Reading Diary B: The Looking Glass (continued)

My Own Invention

When Alice mentioned Punch and Judy I got so excited. I just learned about the Mr. Punch puppet show a week ago while watching a Buzzfeed video. The video discussed the origins of different sayings and I learned that the saying “pleased as punch” is in reference to the Mr. Punch puppet show. It was such a great coincidence that I watched that video because it allowed me to understand the reference Alice was making comparing the knights and the puppet. Other than my excitement over the Mr. Punch reference, this story was not my favorite. I tried and tried but I could not get into this story. The first half of the story was great but this half did not capture much of my attention. The knights just were not as interesting as Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

(illustration by John Tenniel)

Reading Diary A: Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass

I was so excited to start reading this story! I read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when I was in elementary school but I never got around to reading the second novel, Through the Looking-Glass. It seems like this school year has been full of Alice in Wonderland for me. I wrote my final capstone paper on the character of Alice and her self-concept and stages of her self-identity. I had to watch both the animated version and the live action remake with Johnny Depp. I also had to reread some of the first novel and do a lot of research on Carrol’s process when writing the character of Alice. I also remember seeing the remake for the first time. It was my first 3D IMAX movie and I saw it with one of my best friends.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Tweedledum and Tweedledee are two of my favorite characters besides the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat. I remember reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and being slightly confused whenever the two boys would speak but also laughing once I finally figured out what they were talking about. I love the way they always contradict each other like many siblings do. The poem that they recited in the story was quite entertaining. I could actually picture the boys reciting this poem to Alice. Poor Alice, constantly being told that you are not real must be quite frustrating! 

(Illustration by John Tenniel)

Extra Reading Diary Week 10

Tejas Legends 


How the North Wind Lost His Hair

As a Texan, I was really excited to read these stories. When I was in elementary school, we took a field trip to a Native Museum and the guide told us some stories from some of the Native American tribes in Texas. I really enjoyed this story. I see Spanish moss all of the time back home and I ever really knew what it was called but I knew that it kind of creeped me out. Its grey color always gave it an eerie feel but this story has made me look at Spanish moss in a whole new light. I love the idea that the moss is actually North Wind’s hair! It actually makes sense. It hardly ever gets cold and Texas and now I know that it is because South Wind fought the North Wind and scared him away! Such a fun and cool story! 

The Cottonwood Remembers

When I think of cottonwood trees, I think of my Grandparents’ house. There are tons of cottonwood trees where my grandparents live. Whenever my cousins and I would go outside and play, there would always be cotton floating around in the air. We would sometimes make a game of it and see who could try and catch the most cotton. This story is quite sad and nostalgic at the same time. I liked that it explained multiple things as opposed to just why the cottonwood’s seeds fly off and travel through the air. The poor owl and loon were cursed and the poor pigeon’s wife dies all because of a misunderstanding.  Not only does this story serve as a good origin story but it also serves as a lesson in communication. 

(Cottonwood Tree in the Fall)

Week 10 Storytelling: The Secret

The Secret

At my age, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I had to find a wife. The task proved difficult for me for I was not like other “men.” As a matter of fact, I was not a man at all. I searched and searched for a wife until I finally came across a widow looking for a suitor for her daughter. The only condition she had was that the man who would marry her daughter had to be a good hunter. I was not the best of hunters but I was desperate for love that I lied and told her that I was a great hunter. Soon, our marriage was arranged and I went to live with my new wife.

Hiding my secret from my new wife and her mother was a difficult task. When I felt the change happening, I would rise early in the morning and leave and not return until late that night. The first time this happened, my wife’s mother questioned my sudden departure. When she asked where I was going, I almost made the mistake of saying hunting but quickly changed my mind. Hunting was definitely not the smartest thing I could have said. As I mentioned before, I was a terrible hunter. If I traveled down that path, she would definitely grow suspicious. Instead, I simply said, “Fishing.” This too was a dumb decision because I realized that she would expect me to come home with a mountain of fish.  Before returning home, all I could find were three measly guppies. I saw the questioning look in her eye and tried to curb her doubt by telling her that I would be more successful tomorrow. This became a never-ending cycle until one day; I finally had to change up my excuse. Once again my mother in law asked where I was going but this time I said, “Hunting.” I returned later that night with only two duwë'gä (lizards) and I knew I was in trouble. The other men of the tribe had gone hunting that day too but unlike me, they came home with many cuts of deer.

I knew my time was running out but as hard as I tried I could not stop the change. Once again, I rose early and left my wife and mother in law. I went down to the river like I did every morning and waited for my transformation to begin. Once in my true form, I dove down into the water and caught a crawfish. Crawfish were my favorite snack and I was quite pleased with how swiftly I spotted and captured my prey. With the crawfish in hand, I flew back down to the shore and took my human form and began to walk home. When I walked through the door, my wife began to question me about my lack of fish. I quickly explained to her that as I was fishing, an owl swooped down and scared away the fish. Then, my wife gave me a look; a look that I knew meant that my secret was out. She yelled at me and said, “You’re the owl! I thought I married a man but I married an owl!” Those were the last words my wife ever spoke to me. She ran me out of the house and I took shelter in the woods. That is where I have been ever since; grieving the love that I once had. The love that I wanted more than anything else in the world. The love that I knew I would never have again.  

(Barn Owl or Lulu)

Author's Note: In this story, an old woman tries to find a good hunter to marry her daughter. The man that the old woman picks, turns out to have a secret; he is not a man but an owl. In the end, the two women find out the husband's secret and drives him out of the house. The story is told from the two women's point of view but I wanted to write about the husband/owl's side of the story.

Bibliography: This story is based on the story, The Owl Gets Married from the book, Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).  

Reading Diary B: Cherokee Myths Continued

The Ball Game of the Birds and Animals

As I was reading this story all I could imagine is a huge stickball game being played between these two groups of animals. Stickball was not only a game played for fun but it was also used as a way to create peace between feuding tribes. The players usually were the tribe’s greatest warriors like the bear and the terrapin were for the animal team. In the case of the bird team, their greatest warriors might not have been strong but they were cunning and determined to prove themselves. I think that this story shows that you may be the underdog but that should never keep you from trying. If the two small animals (the bat and the flying squirrel) would have given up, they never would have had the opportunity to see who they really were and become who they were supposed to be. 

(Ball Players by George Catlin)

Reading Diary A: Cherokee Myths

Cherokee Myths

I was really excited about reading this unit. I am currently in Cherokee 3 and my professor has told us some Cherokee stories before. It was very fun reading all of the Cherokee words in the stories. It felt cool to be able to pronounce them correctly and some of the words I already knew. I also love that these stories have tons of animals. My favorite type of origin stories are animal origin stories. I love learning about the reasons why animals behave the way they do or why they look a certain way.

How The World Was Made

This unit is once again filled with origin stories. I haven’t read or heard this story before but I have heard that the Cherokees believe that the earth is an island. The part of this story that caught my eye was the part about the Great Buzzard. My Cherokee teacher’s maiden name is Buzzard so; she has talked about the Buzzard before. I also noticed that the number seven was used quite a bit throughout this story. In my Cherokee class, we learned that there are seven Cherokee clans; Long Hair, Blue, Wolf, Wild Potato, Deer, Bird, and Red Paint. I don’t know if these two things are connected but, I thought that it was an interesting coincidence. 

(Buzzard)

Extra Reading Diary: Creation and Longevity Achomawi (Pit River, California)

Creation and Longevity

Achomawi (Pit River, California)

Once again, it is awesome how this unit perfectly goes hand and hand with my music class. Right now we are talking about tribes from the Plains. We learned how important the Eagle is to the several different Plains tribes and this story highlights that. Like I have mentioned before, I really enjoy creation stories because they are all so unique and it is cool to see how each group of people believe they were created. This creation story was interesting to me because it told the story of two creators. Usually, the creation stories that I have read only had one main creator. This story has both Coyote and Eagle as creators. 

(Majestic Eagle)

Storytelling Week 9: How One Smurfette Became Two

How One Smurfette Became Two

Long, long ago there was a Smurf village with many smurfs living there. Far, far away in the Southern Smurf village, there were rumors of a smurfette living there. When he heard about the rumor spread to the Northern Smurf village, Brainy Smurf travelled down to the Southern Smurf village and married Smurfette. As he looked at his wife, Brainy Smurf pleasantly thought to himself, “Ha! I have married Smurfette, the only lady smurf in the village, while Vanity Smurf, the son of our leader Papa Smurf, has no wife.”

What Brainy Smurf didn't know was that Vanity Smurf had also heard the rumors about Smurfette living in the southern Smurf village and had decided to travel there to marry Smurfette himself. Once Vanity Smurf arrived, he stood in the hallway to the Smurf hut and overheard Brainy Smurf talking to himself. Hearing what Brainy Smurf said, Vanity Smurf decided to wait until everyone in the house was sound asleep. Once he was sure everyone was asleep, Vanity Smurf snuck into Brainy Smurf and Smurfette’s bedroom and began to drag Smurfette away by her shoulders. Brainy Smurf awoke with a start as he heard Vanity Smurf dragging Smurfette away. He ran to the hallway and dove for Smurfette and grabbed her by her feet. As Vanity Smurf pulled one way, and Brainy Smurf pulled another, poor little Smurfette became a Smurf tug-of-war rope. The two Smurfs pulled and pulled until suddenly, they pulled helpless little Smurfette in two. Vanity Smurf carried Smurfette’s upper body back to the Northern Smurf village. Once there, he carved wood to make Smurfette complete. The new Smurfette of the Southern Smurf village was a very skilled dancer but, she was not so skilled at doing intricate needlework in sewing furs. This is because she had wooden hands. The new Smurfette of the Northern Smurf village was a horrible dancer because her feet were wooden but, she was very good at sewing fine stitches in the furs. Because of this one event, all of the Northern Smurfettes are skillful with their hands and all of the Southern Smurfettes are beautiful dancers.

(Smurfs and Smurfette)

Author's Note: This story is the Inuit origin story of the first woman. In the story, two men split the only woman in their village in half as they were fighting over her. When I read the story, I instantly thought about the Smurfs and how Smurfette was the only female Smurf in her village. Thoughts of all of the Smurf men fighting over her filled my head. 

Bibliography: I based my story off of the Inuit origin story The First Woman that is from the book Myths and Legends of Alaska edited by Katherine Berry Judson (1911).

Reading Diary B: Alaskan Legends(Continued)

The First Woman

Eskimo (Bering Straits)

As I was reading this story, all I could think about is the TV show The Smurfs. Like the woman that lived in the southland, Smurfette was the only woman living among the male Smurfs. I wonder how she and the woman that lived in the southland felt. Did the Smurfs fight over Smurfette the way the men fought over the woman?

I did enjoy the story of the first woman. It was very cool how they explained why the women of the south and the women of the north are talented in different areas. When I was reading about how the men were fighting over the woman all I could picture is them pulling her like a tug-of-war rope and I couldn’t help but laugh. I was glad that they just split the woman in two instead of accidentally killing her. If this story was a part of the Asia and Africa unit then the woman probably would have died because there was a lot of murder involved in the stories in that unit.

The Boy in the Moon

Eskimo (Lower Yukon)

I have read a few moon and sun origin stories and almost all of them involve lovers. The moon is the woman/girl and the sun is the man/boy and vice versa. The use of food (berries and meat) to explain why the moon fades in Alaska is something I have never read before.

(Smurfs and Smurfette)

Reading Diary A: Alaskan Legends

Myth-Folklore Unit: Alaskan Legends

(Myths and Legends of Alaska)

I chose this unit because we just finished learning about the Haida and Inuit people in my Native American Music class. I really enjoy origin and creation stories. These stories are always fun and interesting. It is cool to read about the different beliefs that people have. I noticed that the number 4 is used a lot in these stories (4 days, 4 years, Raven waves his wings 4 times). In class, we learned that the number 4 is sacred to a lot of tribes because it is connected to nature through the 4 seasons, connected to the 4 directions, and connected to the 4 elements.  I also really enjoyed the polar bear and mosquito origins within these stories. I thought it was funny how the mosquitoes were told to bite people instead of bite/eat animals. In hindsight, I don’t think that was the best thing to tell the mosquitoes. I thought the story of how the reindeer lost their sharp teeth was interesting as well. Who would have known that the sweet little animals that we associate with Christmas and Santa Clause used to be vicious little creatures that terrorized and ate people. 

(Reindeer)

Commenting Review Week

Commenting is such a normal part of an online class that I don't really have many feelings about it. Sometimes it can seem like a pain to have to comment on something when there is a word/length requirement. Some things or stories are easier to comment on than others. Commenting is not hard and sometimes it can even be fun but, other times it can feel like a chore. On the other hand, it is fun being able to read everyone's stories and be able to offer positive feedback. It feels nice to be able to share how much you enjoyed someone's writing and I know that it feels just as good to read a positive comment.

(Ryan Gosling Meme)



Writing Review Week

My favorite part of this class has been the storytelling posts. I love them because it gives us the freedom to be creative and write whatever we want. Most of the writing that I have to do in my other classes is structure(APA, MLA) and academic. This class allows me to write for fun. It never feels like a chore and that's why I look forward to the storytelling assignments! It also makes me feel good whenever I open my email and see a nice comment about one of my stories. It is really cool to be able to write something that someone enjoys to read and it is fun to be able to read other people's stories. There are some great writers in this class that are super creative. The storytelling is definitely the highlight of this class!

(Sophie Turner)

 

I chose this picture because it is the picture that I used on the first page of my storybook project site. The storybook project is by far my favorite thing I have worked on in this class. At times it can be time consuming and a little difficult to work on but once I start writing and I see the comments that classmates leave on how much they enjoyed my story or suggestions they have on how to improve it, the struggle is well worth it. 



Reading Review Week

Reading Review Week

 

 I really like the reading diaries. It helps to take notes about what I have read that week because I go back and look at them when I am deciding on what story I want to use for my storytelling post. I think that my favorite units so far have been the Twenty-Two Goblins unit and the Japanese Fairy Tales unit. I liked the Twenty-Two Goblins unit because it was fun to try to figure out the riddles and to see how the king in the story solved them. The Japanese Fairy Tales unit was fun to read because it was very dark compared to the other units. The reading diaries also helped me connect and remember some of the fairy tales that I read when I was younger. It surprised me how many fairy tale units had the same or similar stories to those that I read when I was younger (Anansi, Alice in Wonderland, Aesop Fables). The reading diaries have also helped with my storybook. Going back and looking at my notes has helped me see the things that I liked best about all of the readings and try to incorporate them in my storybook.

(Enchanted Forest)

 

 

I chose this picture because of its mysterious look. When I think of fairy tales, I instantly think of enchanted forests. Forests are such great settings for stories because they can be beautiful and mystical or they can be dark and menacing but either way, they are magical and full of possibilities.