or as I mentioned in my previous reading notes, to write in third-person but skewing towards her as the main character. She could be a siren of sorts. A mermaid would work as well, but I don't love the idea, it's a little Disney princess-y. Alternately, I could leave her good, and just write her as incredibly lonely. The sea creatures are nice, but she wants a human to love. I lean towards zooming out from Uraschimataro and exploring her character as a woman that is trapped under the sea, unable to leave her palace but able to bring others to join her. I rather like the idea of a series of vignettes detailing the visitors she has and the ways in which they come and go, and what she remembers of them. Some she tricks, others come willingly, and the sea creatures help as much as they can. Gender doesn't particularly matter, nor any other factor, so long as they keep her company. That's not an issue though, because they all fall in love with her.

Yeah, this is definitely what I'm doing this week.

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales as retold by Andrew Lang. Source.

Image: Underwater Palace. Source.

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales, Part A

This week I decided to read some Japanese Fairy Tales. We'll see what comes to pass in Part B, but in Part A there is a specific story in which I want to change the plot.

I absolutely hated the story of the Envious Neighbor, because I hate that the dog dies. It made me so sad, and the dog absolutely didn't deserve it. Normally, I'm a fan of tragedy in storytelling because it can raise the stakes to kill off a likeable character, but the dog's death didn't really do anything but make me hate the neighbor, and nothing he did after that seemed as bad. Killing the dog seemed like he won, in a way, because as a dog owner I can confidently say that no amount of money can replace a pet like that.



So, this week, providing I don't find something I want to do more in Part B, I'm going to mess with the plot. The dog definitely isn't going to die, but one of the people might, probably the husband, since he gets more focus in the story. The dog will still find the treasure, but the husband will insist upon staying with the dog when the neighbor asks to borrow it, and so the neighbor will kill the husband to try and steal the dog. Or try to kill the dog when it finds bones and the husband leaps in front of him. From there the plot will stay mostly the same, with the dog knowing what to do all the time, but I might get a little more descriptive with the death of the neighbor. I may be a tad vindictive on behalf of the dog in the original story.

I change plot enough with my stories that I don't think it really challenges me, so I'm also going to work on dialogue, which I do find difficult. I should have plenty of opportunities with this story. I'm going to write in third person, because it feels like I do a lot of first person already, and I'm not terribly partial to second person. However, I am going to see if I can manage to skew towards the neighbor's perspective in my narration without making him too empathetic.

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales as retold by Andrew Lang. Source.

Image: My girlfriend and I's dog, Elliot, taken by me.

Tech Tip: Soundcloud

I was doing some work on my portfolio site and decided to ask a friend to record a reading of my story about the archangel Samael. I'm embedding the result below, and it can also be found with the story here.

Week 6 Story: Wise, Clever, and Brave

Her journey back to the tree seemed longer each time, though she knew it to be an illusion. She had not once made it past a large stone some distance from the cemetery. If only she could get the damned creature to behave! Sighing, the Queen shouldered the corpse yet again. "Here," said the vetala. "I'll give you another story to help pass the time.”

“Do you have to?”

“…Yes.”

“Fine.”

And so, as the Queen pressed on for what might have been the tenth time or the fiftieth – she really couldn’t tell – her godforsaken burden again turned its rotting lips to her ear.

“There was once a girl named Aquarius, who, upon reaching marriageable age, declared her interest to lie in women, and particularly in a girl from a neighboring village, Libra. Aquarius’s parents sent a message to the other village, enquiring about the potential match. The messenger returned the next day bearing sorrowful news: Libra had been kidnapped by a giant. Stricken, Aquarius called for the village matriarchs, who were named Wise, Clever, and Brave after their prominent characteristics. She promised that if only Libra were saved, and consented to the marriage, her rescuer could have her dowry. The three women eagerly agreed to the deal, each thinking she could find the girl singlehandedly and take the dowry for herself. Immediately Wise, having listened to her grandmother tell tales of the forest around the fire as a child, remembered a story that gave the location of the giant’s lair. As she was telling Aquarius that her love was close-by, Clever and Brave listened, and followed the woman into the forest. Walking single-file, they spoke of what they would do with the money. Wise cared for knowledge, and wanted to start a village library to hold the stories of their ancestors. Clever cared for science and practicality, and wished to start an engineering class. Brave desired that the people of the village have more care towards their defense, and wanted to build a wall to keep out giants and the like. As the last was explaining this, Clever grabbed her by her robe, pulling her back. ‘Do you see that?’ she asked, gesturing to a raised lump of dirt. She lightly scraped it off with her foot to reveal metal. ‘Had you stepped there, it would have levered those spikes up into your face.’ The women looked further down the path to see small points sticking up, half-covered in leaves. The continued from there, watching closely for any more traps from the giant. Finally, they arrived at a cave. Clever and Wise began to sit and plan, but Brave ran straight in before they could stop her. A short time (and several howls of pain) later, she emerged, carrying Libra. The matriarchs then returned, first to Libra’s parents, and then to their own village.

Some days later, word came that Libra was, in fact, interested. Accordingly, Aquarius went to the matriarchs, and they each explained the part they played in the rescue. Wise went first, arguing that the girl could never have been found without her knowledge. Brave immediately countered that she could have simply combed the forest until the girl was found. Clever then pointed out that she was the only one to spot the trap that would have killed them all. 

Now tell me,” the goblin rasped, “who should have the dowry? Remember, if you know the answer and say nothing, you shall most certainly fall dead in this very spot.”

This time, the Queen did not hesitate. “It should be split between the three of them,” she replied. “They can start a school, with a library and engineering, with a little wall around it.”

The moment she said this, the body escaped from her shoulder and ran back to the tree. The Queen sighed again. This was starting to get old.

Author's Note: The external story here is originally about a king who has to bring the corpse inhabited by a goblin back to a monk. Every time he takes the corpse down from the tree where it hangs, the vetala (goblin) inside tells him a riddle, and he will die if he knows the answer but doesn't say it. However, every time he answers, the goblin escapes from his shoulder and goes back to the tree. As for the internal story, originally the eligible girl says she will marry either a wise, clever, or brave man. At different points, her father, brother, and mother meet men fitting these respective descriptions and say they can marry her. When they show up for the wedding, the girl has been kidnapped. The wise man figures out where she is, the clever man makes a chariot to get there, and the brave man defeats the giant. The question is who should get the girl? The King's answer is the brave man, since the other two only helped him get to the giant, who he defeated alone.

In my version, the king is a queen, and the eligible girl in the internal story already has a girl she wants to marry. I may have very loosely based the two on my girlfriend (a Libra) and myself (and Aquarius). I changed the men wanting rights to the girl to village matriarchs, wanting money for pet projects that would help the village. I also changed the chariot-building to trap-finding, because I wanted something that would work with them already in the forest and having a conversation. At the end, I had the answer be that the money should be split evenly, because I don't think any of their contributions should be ignored. Also, my image is Lexa from The 100, who I'm visualizing here as the Queen.

Image: Lexa/Queen. Source.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. Source.

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part B

I have to say, I thought the difference in the other riddles and the goblin's "great riddle" was kind of huge. All the riddles but the last were, excepting perhaps the situation with the transposed heads, value judgements where I think at least American/European society would be put off by the idea that there's an objectively correct answer. Or a riddle where a woman is "given" to a man in the first place. 

Anyway, the last riddle was different from the previous, as it involved more of an objective fact, I think. My stab at it is that the child of the daughter and father would be the mother’s grandchild by blood, sibling-in-law by marriage. Meanwhile, the child of the mother and son would be the daughter’s (half) sibling by blood, grandchild by marriage. Either by blood or by marriage, the children will be great-uncle/aunt and grand-nephew/niece. Who fills what role depends on whether you’re looking at it from a perspective of relation by blood or marriage, but either way, one will be each of those. The goblin doesn’t ask who would be what, just what the relationship between the children would be, so my answer should be satisfactory.

Since I took the time to type all that out, I’m really tempted to skip the lesbian stuff and rewrite the story where the king actually answers the riddle and the vetala is so shocked that he just goes with him after that. I’m still invested in the lesbian idea, though. It just doesn’t really work with the last story. Or maybe I’ll do my lesbian idea, and link to this post in my author’s note, since it contains my proposed solution. That would let me feel validated in my (hopefully correct) answer, and I’d still get to write about my people.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. Source.

Image: Vetala. Source.

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part A

This week I decided to read Twenty-Two Goblins, which is about the vetalas of Hindu folklore. For these stories specifically, I'm leaning towards a more journalistic note format so I can stream-of-consciousness work through my story choices.

I noticed these stories feature a lot of decisions about which man should get a woman. From a cultural perspective it makes sense, but as a feminist I'm bothered by it. I was toying with the idea of gender-swapping both the external and internal story, but I also think it would be fun to just make it all lesbians. I feel like I'll get some comments on that from some disgruntled straight people, but it's my story and I'll make everyone gay if I want to. If you can't do it on your own little blog, then where can you do it? We're starving for representation anyway.

So, if I do this, it's just a matter of what specific riddle story I choose, and what I do with the king and the vetala. I definitely want the king to be a woman, because men are making enough decisions about women as it is, and I'm kind of picturing Laverne Cox as the strong, wise, badass woman who knows the answers to all the riddles and determinedly goes back for the vetala over and over again. Honestly, I might leave the story with all of the original names except for Laverne Cox as Laverne Cox,  haha. Maybe. As for which riddle story to do, I'm currently thinking about the one where the girl says she'll marry a brave, wise, or clever man, and change it either to brave, wise, and clever women. It could be fun to add femme/butch dynamics in there as well, or perhaps a different conflict. I think that the stories featuring lesbian representation out there often have a main conflict or subplot that revolves around the gayness of the character and coming out or something like that, and while those stories can be important, I also would love to write something where the character is explicitly lesbian and it's important, but not a centrally defining fact of her identity or a main source of conflict.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. Source.

Image: Vetala. Source.

Week 5 Story: Dear Amten

This story has moved! It can now be found on my portfolio site. Happy reading!

Image: Ancient Egyptian Treasure Room by Junti Dutta. Source.

Reading Notes: Egypt, Part B

I ended up really liking what I did with my last post, so I'm going to do something similar here. There were actually only three stories in part B of the unit, but two of them were broken up into several sections due to length. For the purpose of my notes, I'm going to address the longer stories in their entirety rather than in bits and pieces.

1. The Two Brothers

This story was a wild ride. At any given point I didn't know where it was going to go nor was I certain why it had gone in any of the directions it had. I really was not a fan of the whole "evil women" theme it had going on, so that could be something I'd want to change in rewriting. Also, I was very curious about how the woman the king sent was able to take Bata's wife when no one else could. Was it just that Bata wouldn't kill a woman? Was his wife secretly a lesbian? It's never explained, and thus is very open to exploration on my end.

2. The Book of Thoth

I really enjoyed this story. It was pretty straightforward and predictable, but managed to not lose my interest. Unlike the women in The Two Brothers, Ahura knows what's up and tries to save her husband and family from the terrible events she sees coming as a result of her husband stealing the book. I have an idea for this one, which would be to tell the story from the point of view of Thoth, maybe taking a first-person style similar to what I did with Samael, but with a more Thoth-like personality.

3. The Tale of King Rhampsinitus

The title of this tale is rather misleading, given that the protagonist of the story is a thief, not King Rhampsinitus. The story itself, however, was very entertaining. There are lots of ways I could dig further into the plot in my own rewriting, like narrating as the king or telling the story from the limited perspective of a guard, perhaps through conversation with one of his peers.

Bibliography: Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie. Source.

Image: Thoth. Source.

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths, Part A

This week, I decided to read Egyptian Myths. I haven't experimented much with my reading notes, so I thought I'd play around this week and try writing my thoughts about a few specific stories that I have stronger opinions about.

1. Creation

I found the first story about creation a little bit confusing, and wasn't quite sure of the distinction between Ra and Nu. This may have more to do with the writing style than anything. I did think that the way Nut arches over Seb could make for a sad forbidden love story, but I don't think I'm interested enough to rewrite this one. Overall, my takeaway from this story is that I want to strive for clarity in my writing.

2. The Secret Name of Ra

The most interesting aspect of this story to me was that Isis, while her method of getting Ra's secret name was nefarious, wasn't actually wanting the power that came from it for malicious reasons. I suppose one could argue that the desire for power is in itself bad, but it's not like she uses the power for evil. I was really surprised that she didn't kill Ra, and instead saved his life after poisoning him with the snake. I think I would enjoy rewriting this story in a way that gave Isis a motive beyond power for power's sake, maybe casting her as more of a true villain.

7. The Journey of Isis

Some of this story was pretty boring to me - the tree stuff and the holy pillar, for example. I also didn't understand at all why Isis was making the royal baby immortal, or why the royal baby featured in the story to the degree that it did. I could strike off on that tangent and write a background story on said royal baby, but I also thought it would be a fun continuation on the theme of my previous story (See Samael) to focus on Osiris getting chopped into pieces. I do wonder how Isis felt when she noticed his member was missing.

Currently, I'm thinking my best option is number two, probably written as more of a character study from Isis's perspective. There are more stories yet to be read, however, so this may change.

Bibliography: Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie. Source.

Image: Isis. Source.