Famous Last Words for Week 5

I think my best writing for the week was my Storytelling assignment, which was the unit Twenty-Two Goblins. The unit was challenging to write about because of how it was a story within a story. Also, the stories were somewhat redundant, so I had a hard time coming up with some variety for my version of the tale. Overall, I think having to really brainstorm helped me come up with some strategies for future writing.

I really enjoyed reading this week's stories on several different blogs. It always amazes me what kind of stories people can come up with! It's definitely inspiring to read other material, and I think I'm amongst a great group of writers. One of my favorite parts of each week is getting to read what my classmates have written. It was interesting also to see how many people did the same unit as me. Their spins on the stories made the unit much more enjoyable for me overall.

I have one other online class, and I realized that my writing in that class has benefitted from this class because of how writing intensive this one is. I'm also taking some art history classes that have been showing works that deal with mythology somewhat, so it's been interesting to see how that all ties in together! For example, in my Cinema of the American West class, we are dealing with mythological landscapes and characters. It's been fun watching the movies and seeing how the directors made use of Native American mythology in order to make their films more authentic and captivating.

Outside of school, I'm pretty much just looking forward to Spring Break. I'm going to Oregon, so I've just been on Pinterest for hours on end looking at waterfalls to hike to. That's been the most interesting part of my week, I think.

(Personal photo of Tamanawas Falls, OR, summer 2014)

Storytelling Week 5: The Four (Ant) Brothers

There is a city called Great Ant Hill. In it lived the great Queen Ant. In her kingdom, there lived a worker ant in one of the finer enclaves of Great Ant Hill, and this worker ant had four sons.

One day, the worker ant was busy hauling a bread crumb back to the kingdom when a torrential downpour occurred and swept him away, never to be seen again. The relatives of the worker ant took all of his meager possessions, leaving his four sons with virtually nothing.

The sons, seeing that there was nothing holding them in their area of the kingdom of Great Ant Hill, decided that they would seek out their ant grandfather in another enclave in order to live with him. When they got to their grandfathers little ant home, they found out that he had become trapped in tree sap and was now enclosed in it forever. Just when they were about to turn back and return to their father’s home, they saw their uncles and decided to stay with them for a while.

The four brothers stayed with their uncles for a while, but before too long, things started getting tense. Their uncles became fed up with them on account of their unwillingness to help out around their part of the ant hill, so they started keeping food from them and forbade them to sleep on the soft leaves, instead forcing them to sleep on the ground.

The brothers were deeply troubled by these events, and the older brother even admitted to the younger brothers that he wouldn’t mind getting stuck in some tree sap himself. The younger brothers, however, told him that he should pursue knowledge instead of wallowing in self-pity, and as a result, the four brothers decided to travel to four different ant hills in order to study with other ants and gain their knowledge.

After a very long time apart, several days, they reconvened and excitedly shared what they had learned.

“I can take a skeleton of any animal in the world and put the right kind of flesh on it!” exclaimed the oldest.

“I have learned how to put the appropriate skin and hair on any flesh covered skeleton! excitedly said the second oldest.

The third brother chimed in and said, “I know how to put the appropriate eyes and organs into a body after it is covered with flesh, skin, and hair.”

The youngest proudly proclaimed, “When all of the organs are there, I can give the creature the breath of life!”

The four ant brothers excitedly decided to venture into the forest in order to put their knowledge to the test. It just so happened that they had not walked for two hours when they came upon a massive skeleton.

“Woah. Let’s bring this one to life.” said the oldest.

Not knowing what kind of skeleton it was, the brothers began to do their work. The oldest brother fitted the skeleton with the right flesh. The second oldest added the appropriate skin and hair, the third brother added the right organs and eyes, and the youngest gave it life.

Alas! What the brothers didn’t know was that the creature they had brought back to life was an anteater! When the anteater looked around and saw the tasty ants, he immediately at them and went on his merry way into the forest.

(Anteater eating ants)

Thus, the four ants died because they made the worst kind of animal. Who could think that ants creating an anteater would be a good idea? For this reason, it’s important to see that something acquired that goes against fate shall not benefit the one that acquired it.

Author’s Note: I chose to tell the story of The Four Brothers from the point of view of ants because, quite frankly, I couldn’t really come up with anything else. In Twenty-Two Goblins, the goblin that the king repeatedly has to get from a tree in order to bring to the monk tells the king a story in the form of a riddle while the king carries him. At the end of the story, if the king cannot answer the riddle correctly, he is told that the goblin will kill him. One of the stories is the story that I chose to write on. In the original, the tale centers around four brothers that go and study a science after the death of their father and then meet up to show each other what they have learned. This part of the story I kept essentially the same. However, in the original they revive a lion that kills them, and in my version, it’s an anteater. I noticed that the stories in this unit tended to be very grim, so I thought maybe my version would be less grim because it was centered around ants.

Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder, with illustrations by Perham W. Nahl (1917)

Web source: UN-Textbook

Reading Diary B: Twenty-Two Goblins

By the second half of the Twenty-Two Goblins unit, I was thoroughly annoyed with the fact that the goblin would magically go back to the tree upon which it was discovered after the king answered his riddles. I started feeling sorry for the king because of how much he had to walk in one night. I also admired the king for his patience and perseverance.

Some of the actions of the characters in the story I just did not understand. For example, in The General's Wife, the general burns himself alive because the king died from being love sick over the general's wife. Didn't the general offer his wife to the king? Why should the general die because the king wouldn't take his wife? It is explained that servants must protect the lives of their masters, but I didn't see how the general killing himself was him protecting his superior. I liked that the king explained his reasoning to the goblin, though, because it helped me understand what was going on in this particular story.

I really liked the story of The Four Brothers, namely for this quote: "No matter how carefully won and guarded, three things are fickle and bring sorrow at the last: evil friendships, a flirt, and money." That's such a great thought! I have liked all of the little bits of wisdom scattered throughout these stories. Although some points are harder to understand than others, I appreciate the lessons that the reader can learn from this unit.

(The Four Brothers)

Reading Diary A: Twenty-Two Goblins

The unit I chose for this week was Twenty-Two Goblins. I chose this unit because I'd never heard of these tales before, and I liked that every story had a riddle in it. The author did a great job in terms of character development throughout the stories.

I liked how the king was introduced in the Introduction, how he was described as a very impressive man that was both noble and kind. I also really liked how the payment was placed in the fruit brought by the monk. That must have made for mountains of jewels when all of the fruit was broken apart! I thought it was interesting how the goblin was introduced. The introduction to this character was very dark, and it's not the sort of introduction I'm used to reading about in stories. Reading about a hanging body that was possessed by a goblin was a little bit unsettling, but I thought it was just sinister enough to be intriguing yet not sinister enough to be horrifying.

(The King and the Goblin)

While reading every story, I couldn't help but be anxious to get to the end just to see how the king would respond to each riddle. In The Three Lovers, his answer surprised me because of how he analyzed it. I honestly didn't even know how to begin to answer such a riddle, especially under the threat of death, but his answer made sense within the context of the story and the culture that these stories came from. Reading the king's answers and thinking about them made the stories even cooler for me.