[Week 9] Reading Diary - Eskimo Folk-Tales

Eskimo Folk-Tales

The Coming of Men, A Long, Long While Ago

-Creation tale that talks about the first man and woman and how the human population grew. It also talks about how death was created in exchange for the stars, moon, and sun. Also a brief freaky zombie-esque part where a body doesn't know how to be dead.

Nukúnguasik, who Escaped from the Tupilak

-Nukúnguasik catches one of his brothers making a Tupilak. The brother dies and the other brothers decide to search for him.They find his body being eaten by the Tupilak.

The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son

-An old woman takes in a bear as her foster child. At first it's small enough that it can play with the children, but eventually it gets too strong and is taken along to hunt instead. It ends up killing a man who tried to attack it and the old woman has to part with it.

Qalagánguasê, Who Passed to the Land of Ghosts

-A paralyzed boy who lost his parents and sister sees ghosts when he's home alone. The ghosts say he will regain his strength if he doesn't tell people about seeing them, but he can't help himself. One night he is left tied to his bed while everyone else goes to a singing contest. His parents visit him (in ghost-form) and make him a ghost as well.

Isigâligârssik

-A man marries a little girl (?) and is then allowed to learn from the village wizard who only teaches to married men. The wizard somehow takes his wife away from him and mocks him every time he tries to go to a meeting. He ends up getting stabbed by the wizard. He challenges the wizard to a bow shoot-off and wins and gets his wife back.

The Insects that Wooed a Wifeless Man

-A wifeless man has trouble finding a girl and sleeping for too long. One day he helps one of the Noseless Ones and is told never to speak of the incident to anyone and he will be fortunate. He ends up hunting well, being less sleepy, and attracting women but it all goes away when he tells the story. His new wife leaves him when the fortune wears off and he follows. Weird stuff happens in which insects try to woo him and he refuses and then is with his wife again but wakes up and finds himself alone.

Makíte

-Makite leaves his home because he is ashamed that he can't hunt well. He ends up at the house of a lone-dweller (hermit?) who tries to kill him in the night. He runs away and finds a house of dwarves who warn him that inland people are coming. A flood happens and Makite ends up living there.

Atungait, Who Went A-Wandering

-Aatungait, who turns out to be a wizard who can fly, goes on a journey with his wife. He meets all kinds of people and even steals a toy from some disabled children. In the end, he catches his wife cheating on him and kills her. 

The Giant Dog

-A man has a dog that he gives the amulet he would have given a son. The dog grows super big and strong because of it. One day tt kills a man one day so the owner has to run away with the dog. Turns out the dog liked to massacre the inland-dwellers in its spare time so they all became afraid of dogs. 

Papik, Who Killed His Wife's Brother
-A mother accuses Papik of killing her son who he goes hunting with often. She drowns herself and comes back as a spirit in the shape of a bear and eats him before ravaging the town. The people manage to trap the spirit and cut it open and find Papik's torn up body.

Pâtussorssuaq, Who Killed His Uncle
-Another story about a man being punished for killing someone. A man kills his uncle so that he can be with his wife. He is only with her for a little while before she dies. Later he is killed by a fox who is actually he spirit of his uncle. 

The Wife Who Lied
-A warning to liars. A woman who isn't too fond of her new village goes home and pretends her husband has been neglecting her. The old village declare a war and slaughter the women of the other village. The men realize she made this happen and they kill her.

The Eagle and the Whale
-A woman who is in need of a husband is taken away from her home by a man who turned himself into an eagle. She manages to escape with the help of her brothers, and they kill the eagle. She is then taken away again by a whale and has to be rescued by her brothers. They kill the whale as well.

Atdlarneq, The Great Glutton
-While on a hunting expedition, a man visits a house in which women are preparing for the master of the house to return. He tries to hide, but the master has copper cheeks and can smell him so he comes out of his hiding place. He is forced to eat food until he nearly dies. Then he is freed.

Ángángŭjuk
-A woman allows her son to play outside but he goes missing. The father is angry and threatens to kill the woman, but she asks him to wait and ask a wizard to help locate him first. Eventually he is found being taken care of by inland people. The people are put to sleep and the son is rescued.

Âtârssuaq
-A son is born to a strong warrior and he is trained to be able to swim underwater for a long time. One day his father goes missing and word gets out that their village is going to be attacked. The boy uses his swimming abilities to kill the attackers by himself. 

Tungujuluk and Saunikoq
-A man nearly kills his neighbor's soon while in the shape of a bear because he was so jealous that he didn't have a son. The child runs away before anything can happen and the father realizes it was his neighbor. He takes the form of a walrus and scares the other man while he's in the shape of a bear. He learns his lesson and is ashamed.

Kánagssuaq
-A man whose family and village was starving finally manages to catch seals to eat. He had a little trouble with his kayak and another man helped him. Once he got back on his feet and was able to bring home food every day again, he took food to the man that helped him as a thank you.

[Week 8] Reading Diary - Self-Assessment

In the beginning, I wanted to write pretty detailed diary posts. I set out to write down the names of all the main characters and to give a little bit of info on each of them. As I started to write my notes, though, I realized it would take far too much time to do that while reading. So instead, I’ve started taking down notes as quickly as I can without losing too much detail. The length and style of note-taking really depends on the kind of story I’m reading. If there are a lot of shorter stories I won’t take as many notes, but if they’re longer and more detailed then I’ll try to get some of the smaller things in there too. It seems that the shorter stories tend to be more focused on one lesson so it’s easy give a little summary of them.

Lately I’ve been switching back and forth between writing paragraphs and taking notes. Paragraphs are nice because I can read the story and then write everything out all in one. If it’s longer or if I get overwhelmed for some reason, I tend to use bullet points. That way I can read a section and then summarize it while it’s fresh in my mind. With either style, I tend to feel like I go overboard on my note taking. I thought that I would need to take longer notes in order to do my storytelling assignment. Instead, I’ve found that inspiration doesn’t come from the notes I take, it comes from the story itself. So while I’m reading something will pop out at me and I’ll go, “I want to do this!” and I keep it in my mind for later. If I need a reminder of how the story goes, I can usually just read the first sentence of my notes and remember what happened.


I think from now on I’ll try to make my notes more concise. I haven’t been concerning myself with things like grammar since this is just for me, but if I made them concise and focused on grammar I think I’d be exercising my writing muscles and saving time at the same time. I also want to start adding pictures. I did it for a few of the posts but it kind of dwindled off because I get so tired of mindlessly taking notes. I need to make it more interesting!

[Week 7] Essay - Japanese Fairy Tales vs Modern Entertainment

(Creepy Japanese dolls from Wikimedia Commons)

                While I was reading the stories in the Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki) unit, I realized that it had something in common with the other Japanese unit that I read. The stories in both of them tend to differ from the other things I’ve read for this class in that they are less tragic. Most of the ones I’ve read either end tragically or in a gory way, or they contain similar elements. The Japanese stories sometimes have sad elements but the imagery tends to be less disturbing and it usually ends on a good note. In many cases, the ending will say something like, “and he lived happily for many years until the end of their days, and their children took over the farm and it was very prosperous.”

                This was also surprising to me because in most of the modern Japanese media I’ve read or watched, the themes tend to be pretty tragic. There are many dramas (TV series) that centers on the main character’s last days before they die of a horrible illness. A lot of movies have also been made that are full of gore and horror. I don’t watch much anime, but from what I’ve seen and heard there are a lot of series that have the same kind of tragic subject matters.

                Of course, not all modern Japanese media is like this. Japan is also famous for its crazy variety shows and adorable cartoons. In my experience, though, there seems to be an equal amount of dark stories in a way that I'm not really used to seeing as an American. After reading such nice Japanese fairy tales, I can’t help but wonder if there was a reason for a shift in interest. People don’t talk about it much so I’m not sure if it’s true, but I’ve heard that there was a big shift in thinking in Japan after WWII (or earlier) similar to the shift that took place in Germany. Perhaps the dark history of their country has lead writers to focus on the darker parts of life.

[Week 7] Storytelling - Hase-Hime's Letter

Author's Note: This story is based off of the story of Hase-Hime in the Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki) unit. It's about a princess who is abused by her jealous step-mother after her real mother dies. At one point, the step-mother tries to have a servant kill Hase-Hime but instead the servant runs away with her and his wife and lives in the mountains with them until Hase-Hime's father finds her. I decided to write this story from Hase-Hime's perspective at that point in the story because I like to think that she wasn't oblivious enough to not think about these things while away from home. The biggest change is that in the original story, Hase-Hime doesn't actually seem to realize the wine her brother drank was poisoned.

(Japanese mountains from Pixbay)

Dear Father,

                I have no way of having this letter sent to you, but there are some things on my mind that I need to at least get out on paper. Maybe I will give this letter to you when we are reunited. I’m not sure yet.

                Before her death, mother told me to always be an obedient child. She told me to be submissive of my elders and kind to those less fortunate than I, and to always behave. I think that she was very wise to teach me this, and I have tried as hard as possible to follow these rules. But there are some cases in which an elder may not deserve such nice treatment. For example, what if an elderly woman tripped a child for no reason and laughed at him as he cried? Or what if I had an older brother who would always bully me and never let me have peace? In the past I have been a good girl in these kinds of situations. I would keep silent and take whatever was dealt to me. I’m beginning to think that I should stop. Mother wouldn’t have wished for me to be treated badly, right?

                You are a good and kind man, so I don’t think you would allow harm to come to me on purpose. You have shown me nothing but love and I have no reason to distrust you. But I can’t imagine what drew your new wife. Do you not see how cruel she can be? She becomes enraged with jealous at every little accomplishment I make. Remember when my little brother died? I saw the egotistical smirk on her face when she brought the wine into the room, and the panic in her eyes when our cups were switched around. I am very sure that she had poisoned the wine and was trying to kill me that day.

                And now, I am living with step-mother’s servant and his wife in the middle of nowhere. Why? Because he was asked to take me away and kill me because I had behaved “badly.” In truth, I did nothing but succeed and make her jealous. Is that so bad? I hope that I will be able to discuss this with you upon being reunited. I just haven’t had the confidence to do so until now, and I’m not sure I will later.

Love,

Your Daughter Hase-Hime

Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki (1908).

[Week 7] Reading Diary - Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

My Lord Bag of Rice
-Hidesato is asked by the dragon king to kill an enemy centipede.

-He agrees and is taken to the bottom of lake Biwa for entertainment when the palace is attacked by the centipede.
-The centipede is invulnerable to their weapons.
-Hidesato remembers that centipedes are weak against human saliva so he uses his last arrow, coats it in his saliva, and then shoots the centipede with it. It works and the centipede leaves the mountain and dies.

-The dragon king and his family thank Hidesato and throw another celebration.
-The family gave Hidesato "small" presents: a bronze bell, a bag of rice, a roll of silk, a cooking pot, and a bell. The servants left the presents at his house.
-It turns out all the presents except the bell were magical.
-The rice and silk never ran out. The cooking pot always instantly made whatever food was wanted.
-Because he had these things forever, he became My Lord Bag of Rice.


The Adventures of Kintaro, the Golden Boy
-Kintaro grew up to be very strong and was considered a wonder child.
-He learned to speak to animals and used them as servants.
-Kintaro and the animals play a game (wrestling) in a field.
-The hare and the monkey wrestle and the hare wins the first round. The monkey throws a fit and Kintaro lets them go another round. The monkey wins unfairly.
-After the games, they headed back home but came to a river that they couldn't figure out how to cross. Kintaro makes a bridge out of a tree that he pulled out of the ground.
-A woodcutter had been watching and wanted to figure out whose son he was so he followed him.
-Kintaro gets home and greets his mother. He tells her about the game they played.
-The old man who had followed Kintaro asked to be taken to play next time.
-Kintaro and the old man wrestle and the game is declared a draw, as the old man is very strong as well.
-The man suggests taking Kintaro to the city to have him trained as a samurai. The mother wants to do that, but she has no influential friend to help.
-The man reveals that he is a general who is recruiting soldiers for Lord Raiko's army.
-Kintaro sets out to the capital and says goodbye to his mother and his animal friends.
-Lord Raiko was happy to have Kintaro in his army. When he grew up, he became a chief.
-Kintaro became the greatest hero of the country.


The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die
-One day, Sentaro realizes that he never wants to die. He decides to try to live simply and frugally to see if he would live longer.
-He thought about the Chinese emperor who had his men search for the elixir of life for him. Mt. Fuji is said to be the home of the elixir.

-Sentaro heads off to become a hermit on Mt. Fuji, but he doesn't find any hermits. He asks a hunter where they might be, but is instead told of a thief with 200 followers who lives in the mountain
-Sentaro goes to a shrine to pray.
-Jofuku appears and tells Sentaro that he's being selfish and that it's hard to be a hermit. He says he's not suited for the lifestyle. Instead of helping him become a hermit, Jofuku tells Sentaro that he will send him to a place where people never die.
-Sentaro becomes a resident in the Country of Perpetual Life.
-People tell stories of the paradise they'll go to after death. Everyone in the Country of Perpetual Life wants to die so they can go there and be happy. When poisons are brought to the island, people desperately try to drink them but they don't die. Sentaro realizes he's in a land that has the opposite idea as his.
-Sentaro thinks it's silly and says he'll never wish to die.
-Eventually, he grows tired of living forever.
-Sentaro prays to Jofuku again and was flown over an ocean on the way back to japan when a storm hits. He almost drowns and is nearly eaten by a shark.
-Sentaro wakes up and realizes it was all a dream.
-A messenger gives Sentaro a book and tells him that Jofuku allowed him to see what life would be like if he never died. He sends Sentaro back to his home. He is taught that his selfish desires lead to no good. Sentaro goes back and lives a prosperous life.

The Goblin of Adachigahara

-A buddhist  monk gets lost in Adachigahara.

-He asks if he can stay the night at an old woman's house, and she eventually allows him to sleep on the kitchen floor.

-The woman tells the monk not to look in a certain room. Then she leaves.

-When the old lady doesn't return for a long time, the monk decides to look in the room. He finds a gory mess in the room. Human remains, blood, etc.

-The woman catches up to him while he runs from the house.

-When dawn breaks, the goblin woman disappears and the monk is able to escape. 

The Ogre of Rashomon-A town is terrorized by rumors of a man eating ogre.

-A warrior, Watanabe, investigates the rumor.

-He ends up fighting the ogre. The ogre runs away and Watanabe tries to catch it but is outrun.

-Watanabe finds the ogre's arm that he cut off and takes it back with him to show people. He becomes popular because people want to see the arm.

-Eventually, he seals up the arm because he knows that the ogre will some day come back to get it.

-Watanabe's nurse visits him and asks him if it's true that he killed the ogre. She says her wish before she dies is to see the ogre's arm, but he refuses to show her at first. After more begging he ends up giving in to her.

-The old woman snatches up the arm and turns into the ogre.

-The ogre escapes with its arm but because it was afraid of Watanabe, it never visit Kyoto again.

The Story of Princess Hase

-A prince and princess are happily married but also sad because they hadn't been able to have a baby.

-They decide to go to a temple to pray to Kwannon in Hase.

-Their prayer was answered and a daughter was born. They decided to call her Hasehime. 

-The mother dies five years later and before tells Hasehime to always be submissive to her superiors and kind to those under her.

-The prince remarries. The new wife was cruel and was mean to Hasehime. 

-Hasehime plays the koto beautifully and is invited to play for the emperor. The step-mother is asked to accompany her playing.

-Hasehime plays well but the stepmother can't play and asks someone else to take her place. She is ashamed that she failed but her step-daughter did so well.

-The step-mother poisons some wine in attempt to kill Hasehime. She takes two bottles of wine (one poisoned, one not) and gives them to the daughter and the son. The bottles were mixed up and the stepmother accidentally gave the poisoned wine to her son. He ends up dying.

-The step-mother hates Hasehime more.

-When rainy season arrives, Hasehime is asked to write a poem in order to make the rain stop. 

-She becomes the lieutenant general princess.

-The step-mother asks one of her servants to take Hasehime to the mountains to kill her, but her servant just takes her into the wild and protects her. 

-Her father searches for her and calls men together to help find her by searching in the mountains. 

-He ends up stumbling upon the house that she was staying in and they are both overcome with joy at being reunited.

-The servant told the father what happened.

-The father is angry and the step-mother is scared off.

-Hasehime ends up married to one of the court nobles and gives birth to a son.

-She is remembered in buddhist temples. 

[Week 6] Essay - The Friendly Sarcasm Punctuation Mark

(Sarcasm shirt from Acid Pix on Flickr)

                If I were an all-powerful grammar god, I would want to create punctuation marks specifically for used with text messages or social media. I have a few in mind, but I’ll just write about one of them today. I consider this one to be the most potentially useful for my emotions and I, as I’m a fairly sensitive person who tends to take people literally.

                Maybe it’s just me, but the limited amount of emotions that can be portrayed through text message make me feel like I can’t quite pick up on little signs and nuances that I rely on when talking face-to-face or even over the phone. If someone were to tease me in person, I generally know not to take what they’re taking too seriously because I can see their mischievous smile and hear the laughter in their voice. Through text message, I find myself not being able to distinguish a joking “I hate you!” from a serious one. My idea would be to have a little symbol to use to show when someone wants to reassure the person they’re talking to that they’re being sarcastic.

                This isn’t something that I would want to see in all cases. This would be more like the method of using an asterisk (*) to correct a typo online. It’s not something that would be used in literature or official documents, only between friends in a casual setting and when the user feels it’s necessary. For example, if two people are always sarcastic with each other then they might not feel the need to use a sarcasm punctuation mark. I imagine people would use it to be friendly but still polite with people they don’t really know, or to reassure their friend who may be feeling down that they’re only teasing. 

               As far as the symbol goes, something easy to access on any keyboard would work best. For that reason, I think the ~ symbol would be nice. It’s used online today to add a bit of whimsy to a statement (at least that’s how I see it, for example “hello~~~!” is more playful than “hello!”), but other than that its use seems to be fairly limited in text messaging and social media.

                The idea for this sarcasm marker was born out of my own experiences and oversensitivity. I don’t think it’s something that is truly needed, nor do I think it would be a good thing to overuse. Imagine if people started using the sarcasm symbol sarcastically! It could also be perceived as a put-down if the person being spoken to thinks they’re being treated like they’re unintelligent. But for things like text messaging, I think it would be a nice option.

Example usage:

"~I just really hate you sometimes~."

"I'm not sure realizes how ~incredible~ his eyebrows are."

"~GREAT JOB~, friend."

"You don't understand calculus because you're ~stupid~."

[Week 6] Storytelling - The Sparrow's Revenge

Author's Note: This is the story of the Sparrow with the Split Tongue as told from the point of view of the sparrow. The original story is basically the same, except it focuses on the old man. I thought it was a really sweet story (although the ending is pretty grim) so I wanted to see what I could do with it. 

(Drawing of a sparrow by StevenWorthey on Deviantart)

I soared through a thick canopy of trees, just barely grazing my feathers on the branches. I hoped I could throw off the raven who flew close behind, as I know he wasn’t after me for a friendly conversation. And he looked like he would take great pleasure in tearing me apart. Either I wasn’t quite as agile in my sparrow form as I thought, or the raven was incredibly fast and graceful. Probably the former. I hadn’t taken to flight in such a long time and now I was remembering why. Humans are easier to reason with than hungry ravens!

I was beginning to lose hope when I caught sight of an old man in front of his cottage. Forgetting I couldn’t speak as a sparrow, I tried to cry out for help while I approached him but all that came out of my beak was a screech. But it was enough and the man offered to shelter me within his hands. I was happy for the chance at refuge and glided myself into them. The man may have been old, but he was certainly not lacking in compassion or energy. He stomped and yelled at the crow until it gave up on its chase and then he took me into his house and put me in a little cage.

Having never been kept as a pet before, I found the confines of the cage to be stifling. If someone had told me before that I would be taken away from my complete freedom to live in a small enclosure, I would have scoffed at them. But it was hard to not feel like a princess with the treatment I received from the old man. Sure, I had a limited amount of space to move around in, but being in a cage inside of a house meant no nasty ravens would be eating me! And the food the man gave me tasted better than anything I could have ever found for myself in a market or the forest. I was let out every day to spread my wings and get some fresh air, and immediately allowed back inside when I was done or being chased. The old man and I formed an odd friendship, one without language or much of anything that usually goes into friendships, really. But he found peace in helping me and I enjoyed my worry-free life, and we enjoyed each other’s presence very much.

The man’s wife, however, was a different story. When she tore into my cage the moment the man left to run errands, I wasn’t surprised. I knew that she was an irrational enough woman to become jealous of a pet, and I assumed I would be fast enough to fly away from her if she tried to harm me. I was able to dodge her hands and get myself out of the cage before she could grab me, but the old woman was smarter than she looked and managed to trap me into a corner. At that moment, I was sure she would kill me. For whatever reason she instead chose to pry open my beak and slit my tongue. The pain was blinding. Before I knew it, I was fleeing to my old home in the bamboo thicket cowering in my bed in my human form. I needed my friend’s comfort but I didn’t dare return to his home to face his wife.

A few days passed and I got over the trauma enough to leave my house. Pushing my door open, I was shocked to find the old man standing in front of my house looking around puzzled. I excitedly explained to him that I was his friend the sparrow and made him come inside to visit. Hours later he stood up reluctantly, saying he needed to take his leave. Probably because he didn’t want his wife to split his tongue too. Before he left, I gave him the choice between two chests: a smaller, modest chest and a larger, fancier chest. Being a selfless man, I wasn’t surprised when my friend took the smaller chest. He would find it filled with expensive jewels and small treasures when he opened it, and I hoped it would serve as a good thank you present.

I thought that was the end of my troubles with the man’s wife, but one day she showed up at my door fuming and boastful. I was caught off guard when she pushed past me and marched into my house, demanding to be entertained. I was scared and confused, but then I remembered the trick I always had prepared for visitors such as this one. After a bit of pretend-entertaining, I told the woman she needed to leave. As I expected, she demanded a present. I didn’t hesitate when I offered her the same boxes I offered her husband. I knew she would take the larger chest, as those who are greedy and ill-of-heart tend to do. I laughed to myself as she hauled the heavy box out of my house and into the forest. She would not find treasures inside the box, but poisonous snakes that would attack her the moment she opened it. No man would regret her loss, and my friend and I could once again live our happy lives.

The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1897).