Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales Part A

Reading Notes

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(Native American Totem Poles by Getty Images)

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Splinter-Foot Girl (Part I)
      With this story, rather than focusing on the flow/plot of the story I tried to focus on the characters themselves. This required me to read the story twice but it lead to some really interesting thoughts and ideas about animal characters. Maybe I could anthropomorphize more of those animal characters to create a more dynamic story.

Splinter-Foot Girl (Part II)
     This was an interesting development to the Splinter-Foot Girl story because instead of losing the stepmother won this round. By building a contraption to fake a strange birthing, the stepmother was able to have the young wife killed. More and more her villainous tendencies are reminding me that of the salem witch trials; it could be an interesting mix or take on this "fairytale."

Splinter-Foot Girl (Final Part)
     I loved how with this part it focused on a different member of the family, the loved dog and his undying love for the young wife's abandoned children. I liked how this one reflect the first story and was set up more like a journey than a tale of one instance. Very fable like in its framework but also fairytale like in its verse.

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All reading notes are based off of stories from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).

Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales Part B

Reading Notes

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(A Wishram woman in festive bridal raiment, 1911)

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The True Bride
      With this story, I found myself attaching some western fairytales to certain characters. For the stepmother, I immediately thought of Cinderella's stepmother; simultaneously the daughter's first venture out to pick berries initially reminded me of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." I could rewrite this story as a western fairytale? 

The True Bride (Part II)
     This was an interesting development to the True Bride story because instead of losing the stepmother won this round. By building a contraption to fake a strange birthing, the stepmother was able to have the young wife killed. More and more her villainous tendencies are reminding me that of the salem witch trials; it could be an interesting mix or take on this "fairytale."

The True Bride (Part III)
     I loved how with this part it focused on a different member of the family, the loved dog and his undying love for the young wife's abandoned children. I liked how this one reflect the first story and was set up more like a journey than a tale of one instance. Very fable like in its framework but also fairytale like in its verse.

The True Bride (Final Part)
    This last part had all the makings for a happy ending to this tale. It taught me how to properly wrap up a story because it tied up every question the tale had presented. We found out how the dog is the true hero, all the villains were punished, and the young wife and husband came back together once again with their two boys.

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All reading notes are based off of stories from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).

Storybook: Planning First Story Update

First Story Focus: Demeter 

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(Painting of Demeter by Howard David Johnson)

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Possibly start with an introductory paragraph to her characteristics? 

• Do I keep it in her narrative?
• if so, does that pull away from the story itself?
• If not, then I am bringing in a third person point of view, which is the opposite of my purpose in this storybook…? 
• Then go into the story from her perspective, utilizing the general plot but skewing them to her biased thoughts 

Alternative start: author’s note at the top describing Demeter? 

• Would take out any possible overwriting…?
• Might lack flow of just starting the story?
• May seem odd and readers might want the description to be part of the story instead?
• If so, it might be a way to better preserve the narrative as a stand alone piece? 

General plot of the myth:

• Cupid shoots Hades with an arrow thus Persephone catches his eye
• Persephone is collecting flowers when sees Hades
• Hades summons chariot 
• Cyane (Greek name?) rises from the deep lake and cries for Persephone not to be taken but to be asked
• Hades is pissed, stabs the lake and creates a road to the underworld taking Persephone with him 
• Demeter starts searching land and sea and olympus for her daughter
• Stumbles upon Cyane who while she can no longer speak she shows evidence of her daughters rape
• in distress, Demeter is torn thus condemns all the land thinking it unworthy unless she has her daughter
• Arethusa, a nymph, while traveling sees persephone and tells demeter that even though she was sad Persephone is living like a queen. also reminds her that this is not the lands faults so don’t punish it
• Even more distraught, Demeter runs to Zeus proclaiming that he must save Persephone from hades’ clutches
• Zeus clarifies that this is actually love Hades has for persephone, not simply a crime
• Eventually Zeus agrees to bring Persephone back to olympus but only if she has not eaten anything from the underworld as ruled by the Fates (Miorai?)
• Persephone is found to have eaten 7 pomegranate seeds while wandering the garden 
• Jealous, least important nymph, Ascalaphus, who was the only person who saw turns her in 
• Therefore persephone now spends many months with her mother in olympus and many months with her husband in the underworld she is happy. But the seasons still ebb and flow depending on when Demeter is with her mother or husband. 

Conclusion?

• If author’s note is at the beginning then conclude with just the story itself?
• Maybe end with the quote in the introduction being better explained? 
• If no author’s note at beginning, explain choices in authors note to close out the update. 

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This story was based on the Ovid's Metamorphoses II, translated by Tony Kline (2000). 

Other sources include: 

Sources on Demeter/Ceres:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(mythology)

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Demeter.html

Sources on Persephone/Prosperpina:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persephone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proserpina

http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html

Sources on Hades/Pluto:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_(mythology)

http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Haides.html

Story: Stories from the Congo

The Vanishing Subscribers

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(Youtube official Red Play Button Logo)

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Two youtubers made videos everyday. They were called BekahBeauty and SamanthaSwatches.

SamanthaSwatches was a famous youtuber with over 1.2 million subscribers, but BekahBeauty has only 50K subscribers and was not growing. As BekahBeauty had no real interest in her channel, she had to pay for all her makeup and had no sponsors. Regardless, BekahBeauty kept on and looked up to SamanthaSwatches for inspiration and guidance. 

Yet SamanthaSwatches always looked down upon smaller channels, assuming they had no real talent with a lack of drive. Upon realizing SamanthaSwatches had no respect for her or her work, BekahBeauty flew out to California for Youtube's annual convention, Vidcon, determined to gain more followers to prove SamanthaSwatches wrong. Even though, BekahBeauty was not a big enough youtuber to be officially invited, she got a room in a near by hotel and hoped some her subscribers might recognize her on the convention floor. 

Exhausted from the walking all day long with no luck, BekahBeauty had plans to skip the parties going on that night and fall asleep. But right before she made her way out of the convention center, BekahBeauty was stopped by an even more famous beauty youtuber named DreamMUA. After spending nearly all night talking over different strategies to gain more interest, BekahBeauty finally felt as though she had a friend in the industry. Seeing DreamMUA set up a meet and greet with all her subscribers and do giveaways made BekahBeauty get a new spark of love for her work. BekahBeauty and DreamMUA spent the rest of the night imagining a huge crowd following BekahBeauty, while finally getting recognition for her videos. 

 The next morning remembering all the tips and tricks she had learned from DreamMUA, BekahBeauty sent out a tweet, instagram post, and snapchat story announcing her upcoming meet and greet set for that day. Also adding in a 100$ giveaway, per DreamMUA's must-do instructions. 

Finally when the time came to arrive at agreed place for the meet and greet, BekahBeauty found herself, not walking aimlessly around, but being greeted by over thousands of fans that wanted to take a picture with her. Amazed by all the love she was receiving, BekahBeauty reveled in the attention and new found fame.

Thus everyday of the two week long convention, BekahBeauty woke up early, sent out her posts with a time and place for a meet and greet, and went to find a 100$ gift to giveaway. With such a small youtuber making such a big scene, subscribers of other youtube channels found themselves hoping in line to get a glimpse of the up and comer. Eventually, word travelled and baffled at the attention an irrelevant small youtuber was getting, SamanthaSwatches made her mind up to stop by one of these meet and greets. 

But day in and day out, BekahBeauty's funds started to deplete with all the 100$ gifts she was giving away. Soon enough, BekahBeauty found herself letting the subscribers know there would be no giveaway at each meet and greet. And every time she would find herself feeling guilty as soon as she heard her followers felt as though she had lied to them. So she would run after one of her subscribers at the end of each meeting to hand them the gift after all. 

On the second to last day of Vidcon, BekahBeauty once again found herself at a crossroads, not wanting to give up anymore money but also wanting to keep her subscribers. After much back and forth in her head, BekahBeauty was down to the last subscriber in the queue when she burst under the pressure of having to give away so much. The young subscriber, freaked out by BekahBeauty's tone of voice, all but ran away from BekahBeauty. BekahBeauty, being reminded of the must do attitude DreamMUA had had, ran after the young girl determined to catch up to her. 

Yet after losing the subscriber in the crowd, BekahBeauty ran back to her newly-minted booth expecting to see another subscriber waiting to be handed a gift. Low and behold, the new booth, merch table, and most importantly the subscribers had all disappeared. Whispers of a low-life youtuber being too greedy held at hum around her. Alas BekahBeauty had nothing to look to until she laid her eyes upon SamanthaSwatches standing exactly where the new booth had been, casting a look of "told you so" upon her. 

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Author's Note:

This retelling is based off of a folktale from the Congo that tells of two brothers, ranked in different classes, suddenly become equally well off because of a foretelling dream; only for the younger brother to lose his newly gained wealth due to his stubbornness. Originally, this story proved to be really difficult to retell because I could not find a good framework to retell it in. Nonetheless, this piece continued to stick out to me so I set off on trying to change the structure of the story but retain the dynamics. The changes I made were to switch the brothers to rival youtubers and then once that was chosen the rest was a matter of finding parallels within both the original and my retelling. For example, in the original, the idea to "create a meet and greet and do a giveaway" (in actually, it was to go to a river and catch a fish, only to cut its head off to then eat) was given in a dream but I decided to make the dream into a side character instead. Many of the changes followed quickly once the main change of the framework was decided and I hope it made the folktale of the Congo a little more relatable. Hope you enjoyed my piece! 

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This story is based off of the story of "The Vanishing Wife" from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

Reading Notes: Stories from the Congo Part A

Reading Notes

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(women of the Congo, 1885)
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How The Wives Restored Their Husband To Life

      This story was really intriguing because it reminded me of one of the stories I read earlier in the semester, I believe it was one of the Twenty Two Goblins riddles. I also appreciated how each woman's name was foreshadowing in what their role would be in the story. It makes me want to utilize this technique in one of my storybook updates or in a later retelling.  

How Gazelle Got Married

       Funnily enough, the same thematic framework in this story reminded me of "How the Lizard Nods Its Head Up and Down" from the West African (Ghana) stories. This seems to be a well popular lesson in African culture, it is interesting to compare what is emphasized in both pieces. This story also made me laugh because the forgetfulness of both the dog and Nsassi, it could be fun to play with in a retelling. 

The Vanishing Wife

       A charming part of this story was how Buite, although he would hate to cut off the fishes' heads, always ran after the wife's boys to make sure the deed was done before they reached the beautiful house. It was as if he already had sensed that this task was the one thing that kept the oasis alive. It also made me think more in terms of when you have got something to prove, it seems as though when you are trying so hard to impress someone you, like Buite, end up doing worse because of it.

Another Vanishing Wife

        Following the trend of these stories reminding me of other stories, this one, while many parallels were noticed between this and the last reading, it mostly reminded me of Cupid and Psyche. How Mavungu went to see and entertain his wicked family was almost mirrored to when Psyche's sisters came to visit Psyche in her palace in heaven. Trusting your family, only to be betrayed by them is a really interesting idea.

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All reading notes are based off of stories from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).