Extra Credit - Reading Crash Course Myths (Tricksters)

I watched the Crash Course Mythology on Tricksters, partially because I have a tendency to skim the assignment descriptions instead of reading them, so I need some extra credit, and partially because I'm considering writing a story wherein tricksters from different traditions try to trick each other, so I needed some background. 

I really liked the video. It was entertaining, informative, and it really got at the heart of why I think everyong loves not only tricksters, but myths in general. They tell us about ourselves, they give us heroes (or anti-heroes, which I am a sucker for) to root for without taking on any of the risk ourselves. They tell us whats important to us as a culture, and they offer us an imaginative escape. 

Anyway, tricksters, specifically, are popular for several reasons. They're usually the underdog, someone who is not known for having super human qualities. They aren't super strong or super fast, these are things that we normal humans know we'll ever be. But they're super clever, and that is somewhat attainable for us. Easier to imagine, certainly. Tricksters are known for being "agents of chaos," and their stories usually follow the model of them getting stuck in their own tricks but always getting away with it. Tricksters get their comeuppance...briefly...then it's back to scamming fools. 

In a way, the way one sees a trickster is very revealing about their own personal philosophy. Someone who loves a trickster might say something like "Everything is legal if you don't get caught!" while someone who doesn't like a trickster might say "Well, he's gonna get his!" 

But everyone loves a trickster! They're the ones who throw a wrench into the system, making them cultural heroes for the oppressed because they went against someone who clearly outmatched them and still got away with it! Like Brer Rabbit or Hermes. They're also culture heroes because their stories can be used to explain the invention of something that a society really relies on, like Loki and the enchanted boat, Odin's spear, and Thor's hammer. They're creative, inventive, and intelligent, and every culture in the world has some form of artistic expression and/or intellectual appreciation which makes them universal characters as well as culture heroes. Usually they portray moral ambiguity--which even the most pious of people have struggled with, which makes them relatable. 

I think that the reason some people don't like a trickster is the fact that they remind us of our baser instincts. No matter how sophisticated we become as a species, we can't forget the fact that we're animals. I think that the Native emphasis on animal/human spirits and heroes shows this pretty well. The trickster is always motivated by the lowest of needs, even though he uses his higher intelligence to achieve his goals. Food, drink, sex, entertainment, greed...we don't outgrow base desires, they just get more sophisticated as we as a species becomes more complicated. A modern trickster might be motivated by political power, by money, by no-strings sex, by social media status...

I chose this video because I was going to do a portfolio project on tricksters. But thinking about "modern hedonism" gives me ideas for maybe writing a new trickster...I don't know. That's the thing about tricksters, they keep you on your toes. 

Anansi - by mikkel
via piq

Story Lab - TV Tropes

I read up on the different tropes in tv and other genres. I really did find a lot of familiar set-ups. A trope is a recurring theme, motif, or plot device. Some of my favorites are:
1. Real Event, Fictional Cause
2. Discount Lesbians
3. Screw Your Ultimatum! 
I also really liked some of the tropes that fans proposed be added to the data base, like "when a non-human character fails to impersonate humanity because they don't understand human culture." Like Starfire from Teen Titans (the original, not whatever the reboot is), or the Minions, from Despicable Me. I also liked the Fan-Preferred Couple trope, because immediately I could think of several examples where fans preferred one pairing over what was the official/endgame pairing. Like That 70's Show, where Jackie and Hyde obviously should have ended up together; or the more militant Sherlock fandom, which had some members actually sent death threats to Amanda Abbington for playing Mary Watson, because they really wanted Sherlock and John to be together.

But a lot of the tropes I sort of recognized instantly. I love a good "Real Event, Fictional Cause" story. I don't really know what separates that from a mythological origin story other than the seriousness with which the story is taken. I mean, if you wanted, you could consider the moon origin stories from the Anthology as "Real Event, Fictional Cause" stories. Except they are deeply ingrained in culture, rather than sitting on the surface of it like TV characters do. For example, the Doctor from Doctor Who supposedly inspired some of Shakespeare's writing, was responsible of the brief disappearance of Agatha Christie, and invented Yorkshire Pudding (which I have personally never had but it looks pretty simple, I don't know what would be gained by taking credit for it.)

"Yorkshire Pudding"
Sam Greenhalgh via Flickr

I also think the threat on "Discount Lesbians" was pretty accurate and kind of funny. It makes a good point about "othering" homosexual relationships by making sure that one or more of the participants has a very obvious difference in appearance from the audience. Take Doctor Who as an example (again). He has a long-time friend named Vastra, who is a Silurian (a lizard-person from the dawn of time). She's living in Victorian England and is married to a human named Jenny, who pretends to be her maid to avoid that era's homophobia. Jenny is obviously super gay, because not only is she married to a woman but she's married to a lizard woman with a six-foot long retractable tongue ( 😉). 

The third trope that I recognized and instantly cracked up was the "Screw Your Ultimatum!" page. I loved that the site broke it down into the 2 possible responses that the protagonist always seems to choose from. The first is to say something to the effect of one of the following: "Shut up," "Get It Over With," or "F*ck You." The site suggests 'bonus points' for a counter ultimatum. The second option is that the protagonist actually chooses one of the options without having to think about it, and/or chooses a third option that isn't mentioned. My favorite example of "Get It Over With" from the first option is from Supernatural, (spoilers ahead) when in Season 5, Sam has started the apocalypse and gets killed by some (understandably) angry hunters. Even though they're wearing masks, Dean--Sam's big brother--figures out who they are. To keep Dean from hunting them down in revenge, they decide to kill him too. But the Winchester brothers are known for never staying dead, so Dean says my favorite line in the whole series: "Go ahead, Roy, do it. But I'm gonna warn you. When I come back, I'm gonna be pissed." 

Honestly, iconic.

Reading Notes - Twenty Two Goblins (Reading B)

Wow, what a twist! 

So the whole time I'm reading Twenty Two Goblins I'm thinking that the goblin is just this jerk who keeps making this weary king keep going back to pick up a dead body. But turns out that the monk, who sent him on this whole cockamamie journey is evil and wants to kill the king and become king of the fairies. It wasn't until the second to last chapter, "Father and Son, Daughter and Mother," that we even learn that Patience the Monk is actually scheming and conniving against the king. And at first it seemed kind of abrupt for the goblin to reveal what was really going on. But I wasn't even suspicious that the goblin might have an ulterior motive. I just believed him, and so did the king. Because it turns out that the goblin's true nature wasn't an abrupt revelation at all.

I made the rookie mistake of scrolling straight past the intro to each chapter and going straight to the riddle. But in the introduction to each paragraph--which I initially believed I could skip because they were all basically the same--there is a slow and subtle shift in the goblin character. He goes from being an "obvious threat" to having respect for the king's persistence. He grows fond of the king, or maybe he always was and shows it more in the later chapters. The king seems to grow weirdly attached to the goblin as well, because he believes him immediately, so at some point, the king stopped seeing the goblin as a threat. Or maybe he never did. 

The point is that both the characters and the reader get lulled into a sense of security by the repetitive nature of the story, even though ever riddle is different and some of the introductions show subtle shifts in the main characters. I loved that it was a big reveal, and it honestly did catch me off guard. 

"Twenty Two Goblins"
 by Perham W Nahl via Wikimedia

Reading Notes - Twenty Two Goblins (Reading A)

I chose Twenty Two Goblins for this week's reading. I thought it would be interesting to read something with riddles, because I've never been any good at them. The thing about this unit is the King's answers all seem justified, but for some, you could reasonably justify any answer. For others, it's obvious that there is only one choice. 

For example, the very first story, where in three brothers are all in love with the same woman. She passes away and each of them has a role to play in bringing her back to life. The goblin asks the King which of the brothers deserves her, and he chooses the brother who laid around in the girl's ashes (gross) over the brother who took her bones to the Ganges River (double gross) and the brother who went off and learned a magic spell to bring her to life. I think that you could make a case for the magic brother, but I guess the one who rolled around ini her ashes was the right answer, since the goblin didn't kill him. 

But for the story about the three delicate wives, where in three wives are wounded by things that definitely shouldn't wound them, the answer is more obvious. The first wife is hurt by a falling lotus petal, the second is burned by a moonbeam, and the third is bruised by the sound of a mortar and pestle. The goblin asks which wife is the most delicate and the King chooses the third wife. Which seems obvious to me since she was hurt by a sound, and not by anything actually touching her. 

The other thing that I noticed about these stories is how transparent the names are. Even in the introduction, the monk who sends the king out to retrieve this goblin is names Patience. He had been sending the king jewels for twelve years to try to get him to go out and get this goblin (which is hidden inside of a corpse, gross); then, every time the King correctly answers a riddle, the body vanishes and the King has to go back and get it. So this monk has not only been waiting 12 years for the king to even go on the quest, now he's waiting even longer for the king to complete the quest. And the King's name is Victory, which I suppose explains why he keeps surviving the goblin's riddles. All the names in the riddles are transparent as well. A warrior named Brave, or a King named Heroic, a beautiful girl named Lovely, a launderer named Clean-cloth. 

I think that two of these elements would be interesting to try to incorporate into an original story. First, only after reading these stories do I see nothing wrong with shamelessly naming characters after the values they are meant to incapsulate. And second, the casual nature of death and bodies adds an element of horror without horror being the focus of the story. I like that.

"Twenty Two Goblins" by Perham W. Nahl
Wikimedia

Reading Notes - Egyptian Myths (Reading B)

I read Part B of the Egyptian Myths, and I was really surprised by how much some of these ancient myths have in common with other stories. I love reading older stories because you can see how over time traces of famous myths have survived by being adopted by other cultures. For example, in the Two Brothers story, a younger brother is imbued with spirit of the gods and a faithful worker. He is then falsely accused of rape by his brother's wife, though she flirted with him, and the brother seeks to kill him. It honestly reminded me a bit of the story of Joseph in the Bible, wherein Pharaoh's wife flirts with him and when he declines, she accuses him of violating her and gets him thrown into prison. 

Dreams also play a prophetic role in the Egyptian myths, and magic is a major plot device. Some people don't like that magic can be used as a "deus ex machina" for plot progression. I'll admit, it makes for some really weird stories sometimes. It's like playing that game where everyone adds a sentence to the story and it just barely makes sense, and "magic" is the bridge from one non-sensical thing to the next. But I like that magic as a plot device because you make anything happen, and the reader just has to go with you. Woman talking to a banana, and the banana become a crocodile? Magic. Man riding a horse that turns into a duck and then the man turns into a singing bear? Magic.

Obviously, writing magic like that would be an abuse of the element, but the possibilities are genuinely endless. I am writing a story about Isis, and in her journey a lot of nonsensical things happen but they progress the story and are usually backed up by a description of her emotions or of some natural process. The best magic, at least in the Egyptian tradition, is loosely rooted in nature or feeling. Not only does this help me understand ancient Egyptian culture, but it gives me ideas for my stories.

"Thoth's Book" via Wikipedia

Bibliography:

Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907)

Week 5 Story: I Fled the Feast

I can remember how quickly the humor evaporated from our great hall because it haunts me even now. All the mirth and drunkenness left in the night, like smoke from a snuffed candle, and by the time I realized what had happened, grief had overtaken me. Accepting his death was like trying to breath in a vacuum, like reaching out for something you know is no longer there but which you desperately need anyway. 

We'd been feasting, celebrating my husband's return from the other side of the world. Osiris had insisted on going abroad to teach wisdom to all people. I was less certain. I protected him, kept him safe in all circumstances. He swore to me he would return, with that beautiful crooked smile and the familiar glint in his eye. I remember laughing, relenting, and telling him to come to bed. The next day he announced, casually to the entire court, that he was taking a journey and that I was to rule in his absence. His advisors sputtered and coughed in confusion, but my Osiris just laughed and handed over his scepter. He never worried about me like I worried about him. 
The only threat to my reign was already well-known: Set, Osiris' brother. Jealousy and evil permeate every facet of his being, but Osiris and I both knew that I superseded him in strength and courage. Which is why, to steal my husband's throne, he resorted to wicked trickery.

At the feast, Set brought a chest and the appearance of good cheer. It was a beautiful chest, decorated with rubies, lapis and gold. It was the most magnificent gift of any that had been brought to glorify my husband. Looking back on it, I should have realized that Set could never pay his respects without an ulterior motive. But even I never thought that he would go as far as fratricide. 

He'd made the chest to Osiris' exact measurements, every curve and angle of my husband's body had been taken into account in it's construction. Set had offered the chest to any of our guests who could fit perfectly within its gilded walls, and I laughed along with our guests when Osiris drunkenly crawled inside. Suddenly, like the snap of a crocodile's jaws, Set closed the lid, sealed it shut, and cackled madly as my love thundered in vain against the confines of his tomb. Soon the grand hall was as silent as the echo of his final breath. 

Our guest's fled in terror as Set ascended the dais and assumed the throne, and I, restrained by my brother-in-law's conspirators, screamed until my voice left me. Courtiers who had betrayed Osiris took up his sarcophagus and carried it out of sight. While I wept, Set came upon me. He pursed his twisted lips and hissed like a serpent against my ear:
Run.

"Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection"
Flickr

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Author's Note:

I read the Ancient Egyptian Myths, and the story is inspired by the story "The Death of Osiris". I have been considering a Portfolio Project, and this would certainly be one of the stories I include. I want to add on to it in the future, and complete the saga from Isis' point of view. Though doing a Storybook of this myth might be better. I honestly don't know. 
First person is kind of difficult for me, because I think it's easier to explain people's emotions as an omniscient narrator. Sometimes we hide our emotions from ourselves, and conveying that while letting the reader know that nothing is actually missing is a challenge. But I think it will be better to try a first person story with this myth because the myth only says that Isis is grief-stricken, and that Osiris was wise, so there is lots of room for me to write them as I want to. 
I know that I'm going to continue this story, probably on my Project website. 

Bibliography:
Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907). 

Reading Notes - Egyptian Myths (Reading A)

I read the Ancient Egyptian Myths, some of which I was already familiar with due to my obsession with Egyptology. But I think that I never realized how detailed the myths are. For example, the myths and the science of the times are very closely intertwined. I know that in modern times we take for granted that there are 12 hours in a day and 12 hours in a night, but in ancient times the calculation of time was a big deal. Such a big deal that they included it in the mythology, most notably "The Sun's Journey". Ra, the sun god, enters Duat (the Underworld) at the end of each day as Tum, the setting sun. He is old and frail, and he boards a barque (a specific sailing ship) with his companions. He must fight the demons of the darkness, an increasingly difficult hoard of monsters as the night goes on, until he is reborn through the eastern gate as young Khepera, the rising sun. 

Not only is it interesting that the Egyptians felt it was crucial to know what Ra was doing, they thought it was important to mark at which hour he was doing it. In the seventh hour, for example, Osiris sits as king of the dead and Apep, the Night Serpent, attacks Ra's sun barque. All the allies attack it with swords and magic, and it is defeated until the next night. So not only is the demarkation of time important, but also the cyclical nature of life and death, day and night. 

There are other values that are alluded to as well. In "Ra and Hathor," Ra has aged and needs help controlling a human rebellion. Not only is it interesting that the gods can age, and there is a need for "cleansing the wicked" like we see in later Greek/Roman and Judeo-Christian mythology, but Ra calls a council of the gods. He asks for advice and help taking care of a problem that he can no longer handle himself. Asking for help is not a shameful thing in this culture. My favorite quote from this story is "Power is thine according to thy desire."

My favorite part of Egyptian mythology is how important magic is, and how the respect for one's actions lie not in the actions themselves but in the motivations. For example, Isis uses magic and trickery to gain power equal to that of Ra in "The Secret Name of Ra", but she didn't want to surpass him, only to put herself amongst the gods. This is not seen as negative (which probably explains how it wasn't blasphemous to consider the pharaoh's as "gods"), because her motivations were not negative. But in "The Death of Osiris", Set uses trickery and implicit magic to trap his brother Osiris in his sarcophagus. Neither trickery nor magic is negative in and of itself, but the motivations can change a character from a protagonist to an antagonist.

"The Gods of the Egyptians"
Studies in Egyptian Mythology (1904) via Flickr

Comment Wall

"The Plot Thickens"

This is the comment section for my Portfolio Project!

Constructive criticism and complements are welcome.

Week 4 Story - Rachel and the Jinn

She'd met Jacob at a fountain

He wanted for them to be wed

But Jacob married Leah first 

Because he had been misled 

Her father Laban had given Jacob Leah

He said "To wed the younger first is forbidden"

And though Laban had pushed Jacob into Leah's bed,

She thought: "He didn't have to give her children."

The Lord gave Leah children quickly;

Rachel was barren though she prayed.

Jacob wished to return to Canaan--

Too long had he stayed

The road to Canaan was long

and the journey took its toll

Their family traveled far and Laban followed,

Seeking the idols Rachel stole

One of these items contained a jinn

Or so the household servants said

Leah had four sons, Bilhah two;

Rachel was determined to get ahead

She called the spirit from the lamp

and soon the jinn came forth

She demanded he bless her with a son,

and he chuckled "What's it worth?"

"What will you risk for a child?

For I have magic in my eyes

Of course, I can lend my talents to you

But all magic has a price."

She swore thrice that she wanted the babe

Caught in competition with her sister.

The jinn smiled, then cackled wildly

And the sound of it unnerved her.

But she ignored her reservations

And reached out to the spirit

He took her hand and gave her magic;

She was glad when she could feel it.

"You swear your son has a great destiny,

But this gift will bring you strife,"

The jinn grinned his evil grin and said:

"If you're wrong, your son pays with his life."

With this iron covenant in mind,

She bade her husband come to bed,

And though they conceived Joseph that night,

The jinn's words stayed in her head.

Years later her son had become his father's favorite

His brothers--jealousy was within them;

Jacob gave Joseph a colored cloak

His brothers tore it from him

They left him in the cold and in the dark,

They told his father he'd been eaten--

The jinn snickered down in his lamp

But the Lord's plan would not be beaten

Joseph understood men's dreams

And this gift took him far, when he answered Pharaoh's call

Her hard-won son saved and forgave his family

And Rachel had been right after all.

"The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel" by William Dyce
Source: Wikimedia Commons

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Author's Note: I based this story off of the stories from the Jewish Fairytales: most of which turned out to be character's from the Bible but with more mythical creatures tied in. A lot of times, the stories reminded me of the fact that the Bible has cultural significance beyond the religious aspect, and is really the story of a people and the heroic figures within the Jewish tradition. As a kid, I was fascinated by the weird, competitive way Rachel and Leah went about having children with Jacob. I thought it would be interesting to explore that story with the added context of coexisting paganism and the addition of a mythical creature who could possibly explain why she was able to have children all of a sudden.

Also, I thought it would be fun to write it as a poem. A lot of the Jewish Fairytales had really short lines, and I just thought I'd try something new--though I must admit that the ABAB rhyme scheme is a bit of a crutch for me

Reading Notes - Jewish Fairytales (Reading A)

I read the Jewish fairytales for this week's reading assignment and I was skeptical, in the way that we're all naturally skeptical of things that are unfamiliar. I didn't really know what a "Jewish fairytale" would look like, but as I read the stories, I noticed that they all feature very familiar characters--just interacting in ways that I've never heard of before and speaking with others that are less familiar. 

Taking these well-known biblical figures and reading stories about them in less magnanimous contexts has really been a treat. I am really familiar with their "Bible stories," because even though I'm not a fan of organized religion, I was raised in a Black Baptist church where my father was a deacon, my mother a deaconess, and my godfathers are pastors. But sometimes we forget that religious texts have more to them than just "spiritual advice" or "guidance." Books like the Torah and the Bible have cultural significance beyond the religions that are associated with their words. 

I liked all of the stories, but I didn't really get any story ideas from a specific story. I'm more interested in trying to replicate the humanization of well-known spiritual characters. Part of me wants to know if these stories were originally part of the Bible or other religious texts and over time they were just removed or forgotten, or if they were simply oral traditions about Biblical characters that were eventually transcribed separately. But I digress. 

The storytelling challenge for me would be to write a story about a Biblical character and use the "folktale" style to de-aggrandize him or her. I know I can't be the only one who forgets that Bible characters are "human." They always seem to be held above the rest of use in traditional references. I think that it can be cool to use folk to make these characters that we have put on pedestals over the course of centuries seem more human. 

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Bibliography: Jewish Fairytales and Legends by Gertrude Landa

Source: Christ Gain via Flickr

Feedback Strategies

I really like the article: How to Give Feedback Without Sounding like a Jerk. I think that Grant does a good job of pointing out the problem with the normal way that people give praise and criticism. A lot of times, I find myself ignoring the compliments--as he points out, I don't feel like they are genuine. I always read past compliments and look for the criticism. I find myself dwelling on the negative commentary more than the positive, and the fact that it's often accompanying positivity makes it hard for me to see either in the correct light. The negative seems like a hidden barb, and the positive seems like superfluous fluff. 

But I find myself giving feedback like that, because the last thing I want is for someone else to lose confidence or feel self-conscious about their writing. I don't want to be the reason someone doubts themselves, but sometimes I know that if I said what I really felt, it might actually help someone improve. I know that the point for everyone is to get better, but I have never been good at tough love. 

I also read Be a Mirror. The most important part of this article for me was the fifth point about taking myself out of the feedback. I've never noticed it before, or maybe I've simply never acknowledged it, but saying "I think..." highlights the subjectivity of my commentary. It seems like a personal reaction that's relative to me and my opinions on their writing. It needs to be about the writer and what they have created and how they can improve their creations. 

Source: Flickr

Week 3 Story - Pygmalion's Statue

Source: Wikipedia

One day, she could simply see. 

She had known that she was, but had no idea what else was. There was darkness and pressure, choking her consciousness. She was, but she was immobile. Trapped with her own thoughts, and without new ideas. How could there be new thoughts without new information?

It happened slowly. The darkness began to shift and lighten, some of the pressure was removed and soon, she knew she had shape. Not a sophisticated shape, but now she was relative to everything around her. Now she knew of the cool of the shade and the warmth of the sunlight, the sensation of a breeze. She didn't know where, exactly, her shape was coming from. But she knew that, little by little, she was becoming something.

She could feel supports, holding her up, her weight distributed through out her being. She could feel parts of her extended beyond the rest, and parts of her kept closely to her core. She could feel herself becoming frustrated with the single sense of touch. Without knowing what else there was, she knew she wanted more.

He gave her ears before he gave her eyes. She could hear, now, how she was being formed. Chink, chink, chink, as he chiseled away at everything else which was weighing her down. He heard him grumbling to himself, thinking aloud. Calling her beautiful. What was "beautiful?" 

When he gave her eyes, she could not have been more elated. She could see him, finally. He was often right before her, chiseling away and forming "cheeks" and "lips;" a "nose" and a "chin." He worked so close to her, and she watched him closely. His brow furrowed in concentration, he bit his lip in thought. She longed for breath, so that she could chuckle at the faces he made while he considered her every angle. He was beautiful.

One day she was complete.

One day her maker stood back, and simply gazed at her. She gazed back, and though she knew he could not feel her attention, she felt his. And it made her feel "beautiful."

He came to her at night, and she was glad. She had often stood in the dark, staring at nothing and waiting for him to return in the morning. Now he came to her, and embraced her, and kissed her hands and her cheeks. He was solid, like she was, but he was warm--blood and breath made him something other than she, and when he whispered: "How I wish you were alive" she learned what it was that separated them. He was alive, and somehow, she was not.

He began to stay with her, all day and all night. She was happy for his company, but what she wanted more than anything was to live. 

He came to her one day, when the lights of the city shone brightly, blending with the lights in the sky that she had come to know were "stars." He tried his best to caress her face, and wished with all her might that she could lean into his touch, but she remained stiff--carved from ivory. "I have prayed to the goddess Venus, my love. I have left her gifts, and begged her that you may live and breathe and be my bride." She prayed to whoever Venus was, that her love would get his wish.

He took her hand, and she felt his warmth in a way she had not before. She felt her fingers curl around his, and with hesitation, took in a breath, as she had watch him do for months. The sensation filled her lungs, which had not been there before, and she felt her chest expand. The chill and the stiffness that had previously been her life--her experience of being--melted, and gave way to something else. She could "smell" and was delighted that somehow the things she saw could and felt had other signs of existence as well. She learned what was "wet" and what was "dry," for not she could feel a tongue form and move in her mouth and her eyes could blink.

She felt her heart beat in her chest, and new blood course through her every limb, animating her. She looked at her maker, her love, and--unsure of how to speak and bashful in the face of new elements of existence--she touched his face. 

His eye's grew wet with tears, and she had seen him cry from loneliness and sorrow, but never from joy or from love. He kissed her lips and she tasted him. He embraced her, and she felt his heart beating against her own. She could see all of him now, where before, he had been out of focus and blurry; she could smell the salt in his sweat and the incense burning in the workshop; she heard his shuddered breath and his whispered prayers of thanks against her ears. 

She no longer was--she was alive. 

--------------------

Author's Note: She this story is based on the story of Pygmalion's Statue in Ovid's Metamorphosis, in the Mythology Anthology. I though it would interesting to write his story from the perspective of the statue. It's cool because you get to explore the different facets of existence, like the five senses and self-awareness. At first, I was going to make the statue not too into Pygmalion, because I'm sure he was an old guy who sculpted a young girl them wished for her to come alive so he could marry her--and that's creepy. But I think that a statue who'd never met anyone else would kind of have no choice but to fall in love with him. So In my mind, he's a young eccentric guy that the girls weren't that into, so he prayed that his creation would love him--which is still creepy but certainly less so. 

This story can now be found at: The Plot Thickens, my Portfolio site for the class Project. 

Brainstorming Project Topics

I've come up with a few ideas for the Storybook project, and a few really excite me. I have some of them fleshed out in my mind, but since I have to choose only one, I think I'll need some time to really consider the logistics of researching and writing through the topics. 

One of my ideas, the least expandable I think, is to write the origin story of Dionysus, Greek god of wine, madness, and ecstasy from his perspective. I think it makes for an interesting addition to the trope of the "troubled young man with a dead/absent mother and prolonged adolescence." But I think that some of my other ideas would be more interesting in a longer assignment. Maybe I'll still write this story one day, just for fun, or if it's relevant for this class later, but I want to focus on my other ideas for the Storybook project.

I believe I've already mentioned my next idea: a modern-day version of Callisto's story. I think it would just be interesting to explore it in this cultural context, what with modern-day feminism, a change in the perception of sexual assault, and the "Me Too" movement. I think it would be interesting to give the gods--Diana, Juno, and Jupiter--personalities that somewhat correspond with modern times. It's just interesting that the gods already sort-of have personalities that are familiar in modern times. It reminds me of the old adage: "there's nothing new under the sun."

The third idea that I came up with was actually inspired by a different class, my Native American Philosophy course. There was discussion of stories and their importance within Native American culture, especially tricksters. And in one our first assignments I read stories about Anansi, the trickster in West African literature. I started thinking of how tricksters are a commonality within the stories of cultures and societies all over the world, and I thought it'd be interesting to imagine them in a scenario where they are all tricking each other to see who comes out on top. I would have to read lots of stories involving Anansi, Loki, Hermes/Mercury, Eris, Coyote, Eleggua, Maui, and any other trickster stories I can think of. Then I would narrow it down to four or five and try to adapt their classic tricks and pranks to another trickster in the group. I'm pretty excited about this idea because there's lots of room for creativity, I know exactly what kind of research I'd have to do, and it will give me an opportunity to explore the stories from all around the world.

My final idea is also pretty exciting, but I think that it may only be exciting to me. I am convinced that everyone has a wild belief that is not really "widely accepted," but that they can't help believing nonetheless. For example, I have a friend that is 100% sure that dragons used to exist, but have died out. I have another friend that knows mermaids are real, just rare. My fourth story idea was inspired by my own wild-card belief that magic was totally real, and it just died out over the centuries. I love the Egyptian myth of Isis, the enchantress, and Osiris, the king of the dead. It is an epic story and it's got everything: love, royalty, inheritance, betrayal, death, revival, and magic. And I think that it would be cool to tell it against a futuristic-"rediscovery of magic"-post-apocalyptic-Mad-Max (just because of the sand) kind of backdrop. Even if doing all that wouldn't work, I think that it would be cool just to tell the story with more detail and with dialogue. I mean, if the story of Isis and Osiris was a movie, I would totally watch it. They are 100% more interesting that Romeo and Juliet, and there are about five different versions of that story.

I think my final two ideas are my favorites, but I honestly don't know which to choose. 

Source: highachievers.com

Reading Notes - Ovid's Metamorphosis (Reading B)

In the second pard of Ovid's Metamorphosis, stories are a little less thematic than in Reading A. There are stories of unfortunate nymphs and mortals, and of demigod heroes. For instance, Echo and Narcissus--the nymph who fell in love with the man who loved himself. I think that these stories have less intentional interference from the gods. Certainly some of the situations that arise come from distant celestial parentage, like a pagan Rube-Goldberg machine. 

For instance, the story of Perseus is fraught with indirect action from the gods. Perseus, himself of course, is the son of Danae. She conceived him with Jupiter, who appeared as a golden shower to impregnate her despite her father's best efforts to prevent this very thing by sealing her in a room. He then kills Medusa, who has snakes for hair and the ability to turn living things to stone. She was given these traits by the goddess Minerva, who wanted to protect Medusa after Neptune raped her in Minerva's temple. Perseus then flies to Atlas's kingdom, turns him to stone using Medusa's severed head, then flies to Ethiopia. He proceeds to rescue Princess Andromeda, who only needs rescuing because her mother, Cassiopeia, insulted the gods and they demanded the sacrifice of her daughter as punishment. 

I think that this method of weaving stories together explains why so many are obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology. The pantheon and the stories that arise from the god's interactions with mortals are intriguing, and each thread leads back to another and another. I think that as a single writer, it may be difficult to create such a entangled world.

In the context of my Storybook project, or even just my Storytelling assignments, I think that it would be more simple to extend the threads left by Ovid, rather than trying to create a whole new web myself. 

"Medusa"
Source: Wikimedia

Reading Notes - Ovid's Metamorphosis (Reading A)

I chose to read Ovid's Metamorphosis for this week's reading. I have read the Metamorphosis before, for a CL C class, but I think that the translation used for this course was a little more casual (and honest about how creepy Jupiter is). 

The bulk of the reading was about Phaethon, the sun of Helios/Phoebus Apollo. He tries to drive Apollo's sun chariot across the sky in an attempt to prove his heritage and grandeur, and instead lays waste to both the earth and the heavens, then is killed by Jupiter to spare the rest of creation. I think the biggest take away for me was how descriptive the story was. The doors to the Sun Palace are described in great detail, as was the sun chariot itself and the fire-breathing horses. In my first Storytelling exercise, I tried to fit the mold of a lot of the myths that I had read, which only included as much detail as was needed to express the point of the myth. I'm glad that I chose Ovid for this exercise, because I think it will give me more confidence and inspiration to include more visual detail in my stories. 
Aside from the tragedy of Phaethon and the "creation story" of Deucalion and Pyrrha (which is essentially the story of Noah's Ark, but with less implied incest for the repopulation of the world), most of the stories in Ovid's Reading A are about the women who are raped by Jupiter and pay the price for beauty.

Two of these stories stood out to me, as potential Storytelling assignments and possibly the Storybook project. The first is Callisto, and the second is the story of Semele.

Callisto is a virginal companion of Diana who is raped and impregnated by Jupiter. When Diana discovers the pregnancy, Callisto is cast out of Diana's group of hunters. Then, Juno triples-down on her misfortune by turning her into a bear after Callisto "insults" her by giving birth to a son, Arcas. Jupiter was indifferent to the difficulties he'd instigated until, fifteen years later, Arcas nearly kills his own mother in a hunt. He "fixes" the damage by turning them into Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. 

This story kind of reminds me of the "Me Too" movement, and I think that a modern adaptation would really showcase the depth of what happens to the women Jupiter takes a liking to. When the stories are told in Greek/Roman mythology, the extent of Jupiter's creepiness and sexual aggression are glossed over; conversely, Juno's insane jealousy is always made a major point. In a modern version of events, I would portray Diana as a high school "purity warrior," Jupiter as her father, and Juno as her step-mother--true enough to their mythological genealogy and personas. Callisto would be one of Diana's clique, but would become an outsider after getting raped by Diana's father, then further ostracized and targeted after her pregnancy becomes public. I think if I told the story this way, the entitlement that powerful men feel they have over women and their bodies would be a major theme, as would the support--of lack thereof--of sexual assault victims (particularly regarding other women).

I think this would work better as a chaptered story, so I'm keeping it in mind for my Storybook project, though, of course it's still rather early in the semester. 

"Ursa Minor and Major"
Source: LisaAlisa via Vectorstock

The other story, Semele, is compelling as well, but I think that it would be more interesting as a part of an origin story for a mortal Dionysus. His mother, killed by his father's glory, goaded by a jealous Juno. He is then taken away and raised by his aunt, Ino and by the nymphs, until he becomes the god of the proverbial "wine, women, and song." I think that there is an interesting trope of "damaged souls" with tragic backgrounds growing up to become party gods, chasing that oblivion to snuff out the sadness. Even though it's a well-known trope, I still think it'd be fun to explore in this context.