Reading Notes Week 10: Great Plains, Part B (EC)

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 town, whose ancestors had told him this story. He will be a deputy, unafraid of the supernatural, but the sheriff will warn that, there’s more to fear than what walks in the dirt. Ultimately, the young boy will be working a night shift and get haunted by some ghost he believes to be a person. This will result in a shootout and then I will try and recreate the same suspense around a visit to the grave in the next few days where he realizes it was in fact a ghost.

Why the Possum Plays Dead:

· This origin story of the possum is tremendously sad. Might be interesting to try and retell it from his perspective or by changing the outcome for him. It might also be interesting to do a similar story explaining why armadillos cause leprosy (carry the disease that causes it).

Bibliography

Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson