Extra Reading Diary: Chinese Fairy Tales

For the extra reading diary for Week 7, I've decided to do Chinese Fairy Tales (well, half of it).

My favorite story was Why Dog and Cat Are Enemies. As someone with both cats and dogs back home -- not in Norman, unfortunately, my apartment doesn't allow pets :( -- I love hearing people argue about which pet is better. Dog and cat lovers can be almost as hostile towards each other as their pets can! In this story, a dog and cat go to get a ring back. The dog helps the cat across the river twice so that they can go get it. But on the way back, there is a house in the way. The cat goes over and gets to the house first with the ring, so he gets all the praise. The dog sadly gets beaten, while the cat doesn't say anything. Of course it would be the cat who does something mischievous and gets away with it!

Cats are always into stuff! 

Photo credit

I also thought The Cave of Beasts was an interesting story. A father's daughters eat the eggs he selfishly was going to keep for him and their mother, even though the mom offered them some. So he takes the two youngest ones to the mountain and drops them off, cause that'll show them, right?! They happen to find a cave that a fox and wolf have hoarded loads of gold and jewels in. They kill the fox and the wolf (who don't find them by chance), and take over the cave. The father then goes back and finds the cave on accident, and the daughters and he take all the gold and live wealthily forever. 

I didn't like the ending of this story. The girls just give all that stuff to the dad? That seems kinda dumb, considering he dropped them off out there and left them to die at the hands of vicious wolves. Not a very fatherly thing to do! He should've had to beg them for forgiveness or something. One of the few times I didn't enjoy a happily ever after ending (although I rather enjoyed the story as a whole). 

Storytelling Week 7: Anansi, Fruit Dove and Fish

As he liked to do, Anansi enjoyed watching the birds fly all through the trees. He was particularly fond of the fruit doves with their bright colors as they would flash in the sunlight.

One day he wanted to fly like the doves did. So he called to one of the birds and asked to ride on his back as he flew among the treetops. The dove agreed as long as Anansi would behave himself, which he agreed to, and off they went.

Anansi's friend, the Superb Fruit Dove

When they were in the air, the dove started flying fast to see how Anansi would react. It was just what he wanted, but it scared Anansi. He dug his legs into the dove, which hurt the dove. As he saw it, Anansi had broken the agreement so he flipped over and dropped Anansi into the river.

Though he had eight legs, Anansi couldn't swim very well at all! A fish came and scooped him up and Anansi cried, "Brudda Fish, don' eat me!"

The Fish asked how Anansi knew who he was. Anansi replied he was his distant cousin. The Fish told him it was nice to meet him, but thought he would see just how true that was.

They went to the Fish's house, and he introduced Anansi to his family. Anansi was tired from all the flying he had done earlier (holding on to that dove wasn't easy work!) and came up with an idea.

"Quite da family you have brudda," Anansi said. "Say, do ya have any food?"

The Fish said he did, and made a meal only a member of his family would like to test Anansi's supposed family relation: a rather bitter mix of algae, plants and dead crayfish. It was a recipe that had been passed down in his family for generations. Once he had it ready, he offered a bowl to Anansi.

Anansi took one bite and tried his hardest to like it.

"Dat be so good brudda, just like ma use ta mek," Anansi said in his most convincing voice.

But Fish could tell he wasn't being honest, and asked him to take a walk with him. They walked towards the river, and as they got to the river bank, Fish pushed Anansi into the river.

"You ah no family of mine, brudda!" Fish cried out as Anansi struggled to keep his head above the water. And Fish went back to his family to live happily another day.

Author's Note: I used Anansi, White-Belly and Fish as the inspiration for my story. In the original story, Anansi rides a white-belly dove to get as much food as possible. He tries to steal eggs from the fish family and ends up eating the fish's children (that's why fish get eaten today). In my story, the dove is a Fruit Dove and he only rides him for fun to see what it's like to fly. He also doesn't eat the fish, he just tries to take advantage of them. He gets his just desserts in the end. Also, there isn't much dialogue because trying to emulate Jamaican dialect is actually really hard, but I did my best!

Bibliography:
Jamaican Anansi Stories, Martha Warren Beckwith, 1924

Reading Diary B: Jamaican Anansi Stories

So like I mentioned in my last reading diary, I picked one of the hardest units for Weeks 6 and 7. With that being said, I'm gonna stick with it and get this unit knocked out.

In the story Rain and Fire, there are two separate sections. The Goat is trying to run away from Anansi and realizes he can't get across the river to get away. So he magically turns himself into a stone, which the Dog sees. The Dog asks Anansi to throw the stone over to him because Anansi doesn't know it's the Goat. So he does, and the stone turns into the Goat on the other side and gets away.

I didn't know there was so much magic in Jamaican lore, which would make sense since I'm pretty sure voodoo is pretty big down there (I could be wrong).

Anyway, in the second half of the story Anansi invites Fire to his house (yes that kind of fire) even though his wife, who is a bird, says that's a horrible idea. Fire tells Anansi he can't get there without some dry brush to walk on. Anansi's wife continues to plead with him not to do that, but he does it anyways. Sure enough, when Fire comes around he burns everything except Ground-Dove, Anansi's wife. I like the humanization of Fire in this story while still maintaining the physical properties of actual fire.

Anansi's hut (recreation)

I also focused on Spider Marries Monkey's Daughter. I realized Anansi is a weird dude, because he never seems to want to marry other spiders. He just marries or whatever he does whoever he wants. Species don't seem to matter much in the Jamaican stories! But whatever, they're just stories, and logic doesn't matter!

Reading Diary A: Jamaica Anansi Stories

For Week 7, I've decided to do the Jamaican Anansi Stories unit. I don't really know why I picked it, I kind of just wanted to see what Jamaican English was like in a story.

Anansi the Spider

Okay, so this might have been a bad idea. The first story I read, Tying Tiger, was pretty hard to read. The basic gist is that Brer Nansi (which is apparently a spider of some sort?) wanted some mangos from the Tiger's tree. The Tiger told him no, so he made up a story about a law being passed that the owners of mango trees must tie themselves to them because of the storm coming up. So he tied the Tiger to the tree and ate his mangoes. Eventually Anansi (Nansi) tries to take advantage of the tiger and gets found out and kicked out.

This might not be the most helpful diary I've ever done for anyone that reads it. Trying to understand Jamaican dialect is pretty hard when you can't hear them say it out loud.

The next story that stuck out was Long-Shirt. Anansi, Tacoomah and Tiger were a band and went to a place where no one had clothes except the head leader. He had a long shirt on. Anansi wanted his shirt, so after they had played everyone to sleep he went and took it. After it was found that the shirt could talk, he traded the shirt with the goat. The goat then ran and ran and buried himself in the dirt. But the head leader found him, and cut off his horn. They threw all the wet slops on him, and he wrung everything out except his beard. That's why goats smell so bad!

These stories are interesting. But they are extremely difficult to comprehend (to me). Trying to get the storytelling section done in a reasonable amount of time will be pretty hard I imagine, just because of how long it took me to understand just these few stories on my first read through!

Extra Reading Diary: Folklore of Laos

For the extra reading diary, I chose the Folklore of Laos unit, mainly because it is such a small country and I was curious as to what kind of stories could come out of an area like that. Here are my thoughts.

So I kind of skimmed around the titles and the first one that caught my eye was The Man In the Moon, partially because I love Kid Cudi and it reminds me of his album, Man on the Moon.

Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon album

But regardless, the story is an explanation for the face on the moon seen on the light side. The basic premise is that a blacksmith got tired of being a blacksmith one day. So he asked a wise man who controlled everything to be a stone on the mountain, then several others things, until eventually he asked to be the moon. The guy got tired of the blacksmith asking to be different things, so he got stuck being the man in the moon. Thus you have the face on the moon. Kind of an interesting way to explain how it got there!

Then I read The Origin of Lightning, because I was kind of curious how they would explain lightning based on the last story. Basically a man's wife dies and is reborn as a young girl. When it came time for her to marry, her husband came from heaven in the form of an old man. Her wreath (symbolizing who she would marry) landed on his head and everyone made fun of him. But he and his daughter rose into heaven. The father of the girl tried to shoot them down, which is what is really happening when lightning strikes.

I really didn't enjoy that story too much, it was super confusing trying to figure out who was who and what was what, but that's probably the first story I've read all semester that I didn't really understand! 

The other stories were kind of interesting, but to conserve the amount of space this takes up, I won't go into all that! 

Week 6 Storytelling: The Jewel of Fate

At this point, Takeuchi was worn out and embarrassed at his shortcomings. How could he lose the Jewel? It was the only thing he was supposed to take care of, and he had failed. He could never show his face in the capital again. Unless he could somehow get it back, perhaps? No, that is hopeless, he thought to himself.

So there was only one logical course of action -- suicide. In Japan, one's honor is the most valuable possession he or she can have. Lose it, and it doesn't matter how many worldly possessions you have, none of them matter. Without honor, you are lost.

Takeuchi, being a high minister in the courts, knew the customs of his land very well. His heart was dead-set on ending his life on this night. But he was not aware he was being followed by a young fisherwoman, Tamatori. She had always been quite fond of Takeuchi, but never acted upon it for fear of banishment from the realm.

"We can get the Jewel together!" Tamatori exclaimed just as Takeuchi had drawn his sword. "Just don't give up yet, there's still a chance to find it."

"I suppose you're right," Takeuchi agreed. "Where do you think it is?"

"I see a light shining through the waters not far from here," Tamatori explained. "We should head there as quickly as we can to ensure no one gets there before us!"

So the two made haste towards a small island not far off the shore. Just on the other side of it, they could clearly see the Jewel of Fate broadcasting its glorious light through the shimmering waters towards the heavens.

"We must figure a way to swim down there without alerting the beast that guards it," Takeuchi stated calmly, "or surely we shall both perish on this night."

Thus the two devised a plan. Tamatori would swim down to grab it, then bring it back halfway to the surface where Takeuchi would protect them both with his blade and successfully restore his honor. Once it was agreed upon, the pair dove into the depths, using the light from the Jewel as a beacon.

When she got close enough to grab the Jewel, the vicious sea-dragon Mizuchi brought all manner of grotesque creatures towards Tamatori to hinder her from bringing the Jewel to Takeuchi. She struggled to maintain her hold on the Jewel as the monsters of the deep attacked her in unison.

Mizuchi, the sea-dragon.

(As depicted in Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers)

But at that exact moment, Susanowo had been watching these events unfold. He had always had a particular hatred for Mizuchi, so he found this the perfect opportunity to anger the dragon. As Tamatori swam up, he summoned a powerful whirlpool which surrounded Tamatori and Takeuchi, ensuring their safe return to shore.

The two then headed back to return the Jewel to its rightful place. Along the way, Tamatori made her love for Takeuchi known, and he deemed her a Princess he would be honored to call his wife. And the two lived on a great many years together, she a Princess, and he a man with his honor intact.

Author's Note: I used The Quest of the Jewel as the basis for my story. In the original, Tamatori goes to get the jewel by herself, and ends up killing herself to protect it because dragons can't interact with anything dead. This seemed a bit cruel to me, as she sacrificed her life for a man who may not have necessarily deserved it (he did lose the jewel after all). Also, I added in the presence of Susanowo; he wasn't involved in the original story at all, but I thought it'd be an interesting twist to include another famous Japanese god.

Bibliography:
Romance of Old Japan
E.W. Champney and F. Champney
1917

Reading Diary B: Japanese Mythology

For Reading Diary B, I will be going over some things I found interesting from the Japanese Mythology unit.

The first thing that stuck out to me was The Labors of Yamato, mainly because it was almost half of the unit (five stories). I focused on two of them: The Demon Boar and The Grass-Cleaving Sword. One thing that's interesting about this series of stories is they are intermixed with riddles that help tie some of the story together.

Anyways, in the Demon Boar, Yamato can't find the Island of the Golden Apples so he was pretty upset. He couldn't find anything that he really wanted to do; the hunt didn't excite him anymore. Until someone mentioned a demon boar that no one could kill. The high priestess warned him that he wouldn't be able to hurt it except for at its tail. So Yamato sent a whole army to kill this thing. Everyone died, except for him. He eventually got stuck between the boar and a cliff, so he hid behind a tree. When the boar walked past, he cut off its tail and forced it to run off the cliff to its death.

The story was good, but what really makes a better story is the details. Just a few examples: a scent of thyme floated on the breeze; mighty mountains loomed their time-scarred battlements against the cloudless sky. These are just from one paragraph, so you can see how the story is just lined with descriptive phrases.

The Grass-Cleaving Sword is similar to the Demon Boar in terms of details. Every other phrase is a descriptive one, describing either the atmosphere or what's actually happening. This story really showed how one of Japan's gods was able to conquer the elements, something the Japanese hold dearly in terms of their connection with nature. Yamato's people are caught in the middle of a raging fire. They are also being trampled by stampeding deer. Eventually the fire surrounds the men. Yamato takes his blade and cuts down a lane of grass to separate the fire. Then, the wind starts blowing the fire towards the enemies that were pursuing Yamato and his men, and they succeed in defeating the enemy. Thus, The Grass-Cleaving Sword.

Yamato and Susano'o