Week 15: Writing Feedback

I would like to start by saying that I did more writing for this class than I have for any other class in my college career, and it has done a lot to strengthen my writing. What I liked best was all of the feedback from everybody, especially Laura. It was really cool to hear everybody's ideas about how to improve my stories, and every one was always so polite. I can honestly say that this class has done a lot to improve my grammar and creative writing skills, much more that I ever thought that it would.
For my project, I chose the storybook option and I don't have any regrets for doing so. My experience with the storybook played the largest part in my enjoyment of this class, and I think that it is something that all students should at least try. In my opinion, the storybook option is more organized and really encourages us to choose our favorite topic and learn as much as we want about it. While there is nothing preventing students that choose the portfolio option from writing in an equally organized manner, I tended to notice that the portfolios contained a more random assortment of stories. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with writing unrelated stories, but I really enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment as I was making the final revisions to my storybook and saw how well it came together. Another thing that I appreciated about the storybooks was the titles. I was always much more likely to choose a storybook as my free choice each week because I knew what I was getting myself into.
In regard to the commenting system, I don't really have any suggestions. I think that it's great that we're paired with different people each week but also have a free choice to allow us to follow our favorite stories without neglecting to respond to the other projects. The comments were always very helpful in catching grammar/spelling mistakes, as well as helping to make sure that the format was consistent.
The only advice that I have for future students is to be on the lookout for a topic that really interests you at the start of the semester. With a good topic, the storybook can be a lot of fun and reveal a lot of information about the stories that you might not otherwise come across.

Week 15: Reading Commentary/Suggestions

I really enjoyed the readings this semester! My favorite was Narayan's Ramayana. I think that the idea of offering more reading options is great. While Buck's Ramayana certainly provided a lot more information about the story, having read Narayan's version took away from a lot of the surprise. I enjoyed the freedom of choosing from the reading units, and it was nice to change the subject each week. Offering the reading units in place of the second version of each story would probably work perfectly, especially with the extra credit reading option. I found so much supplemental information while working on my storybook, and I really think that it helped me appreciate the Ramayana even more. Perhaps the extra credit reading assignment could allow students to look up additional information about their favorite characters or stories from the Ramayana, and they could share what they learned in a short blog post.
In regard to the balance between assignments, I tended to spend much more time on the readings each week. This is probably because I spent a lot of time taking notes and editing my notes to prove that I was doing the readings instead of just commenting on my favorite parts of the story. My advice to future students would be not to get too preoccupied with taking notes while reading. Enjoy the stories and use your reading diary to summarize and comment on your favorite parts of the story. It's okay if you read several pages without taking a note because the stories are loaded with surprising events.

Week 13 Reading Diary: The Jataka Tales

The Spirit that Lived in a Tree:

• Buddha was re-born as a Tree-Spirit.
• The tree offered its life to protect its children, so the king chose to spare its life.
• The theme of this story was self-sacrifice.

The Hare that Was not Afraid to Die:

• Now Buddha was born as a hare.
• During the fasting day, the hare offered his own flesh to any beggar that came by because he thought the grass that he normally ate would be inadequate.
• When Sakka, King of the Gods, challenged the hare to see if he was true to his word, the hare willingly jumped into the fire.
• Sakka was so impressed that he wished that the hare’s virtue would be known for all the ages to come.
• This was another story about self-sacrifice.

 

The Parrot that Fed His Parents:

• Buddha was born as a parrot.
• As his parents grew old and lost their strength, he took over their responsibilities within the flock and cared for them.
• After he is captured, the parrot explains his intentions to the watchman and is rewarded with one thousand acres of land for his righteousness.
• I really liked this story!

 

The Man Who Worked to Give Alms:

• Buddha was born as a merchant named Vissaya.

• Every day, the merchant would give alms to the less fortunate. Sakka noticed his charity and feared that the merchant was seeking to replace him as king of the gods.

• When Sakka took all of his wealth, the merchant nearly worked himself to death to continue giving alms.

• Sakka was so moved by his charity that he returned his wealth so that the merchant could continue giving alms.

• I also really enjoyed this story!

The King Who Saw the Truth:

• Buddha was born a king.
• When the king gave his eyes to the Brahmin, his sight was restored to him and he could see absolute truth.
• I didn’t enjoy this story as much as the previous two.

 

The Bull that Proved His Gratitude:

• Bodisat was born as a bull.
• The bull put himself to work to earn money for the old woman that took care of him, and in return she took great care of him.
• At the end of her life, the two died together.
• I also wasn’t crazy about this story.

The Horse that Held Out till the End:

• Buddha was born as a horse.
• During a war, the horse saved many kings’ lives, but then he died from a wound that he received in one of the battles.
• This story would have been better if the horse had not died, but then Buddha wouldn’t have been able to go on to his next life.

The Monkey that Saved the Hero:

• Buddha was re-born as the king of the monkeys.
• Why would the ogre expect them to drink from the lake when he just openly admitted that he would take them prisoner and eat them if they did?!
• This story had a neat conclusion that tried to explain why canes that grow around lakes are hollow within.
• I really enjoyed this story.

The Merchant Who Overcame All Obstacles:

• Buddha was born into the family of a merchant.
• This story had a happy ending, but I wasn’t a very big fan.
• I’m glad that the lad did not give up on the well and that everything worked out for them.

 

The Elephant that Was Honored in Old Age:

• Buddha was Prime Minister.
• Buddha stood up for an elderly elephant that had worked very hard for the king and rebuked him for not rewarding her for her service.
• This was a pretty good story, but it was really short.

Grandmother’s Golden Dish:

• Bodisat was a dealer of tin and brassware named Seriva.
• When a hawker tried to cheat an elderly woman and her granddaughter out of their only possession of worth, the Bodisat came along and told them of its true value. He gave them everything that he owned in exchange for it, and left to go try to sell it.
• I wasn’t too sure what the moral of this story was though because nothing really happened to the deceitful hawker and the grandmother wasn’t really rewarded for all of her generosity.

The Elephant that Spared Life:

• Bodisat was born as a nobleman’s son.
• The king ordered that the Bodisat and his followers should be trampled by elephants.
• However, when he saw the Bodisat’s good nature, he chose to spare their lives.
• The man who slandered him became their slave, and the elephant that was to trample them was given as a gift.

How the Antelope Was Caught:

• There was an antelope that frequented Sanjaya’s garden.
• Sanjaya led the antelope into the palace with a trail of honey.
• The moral of this story was not to be greedy, but it didn’t really seem that fitting since the antelope was just enjoying the honey.
• This story wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t one of my favorites.

The Pupil Who Taught His Teacher:

• Buddha was born into a Brahmin family, and he was known as Law Keeper.
• Young members of Brahmin families do not die young because they conduct themselves so righteously.

 

The Man Who Told a Lie:

• Four divine beings made an appearance on earth at a festival of the gods.
• The false priest was given a wreath of flowers that brought him pain and agony.
• When the gods publicly rebuked him for his dishonesty, they removed the wreath.
• This was another story that I wasn’t crazy about.

 

The Crow that Thought It Knew:

• Bodhisatta was a marsh crow named Viraka, the Strong.
• Savitthaka did not head Viraka’s warning and drowned.
• Viraka had to break the news to Savitthaka’s mate.

 

The River Fish and the Monkey:

• Bodhisatta was born into the family of a landed proprietor.
• When their father passed, his younger brother tried to trick him into losing his share of the inheritance.
• Despite his brother’s treachery, the Bodhisatta still gave him his share.

 

The Dreamer in the Wood:

• Buddha lived alone in the woods.
• When Buddha was granted a boon, he used it selflessly to protect the forest and was granted another boon.
• For his next boon, Buddha wished that nothing would ever be harmed by him.
• Since Buddha requested nothing of food, Sakka granted that the trees would bear fruit perennially as well.

The Rice Measure:

• Bodisat was the king’s valuer.
• Dissatisfied with Bodisat’s honest valuations, the king hired a fool in his place.
• The fools valuation was very inconsistent and ended up making the king look foolish.
• Bodisat was reinstated as the valuer.

The Poisonous Trees:

• The Bodhisatta was born as a merchant.
• Poems are becoming increasingly more important in these tales.
• The Bodhisatta was wise and saved his people from eating poisonous fruit.

The Well-Trained Elephant:

• Bodhisatta was born as a white elephant.
• The elephant proved to be the best-trained elephant and was highly rewarded.
• This story seemed much longer than the others, not sure why because the word count was about the same.

The Wise Physician:

• Buddha was the physician who offered to revive a woman’s dead son if she could bring back mustard seed from a family who has not suffered from lost.
• The woman learned that everybody has suffered the loss of a loved one, which was the overall morale of the quest the Buddha assigned.
• The story would have been better if the son did not have to die.

 

 You can find the original stories at this link:

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/story-source-eastern-stories-and.html

 

 

Week 12 Essay: Twenty-Two Goblins Review

This week, I chose to read the Twenty-Two Goblins reading unit. Unlike last week, I actually read the whole reading unit this time, and I really enjoyed the stories. If I find myself in a position where I can only do half of the reading assignment in the next couple of weeks, I will probably go back and read the rest of the Khasi Folktales. In this essay, I plan to summarize and give feedback about the Twenty-Two Goblins reading unit to hopefully convince others to read through it if they haven’t already.

I originally chose this reading unit because the description mentioned that it would contain a variety of riddles. I really enjoyed the section of the Mahabharata in which Yudhistira had to answer the Yaksha’s riddles. In fact, I recreated that story for my week 10 storytelling post. When I started reading this unit, I hoped to write a similar story for this week’s storytelling post, but I ended up being really busy yesterday and wasn’t able to get around to that.

The basic summary of this story is that there is a monk who brings a king fruits that contain priceless gems. For many days, the monk brings the king these gifts but the king didn’t actually eat the fruit, so he never noticed the gems within. When the king notices the gems in one of the fruits, he goes to the pile of fruits from the previous days and collects quite an assortment of priceless gems. The king asks the monk why he would bring these gems as gifts, and the monk admits that he needs a favor. In order for the monk to perform a mysterious ritual, he needs the king to fetch a body.

When the king reaches the body, he finds that a goblin lives within it. As he is returning the body to the monk, the goblin tells the king that they are going to play a game of riddles. Each time that the king answers a riddle correctly, the goblin will return the body back to its original position. However, if the king knows the answer to a riddle and does not offer it, then his head will explode. So the king is in a very interesting position: the only way that he can fulfill his promise to the monk is if he’s beaten in this game of riddles. The story concludes with an unexpected twist on the overall situation, but I don’t want to give away the surprise.

Throughout the stories, there are several references to the Ramayana. My favorite riddle was The Snake’s Poison and my least favorite was The Three Delicate Wives. Overall, this was a very entertaining and fun reading unit. I would definitely recommend reading the Twenty-Two Goblins.

 

Follow this link to find the original stories:

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/myth-folklore-unit-twenty-two-goblins.html

 

Image Information:

(Goblin: WoWWiki)

Week 12 Reading Diary: Twenty-Two Goblins

I chose this reading unit because the description mentioned that it would contain riddles, which I think are really fun. In fact, a couple weeks ago I wrote a story that included some riddles from the Mahabharata and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to write a similar story this week. We’ll see!

Introduction:

·       King Triple-victory = Son of King Victory. Lives in the Abiding Kingdom on the Godavari River.

·       The monk, Patience, brought the king fruits that contained priceless gems.

·       In return, the monk asks the king to fetch him a body that is hanging in a tree.

·       A goblin lived in the body and offers to tell a story as the king carries it to the monk.

The Three Lovers:

·       Each of these stories is some kind of puzzle that the king must answer. Unfortunately, if he answers correctly, the goblin returns to the tree and the king must restart the journey back to the monk. One might logically think that the king should just not respond, but there is a stipulation that if he knows the answers and does not offer it, then his head will explode. So, the king has found himself in quite an interesting situation. The only way that he can fulfill his agreement with the monk is if he’s beaten at the game of riddles.

·       The king analyzed the situation of the first riddle and identified that the woman’s husband must have been the man that slept with her ashes each night.

·       The goblin returned to the tree and the king quickly followed because he is committed to upholding his promise to the monk.

Brave, Wise, Clever:

·       This story refers to Rama and Ravana! How cool is that?!

·       The king concluded that the daughter should be given to the brave man because the wise man and the clever man were simply helpers, while he actually put his life on the line to slay the giant.

·       Again the goblin returned to the tree and the king followed.

The Girl, Her Husband and Her Brother:

·       King Glory-banner was the leader of the city, Beautiful. Interesting names…

·       Also, the husbands name was Spotless…

·       Again, the king answered the riddle correctly and the goblin returned to the tree.

·       This may have been my least favorite puzzle in the reading unit.

Food, Women, Cotton:

·       In this riddle, the specialist of cotton was declared to be the cleverest.

·       Once again, the king was correct.

·       He has to be getting tired by now!

The Four Suitors:

·       Lotus City à Pleasure City à Golden City à Ujjain. (progression of name)

·       The king’s name was Heroic.

·       The warrior’s daughter was given to the warrior Swordsman and the goblin returned to the tree yet again.

The Three Delicate Wives:

·       The wife who was bruised without being touched was determined to be the most delicate.

·       The king must be hoping for a riddle that will actually stump him by now!!

The Snake’s Poison:

·       This was the most interesting story so far. I really liked how the king explained his reasoning that ultimately left the dead man to blame for his death.

·       I honestly had no idea how he could have gone about answering the riddle because the death seemed to be the result of a complete accident that was beyond anybody’s control.

·       Unfortunately for the king, he did manage to offer the correct answer, so the goblin returned to the tree once again.

The Girl and the Thief:

·       This story is set in Ayodhya (a place that we are quite familiar with!).

·       I also really enjoyed this story.

·       The thief both laughed and cried at the sight of the young girl wishing to give up her life with him.

·       I’m sure that the thief will make an excellent general.

·       The king is very dedicated to fulfilling his promise to the monk. He follows the goblin back to the tree once again without any complaints.

The General’s Wife:

·       From the little description at the start of the story, I would imagine that the king who died for love of his general’s wife is more worthy of her than the general, who followed the king to death. It would appear that the king was more committed to the wife than the general if he was willing to leave her behind in order to follow the king in death.

·       Though the reasoning was not identical to mind, I did predict which character was more deserving, so that’s cool!

·       And the goblin ran back to the tree again… At some point, the goblin has to get tired and offer the most challenging riddle that he can think of, right?

The Four Brothers:

·       I thought that it was funny that the king openly admitted that he was willing to keep chasing the goblin back to the tree as long as he wished to escape.

·       The one that gave life to the lion was at fault for the lives that it took. This was a pretty easy riddle.

The Old Hermit:

·       The hermit gave up his own body and took over that of a dead boy.

·       The hermit wept for the loss of his previous body, with which he had associated so many memories but danced to celebrate his newly acquired youth.

·       Yet again, the king must follow the goblin back to the tree.

Father and Son, Daughter and Mother:

·       Finally, the riddle that stumps the king!

·       What a strange concept to have to explain. If the father married the daughter, then the son married the mother, it would definitely be difficult to explain how everybody was related once they all started having children. This situation would yield a very unusual-looking family tree.

·       Once the king is stumped, the goblin reveals a terrible secret that the monk is actually planning to kill the king in a ritual.

·       What is the king going to do?

Conclusion:

·       The king obeyed the goblin and the riddles became a kind of repellent for magical beings wherever they were told.

You can find the original stories by clicking on this link:

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/myth-folklore-unit-twenty-two-goblins.html

Week 11 Essay: The Khasi Folktales

(Tiger: MythFolklore)

For this week’s reading assignment, I read the Khasi Folktales. Unfortunately, it has been a really busy week so I was only able to read half of them. In this essay, I plan to give feedback about the stories within this unit as well as the UnTextbook reading option in general. From what I read, the Khasi people seem to be very observant of nature and really like to create folktales that explain their observations. If the observations that these stories are founded upon are all true, then I actually learned a couple of things. For example, I did not realize that tigers are afraid of monkeys, but now I do and I learned it through a pretty entertaining story that also warned us not to propose marriage to an unknown bride. That was another thing that I noticed about all of the stories: coupled with their explanation about the observation, the Khasi people also tried to include some kind of moral (regardless of how random it may have seemed). Within the unit, my least favorite story was How the Dog Came to Live with Man. I thought that it was significantly longer than the rest, and I wasn’t a huge fan of how they portrayed the dog. I really liked dogs, so I would have preferred the pig to be the deceitful character. In fact, I actually considered rewriting this story for my storytelling post yesterday. On the other hand, my favorite story was U Biskurom, which is actually the story that I chose for my storytelling post. This story was more focused on mankind, rather than the world around us. Despite the pessimistic theme, I really enjoyed the story. It was kind of funny how they portrayed the ignorance and greed of the men, especially at the end when they shouted at the heavens and U Biskurom sent down drops of blood that actually lead the men to believe that their shouts killed him. Although there were several stories that lacked notes at the end, they were all pretty short and easy to follow. There is nothing that I would recommend to change about this unit. I also noticed that we were asked if there is any information that we wished to have before choosing our unit. I really enjoyed the little descriptions underneath each of the units, and the titles of the stories did a really good job of summarize the types of stories that they contained, so there isn’t really anything that I would recommend adding to the descriptions either.

Click here to read the Khasi Folktales!

Week 11 Storytelling: U Biskurom

In the beginning, man was one of the most ignorant creatures that inhabited the earth. They had no tools and nothing that they created seemed to work as it was intended. The Great God felt really bad for his hopeless creation, which he originally intended to be the ruler of the earth. In a desperate attempt to get mankind back on the right track, he sent U Biskurom to help them. U Biskurom was an incredibly crafty being, and the Great God had a lot of faith in his ingenuity.

U Biskurom exposed man to all of his favorite tools: the hammer, screw driver, ax, and pliers. He went on to teach them about gravity, the tides, and wind. Mankind spent years learning from U Biskurom. The Great God watched as his most prized creation learned to build some of the most marvelous structures that he had ever seen. When U Biskurom felt that man was finally ready to learn his final lesson, he exposed them to fire. Man was amazed by the fire and was eager to use it, but U Biskurom warned them of the dangers that came with his final gift before ascending back to the heavens.

(Some Ancient Tools: AncientMesopotamians)

 

When U Biskurom reached his destination, the Great God thanked him for helping mankind and offered to throw a feast to celebrate his success. Unfortunately, while U Biskurom was at the celebration, mankind had managed to start a huge fire that posed a threat to all of the animals of the earth. Feeling like he was at fault for exposing man to such a dangerous creation, U Biskurom returned to earth to put an end to the fire. Little did he know that the fire was a trap. Mankind knew that they could not advance at such a rapid rate without U Biskurom there to teach them and set the fire in a desperate attempt to get him to return. When U Biskurom arrived, the men quickly tied him up and tried to force him to continue teaching them.

Realizing that his life was in danger if he did not come up with another gift to offer, U Biskurom suggested that he could teach mankind how to bring things to life. Mankind had never thought that they could gain such power and was intrigued by the offer. U Biskurom convinced the men that he would have to return to heaven to get the power from the great god, and the men fell for his trick. Once mankind realized that U Biskurom was not coming back, they furiously launched an assortment of arrows toward the heavens. Mocking their actions, U Biskurom sent drops of blood down from heaven. To U Biskurom’s surprise, mankind actually believed that their arrows reached the heavens and slayed him. The Great God and U Biskurom laugh at the ignorance of mankind for many years, until they finally started giving them gifts again.

 

Author’s Note:

 I chose to rewrite this story because it was my favorite of the Khasi Folktales that I read for this week’s reading assignment. I thought that it was kind of funny as a satirical commentary on the greediness and selfishness of mankind. Overall, my story is very similar to the original version of UBiskurom, but I added a few extra details and made up the part about the fire.

 

Bibliography:

Folk-Tales of the Khasis by Mrs. K. U. Rafy (1920)