Reading Notes: Homer's Iliad, Part B

I'm pretty sure I want to stick with my Skyrim idea at this point, so what's left is to choose a specific part of the Iliad to put my own twist on. I think an action scene will give me more to work with, but I’m still not completely decided between the death of Patroclus or the death of Hector. I’m leaning towards Hector, because I think his death at the hands of a vengeful Achilles is both more climactic and cathartic. I want to be able to provide some sort of narrative arc that allows this small section of a huge story to function at least somewhat on its own.

If I have the word count to manage, I’d like to start the scene with the “player” (probably represented via writing in second person) sitting by a fire with a Greybeard on High Hrothgar, asking him to continue the story he’s been telling for several nights. Again, if word count permits, I’d like to have the player interject with a question maybe once, just to solidify the storytelling setting. As for the story itself, to really provide a setting change I’m going to set the Imperial capital, Solitude, which lies off the Northern coast of Skyrim, as Troy. Rather than run past springs, Achilles and Hector (Galmar Stone-Fist and General Tullius in my story) will run through a mountain cave, and the weapon of death will be an axe, not a spear. I may leave Andromache’s name the same, as Tullius doesn’t have a mentioned wife in the game, and Priam will become the Emperor, who for the sake of the story will have a mentor relationship with Tullius.

To be honest, I’m a little worried that I’m being ambitious here, and that I won’t be able to fit what I’m hoping to into a thousand words or less. However, I think that as long as I don’t bog myself down in unnecessary detail and stay along the main lines of the story, I should be okay. I’m also planning on putting some explanatory links at the bottom of the reading for anyone who isn’t familiar with Skyrim and wants to know more about the setting.

Bibliography: Homer's Iliad retold by Alfred J. Church (1907). Source.

Solitude. Source.

Reading Notes: Homer's Iliad, Part A

I didn't have the patience to get through the archaic language of the Biblical units, so I decided to go with something Classical. I'd already done a story from Ovid, so that left the Greek units, if I wanted to diversify at all (and I did).

This week I've decided to focus on setting, so I thought it would be cool to try and transfer a story involving battles into a new and interesting location and/or time. The Iliad doesn't feature many descriptions of scenery, but the overall situation is both political and action-oriented. My first thought when trying to figure out how I could rewrite the story was that there were several similarities to Skyrim (a popular RPG game), mostly in that the gameplay is Skyrim is rooted in both action and political intrigue. In Skyrim, there are two opposing sides, the Empire and Stormcloaks, and while their battle is over territorial occupation, and the Stormcloaks are viewed as rebels, I could definitely, with a few alterations, transpose the general narrative of the Iliad into that world.

Ulfric, leader of the Stormcloaks. Source.

During the writing process, I'll probably lay out a general version of events as they would play out in Skyrim for myself to reference, and then pick a specific section from the unit to zoom in on. I'd like to stick with the Iliad's method of showing both the Greek and Trojan sides of the conflict, especially because in Skyrim joining one side prevents you from playing through the other's storyline. However, I'd maybe add my own twist by taking the perspective of a Greybeard (a relatively neutral monk of sorts) telling the story to someone, or potentially a dragon. Alternately, I could write through the eyes of the player-character (probably one of my own characters), either as part of the action or perhaps listening to the story be told by one of the aforementioned possibilities. I think the use of a Greybeard to tell the story could be really useful in grounding the reader in the setting as well as paying homage to the oral tradition of Homer. If I do that, I'll probably choose a more political scene, whereas if I put the player-character in a battle, I'll probably choose one of the Patroclus scenes.

The Iliad by Homer, translated by J Alfred Church. Source.

Topic Brainstorm

Urban Legends

As I mentioned in my introduction post, I really enjoy conspiracy theories. While not all urban legends are conspiracy theories, there is some definite overlap across the two categories. I like the concept of doing a project about urban legends especially because a lot of them only give you a sketch of a story, and it could be fun to fill in the details or create a larger story than the legend provides. There are a lot of topic options within urban legends, but the love and wedding categories particularly strike me as potentially very fun, or maybe Disney. With any of those, I'd probably tell several different urban legends as if they all happened to or were committed by the same person. That, or perhaps take on the persona of someone who purposely spreads urban legends, or an animator that hides things in movies, like this rather famous Disney example.

Ghost Stories of India

Last week when I was looking through the reading options, I was particularly intrigued by the stories about the Hindu demons, vetalas. I still think those are interesting, but reading about Indian ghosts, or bhoots, I think I have more possibilities with what I can do with stories about them, especially since they aren't relegated to a body, but can still enter one. I think it would be cool to do a project from the perspective of a bhoot, and tie it in with Indian fairy tales, with the ghost being that of one of the fairy tale protagonists, telling stories from both its life and death. For example, I could write as the Prince in this story.

Cookbook

Over the past year or so, I've been getting more into cooking, and this semester I've been starting to meal prep. My main thought when I saw this topic option is that I could actually make whatever recipes I find to use, and put pictures of it with the stories that go with them. I would most likely pick some foods from other cultures to make, and then find stories that match up with them. I really like Chinese food, so I could maybe find some Chinese myths to go with recipes. Alternately, my roommate is Filipino, and I noticed there are Filipino Tales in the UnTextbook. I asked him if he'd be able to help me with recipes if I ended up doing this project, and he said he could. So I would find Filipino tales like this one that mention food, and he would teach me a recipe that could correspond with said food.

Greek Mythology

I'm pretty familiar with Greek (and Roman) Mythology. I took a Shakespeare and Mythology class a couple of semesters ago, as well as Gods & Heroes in Art, and I took an elective class in high school that also focused on Classical mythology. Since Classics courses count towards my major, I have a lot of options in exploring these stories in a variety of contexts. They're popular, and I tend to try for more unique topics, but at the same time there's something about Greek and Roman mythology that feels like coming home. I'm always really amused by the numerous stories of Zeus's philandering ways, and I think I'd want to rewrite some of those and make it so that the reason Hera always knows what's up is because she has a spy, which is whose perspective I'd write from. There are a lot of stories this could work with, like the story of Zeus and Io.

Lion King hidden acronym. Source.

Io, by Castiglione Giovanni Benedetto. Source.

Week 2 Story: The Fate of Pygmalion

This story can now be read here at my portfolio site!

Image: Pygmalion and the statue, by Sir John Tenniel. Source.

Reading Notes: Pygmalion

I kind of knew going into this story that I was going to choose to rewrite it and change the plot. Every time I encounter the story of Pygmalion, I find myself bothered by how willing Venus is to grant Pygmalion's wish, and by how delighted Pygmalion is to find the statue alive. My first issue is answered with a little research prompted by this particular translation, which specifies the source of Pygmalion's misogyny to be the daughters of Propoetus, or the Propoetides. These women rejected Venus as a goddess, so of course Venus didn't like them and would encourage Pygmalion's distaste. Still, Pygmalion extends this dislike to all women. Rather than find a living non-Propoetide woman, he creates and falls in love with his statue, who is perfect because she is not alive. The way I see it, when Venus brings her to life, one of two things can happen to the statue. Either she becomes like a real human woman, with all the "failings that nature gave the female heart," or she's essentially a living doll, as empty inside as when she was ivory. If she is the former, then by Pygmalion's logic he should no longer love her, as she isn't perfect. If she is the latter, then his infatuation, while not necessarily hurting anyone, is concerning and has a strange moral implication that women are better without personalities. Neither seems like a great option.

Obviously, I have plans to make some changes in the story. However, what I did really like about this myth, at least this translation, was the flow and highly descriptive quality of the writing. Kline is a heavy user of commas, which I normally don't love, but in this case, I think they help add to the vibe of the story and give it an older feel. I also really like the multiple uses of repetition, and how Pygmalion's actions are mirrored, in a way, like with the start of this sentence: "He kisses it, and thinks his kisses are returned." Stylistically, I'm much more interested in emulating this story than I am in matters of plot.


Story Source: Pygmalion by Ovid, translated by Tony Kline. Source.

Image: Pygmalion and Galatea (statue). Source.

Reading Options

It's been fun to begin exploring the UnTextbook this week! I have approximately 15 story tabs open in my browser (I may have read a little extra), but here are three I found particularly interesting:

1. The Twenty-Two Goblins Unit

This whole concept of these stories is so unique and fascinating to me. I enjoy the more macabre aspect that is the corpse inhabitation, but I also really love that each story has a riddle. The added challenge of the paradoxes brings an interactive dimension into the tales, which is an element I think I'd like to explore.

2.  The Deluge

The Deluge is a Cherokee myth that I found strikingly similar to the biblical story of Noah. After reading it, I want to dig more into the similarity of story themes and sometimes events across cultures. I know that at some point I read something that talked about the prevalence of ancient flood accounts in cultures around the world suggesting that such an event may have occurred, and now I want to track that down again as well.

3. Master and Pupil (or the Devil Outwitted)

This Georgian myth was interesting to me for the opposite reason of The Deluge, in that I don't think I've ever read anything quite like that story. That the power was in the hands of the son, and the son pushed for more money, but the father was ultimately the one who greedily made a mistake seems odd to me. It definitely might be a story I'm interested in rewriting in order to cast the blame differently.



Vetala. Source.

Time Strategies

Rather than go into the long version of how bad my time management skills were when I entered college, I'm just going to say they were awful and leave it at that. Since my first semester, I've been on a slow upward climb, but it's definitely a climb. I still procrastinate sometimes, (this post is due in two hours) and though I've tried, I haven't found a planner/schedule system that works for me yet. I'm hoping to fix that this semester by trying Google Calendar. My girlfriend swears by it, so we'll see. I'm also going to set aside some time on Sundays to write down my priorities for the week and schedule out my time.

I really related to The Important Habit of Just Starting, in that starting is almost always the most difficult for me. I put so much pressure on the work to be done that I become too nervous to start, and if it's not a big assignment, I feel like I can just get it done later. These days, I'm pretty good at just pushing through and starting, but I don't always start things in the order I should, and I don't have any systems in place to help myself, really. I think making my desk a more inviting workspace would go a long way. Currently it's functioning as much as a storage space as a workspace, so clearing some stuff off of it should help. Ideally it'll look something like this:

Workspace. Source.

My Thoughts on Course Technology

Oddly enough, the technology tool this class uses that I am most familiar with besides Canvas is PBWorks. I work for OU IT, and we use the service for our internal knowledge base, so I'm used to navigating this kind of wiki on a daily basis. I was surprised to see it being used for this class, mostly because I just associate it work and hadn't thought about potential other applications, like for classes. I've also been using Google Docs since high school. My AP Government teacher was constantly praising "The Cloud," and frankly, I do find it incredibly useful. I like that I can access my documents on my phone, laptop, or school computer without having to worry about emailing myself or putting stuff on a flash drive. As for what I'm less familiar with, I think the Freebookapalooza and the Myth-Folklore UnTextbook are really cool. I'm always down for free books and media!

All Hail the Glow Cloud by Vinigri. Edited by me. Source.

My Thoughts on Assignments

I've never done a blog before, so I'm excited to both have one and have a reason for having one. Some of my classes this semester are more dense and historical, so the not so heavily academic reading this class involves sounds like a breath of fresh air. I'm also looking forwards to learning more about the growth mindset. The extra credit challenges sound worthwhile both in points and real world applicability. As mentioned in my previous post on growth mindset, I'm not yet at a place where I am fully utilizing this approach, but I'd like to get there. Some of the other extra credit possibilities also sound fun, like Wikipedia Trails. I go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole on my own every now and then, so it's nice that I'll be able to get points for it. All in all, I think I'll be doing as much extra credit for this class as I can manage (though not ahead of my other coursework) so I can potentially finish early.

Wiki Walk Source.

Developing a Growth Mindset

We talked about growth mindset a little bit in a UCOL class I took freshman year, but it was really just the advisors saying to focus on progress without mentioning the science, and it didn't really stick with me. I'm not sure about elementary school, but in middle school and definitely high school I had a fixed mindset in regards to learning. I was one of those kids that was told how smart I was from the time I learned to read. I never had the slowly falling grades that the studies show, but my adolescence was spent not trying terribly hard because I didn't have to in order to do well. The way I saw it, I couldn't get higher than an A, so why put in any extra effort? Then college happened and I all but failed my first semester, mostly because only doing the bare minimum of high school work doesn't at all prepare you for homework that takes more than thirty minutes to do. My perspective and my GPA have grown a lot from that point of failure, but I definitely still struggle with aspects of a fixed mindset. I know how to deal with failure now, and I can push through when it happens, but I'm still terrified of looking incompetent in the first place. Sometimes it can be hard to find motivation, too.

That picture is cheesy, but it's the kind of self-talk I'm aiming for. I'm excited to learn more about growth mindset and to try and implement it. I really want to overcome my fear of failure so I can be more open to trying things outside of my comfort zone. For a lot of high school, I had this idea that if I wasn't going to be naturally awesome at something, or at least on the same level as the people around me, there was no point in doing it. I missed out on a lot of opportunities with that thinking, and I don't want to graduate next year feeling like I did the same in college.

Growth Mindset. Web Source.

Introduction to a Letters Major

I'm a letters major, which in my case means I'm indecisive. I have a long list of jobs I know I'd hate, and a mid-size list of jobs I know I could do and be relatively satisfied with. So, rather than acquire a specific career skill-set, I'm essentially majoring in learning how to think real good. After I graduate I'll apply for as many decent-sounding jobs as I can squish letters into fitting the degree requirements for, and see where it takes me. At the least, it sounds like an adventure, right?

Anyway, my career indecision may make me sound like a Libra, but as it happens, I'm an Aquarius. I have a strange relationship with astrology, in that I think there is absolutely no way that the stars have anything to do with who I am as a person, but at the same time I love reading horoscopes and personality descriptions for both me and my girlfriend, an actual Libra. As a result, I am an armchair expert about Aquarius and Libra, and know absolutely nothing about the rest of the signs.

One of the Aquarius stereotypes that does actually fit me, however, is an interest in conspiracy theories. As with astrology, I'm a skeptic at heart. But while my limited investment in the zodiac has more to do with my enjoyment of reading others' assessments of me and using it to figure out what I think is actually true about myself, my consumption of conspiracy theories is based in an interest in perspective. On the surface they're intriguing on their own, but that's not all there is to it. I find it fascinating that if you take an incomplete set of facts relating to an event or situation and present them together with a hint of shady context, a story can seem to obviously form. One example of this is the Umbrella Man, as described in this video from the New York Times.

I first saw this video in a class last semester called Secret Societies, taught by Dr. Kevin Butterfield. I definitely recommend taking the class if you can fit it in. Dr. Butterfield himself is completely skeptical, and he gets you thinking about why people are drawn to belief in conspiracy theories in the first place, and how they reflect the values and concerns of our society at a given place and time. You also learn a lot of obscure history, which is fun.

Plug for a good class aside, that's a little bit about me! Let me know if you have any outrageous (or believable) conspiracy theories to share!


The Signs As Conspiracy Theories. Web Source.

Storybook Favorites

As I was browsing through the storybooks from previous classes, several of them caught my eye. Here are the three that I found most interesting:

1. Louisiana Animal Folk Tales
This storybook is about, unsurprisingly, Louisiana folk tales that involve animals. I found this topic intriguing, mostly because I just didn't know that Louisiana had its own folk tales. I really enjoyed that the stories were told from the perspective of an animal rather than a human. Taking such a viewpoint helps give the reader a greater sense of empathy, as opposed to the judgmental stance one might take if getting the story from the perspective of an outsider.

2. Real Housewives of Greek Mythology

The Real Housewives of Greek Mythology is a reality TV twist on classical Greek myths involving Hera, Amphitrite, Persephone, and Athena. The stories are presented as episode scripts on a recap site. I think this take on the women of Greek mythology is genius, though I was surprised the author left out Aphrodite. Still, the drama of the Olympians and the focus of the stories on their scandalous romantic lives as people stuck living together(ish) lends itself perfectly to the traditional reality show setup. Plus, some of the classical art the author uses seems like it could actually be reality screencaps. If it were on today, I would probably watch this on TV. Instead, I guess I'll have to settle for the recaps.

3. Tales of the River Ganges
I was drawn to Tales of the River Ganges initially for the concept of the river telling her own story. I stayed because it was actually quite relaxing. I loved that for the first story the author included a video of river sounds for background noise as they described drifting down the river, listening to a goddess give you her life story. The setting they created for the story, both in writing and sound, really helped me get a sense of place and time, and in my opinion, became an integral part of this storytelling experience.

Artemis and Apollo. Source.

My Favorite Place: The Blue Ridge Mountains

Last summer, I drove to North Carolina with my girlfriend to meet her family. Before this trip, the farthest east I had been was Indiana, so it was unfamiliar territory, to say the least. On the way to Durham, where her dad and extended family live, we took the scenic route and drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which goes through the Blue Ridge Mountains, a part of the Appalachians that runs along the western edge of the state. The parkway has turnouts to views like this:

And this:

And this:

There's something about standing on the edge of what's basically a forest-y cliff and looking out over these views that makes you feel incredibly, powerfully small. I'm kind of a control freak, so I maybe shouldn't like that. But I've never felt more at peace than I did standing there awestruck on those little gravel turnouts. The peaks,valleys, and crisp mountain air have found a place in my heart that the rolling plains of the Midwest have never touched. I'm lucky enough to still be with the girl, and plans are in the works to go back to North Carolina this summer. I can't wait to see the mountains again and feel like a speck in the universe.



1st Picture: personal photo of Blue Ridge Mountains, taken May 2017
2nd Picture: personal photo of Blue Ridge Mountains, taken May 2017
3rd Picture: Blue Ridge Mountains. Web source: Our State

This Is A Test

Testing, testing, 1 2 3. Just making sure everything looks alright.