Reading Diary B: Twenty-Two Goblins

Reading Diary B: Twenty-Two Goblins

(Twenty-Two Goblins Book Cover)

The Snake’s Poison:  

“Nothing is impossible for the brave and determined man.”

I think it’s sad it took coaxing and a few days before Hariswami finally went to search for his wife.  

“Hunger is a heavy burden.  It makes anyone light.” I love that quote. How true.

I agree with the King that it was the man’s fault that he had died, and no one else.

The Girl and the Thief:  

I think it’s crazy that the king is still trying to capture the goblin.  What an awesome guy. Also, how many stories does this goblin have?? Goodness!

The girl is crazy for falling in love with a thief.  Maybe I can write a story that incorporates Cupid causing them to fall in love because he thought it would be funny.

The General’s Wife:

Even the king is this story is noble.  This is so strange to read for me! I love it!

“The actions of devoted men are blameless.” That quote gives me chills.   It’s very intense.

Father and Son, Mother and Daughter:

I’m surprised that the Goblin said that he had delayed so long to save the king.  I’m curious to see if this is another one of the Goblin’s tricks, or if the Goblin is being sincere.  Also, why did the king joyfully go towards the monk, after what the Goblin told him?!

Conclusion: That was an awesome story! I’m surprised that the king trusted the goblin, but I guess it makes sense.  I should read the rest of the 22 stories!  

Reading Diary A: Twenty-Two Goblins

Reading Diary A: Twenty-Two Goblins

(The King and the Goblin)

Introduction: I love that the King is actually a brave a noble king.  Instead of being greedy and taking the jewels without question, he was going to refuse them unless he knew why the monk was bringing them to him.  It’s not often in stories about kings that I’ve read where the kings are actually nice.  Also, he was brave and went on the mission for the monk, without hesitation.  That’s pretty awesome.

The Three Lovers: I love the story. Though I’m not sure I agree that the guy who slept on her ashes deserves to be her husband.  I think I would want my lover to be strong and try to find a way to save me, or move on and do something substantial with their life, versus wasting away in a cemetery. Also, I love the quote, “Great-Minded people do not waver until they have kept their promises, even at the cost of life.”

The Girl, the Husband, and Her Brother: I think it’s kind of ridiculous that she mixed up the heads and the bodies.  Also, I agree with the king, saying the head is the most important.  

Food, Women, and Cotton:  I think it’s funny that the story of the specialist of cotton is similar to the princess and the pea story.

The Four Scientific Suitors:  “Discouragement never enters the brave heart of a resolute man.”

I’m still surprised the king is still pursuing the goblin.  Also, not only is the king brave, but he is wise as well.

I think it would be fun to take one of the stories where the girl is supposed to choose the best suitor, and have her choose her favorite versus who is possibly the best and let true love win out instead.

Storybook Brainstorm Styles

Possible Storybook Styles for Nursery Rhyme Songs

Topic.  My Storybook will include four stories based off of Nursery Rhyme Songs.  My goal is to find four different nursery rhymes that I can put together for this Storybook! One story that I want to include is from the nursery rhyme, Three Blind Mice.  Another one that I want to include is Little Bo-Peep.  Finding other songs to go into my Storybook won’t be an issue.  The songs are typically short, so I don’t think it would be hard to mold any song into what I wanted it to be, with as much freedom as these songs give me to use my imagination. Once I figure out how exactly I want my story to go, it will be easier to know what other stories to incorporate.

Bibliography:  

1. Three Blind Mice, from The Nursery Rhyme Book, by Andrew Lang (1897).

2. Little Bo-Peep, from The Nursery Rhyme Book, by Andrew Lang (1897).

Possible Styles:

Addictions Anonymous.  I like the thought of giving each of the characters from my stories an addiction that fits their story, and having them all talk about it in a group for support.  For example, the for the song of the three blind mice, one of the lyrics is, “they all ran after the farmer’s wife.”  Perhaps I could say that the farmer’s wife was holding cheese, they smelled it, and even though they know they shouldn’t have, they had to get their fix so they chased after her.  After realizing their addiction was too intense (since they lost their tails for it) they came to Addictions Anonymous for help. It would be easy to intertwine any of the nursery rhyme characters.

The Blind Mice as Storytellers: I like the the thought of the blind mice trying to figure out who each of the characters from the three other nursery rhymes are without being able to see them.  I could have each mouse run into a character from another nursery rhyme, and write one story each of them running into each character, and then a story about the mice coming together and talking about their experiences with each other. I think it would be an interesting take on the stories, and it would be easy to incorporate any of the other nursery rhymes.

The Farmer’s Wife as the Storyteller: The farmer’s wife from the three blind mice nursery rhyme could be the storyteller, not only for the three blind mice nursery rhyme, but for the others as well.  For example, Little Bo-Peep could be her daughter, and then I could also incorporate other stories into her life.  I could tell the story as her explaining her crazy day full of happenings from all of the nursery rhymes to a friend.

A completely unrelated Storyteller:  I could have the story told from the perspective of someone unrelated to the nursery rhymes.  Everyone in the nursery rhyme could live in the same town, and it could be told by someone walking through the town and seeing all of these bizarre things.  I think it would be easy to incorporate each story that I want into this type of storytelling.

(Three Blind Mice)

Extra Reading Diary: Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 1-4)

Extra Reading Diary: Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Books 1-4)

Ovid's Metamorphoses: Deucalion and Pyrrha

How did the guy in the row boat survive? I feel like waves of such intensity would have taken out a row boat easily.   I wasn’t expecting so many survivors.  I believe dying of starvation after surviving The Flood would be an awful way to go out.  Poor animals.  

“Believe me dear wife, if the sea had you, I would follow you, and the sea would have me too.” Though this is slightly morbid, I think it’s a really sweet thing for Deucalion to say. It would be tragic to be left alone in the world. I’m not sure I could blame him for giving in as well.  

If the Gods killed everything and everyone, I’m not sure I would be praying to them.  I’d probably be to angry and scared, versus thankful that I had survived.

Ahh! So this is where the story that we came from rocks is from.  Awesome!

Phaethon and the Sun

I want to visit the Palace of the Sun! Dang! It sounds beautiful.  Apparently I need to start traveling east.

I love the physical features given to the seasons.  

I’m pretty sure if my father was, you know, the Sun and all, I would listen to him when he said I wouldn’t be able to do something.  Phaethon is too eager to prove the truth to his peers.

Phaethon's Ride

He is called, “brave,” in this section.  I don’t think it’s bravery, but hard-headedness and stupidity.  If he was intelligent, he would have listened to his fathers’ multi-paragraph warning.

The pathway sounds worse than Rainbow Road on Mario Cart.

I feel like the horses are thinking, “Let’s set fire to all the things!”  

Callisto

Why the heck is Juno mad at Callisto for being raped by Jupiter? It’s not even close to being her fault.  You know, these gods and goddesses aren’t the brightest, or the most mature. Also, if I was angry enough to turn someone into an animal, I would probably make it something less terrifying than a bear. I would probably turn them into a sloth or something.

(Callisto, the Bear, not the Sloth.)

Storytelling for Week 3: The Ants' Revenge

The Ants’ Revenge

“Eugene! Eugene! Hurry! Sound the alarm!” said the ant on lookout.  “Gah,” he sighed, “not again.”

For the sixth time today the angry goddess, Venus, was stomping around all over the poor ants’ homes. She was getting closer, as heavy-footed and loud-mouthed as ever, shrieking about how betrayed she was by her own son, Cupid, for his marriage to Psyche. “He promised he would not marry her! The one girl I told him not to! She will pay for this!”

The ants were nervous as the walls of their home began to shake, and pieces of dirt kept dropping around them. All of the ants banded together and held on tight, holding the walls of their home up to reduce the amount of damage by as much as possible. Though they only stayed like this for under a minute, the stress and anxiety that came from being worried about losing parts of their home made it seem like they were stuck in these positions for hours.

As she stomped away, continuing to curse Psyche’s name, the ants began to relax and come out of their reinforced holes.  You see, just a couple of days ago there had been a cave-in in one of the main entrance halls, so the ants were more cautious when Venus stomped by now.  They couldn’t be too careful, especially with Venus on her rampage that wouldn’t seem to end anytime soon.

Just as the ants were getting back into the swing of their regular daily activities, their scout ant, Jan, came running back with an urgent request.  “Everyone! I need your help! Do you want to get back at Venus for making us cower in our own homes?!”  

“Yeah!” everyone shrieked back.

“Okay! There’s no better way to get back at her than by helping out the girl she despises the most, Psyche.”

Jan began to explain that the vile goddess, Venus, gave Psyche an impossible task.  The task was to separate an enormous pile of wheat, barley, poppy seeds, chickpeas, beans, and lentils by the end of the evening.  Though the task was impossible for just one girl, Jan believed that if their group of ants got together and helped her out, they could have everything separated out in no time!

Because an enemy of Venus was a friend of the ants, all of the ants agreed to help out and surely, soon enough, they had everything separated in no time like Jan had said! Psyche was so pleased with their help, and because she was good-hearted, she thanked them profusely. She made them feel so at home, that they almost wanted to stay in Psyche's company, however, not wanting to get caught by Venus herself, the ants quickly scurried away into their homes, feeling good about what they had done.  That is, until the stomping grew even more intense over the next few days as the goddess grew even angrier.  

(Psyche and the Ants)

Author’s Note:  For this story, I wanted to give more of a background for the ants in the story of Venus and Psyche.  They played such a small role in the story, so it left most of the details up to my imagination, which I like.  I tried to imagine what it would be like living as an ant near people prone to throwing temper tantrums, and this is the story I came up with! My main goals were to give a better explanation of why the ants helped Psyche out, to show things from an ant’s perspective, and also write a lesson about how revenge isn't the best answer.  

The original story, Venus and Psyche, is about how Venus gives Psyche the task of separating the pile of food, knowing she won’t be able to. Venus is jealous of Psyche's beauty, and upset that her son "betrayed" her by falling in love with Psyche. Therefore, Psyche was completely innocent and did not deserve to be treated like this. In the original story, an ant was just passing by and felt bad for Psyche, so he called the rest of the ants to come and help.  I gave more of a backstory from the ants’ perspectives, and changed their reasoning for helping into revenge.

Story: Venus and Psyche

Book Title: Apuleius’s Golden Ass

Author: Tony Kline

Year of Publication: 2013

Reading Diary B - Cupid and Psyche

Apuleius’s Cupid and Psyche

Venus and the Goddesses.  Props to Juno and Ceres for an awesome speech.  Too bad Venus was too hardheaded to actually listen.  I really liked their speech, though.  Very open minded and wise.

Psyche’s Prayer. I understand why Ceres wouldn’t want to hide Psyche, because of Venus, but wouldn’t Venus become just as enraged at the fact that she talked to Psyche and didn’t capture her? And Juno, too! Goodness, Psyche can’t catch a break.

(Psyche Kneeling at the Shrines)

Venus and Psyche. I know Venus is angry, but geez, it takes an evil person to beat up a pregnant lady, especially one that isn’t even fighting back.  What the heck. Also, I the task of separating all of the grains from one another sounds like a pretty awesome challenge.  Obviously it would be extremely hard to get done in time, but at least it’s a possible one. Except for maybe separating out the poppy seeds, that’s just evil.  

The ants helping her separate the grains and things reminds me of Cinderella.

The Sleep of the Dead.  If Venus hates Psyche for being so beautiful, why would Psyche think she should try a drop of beauty? Also, hasn’t she learned that curiosity killed the cat?

I think it’s awesome that Jupiter is going to help Cupid and Psyche!

Lucius and the Robbers.   I totally forgot about the girl who was kidnapped! Dang, the old woman can tell a good story.

After reading it all, it seems like the story with the robbers, ass, and girl is kind of out of place. I still enjoyed it, though, and now I’m curious about what happens to the girl and donkey.

Reading Diary A - Cupid and Psyche

Apuleius’s Cupid and Psyche

The Captive Woman:  I love that the story is told from the point of view of the Donkey.  I feel bad for the girl who was kidnapped.  She seems very weak-souled from the way that she’s already lost hope and is trying to commit suicide.  It seems a bit early to go to such extreme measures, especially when she hasn’t even tried to escape herself.  I suppose it makes sense, since she’s lived a privileged life, but it’s still very sad.  The old woman is mean, but I understand why she would be so harsh. I could possibly do a story about exactly why the robbers kidnapped the girl.

Psyche’s Beauty and the Anger of Venus

I think it’s interesting that Cupid was known to have, “wicked ways and contempt for disorder.” I suppose I’ve always seen Cupid as a loving, sweet person, and apparently that’s not the case! It’s also disgusting that Venus is such a jealous and hateful god.

The Mysterious Husband

If I was Psyche, I don’t think I would be okay with never actually seeing my husband.  Also, though the place may have rich things in it, it still seems like a very sad, scary, and lonely place to be.  Especially if you barely get any time with your husband.  How are you supposed to fall in love with someone you barely know?

Psyche’s Husband Revealed.  I hate the line, “acting a man’s part in her boldness.”  If anything proves that this was written in a different time, that is it. Poor Cupid, having to obey his vile mother even though he was in love with Psyche.  I think it’s strange that Psyche wasn’t able to tell that Cupid wasn’t a monster by embracing him.  You don’t always need sight to see.

(Psyche and Cupid)