Week 9 Story: Hilary's Voice

Hilary could not believe how selfish her sisters were being. I mean, she had just booked her first world tour, its not like she was Beyoncè or anything. Melissa and Katy just wanted to mooch off of her because they did not think they were making enough at their boring jobs. It wasn't Hilary's fault that she was born with this killer voice. It wasn't her fault that she had signed a record deal when she was 21 and had had 10 chart-topping hits in the two years since. But Hilary's sisters had just come to her and seemed irritated that she had not offered to help them out. They both had kids, and Hilary knew that had to be expensive, but it wasn't Hilary's decision for them to have kids. And she was young, she did not know how long the fame would last. She needed to keep her money and make sure she could take care of herself.
Hilary was in her dressing room, taking her 30 minutes of meditation before dress rehearsal for her next show. Suddenly, she heard a low voice whisper, "My child, come to me". Hilary began shaking with fear, asking "Who is this?" The voice whispered back, "All will be revealed soon my child. But you must follow." Hilary did not know why, but she knew she must obey the whisper. She followed the sound of shuffling paws out the door and into courtyard of the hotel. There, she peered into the fountain, and saw an amazing sight- mermaids were swimming around in an underground kingdom! Hilary blinked her eyes but the image did not go away but only became more incredible. Suddenly the waters began to part, and Hilary was pulled into the fountain.
Hilary opened her eyes and found herself sitting on a throne surrounded by mermaids. All around were blue and purple towers made of shimmering shells, and fish swam freely around her. One of the mermaids swam up to her and gently said, "Our honored guest, we have prepared a feast for you. Please join us." Hilary noticed now that there were decadent trays loaded with food and drink all around her. But for some reason Hilary had a gnawing feeling in her stomach that she should be afraid. She tried to politely decline, but the merpeople became more insistent. Finally, she took a sip of a glass offered to her, and noticed a burning sensation in her throat. When she tried to tell them what was happening, no sound came out of her mouth. The mermaid who had first spoke to her came up and said, "Hilary, I am Sovana, leader of the mermaids. We saw how you were treating your sisters, and for your selfishness you have now lost your voice. Return to your land." Hilary began screaming, but no one heard it.

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Author's Note: This story is based on the Congo story The Fetish Sunga. In this story a man is a great fisherman but he does not share his fish with his family, he lets them rot in his house before he will share them with his family. Then a fetish (spirit) brings him to a lake and gives him a big feast, which takes away his voice. She does this to punish him for his selfishness. I took this story to modern times but still kept the part where she loses her voice. 

Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

Week 9 Reading: Congo, Part B

-There is a sense of justice to a lot of the Congo stories, and a sense of Karma- if you harm your family or do not share what you have, then you will be punished either by fate or by some fetish or spirit. I think in a place like Africa where poverty is so widespread they have to believe in a sense of justice, and they have to believe in pooling their resources otherwise many of them would not survive. I imagine in day-to-day life family and important village members just police the village and make sure that everyone is pulling their weight, but it is more fun to think of it happening by spirits
-I wonder why Basa who seemed so afraid seemed so willing to follow the little servant. Why did he not jsut run?
-Sunga was quite dramatic in the way she punished him for not sharing his resources. She could have just made the fish disappear or just taken his voice, but instead she led him into her little lake town and gave him this big feast.
-We do not get to see how Basa reacts to having his voice gone. Was he too scared to protest? Was he furious but could not make a sound? And how did his family see it? Did they see the punishment as too harsh or fair for letting all of the fish rot?
-I like that there was a female lead in this story who took out justice on a man, that was refreshing
-It would be easy to convert this into a modern tale- it could be a family member who became a famous singer but did not share her wealth with her family, so a spirit comes and takes her voice so she can no longer sing

Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

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Week 9 Reading: Congo, Part A

The jealous wife is such a sad story, but I guess the wife deserved what she got for trying to kill the other wive's child. I imagine they lived together, and I cannot believe that a woman would murder a child that she lived with. However, Africa is a much harsher environment than here, and I cannot begin to imagine how different things are there. Another thing is that I think it would be very hard to be the elder and share a husband, and the wife must have had a lot of jealousy against the younger wife. This probably fueled her drive to murder the son. I still do not think a mother would mistake her own child for another.
At the end when they gave her the poisonous bark, I imagine it was probably as a punishment. But to me it almost seemed as if it was a mercy killing. She was never going to forgive herself for killing her own child, her life was over at that point. And her husband was never going to trust her again or see her the same after she killed their child.
Jealousy can drive people to do such terrible things. I think people get it so worked up in their heads and they create these monsters out of people when they are really innocent.
It would be very easy to retell this story in a modern setting. Maybe the two wives could be sisters and the one sister is jealous of the other sister's child, but instead of killing them she aims to ruin their chances to get into a good school by framing them for a crime. But she ends up framing the wrong child, and her child gets sent to jail. The lesson of jealousy would still be there just in a modern time.

Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

Image from page 358 of "Women of all nations, a record of their characteristics, habits, manners, customs and influence;" (1908)

Week 8 Progress

I am semi-happy with my progress so far. I think I have a really good premise for my storybook, and I have done a lot of research that will lend itself to really good and accurate stories for the witches. But I do not have a good weekly routine. I work way too much and I work overnight shifts that wreck my sleep schedule, and somehow no matter how hard I try I always end up waiting until the day of to do an assignment. I am hoping to do a LOT of work over spring break to get ahead and fix that problem. I enjoy the readings the most, they are so interesting. I am not doing extra credit right now but I NEED to (haha)

As I said above, I want avoid procrastinating and want to really start working ahead. I want to start doing some more extra credit and really start creating a back and forth with some of my classmates. 

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Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I am receiving really constructive comments from the class. They have suggested things that I would not have thought of, and it is really helpful to get a point of view from someone who either has not read the story or has not done as much research into the character as I have. The comments I find most useful are the ones with specific ways that I can improve or specific pieces of the story that are confusing for the reader.
I try to leave comments in the same fashion as the ones that I find most useful. I try to point out specific things that I did not understand or try to suggest specific strategies for them to improve their stories. I also always try to start off with what I like because I do not want to tear people down.
I definitely do feel a sense of community when I get to comment on other people's blogs and read stories from them week after week as well as see other people's comments on their blogs. I am happy with my introduction post and it gives me chance to identify with people on topics that are most important to me.
I think looking forward I could try to give more big picture criticism, and also try to be more explanatory in what confuses me and why. I do think I want to make some changes to my blog but I am not sure of what yet.

(cheezburger)

I like this picture because I really try to focus on criticism that I receive from more than one person. Lots of times people give me comments that are simply a disagreement in writing style, but if I get the comment from more than one person than I know its something to seriously consider changing. 

Week 8 Reading and Writing

So far I am really liking the reading assignments. I like that they are organized by geographic region as it gives me an expectation for what I amor reading. My favorite reading so far was Arabian nights, Ir really liked how the story was within a story. I am LOVING my class project so far but I just really want to do it well so I think I am overdoing it on the research and just need to get in and get writing. My biggest accomplishment so far I think has been my venus story I really liked how much emotion was in that one.

Image: Cupid and Psyche by François-Édouard Picot

This is my favorite image. I think there is so much emotion, and it really encompasses the entire story in one picture. 

As far as looking forward, I just need to work ahead so I have more time to focus on my storybook. 

Reading Notes B: The Monkey King

The incident with the monkey king in the peach garden could be transferred into a modern story in which the girl gets cocky when her business becomes successful. Maybe she is in fashion and she starts to become successful and begins to have people wanting to wear her clothes, but she does not want to mentor other girls and give them the opportunities that someone gave her. She does not invest in her brand but just spends the money on material things, and does not respect the people in her field who have been there far longer than she has and try to give her advice. Possibly she is invited to do a small fashion show and she kind of thinks it is beneath her so she does not prepare, and it ends up being so-so and the reviews are not great but she does not care because she is enjoying her material wealth and her house and her business. The peach banquet could be turned into a grand gala, where all the big names in fashion are invited but the girl is not invited because of how she has not cared and the fact that she has not yet earned a reputation in fashion. So she sneaks in and embarrasses herself in front of all these big names by getting too drunk. All in all, the monkey king is careless and arrogant and does not have any regard for the gods, and I want to make the girl not have any regard for anyone else. Except her children of course, who she will always care for. There will of course be redemption at the end but it will be a classic story of getting everything she ever wanted and realizing she is not handling it in the generous and humble way that she thought she would.

Story source: "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Immortal Dongfang Shuo Stealing a Peach