Mythology and Folklore

TedTalk Videos For this story lab I watched the ted talks The Danger of a Single Story and Imaginary Friends anD Real-World Consequences: Parasocial Relationships. I enjoyed these videos because both speakers told their stories while exposing cultural norms, stereotypes, and relationships from different points of view. Because I have already watched The Danger of a Single story I focused more on the second TedTalk. I found the TedTalk by Jennifer Barnes interesting because I enjoy reading fictional books for pleasure and can understand how you can get invested in the book and the characters lives. These parasocial relationships are present in everyday life not only with books, but also movies, TV shows, and even celebrities in real life. Story: pixabay

Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder In part B of Twenty-Two Goblins, things started to finally make sense. While reading part A, I found myself wondering if the goblin was working with the monk or why he seemed as though he was just trying to distract the king. Well it all came together when I found out that the goblin was in fact working for the monk because the monk is evil and his mission was to kill the king. As I stated in my part A notes, I liked all of the character traits the author created and I enjoyed how you saw their character traits shift throughout each story all the way until the end. Twenty-Two Goblins: Wikimedia Commons

Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder I chose to read these stories this week because I liked the idea of the story following the King who had to solve all of the goblin's riddles. As I guessed, the series of stories was a little odd seeing as it is centered around these goblins who inhabit human corpses, but what else can you expect from an ancient myth? These characters in this series had an interesting set of character traits, but I liked how the author could portray each trait in such a short set of tales. This is something that I hope I can achieve in my stories. Twenty-Two Goblins: Wikimedia Commons

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 1  by Andrew Lang  Sitting alone in the darkness of the once magical cave, Aladdin is defeated. He knows that he has no chance of getting free from the cave and knows that the magician was surely long gone. In the silence, he pulls out a piece of paper and begins writing a letter... Dearest mother, I have been trapped in a large, magical, underground cave by the magician who claimed to be father’s brother. It has been two days since he left me here to rot. We were walking through the gardens but when we upon some mountains, he stopped and said that we would go no further. This seemed strange to me, but he insisted that we build a fire. She started humming strange words in a different language and it almost sounded like he was casting a spell. All of a sudden, the ground started to shake and this cave emerged. I tried to run but it was useless. He caught me and brought me back to the mouth of the cave. He gav...

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). With part B of Arabian Nights I found myself comparing the story to Disney's Aladdin. I found it interesting to find out what elements were taken from this story and used in Aladdin to make the story more family friendly. I enjoyed how the storyteller in this section followed through with the story passed the ending that the audience wants to see. Arabian Nights: Wikipedia

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898) . Throughout part A of Arabian Nights I found the storylines to be really interesting. Each story in part A captured my attention with different elements that made the reading enjoyable. There are a lot of different relationships in these stories so I liked how you could follow the different relationships and see how they played out. I liked the element of lots of dialogue between the characters because it really made the story come to life and portray the emotion that the characters were feeling throughout the stories. The use of dialogue is something that I will try to execute as I write more of my own stories.  Arabian Nights: Wikimedia Commons

Comment wall for my storybook project- The Royals Neuschwanstein Castle: Wikipedia

Overview of Mythology  One thing that stood out to me when watching the videos was that most myths don't have definitive authors. I thought that it was interesting because it was said that even myths that have famous "authors" are usually just an adaption by that author. With this being said, many of these myths are very old and therefore have been passed on hundreds of times with lots of adaptions. Because of this, sometimes myths are difficult to translate from generation to generation. Another thing that caught my interest was the claim that in these stories, the line between myth and religion is extremely blurry. To get around this, myths are relayed on a story format rather than truth. I enjoyed the history that was told about different philosophers points of view on myths; whether they believed that they were true or false and what they drew on to come to those conclusions. Stories: pxhere

Ovid's Metamorphoses Translated by Tony Kline (2000). Echo Characters: Bacchus, Echo, Narcissus, Tiresias, Jupiter, Juno Plot: Bacchus born twice, once when taken from womb, once when taken from thigh of Jupiter. Debate of who enjoys love more between Jupiter and Juno, asks Tiresias for opinion. Saturnia was upset with his judgement. Echo sees Narcissus and falls in love. Juno curses Echo to only repeat what is last spoken. Echo followed Narcissus, he calls out and she responds with what she can embraces him and he runs from her. She still loves him and eventually, she is just a voice, her bones turned to stone Narcissus Characters: Narcissus, Rhamnusia Plot: Narcissus falls in love with himself. He is in pain because he loves himself "cruelly". Prays for his sadness to go away and is turned into a flower. Echo and Narcissus say goodbye Pyramus and Thisbe Characters: Pyramus, Thisbe, Aurora Plot: Pyramus and Thisbe were neighbors and eventually fell in love...

Ovid's Metamorphoses Translated by Tony Kine (2000).  Deucalion and Pyrrha Characters: Jupiter, Neptune, Deucalion, Pyrrha, Themis, Triton Plot: Jupiter with help of Neptune decides to flood the earth and eliminate mankind. Deucalion and Pyrrha are the only two survivors. They go to Themis for advice and Deucalion gives a moving speech. Asks Pyrrha to scatter the bones of her mother, but she refuses. Then realizes bones are a metaphor for stones. The stones became a new population of men and women. Setting: Body of water, Mount Parnassus Lo Characters: Jupiter, Lo, Juno/Saturnia, the Peacock, Argus, Inachus Plot: Jupiter rapes Lo. Juno realizes something is going on. Upon arrival back Jupiter transforms Lo into a heifer. Juno asks questions about where it came from and Jupiter lies saying she was of the earth. Juno clams her as a gift and in fear of being caught Jupiter complies. Argus guards Lo, and puts are away at night, she wanders to a stream and sees her reflection...