Famous Last Words

This past week I had a lot to accomplish! I had three exams so it was a very stressful time! On Tuesday I had Principles of Physiology, Thursday- Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, and on Friday I had Organic Chemistry. I studied like crazy and did well on all three! As proud of myself as I am for my exam scores the best thing I did this past week was the time I spent volunteering at Second Chance Animal Shelter. I have never been there before but I went this weekend with my honors fraternity Gamma Beta Phi. While there I did a lot of general housekeeping tasks such as sweeping, mopping, et cetera. My favorite part was giving the puppies baths! I’m a huge animal lover so giving the dogs some love made my whole week. I was able to learn a lot about the establishment as well. The workers rescue abused animals, those deemed unadoptable, and others who are about to be euthanized at other shelters. Hence giving these animals a second chance at life. This is a really wonderful organization that pairs up with local veterinarians to provide these dogs and cats with healthcare and surgeries they may be in need of. This is one of the things that can deem an animal unadoptable and sentence them to death. I had a great time with the other members of my group and I plan on becoming more involved with Second Chance.  I really encourage others to do the same! Whether it is volunteering, donating needed items, or giving a furry friend a forever home we can all make a huge impact on these animals’ lives! There are a lot of really sweet animals there that just want a family! I would take them all home if I could… Thanks no pet policy at OU Traditions! :)

Second Chance

 

Thoughts and Comments

Overall when looking through the comments people have made on my posts everyone is really friendly. I enjoy reading comments on my storytelling posts the most. I like seeing others feedback it makes me feel like I have done a good job in being creative with my retellings. I haven't received much criticism so I feel receiving a little bit more critical feedback would help me in developing my storytelling. When I comment on other peoples storytelling posts I try to be encouraging but also point out anything I feel could help the author for future posts.  Personally, I feel we sometimes "fluff up" our comments. We do it simply because it is an assignment. I think it would help all of us if we all became a bit more critical with our comments. This will only help us to become better writers if the reader points out errors, styles that just don't work, or other things. Right now the bulk of us just say good job and what we liked best. This helps the author some if the reader enjoyed a writing style the author employed but it doesn't do much more than that. I would like it if I received a little bit more criticism from others in the class. I know this would only help me to achieve my potential as a writer by learning more from my readers!

Essay: Scheherazade the Trickster

Within the Arabian Nights unit there are many stories that are actually stories within other stories originally told by a woman named Scheherazade. Her own personal story is the first one within the unit. In her story there is a Sultan who weds a different woman every single day then kills them off the following morning. He does this because he once had a wife that he loved dearly but she betrayed him. The Sultan had her executed and from that point on felt that all women were truly evil deep down inside. In marrying so many women he felt he could rid the world of their evil.

This is where Scheherazade came into play. Her father was the executioner for the Sultan and he was the one in charge of bringing him a new woman every day. She was a very intelligent woman and she pleaded with her father to marry the Sultan for she had a plan to end the slaughter of the innocent girls. Reluctantly her father obliged and brought her to the Sultan. She married him then carried out her plan so that she may keep her life and he could not marry others. Every morning she would tell the Sultan a story. Within these stories the characters would then tell a subsequent story. This would go on and on day in and day out.

We don’t often see a trickster as the hero or heroine of a story but Scheherazade certainly was. We don’t learn much about her but we do know she was able to save many people with her cleverness. The Sultan was quite foolish and never caught on to what she was doing. Every day he simply listened to and enjoyed her stories with the promise of it continuing the next day. She is a pretty clever trickster, but I wonder what she would do when she ran out of stories!

Scheherazade

Week 5 Storytelling: The Story of the Fisherman

There was once an old fisherman who was down on his luck. The lake from which he fished used to be full of many different kinds of fish but now it was relatively empty. He had a large family but was no longer able to provide for them. The old fisherman never gave up though because he had more faith than a hundred men put together. His only rule when fishing was that he would not throw his net more than four times in a single. He did this to limit how much he could possibly catch and prevent the fish populations from dwindling even further.

One morning the old man rowed out onto the water just before sunrise as he did every day. On his first haul he felt a tremendous weight and grew excited. When he finally pulled it in it was just a dead donkey someone had dumped. Begrudgingly he tossed his net back into the water. Again he felt a heavy weight but as he pulled it back in he discovered it was full of junk. Once again he threw the net back into the water.  He prayed that he would just once be blessed with a bountiful catch so he could provide for his family. When pulling in his net for a third time there was another great weight, but it was just stones and shells. He threw the net in one last time with high hopes. When he pulled his net for the fourth time he had caught a tremendous golden pot that had been sealed shut. It was very heavy so he knew there must be something inside of great value.

He opened the great pot and out burst a tremendous mass of black smoke. The fisherman terrified of what he had just unleashed hid from the beast that had formed.

“Come forward little human,” the smoke beast bellowed. “I have been trapped in that pot for far too long. So long in fact that I once vowed to make the man who set me free the wealthiest in all the lands. This was over a century ago so I made a new vow to kill the man who set me free for waiting so long to do so. Since I have been given my freedom I will allow to choose the manner in which you wish to die.”

The fisherman pleaded for mercy. He asked the great beast to allow him to live since he himself was now free.

“I made a vow human. Hurry up and make your choice so that I may be on my way.”

Trying to buy some time the old fisherman questioned the smoke beast on how he came to be entrapped within the pot. Surely some enchantment must have been placed upon him to allow for such a mighty beast to fit within the pot.

“Foolish human. I am nothing yet I am everything,” he said as he slid within the pot to show him that he could fit.

The fisherman trapped the beast by shutting the lid once again.

“Release me!” he bellowed. “Let me free and I shall let you live and prosper.”

“How can I trust you when just a moment ago you were decided upon ending my life?” the fisherman questioned. “You are truly wicked in wanting to kill the man who gave you freedom. I shall take you to the Sultan and let him decide what to do with you.”

The old man rowed back to shore and carried the golden pot to the Sultan. He was paid handsomely for turning over the demon to his ruler. The smoke beast was used in the building of a new church so that concrete could entrap the pot within the walls so he may never escape again. The fisherman went home to his family was able to finally provide them with a wonderful life.

The Fisherman and Smoke Beast

Author’s Note: This original piece is called The Story of the Fisherman and was within the Arabian Nights unit. I changed nothing from the original other than the ending. Within this unit every story is a story within the previous one. If I didn’t change the ending it would have led into a story, which led into another, and so on. In the original the fisherman does let the beast, called a genius, loose once again and is then taken to a lake full of wonderful fish to present to the Sultan. This ultimately leads to the discovery of an enchanted city and the fisherman being provided with a great deal of wealth for his help in first uncovering the city. A great deal of events transpire before he receives his reward so I just cut it down and prevented the beast from being free.

Bibliography: "The Story of the Fisherman" by Andrew Lang, from The Arabian Night's Entertainments (1898). Web Source: Myth and Folklore Untextbook

Reading Diary B: Arabian Nights

The second half of the Arabian Nights unit was entirely devoted to the story of Aladdin. My only background before this story was the Disney movie. There were some similarities between this story and the movie I grew up with but for the most part it was very different! And there was definitely no Robin Williams in the original… I really enjoyed this story and seeing it in its “original” form. I do have two questions though. Why is it that when the princess sees Aladdin right before they are to be married she doesn’t recognize him as being the creepy guy that would have her bed brought to him at night? She consented to the marriage and fell in love on the spot but didn’t make that connection. I just found that really odd. You would think you would remember something like that and it would scar you. Secondly, Aladdin always left the room when he was going to ask the genie for something. Did the princess never know about him? I guess she just assumed the magician took her to Africa and his death reversed the spell and sent her and the palace back to China. There weren't any magic carpets, tiger and monkey companions, or musical breakaways that touched my heart but I really enjoyed the story. Overall it was very interesting and definitely left me wanting to know what was going to happen next. This just might have been my favorite read so far in the course! Now I really want to go and watch Aladdin…

Aladdin and His Princess

Reading Diary A: Arabian Nights

I chose to read the Arabian Nights unit this week. This was without a doubt the most interesting unit I have read thus far in the class because of the way in which the stories are told. The whole premise is that a woman is telling a story to save her life by never letting the story end. In doing this every story is actually within another story. At one point in the unit during The Husband and the Parrot, this represents a story within a story within a story within a story within a story within a story. Sound confusing? Because it definitely is! If you don’t keep straight who is telling the story from the previous story it is easy to get lost especially when it cuts back to a previous storyteller. All of the stories were really intriguing I just find myself getting a little lost story hopping as much as the unit does. Ultimately the way these stories are told is really unique. This unit could be related to the movie Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio, although this reading contains more levels than the movie did! This was a pretty cool unit with some really good stories. Now I’m looking forward to reading the next half of the unit that has the story of Aladdin!

Indian Skyline