Thursday, October 31, 2019

Extra Credit Reading Notes: Mythology Overview

(Plato, the first to equate myths with lying. Source)

What is Myth? Crash Course World Mythology #1

  • A myth in the context of mythology is a story that has significance and staying power
    • Significance - the story is important to the reader in some way. Ex. something important, how the world works, or how things are the way they are
    • Staying power - Stories that last over multiple centuries and generations, which is a sign that the story has great meaning to those people
  • The "American Dream" is a myth, not because of religious significance like other myths, but because of its staying power
  • The "Persephone" myth has significance by explaining why we have seasons
Theories of Myth: Crash Course World Mythology #12
  • Mythology - systematic study of myths
  • Plato was the first to equate myths with lying, which is an idea that still exists today. He reasoned that because myths were irrational then they were false. However he deemed that philosophical myths that "served a purpose" were true
  • Myths from multiple languages were derived from a single language known as Prodo-Indo-European, which came from a group called Ayrians.
  • Anthropologists who studied myth say it's not symbolic but instead a direct expression of subject matter by expressing and enhancing beliefs, safeguarding and enforcing morality, and contains practical rules for the guidance of man
  • Psychologists Freud and Jung claim that the source of myths are from the subconscious and mythical characters are projections of the unconscious
  • Structural theory breaks down myths into a structure of patterns


The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth: Crash Course World Mythology

  • What are heroes?
    • Contemporary scholars say that we are all heroes in a way, struggling in our own adventures and engaging in our self development and finding our purpose in life
  • Monomyth - the idea that all heroic stories follow a certain pattern
    • Part One: The hero leaves the known world and goes to the realm of the unconscious
      • Initiated by a Call to Adventure
    • Part Two: The hero's trials and victories of initiation, changing into the person they're destined to be along the way
      • The exciting part consisting of tasks they have to overcome to prove their worthiness
      • Hero achieves enlightenment, taking an object that symbolizes this
    • Part Three: Hero's integration to society
      • More common in older myths than the modern ones
      • Ends with hero living happily ever after


Bibliography
What Is Myth? Crash Course World Mythology #1 by CrashCourse
Theories of Myth: Crash Course World Mythology #12 by CrashCourse
The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth: Crash Course World Mythology #25 by CrashCourse

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Reading Notes: Native American California/Southwest, Part B

(The beautiful Bluebird after getting its blue feathers. Source)


  • Bluebird was not always blue. He used to be a very ugly color.
  • He found a lake that didn't have a river connected to it and bathed there four times every morning for four mornings. Every time he took a bath he sang a magic song
    • Change song to roses are red, violets are blue?
  • After the fourth bath on the fourth morning, Bluebird shed all his feathers and spent the day without any feathers. When he took a bath the next morning, he came out of the lake with blue feathers
    • Maybe Bluebird doesn't lose the feathers but they just go colorless on the 4th day?
  • Coyote crossed paths with Bluebird and was curious on how he turned blue. Bluebird told him, and since he also wanted to be blue, he bathed in the lake four times for four mornings, singing the song each time
  • On the fifth day, Coyote came out blue. He was so proud of his new color that he went around showing it off to all the other animals. He got distracted of all this new attention that he ran into a stump, covering the blue with dust.
    • Maybe Coyote fell off a cliff and rolled down it instead?


Bibliography
How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors by Katharine Berry Judson

Reading Notes: Native American California/Southwest, Part A

(The cunning Coyote. Source)


  • The world was created. There were fishes in the water, animals on the land, and Man
    • What about the fish in the water?
  • No food hierarchy to determine which animals are predator and prey with each other and which were supposed to be food for Man
  • They were all to meet so that Man can determine this for the animals
  • Man would determine this by giving all the animals bows and arrows, the longest ones given to the top of the food chain and the shortest ones to the bottom of the food chain
  • The day before the meeting, all the animals gathered in the area and went to sleep to meet Man in the morning
  • Coyote, more cunning than all the other animals, pretended to sleep and stayed awake all night so that he could meet Man first and get the longest bow and arrow
  • Coyote stayed awake all night but in the morning he got too tired and couldn't help but fall asleep
    • What did he do during the night? Why couldn't he stay awake?
  • When morning came, the animals went to meet Man. Cougar got the longest bow, Bear got the 2nd longest, and so on until Frog got the 2nd shortest bow. There was still one bow left but no animal to give it to
  • They found out that Coyote was still asleep and took him to Man, who gave him the shortest bow
  • Man took pity on Coyote and asked Kareya to give Coyote more cunning
  • Coyote was now the most cunning out of all the animals. With this cunning he befriended Man and did many things for him

Notes
  • Creator name - Change to Great Spirit
  • Animals had some kind of contest to determine food hierarchy - Arm Wrestling Tournament?
    • Coyote cheated, did good at beginning but got caught and given lowest rank
    • Man took pity and gave Coyote cunning


Bibliography
The Fable of the Animals by Katharine Berry Judson

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Week 10 Lab: TED talks about the creative life

(This week's story lab is on TED talks. Source)

Copyright is Brain Damage
In this video, Nina Paley makes the claim that copyright laws slows down progress that could be made in areas that deal with concern for intellectual property. While I do agree that it does slow down progress, copyrights are important to prevent people from stealing the work of others and selling it as their own. As a computer science major my code is protected by intellectual property laws. If I work for a company, I give up my ownership of that code in exchange for a yearly salary. Without those laws there would be less incentive to create software for a profit because people would steal the code at will.

A New Theory of Human Intelligence
In this video, Scott Kaufman makes the claim that there should be a new theory of human intelligence. While I agree with his point that intelligence needs to be redefined, I disagree with the way he wants to redefine it.

The definition of intelligence is an outdated one. As it currently stands, intelligence is measured by standardized tests such as the Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.). This does measure intelligence but only a certain type of intelligence, that is, logical intelligence. There are many other types of intelligence such as artistic intelligence, leadership intelligence, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and others. Unfortunately logical intelligence is much easier to quantify than the others so it often gets defined as the standard for intelligence. So I do agree with Scott that logical intelligence and the standardized tests that go along with it are not the only ways of defining intelligence.

However, the ideas of current intelligence and how goal oriented someone is should be kept seperate. Intelligence is related to potential while goal orientation is related to performance. Combining goal orientation with the of intelligence would also combine aspects of potential and performance. Both metrics have their place and it's important to keep them seperate. For example, if the goal is to predict which person is more likely to do better at a job, it makes more sense to use GPA score instead of IQ. However, if the goal is to predict which person is more likely to come up with a groundbreaking theory (Einstein, Newton, etc) or come up with new ways to improve society (Elon Musk's SpaceX and Tesla, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs with the first personal computer), then IQ score is a better indicator instead of GPA score.

Bibliography
Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley
A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Barry Kaufman

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales, Part B

(Navaranapaluk, the lying wife who started 
a war between two tribes. Source)


  • Navaranapaluk came from a tribe of man-eaters but married a man from a tribe that didn't eat men
  • One time when she went to visit her birth tribe, she put mittens on her feet instead of boots to make it look like the other tribe was treating her poorly
    • Why did she feel the need to do this?
  • When her birth tribe saw this they vowed to take revenge and wage war on the other tribe
  • Her birth tribe waited until the men from the other tribe were gone and then they killed all the women of the tribe except for 3 that hid
    • This seems cowardly
  • When the men came back to see all their wives were killed, they correctly put the blame on Navaranapaluk who fled recently
  • They prepared for war against her birth tribe by making lots of arrows
    • What if they didn't make arrows? They might've lost the battle...
  • Then they set out and came up behind the houses of her birth tribe. Her birth tribe knew they would come for revenge and had their women take turns watching but apparently didn't see them behind the houses
    • Why didn't they have someone watch behind the houses which seems like the most obvious spot?
  • An old woman from her birth tribe had a dream about two creatures fighting above her head, and when she told the man-eaters this, they saw it as a sign that the other tribe was near
    • Seems far fetched. Maybe the man-eaters heard strange noises outside, planted a alarm system of some sort, or didn't know they were coming at all?
  • The men of the man eaters came out of their houses but it was too late. The other tribe had already surrounded their houses. When they came out they were killed by arrows
  • After killing all the men, they chose new wives from the widows and took them back to their tribe
    • Maybe this sparks another round of revenge with the wives getting vengeance for their husbands?
  • Two of the men carried off Navaranapaluk with her asking them which one was going to take her as wife.
  • They laughed before cutting off her arms with their knives, making her bleed to death
    • Seems like a strange way to kill her. Maybe slit her throat or take turns stabbing her repeatedly instead? Or the men could take her back to the 3 women survivors and they can stab her to death?

Bibliography
The Wife Who Lied by Knud Rasmussen

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales, Part A

(Makite the eskimo. Source)


  • Makite, a married man, had trouble catching seal but his brothers were catching lots of them
  • His wife said she would leave him because he can't catch seal like his brothers, so Makite left for the hills to live there all alone
  • Once they knew Makite was trying to leave, his brothers went after him. Once they got closer to Makite, he walked faster and faster until they lost sight and stopped pursuing him
  • He came upon a house. Its walls were covered with reindeer and foxes' skins but he went in anyway
  • The owner of the house heard him come in and asked if he wanted something to eat. Makite declined the offer, saying he wouldn't eat until the owner told him what were the things that looked like candles in front of the window
  • The owner said he cannot tell Makite because Makite isn't a lone-dweller
  • Makite said he would kill him if he didn't tell him
  • The owner tells him that if a person climbs the furthest of the great hills in the blue to the south and reaches the top, they will find those candle like things there. But that person has to be a lone-dweller
  • After hearing all of this Makite finally ate
  • When they went to sleep, the lone-dweller prepared his bow and was about to kill Makite but Makite, aware of what the lone-dweller was doing, pretended to wake up and the lone-dweller put his bow down
  • Near dawn, the lone-dweller finally fell asleep. Makite tried to leave but the front door made another strange sound and woke up the lone-dweller
  • Makite, now outside of the house, ran to where he put his spear with the lone-dweller in pursuit. He got his spear and ran until he got to a big rock. He ran around the rock 3 times then threw the spear behind him, hitting the lone-dweller and killing him
  • Makite wandered on again and came upon another house with dwarfs. They were constantly coming in and out of the house so much he struggled to get in the door
  • When he finally got in someone inside told him inland-dwellers are coming. Makite looked and saw a large group of fighters approaching
  • The dwarfs went outside to fight
  • The dog with the inland-dwellers gave a great bark. It created a huge wave of water at the dwarves, but when the wave got close to them, it shrinked and became very small
  • Then the dog with the dwarves gave a great bark. It grew into a huge wave of water and drowned the inland-dwellers
  • Makite built a house by the dwarves, retrieved the candle like things from the far hill, and hung them up in his house. He lived there until he died.

Bibliography
Makite by Knud Rasmussen

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Week 9 Story: Karma

(Paul and Mary. Source)

Paul and Mary were very poor. They both retired a long time ago, about 20 years or so, and had no retirement savings left due to the stock market crash a few years ago. They sold their home and were forced to live in an apartment with a terrible neighborhood that had a lot of crime. Sometimes, they would go to the nearby church for food.

 Although they were poor in wealth, they were rich in love. Not too long ago they celebrated their 50 year anniversary. Their relationship was a symbol of true love. They cherished every moment they had together, always teasing and laughing and kissing each other. Instead of their love growing weaker and weaker over time it grew stronger and stronger.

Unfortunately, good things don't last forever. Paul woke up one morning to find out Mary passed away in her sleep. Paul, having so much love for Mary, vowed to bury her in the nearby cemetery instead of cremate her.

He called his son and daughter, both of whom moved far away to advance their careers, to help pay for her funeral but they said no. Paul expected this though as they never called or visited him and Mary and cared only about themselves. He went door to door, asking everyone in the community to help pay for her funeral but they were all too poor. Eventually he asked the local priest, David, at the nearby church for help.

At first David declined to help since funerals were expensive and he was poor himself. However, Paul was persistent and was determined wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Mary is the love of my life and I will not let her be cremated. There must be something you can do!" said Paul.

Then David remembers the burial plot his father told him not to use. "I'll tell you what. I have an extra spot at my family's burial plot. I'll let you bury her there," said David.

And so Paul and David bought a couple of shovels, took Mary to the burial plot, and started digging at the forbidden spot. They dug about 3 feet worth of dirt when suddenly David's shovel makes a loud clanking noise with the dirt.

"What was that?" said Paul.

A few minutes later they pull a steel, unlocked briefcase from the ground. They open it up and find a bunch of shiny gold coins with a letter.

"To whomever needed this plot, may this gold help you through your rough times," the letter said.

 They took the gold to an appraiser who evaluated the gold at $10,000 which was more than enough to pay for a proper burial for Mary. Then Paul and David became good friends and David even let Paul move in with him until he passed away.

Author's Note:
This story is based on The Treasure by W.R.S. Ralston. In the story an old man's wife dies and he asks people for help but no one offers to help, not even the pope. Taking matters into his old hands, the old man digs a grave by himself and discovers a pot of gold. Then he uses the newfound wealth to pay for his wife's burial. The pope, curious on how the old man suddenly got money, asks him what happened. When the old man tells him, the pope gets jealous and devises a plan to get the money from the old man. Wearing a goat mask to impersonate the Devil, the pope goes to the old man's house and scares him into giving up his money. When the pope goes back home with the money, he tries to take off the goat mask but discovers that it's now fused with the rest of his body and he can't take it off. I decided to make a number of changes including the plot, the ending, and changed elements to be more modernized. I also added more details to the old man and his wife's relationship, describing how they got poor and showing just how good their relationship was.

Bibliography
The Treasure by W.R.S. Ralston

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk Tales, Part B

(Little rabbit after seeing his mom being cooked and eaten. Source)


  • There were two families, one with a mother bear and her son, the other with a mother rabbit and her son
  • The mother rabbit dug roots faster than the mother bear, so the mother bear killed her
  • Little rabbit waited on his mother but she didn't come home. He went to the bear's house and discovered that mother bear and her son were cooking and eating his mom. Little rabbit vowed to get revenge on them
  • When mother bear left little bear by himself, little rabbit killed him and took his mother's stolen sack of roots
  • Little rabbit left the scene, going up a mountain. He came across a tiger and asked the tiger to help him hide in his ear. Tiger agreed
    • Why didn't Tiger ask little rabbit what he had done?
  • After finding her son dead, mother rabbit went to find little rabbit. She came across the tiger and asked if he had seen the little rabbit, telling him she would kill him if he didn't tell the truth. Tiger said don't talk to me like that or I will kill you without much trouble. Mother bear obeyed and went on
    • What if mother bear was stubborn and tried to fight the tiger?
  • Rabbit started eating some of the roots in the sack. Tiger asked what he was eating. Rabbit said his own eyeball.
  • Tiger asked to eat one and liked the way it tasted. Asked rabbit if he took out his own eyeballs and ate them if rabbit would lead the tiger around and take care of him
  • Rabbit says he would, digging out tiger's eyeballs and handing him some roots to eat instead. He then led tiger to a big cliff and told him to go to sleep. Then he built a big fire so that when the tiger moved back to avoid it he fell off the cliff and killed himself
  • Then rabbit went to the shepherd and told him to cut up the dead tiger on the mountain
  • Then rabbit went to the wolf and told him to kill some sheep since the shepherd is gone
  • Then rabbit went to the raven and told her to pick the eyes out of the little wolves since their mother went to kill sheep
  • Then the rabbit ran away
What if the rabbit went so far with his mischief that karma came back and mother bear killed him?


Bibliography
A Rabbit Story by A.L. Shelton

Monday, October 14, 2019

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk Tales, Part A

(The Tiger and the Frog. Source)

The Tiger and the Frog

  • A tiger went hunting for some food along a river
  • A frog saw him and, scared that the tiger was going to eat him, asked him where he was going
    • Why did the frog call out to the tiger if he was scared of him?
    • Adding dialogue between the animals gives more character
  • Tiger says he's very weak and hungry and looking for something to eat. He can't find anything else so he'll settle for eating the frog even though he's small. Tiger asks the frog who he is
    • Why can't the tiger find anything to eat?
    • Add details about how weak and hungry the tiger is. It's been 2-3 days.
  • Frog tells him he's the king of frogs. He can jump any distance and do anything. He challenges the Tiger to see who can jump across the river
    • Tiger should've created his own challenges if he can do anything
  • As the Tiger jumped across the river, the Frog grips his tail with his tongue and goes across the river with the Tiger
  • Frog, going further than the Tiger, taunts him
  • Frog challenged Tiger again, this time to see who can vomit the most
  • Tiger, being without food, could only throw up a little water, but Frog threw up the Tiger hair that was in his mouth
  • Frog says he has tiger hair in his body because he ate a Tiger yesterday
  • Tiger, scared of Frog now, runs away toward a mountain
    • Doesn't have to be a mountain
  • A fox asked why he's running. Tiger tells him about the Frog
  • Fox laughs and says he can kill the Frog
  • Tiger will go back with Fox but he wants their tails to be tied so Fox doesn't run away
  • Tiger and Fox confront the Frog
  • Frog says Fox hasn't paid tribute to him today and asks if that's why he brought the Tiger to him
  • Tiger gets scared and runs away with the Fox tied to his tail

Bibliography
Tibetan Folk Tales: The Tiger and the Frog by A.L. Shelton

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Extra Credit Reading Notes: Russia Folktales, Part A

(Pot of Gold that the old man found. Source)


  • A poor old man's wife dies. He asks people to help bury her but no one wants to help. Not even the pope
  • He tells the pope he'll pay him back with interest but pope still doesn't want to help
    • What if the pope accepted the offer?
  • Old man goes to dig the grave by himself
  • While digging the grave he finds a pot full of gold
    • What if the pope put the pot there on purpose?
  • Used the money to hire people to help dig the grave and bury his wife
  • After the funeral, pope gets curious on how the old man suddenly had money. Old man told him and that made the pope devise a plan with his wife to get the gold from the old man
  • The pope killed and skinned a goat, wearing the goat's skin as a mask. Then the pope went to the old man's house, acted like the Devil, and told the old man he planted the gold there and was only supposed to take a little to help pay for the funeral
  • When the pope got home with the money, he tried to remove the goat skin but it was fused with his body as punishment from God
Possible plot twist:
What if the pope is good and accepted the offer, old man got his wife buried, pope puts pot of gold near old man to find on purpose, old man finds it, pope asks old man if he has the money yet, old man lies and says no, then karma comes back on the old man

Note: Add some dialogue



Bibliography
The Treasure by W.R.S. Ralston

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Week 8 Progress

(My reflecting pose. Source)

Looking Back
I'm proud that I dug in and started putting work in the class. Early in the semester I fell behind and missed about two full weeks worth of assignments. It was a combination of being distracted with personal issues, prioritizing assignments in other classes, anxiety about writing my own stories, and thinking I could just make up all the assignments later in the semester. I don't have a strict schedule or anything because assignments in other classes are too dynamic for that. Rather, I started doing better by dealing with those personal issues and doing whatever is necessary to get the assignment done on time.

The assignments I enjoy the most are providing feedback to other people and learning new feedback techniques. It's much more natural for me to critique, analyze, and look for ways to improve a story rather than creating my own.

Looking Forward
For the second half of the semester, I want to try to get a little bit ahead just to have some extra wiggle room. Since I fell behind early on I don't have much room for error and it would be a good idea to work ahead with how dynamic school assignments and schedules can be.

As far as my writing goes, my feedback shows that I need to try and be more details and have the characters show more emotion. I also want to get better at changing the plot of a story but still have it be almost as interesting as the original.

I don't think much I want to change about my blog or website. On my introduction post I think I provide readers with a lot of insight about who I am and what I like to do. The project website is also going really well with a nice layout in place. Perhaps I could make some small changes here and there like changing the font of my stories.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

(Feedback Grid. Source)

Feedback In
The feedback seemed to have a healthy mix of praise and criticism. Some of the praise liked making changes to plot such as making the little boy change into an ogre. As far as criticism goes, there seemed to be a common theme to include more details such as what the monk is like in Deception and how the daughter's relationship with Surero evolved in How a Thief Married My Daughter.

Feedback Out
Looking back on my own feedback I implement a lot of the WWW strategy. I think this is because I like to naturally give feedback by first pointing out the things that I like before giving healthy criticism. The part that WWW strategy helped with is to be creative and offer suggestions on how a story could be improved.

Blog Comments
I do feel like I get a pretty good idea of what a person is like by reading their introduction, writing style, and what kind of stories they can come up with. I also feel like my introduction post provides a lot of information about me and insight into who I am. Lots of people are psychology majors and will comment on what they know about personalities and my poker hobby as well.

Looking Forward
Personally I think the feedback strategies are pretty good so if people would just implement that more often when they provide feedback I think that would work pretty well. I really liked Story Lab and I think having more of those lessons where we learn more strategies to write better would be great. 

Image
I chose this image for a couple of reasons. One is that I'm kind of a nerd and think grids and graphs are great tools to help visualize ideas. Another reason is the the grid is very informative. For example, it shows that critical feedback requires a person to be both positive and negative and shows how trust is an important factor in how the feedback is perceived.

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Extra Credit Reading Notes: Khasi Folktales, Part A

(The twin sisters Ka Ngot and Ka Iam. Source)

  • Ka Ngot and Ka Iam were the beautiful and lively twin daughters of the god of Shillong
    • They weren't happy if separated for long
  • One day, at the top of Shillong mountain, they challenged each other to a race the woody plains of Sylhet down below
  • Ka Ngot was the more timid one, Ka Iam was the more fearless one
    • Ka Iam was very confident and boasted she was going to win the race
  • At the start of the race, they both transformed into rivers
  • Ka Ngot traveling safer but longer paths went slowly. When she eventually reached Sylhet, she couldn't find her sister there. Then she went to nearby areas Chhatak and Dewara but still no sign. She went back for her sister and took a long curve in the process. The Khasis living on top of the hill who saw the river called that part "Rupatylli," meaning a silver necklace
  • Ka Iam, trying to get down the hill as fast as possible, took the shortest route which was toward Shella. This path was rough and included large rocks. Once she reached Shella she could see that her sister reached Sylhet before her. She was humiliated, and in hoping to hide her defeat, she divided herself into 5 streams, entering the plains and joining Ka Ngot
  • These rivers are now known as river Ngot and river Iam
  • Since Ka Ngot won the race she is given more praise as a goddess than her sister, and when some people want to cross Ngot they first pay their respects to Ka Ngot, the one who won the great race


Bibliography

Friday, October 4, 2019

Week 7 Story: Deception

(The old wandering monk. Source)


There was once a monk who resided high in the mountains. His appearance was what you would expect from a monk with old wrinkled skin, a head with no hair, and wearing the only article of clothing as an orange robe with holes and stains that visibly had not been washed in a long time. He often wandered about around the mountainside, helping any animal or human in need.

One day, while walking around the mountain on the outskirts of a village, he saw a little boy running by himself with no one around. The boy caught sight of the monk and ran toward him with haste. Once the boy got close to the monk he tried to talk to the monk but couldn't for his mouth was completely closed with no visible opening and covered by skin. Although the boy couldn't speak, he kept pointing in the direction he came from and it was clear he was in danger and afraid of something in that direction. Then the monk told the boy to hide in a nearby ditch and told him to wait there while he confronted the danger.

After a short time had passed, an elderly woman riding a horse with long white hair and wearing a long dark colored dress down to her feet came upon the monk and asked if he had seen a little boy with a closed mouth. "Perhaps. How do you know this boy?" replied the monk. "He is my grandson," said the woman. Still skeptical, the monk led the woman to the boy.

Once they arrived where the boy was hiding, the monk asked "is this your grandmother?" The boy shook his head furiously while pointing at his mouth. Then the monk took out one of the scrolls from his bag, unrolled it, and recited the ancient words from it at the women. Then she turned into ash right before their eyes, saying "what have you done?" before losing her head. The monk looked back at the boy who now transformed into an ogre with horns growing out of his head. "Thank you," said the boy before flying off and out of sight.

Author's Note: This story is based on The Flying Ogre by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens. In the story an old monk wandering nearby a giant tree stumbles upon a little girl who asks for his help and helps her hide in a giant hollow tree. A man flying on a horse tells the monk that he is looking for the girl asks for her whereabouts The monk refuses at first but then reveals her position once the man says she's not a little girl but an ogre. The man goes after the girl in the tree with the two eventually flying in the air off out of sight. I decided to change a number of things in this story including the location, characters, and plot. Instead of being near a big tree I changed the location near a mountain since that is where monks are known to reside. An elderly woman character was also added, giving the appearance of a possible witch with knowledge of magic, and the little girl was changed to a little boy. Lastly, the plot was changed by the little boy plotting to get rid of the woman that had a spell on him.

Bibliography
The Flying Ogre by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part B

(The flying ogre disguised as a little girl. Source)


  • A Buddhist monk loved wandering to different places and he wandered to a huge tree that was hollow inside
  • A little way past the tree, he saw a girl running towards him and when she got close she asked the monk to save her life
  • When the monk asked her what was wrong, she said a man is pursuing her and wanted him to tell the man he hasn't seen her while she hid in the tree
  • After the monk walked further, he came upon a man with a bow and sword on an armored horse. The horse could travel on air and on ground.
  • He asked the monk if he had seen the girl in the red coat, to which the monk said he had not
  • The man on the horse warned him and said that this girl is not a human but a flying ogre and this ogre is the worst of them all
  • Upon hearing that, the monk pointed at the hollow tree and revealed the girl's location
  • When the man searched the tree for the girl, she came out of the tree and flew away with the man on the horse chasing after her

Bibliography
The Flying Ogre by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part A

(The emperor when he returns for his wife. Source)


  • The daughter of a prince was very unlucky
  • She could've chosen anyone among a group of princes and counts but instead she chose a beggar because of his luck
    • The beggar had dragons in his ears and nostrils and dragons were a symbol of luck
  • Her father didn't agree to this and kicked her out of the kingdom and she had to live with the beggar outside of the castle
  • One day her husband, the beggar, left to seek out fortune and said he would come back for her
    • Why didn't he take her with him???
  • The princess waited 18 years for him to come back
  • The beggar returned to him as an emperor
    • However, she didn't recognize him anymore
  • He asks her if she wishes to marry someone else since her husband the beggar was gone for so long
    • She says no she will wait for her husband the beggar to come back until she dies
  • Seeing how faithful she was to him, the emperor revealed himself and took her back to his palace
  • They celebrated every day together as if it was a New Year
  • After 18 days together, she got sick and died while he lived on for many years


Bibliography

The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens