Mythology and Folklore

Le Chat Botte ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 15 EC: Lang’s European Fairy Tales 1, Part A Puss in Boots: · Apparently talking cats in this world are normal, but if I have learned one thing in this class it is that myths often do not include much description in the form of explanation · Puss in Boots would have been a cool trickster to have Reynard go up against. · Monsieur Puss has a very funny sound too it · Insane also that they just let this magic cat right in to see the king · This is an interesting story for a trickster though as it appears the cat is only performing tricks to the benefit of his master, will be interesting to see if this changes. Typically tricksters work for their own self gain, maybe an altruistic trickster? But I suppose he would also benefit if his master became rich · Kind of aggressive for the cat to threaten these people into supporting his cause, seems out of turn from what he had been doing. Maybe a little m...

Witchcraft ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 15: Russian Folktales, Part B The Witch Girl: ·         Right off the bat the people are audacious. Creepy start. ·         And it only got crazier with a death woman walking around town and forcing people to get into coffins if she looks into their house at night. Insane setup ·         Not sure what to make of this line: Never fear, master! ‘Without God’s will, no pig gets its fill!’” Might have to do some research on that. ·         This Cossack has some insane bravery to just be cutting a witch’s arm off who kills everyone with a shaker. ·         This is an intense witch story that I’m not sure if even Salem stories could match. I like this story and there is potential here for retelling by adding more detail and exposition to the crazier ...

Goat ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 15: Russian Folktales, Part A The Dead Mother: · I could learn a thing or two about creating titles that draw interest from this story · Story is short and to the point. It is comprised mostly of descriptive action prose, might be interesting to add a bit more embellishment. I like how direct it is right now but I think there could be a significant amount of detail added. Particularly at the end. · The ending is great and really shocking with the dead baby as well. I think this ending deserves some expansion. Some interesting ways to take it could be that the mother never really died. Could also be that the mother is sentient or “alive” still. I like the creepiness of it and the fact that the baby is dead too adds to the gruesomeness of the story. Could tone it down by making it ghost mother and baby lives. Could also intensify the terror by having the mother bring take the baby with her. Many possibilities. The Treasure...

Bearskin ( Wikimedia ) Week 14 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Hunt), Part B Bearskin: · Soldier experiencing same problem many veterans in the United States face, could be modernized to a scenario like that or to be even more intense a soldier returning from Vietnam · Interesting dialogue for the fancy guy, might be fun to try and replicate · Ah, fancy pants is the devil · Moral of the story so far: money talks · I like the generosity of this character, but generosity is easy when you have unlimited money, potentially interesting twist if he only has so much money to last the seven years, still gives it all away and then still receives riches in the end · Hilarious that the devil has to clean Bearskin · This is a pretty grim ending, the two older sisters just go and kill themselves and then the devil gloats, potentially re-writing option for a happier ending Hans the Hedgehog: · Very little explanation / exposition here as to ...

Allerleirauh ( Wikimedia ) Week 14 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Hunt), Part A Hansel and Grethel: · Wild that the mom’s first instinct is to abandon the children, is she actually the witch or related somehow? Might make an interesting retelling · Ah, Step-mother, maybe even more likely that she and the witch are in cahoots · Interesting that he uses stone’s to find way back, I had always heard it as bread crumbs but I suppose the creatures of the forest would eat that · This story has a really nice balance of narrative description and dialogue keeping the plot flowing, some descriptive imagery details might enhance it though. · Ah, here are the bread crumbs · And the birds ate them, there we go · First interaction is interesting, no explanation given for why house is made of food · Interesting that she forces Grethel to take care of her brother and make him fat, this story seems to lack a little bit of dialogue here between ...

Sun Wu Kung ( Wikimedia ) Week 13 EC Reading: The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung, Part A Handsome King of the Apes: · Wonder if this mountain rock burst could be referencing a volcanic eruption, would also explain the idea of a high rock mountain in the middle of the ocean. Also explains supernatural creative gifts, as volcanoes certainly have plenty of that (ie making islands) · Explanations and occurrences for the gods are always funny, “This magic rock monkey is shooting light beams from his eyes, no biggie though” It could be fun to retell this story and any others like it making fun of this aspect or even just having the gods speak to each other as teenagers would now. Would also be interesting to do a modernized retelling where the monkey king is just an angsty teen and the heavens they rebel against are their parents. · All of the sudden there are now other apes, wonder if this is in references to humans as apes or just monkeys, or even some hybrid · ...

Chanticleer ( Wikimedia ) Week 13 Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales, Part B Nun’s Priest’s Tale: The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox: · Interesting perspective on the widow’s poverty, almost funny to imagine the flipside of not having things like the fact that she would never have to deal with gout. Reveals much about the culture, I am reminded of a certain sect of Christianity from about this time that was focused on making things as plain and unornate as possible in order to make it more holy · Puritans, duh, I wonder if this woman is a puritan · Oddly enough this is the first encounter this semester with stories of barnyard (esque) animals. · I like the description of the fox in Chanticleer’s dream, creates a powerful defamiliarization and forces the reader to imagine a fox in a new way. This helps give the fox a sense of power in the mind of the reader and puts the reader into the perspective of the Cock. Might be interesting to try and include t...

The Franklin ( Wikimedia ) Week 13 Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales, Part A The Wife of Bath’s Tale: The Unknown Bride: · Interesting to compare stories with respect to their authors. From the first few paragraphs we can see how this female author shifts the power in her story to the Queen and women of the court. · The quest goal of finding what women wish for most is interesting, I wonder also how this story was received in its time · I like how this story has the dialogue embedded into paragraphs of description, might be an interesting strategy to try for my next story as I typically have been separating the two elements. I like this style though because it creates a nice cohesive feeling and flow to the story · I like the fact that the Knight does not turn away when he realizes it is not a group of young women but a crone, the opposite of what Beast does in Beauty and the Beast, might be interesting to expand upon this. · And then he does what B...

Robin Hood Statue ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 12: Ballads of Robin Hood, Part A Progress to Nottingham: · Interesting how the story changes a bit when presented as a ballad: less reliance on typical plot drivers like dialogue or action and more use of song elements like “Hey Down derry derry down” to keep the story moving along. · Interesting feeling evoked by colloquialisms that at once seem familiar and anachronistic. · Repetition here is interesting as it is the trait of Literary Narrative “Patterned Repetition” in the most explicit sense, though I’m not sure what effect it has. · This tale went from sing songy and almost Disney esque and then very quickly changed course as Robin Hood just drops all of foresters on the spot with his bow. · The story is even sing songy when discussing how they buried the men Robin Hood killed Little John: · Much like the arguing in Shakespearean pieces, this kind of dialogue always makes me laugh. T...

The Failure of Sir Launcelot to enter the Chapel of the Holy Grail ( Wikimedia ). Week 12 Reading: King Arthur, Part B Sir Galahad and the White Knight: · I like the plot development that Knights lend themselves too. Knights as characters seem love to talk about adventure and quests, and this ends up determining much of what they do in the story. There are a ton of possibilities for plot direction because nearly anything can be considered an adventure. Potential to modernize and talk about adventures of grocery shopping or other trivial things, Bird scooter as steed … things like that · This new Knight is mysterious and kind of ominous, really like the interjections of fantasy to balance out the more common stories of medieval life. · Monasteries are really cool setting for the stories that venture more into the realm of ghosts and spirits. · Fiend, devil, ghost, demon, interesting to see difference in how cultures refer to the same concept of some ma...

King Arthur ( Wikimedia ) Week 12 Reading: King Arthur, Part A The Drawing of the Sword: · This story is so English it hurts. Interesting how religious the knights are though that attending the service was a big part of their tradition. · Interesting use of what is now a common plot twist, mysterious baby brought by a wizard who is of far greater heritage than is initially understood. I wonder if this was the originator of this concept or if it is even older The Questing Beast: · Wild first introduction to Merlin. Extremely mysterious and ominous. I am curious what happened. I like the chunks of exposition on the front end with a nice amount of dialogue to push the rest of the plot forward, gives a sense of action to the dialogue. The Sword Excalibur: · This is an interesting story as well, not the origin story of the legendary Excalibur that I would have expected. I am also interested to see if this Lady of the Lake’s favor will come back to haunt Arthu...

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...

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...

Sindbad the Sailor by Milo Winter ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sindbad, Part A First Voyage : I like the use of first person narration, different technique that I have not used yet, might be beneficial to try.  I also like the context of voyager on the sea, lends itself to nearly anything imaginable happening  Islands are cool because they exist almost as their own worlds, good way to test a character against situations not normally present in “average life”  Could be really interesting to retell this tale with Sindbad as an untrustworthy narrator or even through more of a dialogue with his listener responding: could also change listener  Second Voyage : Interesting how he goes from a somewhat reasonable voyage to a very strange one  I like the rhino and elephant story, might be interesting scene for descriptive imagery and could be placed anywhere  Third Voyage : Description of small savages that attack as swarms a story I hav...