Mythology and Folklore

Lynx ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 11: Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, Part B Two More Rabbit Stories: · First story is an interesting and powerful way to deliver the message not to boast. I am curious what they mean when they say that the rabbit “shot” at his wife and she did too. I wonder if this may have gotten jumbled in translation. I am also interested in the character Panther. · A quick google search revealed that Panther is a word that has been used to describe many different big cats and even a legendary creature with a multi-colored hide. This suggests to me that the Panther here is some almost archetypal big cat. · Second Story: Really interesting plot development here with a good flow and balance of description, dialogue, and action, up until the end. The end seems to just kind of happen and almost leaves out some of the ending. Good retelling potential to rewrite and extend the end to give the story a more complete feeling. Why Deer Neve...

Tortoise ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 11: Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, Part A The Earth-Maker: · I like the setup of this origin story, similar to Christianity’s version of the origin story where there was nothing, and then at once the original being was. Might be interesting to try and merge this with some of the bible’s origin stories. · Interesting employment of tortoise and hare. Would not have expected Tortoise to be the original man, nor one that would cause war and wrath on earth. · Really interesting how the origin of death is also weaved into the origin story. But I guess this is also true for the Bible. Really interesting to note also their explanation for why people die. In this story, death is a means of preventing overcrowding and a lack of food and resources. This suggests to me that these tribes valued resources like food greatly, but also that their understanding of death as an essential aspect of the circle of life. The Bible’s o...

Grand Teton in Winter ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 10: Great Plains, Part B (EC) Two Teton Ghost Stories: · First story is interesting, short so it leaves much to the imagination. As soon as he fears the female ghost she disappears, could do something interesting here by injecting thematic symbolism. · The second story is another cool setup that leaves much to the imagination. The man has an interaction with the ghost, shoots them in the head, and then he ends up at a gravesite where movement has demonstrated there is a wound in the skull that appears to have an injury like one would from a shot to the head. o I want to take this story and mix it with an old west tale. I want to keep aspects of this story where the protagonist is not afraid of ghosts at the beginning noting, “Should I meet any danger by and by, I will shoot. I am a man who ought not to regard anything.” In the retelling I will have the protagonist as a young Native American raised in a frontier t...

American Bison ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 10: Great Plains, Part A The Creation: · Interesting realization I just had, many creation stories assume that the original “beings” came from the sky. Why is this? · Might be interesting to try a creation story, many different directions for retelling · My mind goes to a modern retelling of this, Sun and Moon telling Osages to go down to Earth might parallel well with parents telling millennials to move out: The Creation (of millennials). · Earth covered with water, but animals still present, a bit confusing · I like the character of the Elk. Elk, for whatever reason, have always been associated with the wisdom of a forest, ancient wisdom, that kind of thing · Crawfish is an interesting choice for savior of the earth, might be interesting to retell this tale from his perspective. Three Ghost Stories: · These stories are interesting to consider as evolutionary mechanisms, as both the a...

Tanuki statue ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales, Part B The Magic Kettle: · I like the setting of the mountains of Japan, anything can happen up in the mountains · The tanuki as a shapeshifter has incredible possibilities for retelling. · This is an interesting introduction to the Tanuki. The story leaves much to the imagination in regards to the personality and thoughts of the Tanuki, good potential for retelling from the tanuki’s perspective. How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished: · The tanuki is married to a fox, how convenient for my Storybook · Great plot where the tanuki and fox work together to find themselves food, might be able to place Reynard into this position. Specific point where he notes that he is glad he is not a fox and can climb, good way for him to best Reynard at first · Tanuki kills his own wife and actually sells her body, perhaps not as nice as he seemed. Again excellent place to interject Reynard. · ...

The Girl with the Wooden Helmet ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales, Part A The Stonecutter: I like how the spirit acts almost like an omnipotent narrator, interjecting into the story. It could be interesting to retell this story with the spirit as the narrator. Could add more of a commentary element on the actions of the man with this. I find it interesting that the man was bringing a gravestone to the house of a rich man who he then envied, without considering the reality of why he might be bringing a gravestone to this person. Excellent foreshadowing. I would like to include elements like this in my own stories but I am never sure how authors invent aspects of their stories like this Theme of gluttony or excess here, keeps asking for more I like the plot development here where the protagonist continually ascends to mightier and mightier beings. Very similar to a passage from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist when the protagonist becomes one with the universe. I d...

Rosie the Riveter ( Wikimedia ) I am not quite happy with my progress so far, there have been a number of weeks where I haven’t been able to finish all of the assignments and I haven’t done any extra credit work to make up for it. I have not yet nailed down my weekly routine for this class, and I plan to do some reevaluating of my current strategy. So far the only extra credit option I have used so far was using the extra reading assignment for Reading B. I need to do more of the EC work on top of doing my actual work in the future. My new goal is to do one extra credit assignment each week, in addition to completing all of the assigned work. Things have gone well developing my blog and website and I have actually enjoyed the work more than I expected. The biggest pitfall I want to avoid in the second half is procrastinating because of the extra credit options. I also want to make sure to not procrastinate on the extra credit assignments I already need to make up.

Feedback Cat ( cheezburger ) So far I have been receiving excellent feedback. The comments I find the most useful are the ones that are explicit about what they didn’t like or what I should do to improve. Sometimes, we try to be too nice in the comments and never really make a suggestion that the author can act upon. I try to make sure I give feedback that offers up at least something actionable for the author, and if there isn’t anything I think needs to be changed I like to come up with ideas for where they might head next with their story or how they might expand it. I think I have been giving good feedback, and I have definitely been gaining new ideas for my own writing in the process. I do think there is a sense of getting to know someone by connecting with their blog, and I think mine portrays me well. In the future, I would like to be more responsive to my own comment wall, and incorporate more of their advice into my writing. I chose this image primarily because the pho...

The Great Flood by Bonaventura Peeters ( Wikimedia ) Reading and Writing Review I think that the reading and writing assignments in this class are working well for me. I enjoy the readings and am always left with plenty to write about in my retellings. My biggest issue so far has just been getting the assignments done on time. Looking forward my biggest focus will be trying to get assignments done earlier in the week. I have been pleasantly surprised by how creative I have been in my writing, and how much I have enjoyed the readings. As a science major it is easy to get lost in classes that are less writing intensive and less reliant on creativity. It is refreshing, and important, to take time for classes like this where I can explore and train those areas that may not normally get enough attention. I selected the image above because it is one of my favorite pieces of artwork I included with a story. I love the style, and the sense of awe that the colors, proportions, and medium...

Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes: Brer Rabbit, Part B Mr. Rabbit Meets His Match Again : Central focus on crops, to have land and crops meant a great deal in this time, so it was truly devastating for the characters to have lost all of their crops. Might be interesting to have Reynard get tricked into helping Brer Rabbit raise many more crops.  Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear: Interesting difference here where Bear is presented as a much less aware/high profile figure. In other stories he is Judge Bear or making statements to the community about how they should get along almost like a reverend.  I like the knowledgeable, governing bear character better than this one who gets tricked, but this one might play better into a storybook with Reynard.  Not sure what a goober patch is but I like the feel it gives to the story, the word itself lightens things up, could be good for Storybook or retelling.  Apparently goobers are peanuts.  Interest...

Brer Rabbit and Tar-Baby by Joel Chandler Harris ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes: Brer Rabbit, Part A The Calamus Root : I really like the use of dialect to characterize this story, it really gives it a nice feel that almost immediately makes the reader feel as if they are in the era these stories came from. It reminds me much of the style of Huckleberry Finn and the likes. I really like this dialect used, but with the historical context I would have to be very careful in trying to create my own. A better alternative I might use to mimic this kind of dialect is to try and recreate the dialect often employed by Mark Twain, something that speaks more to my roots  I like the character of Brer Rabbit as a classic trickster for my overall Storybook, I think it would be really cool to see Reynard, a legendary European trickster, square off against a true American trickster. I also saw a number of mentions of tricksters in the Asian unit, so I might explore some of those next week to g...