To Pick a Topic...

Topic: Western African Stories

Comments: Because I have visited Western Africa before, I think it would be really fascinating to hear about some of the tales of their region. I have visited Mozambique, and the stories I have looked into are actually from places like Ghana, but I think they are closely linked enough to where I still would get a good 'taste' for Western African folklore.

Possible Stories: Looking at the Western Africa unit from the UNtextbook, I see a few different directions I could go because there are so many different stories within the unit. There are a lot of stories focused on animals, so I could do a direction where I explore the origin of animals based on Western African tales.

Sample Story Comments: This story seems super interesting because we have that famous "Tortoise and the Hare" tale that is told in the United States all growing up, but it is as if this adds a little flavor to that tale!

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story: How the Tortoise Got Its Shell

Book Title: West African Folktales

Book Author: William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair

Year: 1917

Topic: Inuit Tales

Comments: I did a project last semester on Inuit throat singing and how it has developed and changed forms throughout history. I found it extremely interesting, and just think that doing a Storybook on it might even add to my knowledge of the subject!

Possible Stories: Well, it looks like if I am going to do this that I am going to have to get familiar with this belligerent and infamous Raven character. If I do end up doing this, I think I would really enjoy reading all of the stories about it.

Sample Story Comments: I just picked a story at random from the unit, and found it to be very entertaining. I think it is a good one about entitlement! This seems to be one of the stories where Raven finds himself a little more humbled.

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story: Raven's Marriage

Book Title: Myths and Legends of Alaska

Book Author: Katharine Berry Judson

Year: 1911

Topic: Love is a Fairytale

Comments: I grew up with the flowing red-haired wig from Ariel, the flawless blonde up-do wig from Cinderella, and had nightmares of the witch from Snow White. Why not learn more about them in a unit? I think it a fun, creative way to link back to my childhood!

Possible Stories: I don't know if I would go from a direction of the classic princess stories that Disney tended to glorify, or pick some of the same genre just less popular. Or a mix of both! There are stories about Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, one about 12 dancing princesses, and so many others. I feel like I would want to include them all in some way!

Sample Story Comments: Rapunzel isn't exactly like the movie Tangled... or rather, the other way around. It follows the storyline with which I am familiar, but I don't think I realized how morbid these tales can actually be!

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story: Rapunzel

Book Title: Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm

Book Author: Translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes, with illustrations by R. Anning Bell

Year: 1912

Rapunzel's happily every after.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Topic: Italia
Comments: Wanderlust. It's got me bad. One place I have always wanted to visit is Italy. My dream is coming true this summer when I get to go backpack for three weeks through a small part of Europe. Basically, I am picking this to focus just on Italy because I have always had a fascination for the place.
Possible Stories: There seem to be a lot of tales in this unit, and one idea I have that I think would be cool is to try to find a story from four different regions within Italy, and create a sort of Mythology map.
Sample Story Comments: I loved this story! It's so different than others I've read, and I am glad this one actually ends happy. But I found it interesting that the magician suggest he get quartered? If Italians are that crazy... I might reconsider going!
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: Water and Salt
Book Title: Italian Popular Tales
Book Author: Thomas Frederick Crane
Year: 1885

Classical and Biblical: Extra Reading Diary

For the last assignment of the weekdays, I have chased to read the first half of Homer's The Iliad. And although I am stopping now to do the assignment for the week, I have enjoyed it so much that I am about to go and finish the rest of the reading. This is an epic story of the the Trojan War, full of heartbreak, valor, pride, idiocy, etc. I honestly found it challenging to pick just a few examples from the text that were my favorite, but alas, I must!

Perhaps the most impactful quote from the story for me was from The Embassy to Achilles. In it, there is an embassy coming to Achilles to persuade him to come to battle on behalf of the Greeks, for the Trojans were destroying their ranks. Achilles heart is jaded with pride, and the embassy reminds him of his own father's admonition:

"My son, the gods will give you strength and will make you mighty in battle, if it be their will; but there is something which you must do yourself: keep down the pride of your heart, for gentleness is better than pride; also keep from strife, so shall the Greeks, both young and old, love you and honor you"

This example is so closely linked to Biblical ideologies it fits so perfectly with this unit! This quote echoes that of one of Solomon's Proverbs:

Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor. 18:12

Achilles's father, Perseus, gave wise advice to his son. It is so neat to see the correlation between Christian roots and classical Greek mythology deposited into little parts of each of the texts.

Another favorite was when Achilles is still talking to the embassy and he says, "Once I thought fame was a better thing than life; but now my mind has changed..." in The Embassy to Achilles (cont.) Although Achilles has many issues of pride, anger, judgement, etc. It was anti-characteristic of him to have the thought of fame being of low value to him. It is especially interesting in light of what he says later in The Deeds and Death of Patroclus, where Achilles is speaking to Patroclus. "But when you have done this, come back and fight no more with the Trojans, for it is my business to conquer them, and you must not take my glory from me..."It is interesting to see how I thought for one moment that Achilles might be learning that fame isn't everything, yet he is still jealous for glory.

These quotes are just a few of the highlights to me of this long tale. What I love most about it, and what is contrary, in my opinion, of the last reading I did, is that this story flows. It flows like the long mane of Patroclus's immortal chariot horses. I felt connected the story, as if I was there experiencing it all. Every committed reader knows that this is the mark of a good work!

This post is a bit long, but I just got so excited! Just for grins, here is a picture of the wrathful Achilles:

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Storytelling Week 2: Phaethon's Plight

Payton sat in the middle of his entrepreneurship class daydreaming about how he could become the next CEO featured in Forbes. Sipping up the drool as his professor concluded that day’s lecture, Payton gathered his stuff and beelined for the exit. Catching up with a few of his classmates as they headed towards the student union, Payton announced how he was going to follow in his father’s footsteps and start his own multibillion dollar corporation by the time he was thirty, his words dripping with pride.

Accustomed to his claims, his classmates rolled their eyes as they quickly dispelled Payton’s dreams. “Pay, you cannot be serious. You are the bottom of the class, scraping by to barely graduate this year. We want you to do well, but you must face the music. You are an average businessman who is not capable of competing on Wall Street. You don’t even have a job yet! Also, you say that your father is the CEO of Sun Corporation, but we’ve never seen you interact with him. Once again, we want to call your bluff; drop the facade and drop the dreams. We’ve seen you with your father, who runs a local coffee shop, which is not exactly the multimillion dollar company about which you frequently boast.”

“Guys, seriously? I’ve told you a million times that Mer’s Mocha is owned by my step-father” Payton rebuttled, “my real father is the CEO of Sun Corp. Just you all wait, I will prove every single one of you wrong and create the most successful business you’ve ever seen.”

The truth is, Payton had never met his real father, if that even was the truth. He did live with his mother, Clemmy, and step-father Merop; it was the only life he had ever known. He called his mother later that evening and questioned her legitimacy about his birth father. Fed up with his inability to accept her story as truth, she counseled him to go visit his father at Sun Corp.

Determination in tow, Payton booked a ticket to Chicago and went straight to the Sears tower where Sun Corporation is headquartered. After annoying the secretary, he was given the favor to at least speak to his father’s assistant. After pleading with the assistant to at least check the authenticity of his story with his father, Payton was told to wait outside of the top floor corner office.

The doors opened wildly and a man tall in stature with thick golden hair exclaimed, “Payton! My son, I thought I would never see you again! What brings you here? How did you find me?” Fas, short for Phoebus, is his name; he started Sun Corporation from the ground up and has been named the most successful CEO in Chicago.

“I came here to find out if it was true- that you really are my father. I am studying business at Harvard, and had to find out if it was in my blood,” replied Payton.

“Oh Payton, yes it is absolutely true. I want to help you! In fact, anything you need my help with you just let me know and I promise I will do everything in my power to make it come to fruition,” said Fas.

“I want to run my own branch of Sun corporation in New York. I want to be the CEO of that branch and prove to my classmates that I am successful and powerful,” demanded Payton.

Fas’s face fell. Everything but that. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the best for his son or worried about the wellbeing of his company, rather, that he didn’t see the qualities in Payton that are necessary to run a giant corporation. Payton needed to grow and mature, and learn the business for a while before taking on such a daunting task. He explained this to Payton, but it’s as if he was talking to a brick wall. Never had he regretted a promise so much.

“Son, you need to grow more, learn the business a little bit. Right now, you wouldn’t succeed easily. There are too many other businesses out there gunning for you to fail! Because I made a promise, I will do this for you. But I truly advise you to not choose this path. I don’t want your career to be ruined before it even starts!” Fas admonished.

A man of his word, Fas set up a branch of Sun Corp. to launch in New York starting in May when Payton graduated. Payton was to be the CEO and operate this branch as an independent branch of the company. The fate of Payton’s career was in his own hands now.

(In honor of my recent trip to Chicago) The city of Chicago as seen from the Navy Pier at sunset. Self-photographed on January 19, 2015.

______________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note: This is a retelling of Phaethon and the Sun from Ovid's Metamorphoses Unit (books 1-4) and translated into English by Tony Kline in 2000. The original story is based on Sun, the immortal god of the sun, reuniting with his son, Phaethon, for the first time since he was born. Phaethon wants to prove to his classmates that he was born of a god. Upon reuniting, Sun grants Phaethon one wish. Phaethon wishes to drive Sun's chariot of fire for one day, but Sun admonishes Phaethon to pick something else. In the following story, we see how Phaethon is not ready for such power. This story, however, ends on a note of impending destruction. I chose to put this in a business-like setting because it seems to be easily correlated to Phaethon and the Sun.

Reading Diary A: Classical & Biblical

I have chosen Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 1- 4 as my first reading unit! Since this post is over just the first half, I have thoroughly read and enjoyed the first seven stories from the unit. Here are some of the highlights:

Amidst stories of rape, lust, loss, fear, etc. my favorite of the first half were the three stories dealing with Phaethon who is the son of Sun and mortal Clymene. The first thing that grabbed my attention was from the story Phaethon and the Sun. The imagery used to describe the palace of Sun is awe-inspiring if given actual attention.

The palace of the Sun towered up with raised columns, bright with glittering gold, and gleaming bronze like fire. Shining ivory crowned the roofs, and the twin doors radiated light from polished silver.

 Because this unit is also paired with Biblical units I find this comparison interesting from a passage in Revelation chapter 4 (verses 3-6) that describes the throne room of God in a similar manner.

And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald... From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. (From ESV Bible Online)

A lot of times I find myself thinking that words suck. Not innately. Just that sometimes words are pretty feeble to communicate those really-deep-inside feelings. But the way that the writer of Phaethon and the Sun and the way John in Revelation both describe these places that are indescribable, I want to be able to do that with words one day. I want to have such a good grasp on them that I can articulate the hard things, just a random thought!

The other stories in this unit are packed with emotional tales and dramatic betrayals, but this in particular is the thing that most stood out.

Painting by Gustave Moreau included in the story Phaethon's Ride