Reflections

Looking back, I have realized the structure of this class is probably not best for the type of student I am. I normally choose to take online classes if they are available because they work for me, but this one was a little different. I had trouble with deadlines everyday. I know you could work ahead and make your own schedule, but I found that hard to do. I am quit the procrastinator.

With that being said, I did enjoy the creative aspect of this course.  I am a journalism major so I rarely get to write creatively. I enjoyed getting to write my own stories and use my imagination. It was hard to forget my journalism writing principles and try to get my creative juices flowing. I wish I had stayed on top of this class because it is totally reachable to get an A. I would recommend this class to someone who can meet deadlines everyday, but I work better in classes with deadlines in one day that allow me to procrastinate a little more.

Portfolio Week 9 Storytelling: George and The Apple

Damien and George were two brothers who just moved from Nevada to California. They were about to start their first day at their new school. The brothers were both juniors who loved to play lacrosse. Damien played the guitar and George played the drums. They were nervous to start their first day but excited to make new friends and join the lacrosse team.

George and Damien walked into the front doors of their new school ready to start a great semester when George heard a commotion going on down the hallway. They were late to their first class because they were checking in with the principal. So George was surprised to hear anyone in the hall. When he ran down there, he found a small boy with thick-framed glasses being pushed around by one of the big football players. George assumed he was on the team by his big red and blue letterman jacket with a football patch on it.

George got down on the ground with them and started wrestling the football player off the innocent boy. Damien stood there and let his brother handle this one because he got suspended from their last school for fighting.

It took George longer than he thought but he finally got his hand in between the boy’s neck and the football player’s arm. He broke them up and asked why they were fighting. The football player walked away without answering the question.

The boy in the glasses said, “Thank you so much. I don’t know why he was beating me up, but I need to repay you."

George told the boy that he didn’t need to repay him. He was just glad the boy was OK. The boy insisted on repaying George with a lucky apple that the boy claimed would help George find true love. George took the apple to make the boy happy, but was very unsure if the boy's gift would actually work.

George went back down the hall to his brother and explained the strange encounter he just had with the boy. Damien took the apple to inspect it and didn’t believe the boy either. George threw the apple in his backpack because the boy was still watching and he didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

George and Damien continued to their classroom. When they walked in, George made eye contact with this beautiful blue-eyed brunette named Jamie. George knew at that moment he would fall in love with this girl and marry her. He thought to himself, “Maybe it’s just the apple making me crazy, but I am going to marry this girl.” For the next years George and Jamie dated and were as happy as ever. They were so in love and couldn’t wait to get married. Ten years later George and Jamie married and George would never forget that day that nerdy boy gave him the apple and changed his life forever.

George and Jamie had three children together. They grew old together. They loved each other every day for the rest of their long lives.

Author’s Note: I wrote this story after reading the story The Red Man and The Uktena. In the original story, there are two brothers. One day the one brother encounters a man being strangled by a snake. The man asks the brother for help and he shoots the snake, killing him. He saved the man’s life and he wanted to repay him. He repaid him with a medicine that would cure his brother and with an animal skin that would make him always be able to find game. I changed my story and made it about love. I thought it would be a good idea to keep the same theme from the original story, extend help and you will be rewarded, but to change the characters, plot and setting. So I made the story about two brothers starting a new high school. They save a boy from a bully and the boy repays the one brother with an apple that will help him find true love. The apple does help him find true love and he ends up marrying Jamie. I really enjoyed reading this story and writing my own interpretation. These stories were easy to understand and read and therefore it was easy to create my own story.

Bibliography: "The Red Man and The Uktena" by James Mooney, from Myths of the Cherokee (1900).

The Red Apple.

                                                                    The Red Apple.

Storytelling Week 14: A Hellish Dream

Garrett didn’t know where he was. He was officially lost after trying to find his way for two hours. “Great,” Garrett said to himself. “I have no idea where the hell I am in these dark ass woods. Why did I think it would be a good idea to walk to this party…FIVE MILES AWAY?”

Illistration by Matthew Anderson. 

As Garrett was walking in what he thought was the right directions, he noticed a bright light in the distance. It was getting closer to him. He was officially freaked out, but kept walking towards the light. The closer it got he realized it was a man. Garrett was scared, but there was something familiar about this man. He got closer and closer and then he realized it was Michael Jackson, his favorite artist of all time. But wait…he was supposed to be dead.

Garrett rubbed his eyes and looked again, yep it was Michael all right. Michael told Garrett that he needed to lead his through a place that he must see in order to one day be in a better place. Garrett was hesitant. “The ghost of Michael Jackson was asking me to go somewhere with him…um hell no,” Garrett thought to himself.

But something inside of him told him to go with him. Michael explained on their journey that they were going to tour hell. Garrett was so confused and freaked out, but was also curious.

He agreed and walked with Michael further until they got to a gate that had inscripted on it “abandon all hope, you who enter here”. Garrett was scared but Michael explained that they were about to see the different levels of hell and the various reasons people ended up there. He told Garrett that he would see angry people, scary people, and people laying there content with where they are. Then they entered the first level.

Michael explained that people in this level were there for vanity. These people cared too much about what they looked like and not enough about the people they were. This level was sitting in chairs forced to look at themselves without blinking. Their eyes were bleeding and they were in so much pain. They moved on to the second level.

The second level was for people who spent too much time using cell phones. The people in this level were forced to constantly talk. Most of them couldn’t anymore so their throats were on fire. They looked so miserable, Garrett thought.

The third level was filled with gluttons, people who consumed too much junk food. They were forced to sit in heating lamps. Their skin was burning off and bleeding.

The fourth level was filled with liars, people who lied on the Internet and to one another. This level was forced to hear constant buzzing in their ears. Their ears were bleeding and they were crying from pain.

Garrett heard the buzzing. It was hurting his ears so bad. He couldn’t stand it. The buzzing got louder and louder. Garrett didn’t know why he was hearing this too. He started to shake back and forth. The buzzing is getting louder and louder. He just wanted it to stop.

Finally it stopped as Garrett opened his eyes and realized he had been dreaming. The buzzing was from his alarm clock. He looked around in a panic sweat and realized it was just a dream. He picked his Inferno book up off the floor. Garrett guessed he must have fallen asleep while reading for his test tomorrow. “I better be really ready for that test now,” Garrett said to himself.

Author’s Note: This week I read Dante’s Inferno. I read the book in high school and honestly enjoyed it. I thought it was a very interesting take on what hell might be like. And that is still true today. I enjoyed this condensed version and was glad I got to refresh my Inferno knowledge. For those of you who haven’t read Dante’s Inferno, is it a story about Dante who gets lost in the woods and runs into Virgil an old Italian poet and they take a journey through hell or inferno, the Italian word for hell. They encounter 12 different circles of hell and each circle has people who committed the same sins, as the circled progress the sins get worse. The first circle is the pagans and the last circle has Lucifer. So each circle get progressively worse and worse. I decided to write a very condensed version of the story because it is so long and would take forever to retell the whole thing and it also wouldn’t make much sense to just tell the story from one section. So that is how I decided to write mine this way. I wrote mine with a very modern approach. I think its interesting to take old stories and write them in a modern way. I also used sins that have more to do with modern society. I decided to end my story in a very different way, as a dream because I think it is a very interesting and shocking twist. In the original, Dante gets out of his tour of hell and returns to Earth. In my story, Garrett also leaves hell and returns to Earth just in a very different way. I hope you enjoy.

Bibliography: Inferno. Divine. Dante Alighieri. 1400.

Reading Diary B: Dante's Inferno

The Minotaur and the Centaurs- Like a bull, breaking loose at the moment when it receives the fatal blow, that cannot go forward but plunges here and there, so I saw the Minotaur, and my cautious guide cried: 'Run to the passage: while he is in a fury, it is time for you to descend.'

The Harpies and Capaneus- Then my guide spoke, with a force I had not heard before: 'O Capaneus, you are punished more in that your pride is not quenched: no torment would produce pain fitting for your fury, except your own raving.'

The Old Man of Crete and Geryon- And I again: 'Master, where are Phlegethon and Lethe found, since you do not speak of the former and say that the latter is formed from these tears?'

Descending on Geryon's Back- There is a place in Hell called Malebolge, all of stone and coloured like iron, as is the cliff that surrounds it. Right in the centre of the malignant space, a well yawns, very wide and deep, whose structure I will speak of in due place.

Jason and the Demons- My Master said: 'Malacoda, do you think I have come here without the Divine Will, and propitious fate, safe from all your obstructions? Let me go by, since it is willed, in Heaven, that I show another this wild road.'

Caiaphas- I said: 'O me! Master, what do I see? Oh, let us go alone, without an escort, if you know the way: as for me, I would prefer not. If you are as cautious as usual, do you not see how they grind their teeth and darken their brows, threatening us with mischief?

Ulysses and Diomede- I said: 'Master, I beg you greatly and beg again so that my prayers may be a thousand, if those inside the fires can speak, do not refuse my waiting until the horned flame comes here: you see how I lean towards it with desire.'

The Giants- My guide said: 'This proud spirit had the will to try his strength against high Jupiter, and so has this reward. Ephialtes is his name, and he made the great attempt, when the Giants made the gods fear, and the arms he shook then, now he never moves.'

Ugolino- 'You must know that I am Count Ugolino, and this is the Archbishop Ruggieri. Now I will tell you why I am a neighbour such as this to him. It is not necessary to say that, confiding in him, I was taken, through the effects of his evil schemes, and afterwards killed. But what you cannot have learnt, how cruel my death was, you will hear: and know if he has injured me.

Satan- When we had gone on far enough that my guide was able to show me Lucifer, the monster who was once so fair, he removed himself from me and made me stop, saying: 'Behold Dis, and behold the place where you must arm yourself with courage.'

Illistration by Di Fruosino.

Reading Diary A: Dante's Inferno

Dante and Virgil- After I had rested my tired body a while, I made my way again over empty ground, always bearing upwards to the right. And, behold, almost at the start of the slope, a light swift leopard with spotted coat. It would not turn from before my face and so obstructed my path that I often turned in order to return.

The Gate of Hell and Charon- 'I will tell you, briefly. They have no hope of death, and their darkened life is so mean that they are envious of every other fate. Earth allows no mention of them to exist: mercy and justice reject them; let us not talk of them, but look and pass.

Limbo- The anguish of the people, here below, brings that look of pity to my face that you mistake for fear. Let us go, for the length of our journey demands it.' So he entered, and so he made me enter, into the first circle that surrounds the abyss.

Poets and Philosophers, Heroes and Heroines- When I lifted my eyes a little higher, I saw the Master of those who know, Aristotle, sitting amongst the company of philosophers. All gaze at him: all show him honour. There I saw Socrates, and Plato, who stand nearest to him of all of them

Paolo and Francesca- The first of those you wish to know of was Empress of many languages, so corrupted by the vice of luxury, that she made licence lawful in her code, to clear away the guilt she had incurred. She is Semiramis, of whom we read, that she succeeded Ninus, and was his wife: she held the countries that the Sultan rules.

Cerberus and Plutus- Like a sail, bellying in the wind, that falls in a heap if the mast breaks, so that cruel creature fell to earth. In that way, we descended into the fourth circle, taking in a greater width of the dismal bank that encloses every evil of the universe.

Fortune and Phlegyas- So we covered a large arc of the loathsome swamp, between the dry bank and its core, our eyes turned towards those who swallow its filth: we came at last to the base of a tower.

The Fallen Angels- And that lord, who had led me there, said to me: 'Have no fear, since no one can deny us passage: it was given us by so great an authority. But you, wait for me, and comfort and nourish your spirit with fresh hope, for I will not abandon you in the lower world.'

The Furies and the Heretics- Then he was silent. Each one was tearing at her breast with her claws, beating with her hands, and crying out so loudly that I pressed close to the poet, out of fear.

The Remorse of Orestes

Extra Reading Diary: Aesop's Fables

The Gods (Davies)- This fable plays on the word "herm" in Greek. Herms were statues of Hermes (called Mercury by the Romans) which served various purposes, honoring the dead sometimes, and sometimes in honor of the god Mercury himself. In this fable, the god Mercury contemplates his fate in the form of a statue!
More Gods (Smart)- This is an allegory that explains why we are so quick to see the faults of others and so slow to see our own!
Fables about People (Boothby)- A Housewife once a Hen possessed That every morning in her nest
Left a fine egg. Twice in the day the beldame wanted her to lay, And so her nourishment increas'd. Grown fat, to lay at all she ceas'd.
More Fables about People (L'Estrange)- There was a Stingy Narrow-Hearted Fellow, that had a Great deal of Choice Fruit in his Ground, but had not the Heart to touch any of it 'till it began to be Rotten.
Apes (L'Estrange)- Governours should be Men of Business, rather than Pleasure. There’s one great Folly in making an ill Choice of a Ruler, and another in the Acceptance of it; for it exposes Authority to Scorn.
Foxes (Smart)- "Ev'n so the fates decree." — "Then, sir, Have patience, whilst I do aver That he who like affections knows Is born with all the gods his foes. Since to that place you needs must speed,
Where all your ancestors precede, Why in the blindness of your heart Do you torment your noble part?"
More Foxes (L'Estrange)- The Fox finding 'twas all but Banter: "Well," says he, "'tis no Great Matter then; for the more Physicians, the more Danger, they say."
Lions (Boothby)- But weary, nature to restrain, Yet show of justice to maintain, He with this plot his courtiers snar'd: That he was sick, the King declar'd, That sleep and appetite he wanted, And he believ'd his breath was tainted.
A Lion and a Man (L'Estrange)- The Lion presently put his Claws into the Gaping of the Wood, and with one Lusty Pluck, made it give way, and out drops the Wedge, the Wood immediately Closing upon't; and there was the Lion caught by the Toes. The Woodman presently upon this, Raises the Country; and the Lion finding what a Streight he was in, gave one Hearty Twitch, and got his Feet out of the Trap, but left his Claws Behind him.
Lions and Asses (Smart)- Once on a time it came to pass, The Lion hunted with the Ass, Whom hiding in the thickest shade He there proposed should lend him aid, By trumpeting so strange a bray,
That all the beasts he should dismay And drive them o'er the desert heath Into the lurking Lion's teeth.
Asses (Boothby)- An Ass with envying eye surveyed A Courser in his war-parade, Curvetting to the trumpet's sound, With steps that scarcely touch'd the ground.
More Asses (L'Estrange)- While they were Jogging on thus upon the Way, out comes a Band of Highway-Men from the next Wood, and falls upon the Ass that carried the Treasure. They Beat, Wound and Rifle him, and so leave him, without so much as taking the least Notice of his Fellow.

Illustration by Billinghurst. 

Storytelling Week 13: Russian Folktales

There was once a couple that was so in love and seemed to have the perfect marriage. Other couples envied them. They were both so happy with one another. They never fought or disagreed. Everyone always told them they were so meant to be. 

Mother with Child. 

They had built such a loving home and wanted to add more love, a child. They tried and tried, but had no luck. One day the wife felt something and knew that they had been blessed with a child.

They waited and waited. So excited for the day they could rest their eyes on their son or daughter. The day finally came and their beautiful baby son came out healthy. But, something went very wrong with the wife. She turned red and was bleeding and bleeding. The husband didn’t know what to do. He watched his wife take her last breath. She had gone. And just as the baby was crying so was the husband. Weeping for his beloved wife.

The man stopped his crying and began wondering. Wondering how he was going to take care of his infant child. How was he going to nourish it? How was he going to care for it all by himself?

The next day, after a long night, looked for an old maid to take care of his child. He found a nice, sweet old lady who had raised 5 children of her own who were all grown now. She loved the little boy like her own. It pleased the husband to see his boy taken care of and loved by a mother figure, but he couldn’t help but wonder how not having a mother would affect the boy.

A few weeks later the old maid told the husband that the baby cries all day long but stop his crying and is silent at night. She wasn’t sure why and neither was the father. One night the old maid stayed up to see what made the boy stop crying.

One night she was up and heard a creek in the floor and what sounded like steps. She creped up to the boy’s room. What she saw was unbelievable. She saw his mother bent over in her ghost like state feeding the boy from her bosom. The old maid couldn’t believe what she saw. The mother saw the old maid and rushed up and out of the window.

The boy was still silent so the old maid went over to his crib and noticed the boy was not moving. He was dead just as his mother was.

Author’s Note: This week I read stories from the Russian Folktale section. I found these stories interesting and easy to read. These stories were separated by story and were not a continuous story. So for my story this week I focused on only one story, The Dead Mother. I kept my story very close to the original, not steering away at all really except how I told it and a few minor details. In the original story, the couple is very much in love and have a child. The mother dies right away. The father hires an old lady who notices the baby doesn’t make noise at night. She finds that the dead mother is nursing the baby who also ends up dying. I wasn’t sure how the baby died in the original story so I didn’t add how he died in mine.