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

Feedback Thoughts

I read How To Get Past Negativity Bias by Katrina Schwartz. I know that I have a tendency to recount experiences and highlight the negative aspects rather than focusing on the positive. I don't know why I do that, honestly. Maybe it's easier to complain about small things than it is to believe I've actually had a nice day. But what Hanson, the psychologist Schwartz consulted, said about overreaction to negative stimulus is dead-on for me. In the past, I've dwelt on what's gone wrong rather than what's gone right. I'm trying not to do that so much, but it's honestly become a crutch. The bar for have a "bad day" is set so low, and the bar for a "good day" is set incredibly high. If I have a bad day, it only took one thing going wrong to make it bad; literally everything has to go right before I can begrudgingly call a good day a good day. That's not a good way to live. It give you an inaccurate idea about life. How can you improve if your negativity bias won't let you see where you really stand?

I also read Neil Gaiman's advice on brainpickings.org, mostly because I have read a few of his books and love him as an author. The most important thing that I took away from this article was the idea that "making mistakes means that you are trying something new." Trying new things is the bravest thing that anyone can do, and setting out with the knowledge that mistakes are likely to occur is the greatest adventure. Living in the comfort zone is comfortable but it's not really living. I personally love my comfort zone. But I've found that I'm more and more willing to try new things. Hard things. And I'm more and more willing to listen to people point out my mistakes (if they do it with good intention, of course) because it's worth a bruised ego to have room to grow. 

I went to my professor to pitch my research topic to him. He cut it to shreds within minutes, told me it wasn't going to work. And then we had a conversation (a really, really long conversation) and by the time I left, I had a solid research topic that was related to my original idea but now had more focus. I brought him a huge chunk of marble and called it a sculpture, and he helped me actually start chipping away at the excess so that by the time I graduate, it'll be a masterpiece (hopefully). I think that's the goal of feedback: to leave the idea but cut out the excess until all anyone sees is brilliance. 

Source: sweetyhigh.com

Week 2 Story: How the Moon Got Her Beautiful Face

A long time ago, no one looked at the Moon. She was plain, a big white orb hanging in the sky. Smooth, unblemished, and uninteresting. She guided war and merchant ships at sea, illuminated children playing games at night, and provided light for lovers, kissing in the dark. She was a tool, but she was vain and she wanted to be called beautiful.

There was also an unhappy girl. People stared at her as she passed them in the roads, because she had some parts of her skin which were lighter than others. They were on her hands and feet, like gloves and socks; they were on her chest and shoulders, like battle armor. There was even a large white patch splashed across her face. The others called her the "the girl with the patchwork face;" she did not think she was beautiful.

Chantelle Winnie

One day, the Moon heard crying. She looked for the source of the sound and found the girl hiding in the woods. The Moon looked upon her with pity and interest. 

"Why do you weep, girl?" the Moon said.

"I weep because I am hideous!" the girl cried, and tears streaked down her face. She dared not cry in town, among the people. But alone in the woods, she let her tears flow freely and without shame.

But the girl did not know that she was not alone. A boy from the village had followed her through the trees. He watched her sob with a leaden heart, for he loved the girl with the patchwork face, and it pained him deeply to see her sorrow.

The Moon said to the girl, "Come. Come and live with me in the sky. For I am plain, but you are beautiful. Men will look up not to see when to plant, or when the tides will rise, but to admire how lovely we are."

But the girl would not be cheered, and said "No, Moon. If you want to be lovely then I must stay away, down here on Earth. I cannot make you beautiful."

The boy walked out from betwixt the trees and approached the girl in the wood. 

"You must go with the Moon," he said. "For I think you are the most beautiful girl, and all should see you as I see you. Tell us how to reach you, Moon, and I will see to it that she joins you in the sky."

The Moon was elated. "Find the tallest tree in the forest and climb it. I will guide you. I will take you in my arms and kiss you, and the sky will become your home."

The girl was afraid, but she took the boy's hand and together they ran through the woods, following the light of the Moon.

Finally, they came upon the tallest tree, shining brightly in the night. They began to climb, and as they did the girl's heart lightened. The boy pulled her up when she stumbled; sometimes, in her excitement, she went ahead of him. They climbed and climbed, higher and higher, until the air was thin and they were amongst the stars. 

The Moon was directly above them, now. The girl stretched and reached as far as she could, but she was still too far away. The boy braced himself and balanced carefully upon the treetop before lifting the girl high overhead, until the Moon could kiss her patchwork face. 

As soon as the Moon's lips touched the girl's forehead, she vanished. 

The boy scrambled down the tree, scratching himself on twigs and on branches. He ran through the forest, back to the village, without stopping. When he had returned home, he told everyone in the village to look at the Moon's new face and see how beautiful she was.

The villagers were skeptical because everyone knew that the moon was plain, but when they turned to see her they all stared in awe and silence. The villagers looked upon her dips and curves, her mountains and seas, her dark patches and bright spaces and said, "How beautiful she is."

And the moon and the girl were happy.

"Shadows Girl Night Balloon Play Full Moon"

Author's Note:

I was inspired by the "Origins" stories in the Mythology-Folklore Anthology. I liked how both stories sort of gave an explanation for the images we create out of the shapes on the moon's surface. I wanted to do a similar story. 

Bibliography:

Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock (1920).
"The Man in the Moon" from Laos Folk-lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson.

Origins

Reading Notes - Myth-Folklore Anthology

My favorite parts of the Anthology are the (1)Origins of the Moon stories and the (2)Tricksters story of Tiger, the Brahmin, and the Jackal. I also really like the story of (3)Pygmalion, just because it's so weird. 

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. 

"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).

Reading Options

I explored Egyptian mythology, some Congolese mythology, and some Eskimo legends. I like exploring stories that are loosely related to different aspects of my family's heritage. We are both of African and Native American decent, though we don't know which country in Africa we come from (thanks, slavery) and we are Chickasaw, not any Eskimo tribe. I am very familiar with Greek and Roman mythology, so I wanted to branch out and try to read stories that I am less familiar with. 

In the Egyptian Mythology section, I read "The Secret Name of Ra" It is about Isis, an enchantress on Earth who wished to join the gods and Ra, the king of the gods. Ra's secret name is the source of his power, which I find interesting. I don't know if this is the origin of the idea that there is power in a name, but it's a literary theme that we see all over the world in lots of stories. Rumplestiltskin, is one example. Voldemort from Harry Potter is an even more recent and popular example. Anyhow, Isis creates an invisible, venomous snake which bites Ra and brings him to the brink of death. She tells him that she needs his secret name to heal him, and once she has it, actually follows through and heals him. I thought that it was interesting that no negative epitaphs are attached to Isis in the story. She is both the protagonist and the antagonist, and when she said she wanted to "share power with Ra," she meant it. She could have let him die just as easily, but I think that this story shows that even trickery and ambition don't have to be considered "bad" or "evil." 

"Isis"
Source: Flickr

"The Vanishing Wife" is a Congolese folktale. Like a lot of African folktales, it has several tropes in one story, many of which are understated. For example, there is the trope of a rivalrous relationship between two brothers. Beyond this, the literary theme of a lucky/wealth man and an unlucky/poor man. There is a theme which is often seen in African literature (and some Western mythology involving gods) where a man has a single instruction to follow, lest all his fortune leave him. In this story, a man who is poor and unloved (unlike his rich, married, successful brother) dreams of a woman who tells him to find a magic canoe, go fishing, and return so that she may cook for him. Her only instruction was to remove the heads of the fish, because she doesn't want to look at them. He does as he is bidden, then returns home to find a sprawling house where his humble hut once was, complete with a wife and servants. One day he fails to take the heads off of the fish, and everything he has vanishes, leaving him with no wife and only a hut. This story reminds me of the story of Lot's wife in Bible, who turned to salt because she looked back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or Orpheus, who sang is way into the Underworld only to lose everything by looking back to makes sure his wife was following him. All of these stories have a man who couldn't follow instructions, and lost a wife because of it.

"African Man and Hut"
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The final story the I read was "The Coming of Men", and Eskimo folktale. It's sort of a creation myth, kept by oral tradition. The Earth fell from the sky, there was no sun, and men crawled out of the Earth as babies. The story admits that we don't know when men and women found each other, but women sewed cloths for the babies. Then men stamped the ground and cried out until dogs ran out from the sand. With dogs to help them and clothes to keep them warm, the number of people continued to grow. A great flood killed many of them, but eventually they asked for the sun and for the knowledge of how to die.  They got both, because when men die, they become a light in thy sky. Oral tradition is a strange thing. It's impossible to perfectly tell a story orally without slight changes getting made, for example, the game "telephone." But the most important parts are always the same. I always wonder if certain explanations are left out on purpose or simply omitted by time. But I liked how this story served as both an explanation for the stars and for death.

"Eskimo and Sled Dogs"
Source: pxhere