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 |
No comments:
Post a Comment