I have always really like "pourquoi stories" the stories that tell how something came to be. I've never really had a reason to write one myself, but I think that they reveal so much about the culture that creates them and human nature in general. For example, in the first story of the moon, the blacksmith is unhappy with his existence. He tries his hand at several other lives in many different contexts, finds that each one has some manner of strife or discomfort, and finally asks to be turned into the moon. He decides taht he doesn't like being the moon either. The wise man, the one who turned him into all these things, including the moon, has decided he's had enough of the man's indecision and refused to turn him into anything else. He is the moon now.
I think that this story is interesting because it shows that no one has an existence without pain or inconvenience. We all have our trials to bear and switching lives is really just switching problems. There are lots of stories that illustrate this (The Prince and the Pauper, "The grass isn't greener on the other side") but I have never read an origin story with this message. Maybe the moon changes its face so often because even as the moon, the man cannot make up his mind.
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| "The Moon" |
As much as I want to write a Pygmalion story from the statues' point of view, I also really want to write a moon origin story. I already have an idea. I think that the moon is such an important part of so many cultures that it has hundreds of origin stories. It'd be cool to have my story be among such company.
Bibliography:
1. The Man in the Moon
Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson, with photographs by W.A. Briggs (1899)
2. Pygmalion
Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000).
3. The Tiger, the Brahmin, and the Jackal
Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).
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