Joe's Myths

The story of chicken little got gruesome. This brings back the lady who swallowed a fly bit of repetition, but also included some death because someone decided it was a good idea to trust a fox. Literally never trust a fox. This giant just likes killing. If you can't tell the difference between three strangers and your own kids, maybe there's a better time to randomly kill three of them. Then again, apparently the girls could've escaped any time they wanted to, so they just wanted to make sure that the giant killed his kids before they left. Another fox is trying to cause problems. Fortunately, someone finally stopped believing him and he was brutally murdered. However, it was just her word against his. She had a severed hand, but that's not a ton of evidence. So this is where the gingerbread man story comes from. This repetition theme is pretty common in these stories. There's a guy who regularly kidnaps and eats children, and everyone acknowledges his existence an...

The first story is a wonderful example of how much trouble you can get in for lying. It also plays on the whole "guess my name" bit from Rumpelstiltskin, or however you spell it. I've always thought that was a ridiculous bet to take, as there are essentially an infinite number of names, especially if it's three words long. Nonetheless, its fun to watch someone's plans get thwarted just when they think they've got it all going in their favor. The next story actually involves death, which is always nice. There's also a lot of trust, like who believes that anyone needs an axe to part hair? The girl deserved to die a little. The next story is like the little old lady who swallowed a fly or perhaps like green eggs and ham. Either way, it was interesting to see the progression of the chain of things that needed to happen. Inanimate objects that sing the accusations of their murderer made for a good story. The image from the first story. Link Bibliograp...

I came in to this class expecting to spend most of my time working with Greek gods. they were the bit of mythology that I was most familiar with and enjoyed quite a bit. I have been pleasently surprised by the variety of material I've covered this semester, broadening my horizons. That being said, some of this reading did cover gods (mostly roman, but tomato tomato), so I enjoyed this section specifically. One of the reason I liked this era of gods is how they are shown interacting with the world and its inhabitants. Reading how they deal with even the most ridiculous things like monkeys, bulls, cats, and specific types of people is always just so fun to me. It's Jupiter, or Zeus if you prefer the Greek. Link Bibliography: Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Sir Roger L'Estrange Link

I like that there are multiple stories that all contain the same animal. It's interesting to get to see the same character, which usually maintains the same archetype, from slightly different perspectives. For instance, at first the wolf is unforgiving and unreasonable, then he becomes deceitful and sly, finally he becomes more of a trickster. It was also interesting to watch religion get to seep into the life of the wolf. It was an aspect of life I hadn't considered to apply to these animal characters. I like how dogs were portrayed. I think that dogs have probably the most sides that could be showed, and these stories did a good job in trying to acknowledge all of them. An illustration from one of the wolf stories. Link Bibliography: Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Sir Roger L'Estrange Link

A common theme I'm seeing in these stories is people not doing what they're told. In the first case, it's the crow not telling the people that the girl is dead. I don't remember any others of the top of my head, but this fact remains pretty consistantly. Also, there is another story with animal sex. At least this time somebody sees something wrong with it, although it's a bit weird that their first assumption upon seeing a pregnant woman is "the dog must've done it." Makes me concerned about the rest of those people's lives. This dude is friends with the deer despite being an avid deer hunter. You know who my best friend is? A serial killer. Makes a lot of sense if you don't think about it. These people have some sort of cannabilistic ritual where they knowingly kill and eat each other but magically bring them back to life. That's got to be some sort of torture. Magic turkeys who expect a lot in return for their magic.All of that last story...

Immediately starts with bestiality and rape. This is going to be fun. Nobody questioned why the young unmarried boy was a father or who the mother was and then let him take the kid. Wholesome people we have here. Then the raped cow becomes a woman, because why not. That first story was wild from the start and only got weirder. The second one involved less rape, but was still strange. She killed her entire family, essentially forcing them to ascend to the stars, because nobody could figure out how to tell this guy no. The rest of the stories use the same general scheme: some odd marriage request involving animals and some of the animals try to help. I'm not a fan of using animals as main characters, so I didn't take very many notes here. A mole and a badger, two of the most useful animals. Link Bibliography: Tales of the North by Stith Thompson Link

These stories often involve some very gruesome things. But the author brushes over them like they're not important, and they tend to not be as all the people come back to life anyway. Then the kids do literally everything they are told not to do. doesn't matter who said it, they will do the opposite. At some point you have to wonder why the dad keeps telling them places to not go. maybe if he told them not to stay in the tipi all day, their problems would stop occurring. Then there were anal rape snakes. That was not a series of words I ever thought I would or ever wanted to say, but here we are. I'm not sure why we keep trusting people who have proven themselves to be murderers, but that's a common theme among these stories. The main character once again lies to basically everyone he meets, but is still treated like the good guy. Everyone tries to cheat in all these stories. Good times. A canoe, like the man and his father-in-law raced in. Link Bibliography: ...

 This story has a lot of weird parts. For one, everyone knows that this uncle is killing children and are apparently completely okay with it. Then the son that lives decides to expose himself in public just for fun, which of course the uncle sees. So now we have a murderous pedophile and the parents decide they have to let him be alone with their son. Repeatedly. The way the child escapes is equally nonsensical, but at least they were creative. I was a bit unclear with how old the kid was, because as soon as he was found in his box, he got married. I had pictured him being younger, but what do I know? The grouse is completely in the wrong. He does no work, gets fed out of the kindness of others, and still harbors grudges against those keeping him alive. He thanks them for their help by essentially condeming them to death with magic. One idiot actually kills himself becuase he couldn't tell the difference between sand and seaweed, so he deserved it. They end up fighting for their li...

Second chances are given out willy-nilly in these stories aren't they? What about the previous adventures of Sun Wu Kung makes anyone think that he will be able to control himself for any extended period of time? Dude's not even grateful to Evening Star for sticking up for him. Wow, he didn't stay very long or appreciate the gift he had been given? Who could've seen that coming? What's the best way to deal with this guy? Give him what he wants and not control him at all? What a good idea, I'm promoting whoever had that idea. A depiction of Sun Wu Kung riding his clouds. Link Bibliography: The Chinese Fairy book by Wilhelm. Link

I like the way this story starts out. I am a bit confused as to how other apes came to be, but other than that, off to a good start. Eventaully the king figured out he would die, and this made him sad. Unlike most of us, though, he's part magical, so he may yet become immortal. He sets out to achieve that, doesn't succeed for a while, and decides the only option is to set out to sea on a raft. If I've learned anything from Sinbad it's that he will survive his voyage and become better for it. Logic. He of course meets a string of people who will lead him to untold riches, and then they get mad at him for acting how he's always acted without ever being told to do anything else. Logic strikes again. The king had made no secret that he wanted to become immortal, but this "all knowing" Discerner was surprised when he didn't want to learn something that wouldn't further this goal. Then some bull secret code messaging occurs and the story continues. Lots ...

The reading starts with several stories describing the labors of Yamato. It starts with his hunting down a siren. I like sirens because even though everyone knows that they just want to kill and eat you, no one is able to resist them. It's like irony built right into a character. So Yamato just woke a dragon by accidentally stepping on it, thinking it was a rock, and it wanders off and he continues on his journey. Neither of them cared about the other. One thing I like about how this story was written is that, whenever it is describing something specific, it changes from generic narration to poem format. It helps break up the monotony of the wall of text the story would otherwise be. He waited for 100 years on the island before returning with the apple. This man is patient. This boar, whom everyone is scared of and whose weakness is known, shouldn't be killed while he's asleep. Because that's boring. Yamato on his way to get the Golden Apple of Immortal Youth. Lin...

 It's nice to get a start at the very beginning. Now I don't have to worry about any backstory that could come in to play later. I also like this idea of having a god devoted to a single thing. It makes it easier to keep track of them and more or less defines their personality, which is great for storytelling. Stories could always use some irony, and that comes in double with the death of Izanami. She gets stripped of her immortality and cast down to Earth, then she dies in child birth while giving birth to two opposing sons. I like the phrase "abode of eternal gloom," and think I might use it somehow. The rest of this is going to be great, I'm assuming, because it's just going to be a bunch of overpowered siblings duking it out. So this serpent wants this girl to marry and offers to slay a beast to earn her from her parents. As soon as they agree, he decides the best course of action is to turn the girl into a comb. Because who can fight a monster when your h...

The story resumes shortly after our hero has essentially stolen a child, hid them until they were 12, then married them. Let's keep going! So immediately I'm intrigued by the hunter, he has an interesting style and I like the juxtaposition of the calm musical side of him immediately followed by the more expected killing side. Also, it turns out he does whatever he wants, despite having made promises to a person that has been prophesied for him to meet. The rest of the story turns into some Hamlet knockoff where literally every living thing within 50 feet of the story dies in some weird connected way. This story ends with a riddle, which falls into the same category as prophecies for me, in that I enjoy them. So, this king is apparently the only person who decides any dispute, including those among animals. A crow comes in, claiming to be married to a swan. The swan's husband obviously objects. The king decides the crow is right, because reasons. He is then convinced he was...

The first part of the story is interesting enough. It sets up a good back story, filled with deceit and trickery. It even had my favorite story telling element: irony. It had it multiple times too, which I am a big fan of. The story gets better, because as soon as the cursed prince is old enough to not be stopped (11 by the way, who can't stop an 11 year old?) he goes to the city and immediately starts acting like a brat. The story then sets up Rasalu as a true hero, capable of taking out mighty beasts without even waking up his comrades...while he's still 11. Well, at least I can stop complaining about an 11 year old doing all these ridiculous things. Now there are inanimate objects performing incredible tasks. My least favorite thing about all the stores I've read so far is how unbelievable they are. Sure, have your magic and good luck, but some of this is nonsense. Although One redeeming factor is that I do like the idea of prophecies, so this story has some merit to it...

The second part of the reading starts with Sinbad's fifth voyage. This one involved his fellow merchants eating a young roc, which angered the parent rocs, which proceeded to destroy their boat. So once again, our hero is stranded on an unknown island. This time, the first person he meets turns out to be a goblin who essentially enslaves Sinbad. Sinbad eventually manages to get the goblin drunk and kill him by slamming him into the ground. Following this murder, Sinbad meets up with some other merchants who eventually convince him to hurl rocks at monkeys in order to steal coconuts from them, which he then sells to make his way back home. On his way he manages to make another small fortune in pearls. The sixth voyage found Sinbad shipwrecked on a notoriously deadly beach, but I'm not sure how it can be so well known if no one ever returns from it. He finds more treasures, and honestly has got to be devaluing gold and precious stones with the sheer number he himself has held at ...

I like the first person story telling, but that may only be because it is a welcomed break from reading all those fables where the only characters were animals. The twist of the island being a whale was great, and I like the way the story managed to put the main character into a difficult position naturally. I'm glad the captain was reluctant to believe that Sinbad had survived. It's almost rare to see characters acting as they should, rather than how the reader would with the excess facts at their disposal. I enjoy the how he uses some of the same tactics over again, tying himself to something so that he may be carried to a new location continue to survive on his journey. It's also amusing how he keeps managing to find his way back to the same set of merchants who lost him in the first place. The captain is always very nice when he rejoins the group, almost too nice. It gets a little tedious for Sinbad to continue surviving his adventure and lose nothing for it. There is n...

These fables are organized by the type of animal that was the main character in each story. This was useful because different types of animals generally keep the same traits across stories, so it is easy to understand themes across stories. By placing multiple stories featuring the same characters back to back, there was also an opportunity for contrasting certain aspects for them. This includes putting them on opposite sides of the story, first antagonist then protagonist or vice versa, or having them succeed in the story or fail in the end. I like this strategy of providing twists and will try to use it in my own writing. A visual version of one of the fables. A visual version of one of the fables Picture Link Bibliography: The Fables of Aesop (Jacobs)

This section of fables organized the stories by the type of animal that was highlighted by each story. This was helpful because, in general, types of animals keep the same general traits across stories, so it is east to understand themes across stories. By placing multiple stories featuring the same characters back to back, there was also an opportunity for contrasting certain aspects for them. This includes putting them on opposite sides of the story, first antagonist then protagonist or vice versa, or having them succeed in the story or fail in the end. I like this strategy of providing twists and will try to use it in my own writing. A visual version of one of the fables. A visual version of one of the fables. Bibliography: The Fables of Aesop

Part A's reading notes got really repetitive as I tried to separate them by story and ended up saying a lot of the same things for multiple stories, so this time I'm going to try a less structured style of notes and just write things down as they impress me. In The Fox and the Leopard, the fox is described as having "sarcastic talk," which makes me like him already. He uses this sarcasm to mess with the leopard, despite being in a losing battle, and in the end tries to cover himself with some useless "true beauty is on the inside" nonsense, as if the rest of the conversation hadn't been about outward beauty. I'm not a fan of this story. The Wolf and the Goat was a short and pointless story. There was no twist, everything happened as expected. There was a half hearted attempt at a trickster, but it was weak and disappointing. The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse delivered a new, more subtle trickster. The cat in this story didn't say anything...

My reading is a collection of Aesop's Fables. These usually involve animals and include a lesson, or moral, to be learned at the end of the story. I like this style of story telling as it is fairly concise, not excessively rambling on. The Wolf and the Kid warned of the dangers of letting things distract you from what you're supposed to be doing, which is very important. This story is a little different because the character learning the lesson was not the main character, nor the protagonist. This twist could provide an interesting new view on other stories.  The Tortoise and the Ducks illustrates the importance of knowing when to keep your mouth shut. It does this by killing its main character, which is also a cool way to twist a story.  The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox is one of my favorite stories in this reading section. It involves the archetype trickster, that I wrote about earlier. The moral even centers on this, as the fox, who is normally tricky, himself gets tricked...