Essay Week 2: Fools in Love

Tricksters and Fools

Though Cupid and Psyche is remembered mostly for their love story, there is plenty of trickery going on. Mostly, it falls into two reasons for the tricks, jealousy and protection. First off, Cupid tricks his mother Venus and Psyche (and I guess everyone else) by concealing his identity and letting everyone think that Psyche has fallen into a bad marriage with a very mysterious man. Clearly, this intention was out of protection for Psyche, and he wanted to protect her because he loved her. The love between our two protagonists is the reason behind Psyche's later endurance of Venus's impossible tasks in order to be married to Cupid. However, all the remaining counts of trickery in this story are motivated by deep jealousy with a small hint of revenge.

The first set of bad-intentioned tricksters is Psyche's two older sisters. Though they are initially mourning for the loss of their sister, once they learn she has been taken to a nice palace and has a rich husband, their extreme sadness quickly turns to extreme hate. They let themselves become jealous of a marriage they knew nothing about and took for granted their own blessings. The trick they play is on Psyche, making her the fool. They convince her over several visits that she should not trust her husband and needs to kill him. Generally, taking the advice of your sisters does not make you a fool, but in this case, their horrible jealousy should have been clear as day. Then, in a very foolish act, Psyche actually starts the action of murdering Cupid in his sleep. Fortunately, she sees his face first and stops herself. Had Cupid not included his wife in his trickery, she would not have become the fool of her sisters in the first place. Of course, Psyche accidentally wakes him up, injuring him, and he flees in fear that for some reason Psyche is going to tell Venus and Venus will destroy her. This whole set of trickery actually goes exactly as planned by the sisters, and now it is their little sister's turn to try.

After Psyche figures out what her sisters have done to her and that they cost her her husband, she comes up with a plan for their death. Now knowing the extent of their jealousy, she gives them a chance at her life but when they foolishly jump to get to Cupid, they actually leap to their deaths. Their deaths showed their true disregard for their sister and both are now immortally labeled as fools.

Clearly there was lots of trickery in this tale, but all of it is there to warn the listener of making the same mistake as the fools. The most important detail is that (besides when Cupid fools the whole world) all the fools were only fooled because they let their emotions get the best of them and they never talked to anyone beside the trickster while making very important decisions.

Painting of Cupid and Psyche by Anthony van Dyck. Cupid and Psyche

Read the full story at Cupid.

Storytelling for Week 2: Cupid and Psyche in a Conquered Earth

Cupid and Psyche Retold

Space Elevator by Rei. Space Wikimedia

            In the not-so-close future, there was a beautiful girl named Psyche, who grew up in a small town in Montanada. The girl’s father was very smart and owned much of the land in the federation of Montanada. When his daughter turned 18, he was selected to become the high chancellor of their great society. With this, the family moved from a small farm to the large, bustling capital, Wilton. Suddenly, there were pictures of the high chancellor’s family everywhere, and everyone became obsessed with the beautiful Psyche. Paparazzi followed her everywhere, everyone photo shopped pictures of themselves with her to prove that they were her friend, but no one ever actually tried to be her friend or even stop and talk to her. She became more scared and depressed as time went on.

            Psyche’s two older sisters had gotten married before their father had come into his fame, and they soon became jealous of their younger, prettier sister’s fame. Her popularity had grown so large that it was brought to the attention of the overlords. Venus, the most beautiful of the overlords, was in charge of all legal marriages, and she had grown tired of hearing of this mere mortal who surpassed Venus’s beauty. She told her son (and employee as head matchmaker), Cupid, to make sure that no marriage ever be issued to this girl so that her beauty will be for not and the public would get over their obsession soon enough.

To complete his job, Cupid came down from Station 1 (where the overlords lived and controlled the earthly federations) and sought out Psyche for some reconnaissance. At the first sight of Psyche, Cupid’s heart skipped a beat… literally. Fortunately for Cupid, Psyche saw him as he collapsed and ran to his side. “Are you alright?” she asked. She stared into the stranger’s eyes and he felt familiar, like someone she had known a long time ago and had promised to someday meet again. “Uhh… uh,” Cupid mumbled as he stared at his newfound love. “I’m gonna go with no,” she said as she got on her phone and called the hospital. “Great,” she thought, “the only way someone will talk to me is if they need medical attention, and even then all I get is a useless ‘uh.’”

Later, Cupid tried to devise how he could see his love again. He was forbidden from even speaking a word to an earthling and if he got caught he would have his mother to deal with. But, despite the dangers, he came up with a plan. A week after their meeting, Psyche received a letter from the overlords saying that she had been given a match since she had become of age. Psyche was excited at first, but soon rumors had spread that the overlords were trying to banish her because she was distracting from the earthlings’ daily work. Her parents increasingly worried and cried over how they may not see their daughter anymore, but her sisters secretly rejoiced that their sister would be out of the spotlight. The letter contained no details about to whom she would be married, but it did contain strict instructions to show up at the sky elevator the next morning.

The departure of the lovely Psyche was covered by every allowed news source on earth. The optimistic reporters shared stories that she was betrothed to the head of space exploration and would spend the rest of her days seeking out other civilizations in the great unknown. Others reported that she was doomed to marry the Europa King, a slug-like creature who only appreciated the dirtiest things in life such as moldy plain yogurt and bad 1980s sitcoms. Soon, the elevator came down and the whole world watched as Psyche hugged her family, stepped in, and rose out of sight in the elevator.

In just a couple of seconds, the door opened and Psyche stepped out. What she saw was a large meadow full of wildflowers, a dark green forest, and a very large, yellow and blue mansion. She walked inside, and sitting on a small table was a note. The note said:

My Dearest Love,

We have met before and I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you that you were the one I wanted to spend eternity with. However, due to dire circumstances, which I cannot explain, I can never speak out loud to you and you must never know my name. I know this will be difficult, but just know that I love you and it must be this way.

Forever Yours

            The note had no name and no handwriting, but it was enough to calm her nerves.

            Several weeks passed by, and not only could she not talk to her husband, but she never saw him in the light. In the morning, he would be gone and a letter would be in his place. Her sisters, with murderous jealousy, would send her emails daily warning her that her husband was a fraud and that she needed to escape using any means necessary. Two months after her arrival, Psyche snuck her sisters onto the elevator and granted them access to her oasis in the sky. The sisters, growing even more jealous, did everything they could to convince her to escape this mysterious husband. They handed her a knife and told her to stab him in his sleep and then run away in the night. Psyche, confused by her sisters, planned to follow their advice.

            That night Psyche did not sleep at all. When she was certain that her husband was in deep slumber, she grabbed the knife and held it over his chest. But before she plunged it forward, she decided to look upon her husband’s face. She turned on the bedside lamp, and saw the stranger who had fainted at the sight of her. Reminded of their encounter, she threw the knife to the floor as her heart filled with love for him and hate towards her sisters and her own foolishness…

Author's Note

I decided to tell the story of Cupid in Psyche where the gods were aliens that governed over earth. I felt like that was the only way to have them in the future. Also, I only did the first half of the story before anything horrible happens because I honestly did not think that their version of a happy ending made up for all of the bad stuff in the middle. Also, I had to stop because I could not fit that long of a story into 1000 words. 

Bibliography

Kline, Tony. Apuleius's Golden Ass. 2013. Cupid and Psyche. Story URL

Week 2: Reading Diary, Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Psyche

-This is a framework story, beginning with a kidnapped princess and her old caretaker.

-The girl reveals she was kidnapped on her wedding day and that she fears for her betrothed, who she loves very much.

-Psyche is like the prettiest thing ever and everyone loves her face.

-Venus is very angry and becomes violent, like we expect from the Greek/Roman gods.

-Cupid is wild and crazy, just like his cartoons but more grown up crazy (adultery and such).

-Venus, Cupid’s mother, shows him her problem, Psyche.

-Venus tells Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with a horrible and pitiful man.

-Psyche does not like her beauty because everyone just wants to look at her and admire her, but no one wants to marry her.

- An oracle foretold of the plans that Venus had for Psyche and that her life would soon be over. Her parents were very sad since they will not see her daughter.

-The oracle makes it seem like she will be miserable and that her child will be a monster, but they always tend to be overdramatic.

-Psyche was brave and went to face her fate head on. Likely that is what the old woman wants the kidnapped girl to do.

-She is delighted to be transported to the palace of a god, lavishly cared for by invisible servants. Things are never as bad as the oracles say they will be, at least not yet.

-Her husband sleeps with her at night and has sex with her, but leaves without ever talking or showing her his face. Not much of a marriage, but he is a god.

-Psyche is much too dramatic and curious. She threatens that she will die if she cannot speak to her sisters and I am sure they will all mess up her marriage before she ever gets the chance to see any love in it.

-She uses sex to convince him to let her sisters visit. I do not see how that would be a good piece of advice for the old woman to give this kidnapped girl.

-Not surprised, though Psyche sticks to her word, her sisters plan to destroy her happiness because they are the original ugly stepsisters (though not step).

-Psyche should throw her sisters off a cliff when they evilly do as Cupid said they would, but she may still have some love for her sisters even though they want to ruin her life and probably end it. Sisters.

-Psyche decides to kill her husband in his sleep. Once again, not good advice for a kidnapped girl, but perhaps she is supposed to just be distracted or learn what not to do.

-Nothing ever goes right in these stories. She didn’t even try to kill him once she saw him, but she is still punished by his leaving and now she is super depressed and whiny. But there is hope that her sisters will be punished.

-Yep, sisters jumped off a cliff thinking Zephyr would take them to Cupid. Moral: don’t be an evil, jealous, vindictive, horrible sister.

-Venus is probably the worst character ever to be put in charge of love. The Romans must have really been messed up.

-The fairy tale part of this story continues with ants as little helpers rather than birds and forest animals. Also, Venus is still the worst and I hate her.

-More fairy tale: golden wool which has to be collected.

-She is saved by an eagle, which only reminds me of Lord of the Rings, in itself a different fairy tale.

-She is also sent into a deep coma-like sleep and is pretty much Sleeping Beauty.

-Since this is not Disney and the story focuses heavily on its horrible characters and not much on happiness, Cupid just wakes her up and that is kind of all it took.

-They get married and she is immortal now, though the whole time she was foolish and only finished tasks by the help from others.

-The girl and donkey find courage to escape but I really do not think the story of Psyche gave anyone any good advice or courage.


The full story of Cupid and Psyche can be found at Cupid. 

Introduction, Week 1

Hello,

My name is JD Weidman, and I am a senior chemical engineering student at OU. I feel like I should not put a ton of information on the internet, but I am sure you could find this out on Facebook and twitter. I am a member of Brothers Under Christ (BYX) and I actively attend Summit Church in Newcastle. As far as hobbies or free time, I do not have a ton of time for either. Chemical engineering gets pretty hard sometimes, and with BYX and my small groups, when I have free time I just want to be really lazy and not do anything. When I want to have fun, I go two stepping with a group of friends who I have always gone dancing with since freshman year. Second semester freshman year, we went almost every single Thursday night. The owner and the bodyguard actually know who we are and sometimes let us do free things like ride the mechanical bull as much as we wanted. Not exactly the coolest thing to do, but we are really good at two stepping now. Plus, it has some of the best people watching I have ever seen. So, besides that, for fun, I really like building a fire and eating smores in my backyard with my roommates, seeing movies at the Warren, and reading. As far as reading goes, I usually binge read while all school breaks when I have time. Harry Potter were my first books to read when I was little. I still like mystery books like the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Jack Reacher series. Though, I do not mind reading things that are pretty much complete garbage but still mildly entertaining, like all the Mortal Instruments books. So, I like to think being open to the crappy stuff and saying that qualifies me as cultured.

This picture is of me in front of 221b Baker Street in London. I have also read the first volume of the Tales of Sherlock Holmes. The photo was taken on my camera and taken by Armando Melendez. 

Week 1: Possible Storybook Favorites

The first storybook that really grabbed my attention was The Unanswered Questions of Pooh and Friends. At first, I thought they may be making fun of Winnie the Pooh and the characters or making them demented or something, but it looks like they are all behaving just like the original characters. In psychology class, we talked about how all the main characters have a basic psychological disorder, such as overeating, depression, anxiety, or ADHD, so I am assuming that is what these stories will deal with. I do find it humorous though and it's not like the author is going to present any seriously threatening problems like Pooh having a heart attack. You can find the story at Pooh.

The next storybook that grabbed my attention was Dragons Anonymous. The introduction is very funny and the website looked fairly well done. I am not that familiar with written stories of dragons, just ones from the movies, but I believe that they generally follow the same rules when it comes to dragons. They are usually the bad guys, or like in this case, seem like the bad guys but are really just misunderstood. The beginning scene is very similar to the opening scene from Wreck-It Ralph when he is at the video game villain support group. Likewise, it seems similar to How to Train Your Dragon, in that dragons are seen as evil, but really they just need to eat. However, in that movie, unlike in this story, the dragons seem dangerous because they are wild and misunderstood. Here, the dragons can talk and I do not yet understand why they do not try to talk to the humans, but I am sure I will find out when I read the rest of the story. This story is at Dragons.

Lastly, a storybook that really hooked me when I first read the title, and even more when I read the funny introduction, is A God Scorned or "How the Greek Gods Need Family Therapy Really Badly." Despite the very pink design of the website and a couple of grammar errors that stuck out to me, the story still seemed like there was so much to build on. I especially think that putting the Greek Gods in a Family Counseling setting is hilarious because they really are the worst behaved and most human gods to ever be made up. Now, I do believe the real life is usually stranger than fiction, but I do not think that when the stories of these gods were told that someone just made it up. I think that the reason they are so jealous and horrible is because the Greeks knew that even when people who are beautiful and powerful are that screwed up that it does not end well. But even if it does read like a bad Telemundo telenovela, at least it will be entertaining. You can find it at Greek gods.

Week 1: Decisions from the Un-Textbook

For weeks 2 and 3, the category is traditional and biblical stories. I will be choosing one from each of the categories. First, I think I would like to read the stories of Cupid and Psyche. Earlier this summer, I got to go to the Louvre, and there were so many statues and paintings inspired by these stories, but I was really not familiar enough with them to understand what was happening in the art. So, that should be very interesting since so many artists seem to have enjoyed the stories.

On week 3, I will be going with a biblical theme. I think I will be reading the modernized stories of the saints with Saints and Animals. Mostly, I really do not want to get into the problems that may arise when I read something I hold sacred and true, such as the Gospel of Mark, in a mythology class. Yet, for the same reason, the subject does interest me and it should be fun to see these stories told in a different light.

In week 4, a very interesting read would be Arabian Nights. I have read parts of it before, and Aladdin was always my favorite (though I know it is different from the movie). I always find the extremely wealthy lifestyles in the old Middle East very interesting. There have been many changes there over the years, but many things (both bad and good) have still remained constant.

Continuing the earlier theme of the Middle East (sorry India), I will be reading Turkish fairy tales. Turkey was seen as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East, and hopefully these old stories will shed some light on why so many different types of people chose to spend time there. Even if they do not, I am sure it will be much different fairytales I am used to.

Week 1: Storytelling Again of Doctor Foster

There once was a young man named Francis D. Foster who grew up in a small town called Gloster. As far as young boys go, Francis was particularly skinny and very clumsy. The whole town called him by the nickname of Footloose Foster because he always tripped on things whenever he was walking down the street. Eventually, Francis became fed up with this nickname and decided to prove to the whole town that he could become something useful! He was very smart, but unfortunately his small town did not have the proper training in the subject which would hopefully deliver him from his horrible nickname, medicine.

When he became old enough, Francis moved away to the big city to become a doctor. For years, he studied hard and worked two jobs to pay for his schooling until finally, ten years later, he gained enough experience to open up his own practice. But, not forgetting the citizens of his hometown and their years of mockery they put him through, he returned to show them his success. When he showed up he had expected everyone to immediately recognize him and he would gloat in all their amazement at his triumphs! But, like for most of his life, people simply did not notice. In fact, even when he would announce that he was Dr. Francis D. Foster, people had no idea who he was.

For days, he talked to everyone he could find to see if they remembered Francis Foster, but he had no luck. On his final day of his trip, the annual town garden festival started. Thinking that there had to be someone there that remembered him, he planned to make an announcement at the big championship banquet in front of the whole town. Though this was at its core a very well- thought out plan, there was one part that had alluded Francis. It had been raining all day long, and he was so distracted by his grand plan that he had forgotten all about his tendency to trip in front of large crowds. When the time came to make his announcement, poor Dr. Foster walked up to the stage, tripped on a rock, and fell face first into a giant puddle! Then, all at once, the town recognized him and all shouted out "It's Dr. Footloose Foster!" and pointed and laughed. The doctor, finally accepting that in his hometown, he would always be seen as a clumsy little boy, pointed his body toward the big city and walked all the way there, only tripping two or three times.

The End.

Puddle Hopping by T. Keller. Wikimedia

Author's Note: 

This story was inspired by the nursery rhyme, Doctor Foster. The rhyme originally went as follows: Doctor Foster went to Glo'ster in a shower of rain; He stepped in a puddle, up to his middle, And never went there again. 

I decided to take this story as it was and continue to let my story be as odd and sad. The original work can be found using the info in the bibliography.

Bibliography:

T. Eden Keller. Flickr. CC-BY-2.0 Wikimedia Commons. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

Twitter List Tech Tip

Personally, I used the twitter lists to separate social life (friends and OU football and some funny accounts) from more serious accounts (all the armed forces and news outlets). It is good to be able to check out the news on twitter, especially when the links and pictures are just right there, and the military twitters and government agencies always have interesting things to say. I want to be able to have access to those, but I did not want them getting in between my friends' tweets.

Week 1: Alaska is Clearly the Best (and one of my Favorite Places)

A couple of weeks ago, I went on family vacation to Alaska, and it provided for some very beautiful photos to be given as reasons for it to be one of my favorite places.

 This is a picture of the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska. 

This picture is the view from port in Skagway, Alaska.

This is the end of the Tracy Fjord. That glacier goes1700 feet further under the water. 

This is also in the Tracy Fjord.

All pictures were taken the first week of August, 2014, by me, on the sites mentioned above. 

What up

Testing post for my first online class, Mythology and Folklore of the World!