Week 7 Reading Diary: Japanese Mythology

Izanagi and Izanami
-Izanagi is all-powerful god of the air
-Izanami is goddess of the cloud
-They decide one day that they should come down to earth
-Their descent made a big island
-Make a point to redo things so that the man is the first to speak, interesting part to put in a story
-Marriage results in the eight islands of Japan
-Everything else was built later and the a spirit for everything (spirit of the trees and such was made). This part I think is consistent is most Japanese stories.
-Man comes last, similar to most creation stories
-Chooses leader (one of his children) based on beauty, this might not end well
-Other kid gets very jealous and everyone on earth dies (not exactly a flood story but kind of)
-OG ruler helped rebuild population and gave virtues (heavenly powers)
-More creation stuff

The Miraculous Mirror
-Poetry
-Perhaps not elevated language but it is really fancy
-Not sure if this style is strictly Japanese, but I can't really recognize the prose or anything

The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi
-Lower gods climb into the mountains to find a bigger god to help their daughter
-These gods have to do a lot of work and aren't all powerful, good lesson to learn
-Completely destroys an eight headed monster!
-Also married the girl saved, well done

The Heaven Descended
-Epic poem
-The gods sent down a young man god to get the earth dwellers under control
-He immediately fell in love and got married instead of doing his job
-others get mad and kill him, then throw a humungous and long funeral
-some more tasks, a marriage of more gods
-Ninigi tries to marry pretty daughter, gets stuck with both.
-rejected, unwanted, ugly sister curses them
-Eventually curse is fixed with test of fire, very dangerous and very weird

The Fortunate Fish-Hook
-Two brothers, one an awesome hunter, one an awesome fishermen, switch for a day, both suck at other thing
-Hunter loses the magic fish hook
-Old Man of the Sea helps him
-Magic basket takes the hunter to palace of the Ocean God
-Of course he sees and falls in love with the daughter
-Have a giant feast with crabs playing music like in Little Mermaid and then get married
-This has sea dragons and pregnancy and house building and brother drama and tide controlling talismans
-fairy lands

Japanese Dragon by Hokusai. Image information.

The Rescue of the Princess-Yamato
-Yamato is an awesome dude who is just ba
-Unfortunately, his wife is kidnapped after they are attacked on their honeymoon and he is almost killed.
-He uses some magic and dresses up as a bride so he can get into the hiding place where the kidnappees are kept
-Killed some dudes in awesome ways, stormed the castle, got the princess
-Story will continue though
-Grotto of Love
-Yamato gets bored of his wife when she doesn't need saving
-Tries to find his lost mermaid, goes through dragons and things to find her grotto
-She sends him first on a journey for the golden apple to earn her love
-Lots of little stories within this story, told by characters. Not as crazy as Arabian Nights though
-No idea where to go, so he kills time by killing a demon possessed boar.
-My only knowledge of Japanese folklore is from Miyazaki, but I keep seeing similarities.
-Savages set a fire, Princess Tacibana shows him how to save everyone, but is badly burnt. Very brave for a female mythology character
-Keeps going back to the siren, even though his wife literally walked through fire to save him.
-Siren Finally betrays him
-Killed a Stag demon to get that sword back
-Love for his wife saves the die
-Dragon, good in any fairy tale
-Dead wife, really sad for this story, but he kind of deserves it.

The Faery Robe
-These are not really that nice of fairies
-Not as cool as the other stories, Long poem style

The Jewel of Heart's Desire
-She man marries the emperor and she wants him to be more like his father and a warrior
-Emperor doubts a goddess and is killed
-Wife takes over with some magic help
-still an evil smiling dragon, quality story lines now.
-Not down on women in these stories as long as they can fight.

Urashima
-Doesn't kill a turtle, gets him invited to live in the sea kingdom as an immortal
-Basically, immortality is lonely and you'll kill yourself on accident while trying to visit your family and realizing everyone you once knew is now dead.


Read the entire unit here.

Week 6 Essay: Horrible Chinese Parents

Parents and Children in Chinese Fairy Tales

Chinese Family including the women. Image information.

I really felt that the children and parents in these stories had horrible relationships, but I think that it may be somewhat realistic for Chinese culture. The stories generally had overbearing, very strict parents, but so do my Chinese friends.

The story that bothered me the most was "The Cave of the Beasts," which features a man with seven daughters. First off, the man is selfish. If he did not want to raise seven children, then he should have found a way to stop having kids after girl number four. 

When he finds seven goose eggs, he tells his wife to cook them all only for him and not to give the kids any. He also does not allow his wife to have one of the eggs. Predictably, the girls eat all the eggs and the dad gets angry. At this point, a normal "strict" parent does something along the lines of forcing the kids to do rough farming work or making them find 14 more goose eggs to repay him. However, this dad decides he is going to kill all of his children. 

I know that the Chinese do not have a great track record when it comes to the treatment of daughters, but killing all seven of your daughters at once should warrant a death penalty even in the Far East. Another thing that I found disturbing that can still be seen in Chinese culture today was that none of the family objected. The five older daughters know the dad's intentions to leave them in the forest for dead and refuse to go, but they do not warn the two youngest daughters. And perhaps worst of all, the mom says absolutely nothing to her own daughters. In modern Chinese culture, the complete dedication to the rules set by authority is very high. You do not speak against the government, and you do not speak against your father (at least not in front of him). 

The other part that bothers me so much about this horrendous father-daughter relationship is that after the daughters have faced the dangers of the forest, killed the wolf and the fox, and found huge amounts of treasure, the dad comes back for them and they instantly go back home. I am all for there being reconciliation with family members who may have made bad decisions, but in this case, there should have at least been a deal made where the girls get to keep their own treasure and the dad promises not to try to kill them again. 

Overall, not all of the stories in this unit had murderous parents, but there were other subtle examples of the absolute, unquestioned power of parents over their children throughout the fairy tales. 

You can find the whole story here.

Storytelling Week 6

Crazy Dad and His Daughters

Once upon a time in England, there was a man who had seven daughters who lived with his wife in a small cottage in the English countryside. This man's name was Bond, George Bond. You may have heard of his brother, the world famous spy and playboy. George was like his brother in many ways, license to kill, fluent in eleven languages, advanced knowledge of computers and awesome gadgetry. However, they had their differences, George was a one woman kind of man and had become quite the family man with his seven lovely daughters. Having to raise that many daughters came with a skill set and challenges all of their own.

George was very very very protective of his precious children, but he knew that he could not always be there to protect them. As all of the girls grew up, he taught them survival skills in all settings: desert, forest, urban, tundra, flood, and at sea. He also coached them all in fencing, riflery, and the bow. When they were about 10 or 12, he would take them two at a time to go camping, fishing, and hunting in the forest near their grandmother's house. When it was the youngest couples turn to go, they were very excited and were bragging to their sisters about how they were going to kill the big bad wolf! Their older sisters just laughed and wished them good luck.

Cave entrance. Info for this picture.

On the first night of the camping trip, the girls heard a wolf howling at the moon. These were two particularly brave little girls, and armed with a bow and a rifle each, they came out of the tent and quietly jetted toward the howls of the wolf. George, being quite tired from a week of killing key leaders of ISIS, did not wake when his daughters left the tent.

As the young girls approached the wolf, it scattered away. They quickly ran after it and saw that it went into a small opening in the side of a cliff. Being courageous and determined to capture the big bad wolf, they each loaded an arrow and creeped in. The wolf could smell the young girls and got the higher ground. Soon, the girls entered the cave and the wolf pounced down on them from the top of the ceiling. The girls' training kicked in and simultaneously they rolled to the sides and shot off their arrows! Each girls' arrows went straight into both of the wolf's eyes, instantly killing him.

In the morning, George felt a mix of anger, worry, and pride for his youngest daughters. He helped them skin the big bad wolf and take it home for their older sisters to see. The whole family was impressed by the biggest, meanest looking wolf fur they had ever seen.

Author's Note: The original was a horrible story about a father who left his daughters in the woods alone to be eaten by wolves because they ate his eggs for breakfast. So, I thought I would make a better story about a good dad. The original also had them killing a wolf, but it was because they just got lucky. Also, I just really like international spies.

Read the bad story at horrible father.

Week 6 Reading Diary

Chinese Fairy Tales

The Favorite Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck
-Basically this is a story about how bad luck will kill you even if you are the daughter or wife of the emperor.
-Also, if you have good luck then you will become an emperor even if you are born a beggar.

The Cave of the Beasts
-So there were seven little girls who ate these seven goose eggs that their father wanted to eat.
-Their father then planned to kill them by leaving them in the woods for the wolves.
-They found a cave where a wolf and fox lived with all their treasures, killed them, took the gold and went home.

The Panther
-Like the wolf that eats grandma but it's a panther who eats mom and little brother and then the sisters get a bunch of people from the town to help set up a Rube Goldberg of death.

Why Dog and Cat Are Enemies
-Cat and Dog journey together and scheme to get the good luck of a ring back to their owners.
-The cat took all the credit because cats are evil.

Yang Oerlang
-Demigod who can shape shift and destroys nine of ten suns out of anger for his mother's death before he becomes a full god in the heavens.

The Lady of The Moon
-Hou I was such a good archer that he shot down nine of the ten suns with his bow so that people could actually live and work outside without being burnt to a crisp
-He was rewarded for being awesome with an herb of immortality but his wife secretly ate it and then floated up to the moon to live in a castle.
-These stories have yet to mention love.  Chinese.
-The moon palace is made of crystal and so is everything in it. This seems much more like a fairy tale I would expect.

SilkWorm Goddess
-Super Weird
-Engagements to animal then turning into a silkworm and your friend killing you for money then vein put in charge of worms in the afterlife.

The God of War
-Once a man, lots of followers.  Became a god of war in death and his followers killed themselves.
-He is actually a big deal, maybe not quite as big as Confucius though.

The Miserly Farmer
-Wouldn't give a pear so priest thingy does magic and gives away all his pears. These stories teach odd lessons or no lessons really.

The King of The Ants
-The ants look like people but the king made fun of the scholar so the scholar destroyed all of them because humans rule!

The Little Hunting Dog
-This guy saw more tiny people and they left behind their dog and he adopted it and it ate his flies but he killed it on accident in his sleep
-For some reason I have liked this one the most.  Maybe just because there is a dog in it.

Fox-Fire
-A fox that breathes a ball of fire
-Cool fox
-guy steals the magic fire and gets powers (much more interesting than normal)
-Uses powers to make money then loses powers when he gets old
-Chinese do not make very interesting plots

The Talking Silver Foxes
-Not even a story, just about the animals
-Magical creatures are generally smart but get killed in most of these stories.

Retribution
-Witness to a murder but stays silent to protect old man
-Best actual plot of all these stories
-Ghost of dead guy comes back and the soul is placed in a baby next door several years later, ooooh
-little boy accidentally kills the guy who accidentally killed him in the first place, circle of death

The Night on the Battlefield
-Ghost story of a guy who spent the night with a bunch of dead soldiers and didn't know it.

The Maiden who was Stolen Away
-A cyclone moved her while she was sleeping, like in Wizard of Oz
-She is stuck at the top of a tower by an ogre but her brother saves her, not a suitor

The Flying Ogre
-Even when there is king of a twist, there's not
-Ogre was the girl. Then she "probably" was killed

The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge
-Basically the sorcerer for the Illuminati
-He gets caught by 1000 men but then still gets away somehow and gets his son and wife away

Chinese Fairy Tales

Week 5 Essay Post

Crime and Justice in Turkish Fairy Tales

The stories in the Turkish Fairy Tale unit shed a little light on the odd justice system of the area. While nowadays the justice in Turkey at times will seem very harsh, depending on what demographic group someone belongs to may determine whether there will ever be justice at all. 

As for justice in these stories, it varies greatly in strictness. For example, in The Wizard and His Pupil, the wizard is a thief, but he teaches the young man to also be a thief, which he pursues. Then, when he runs away from the wizard, and the wizard tries to bring him back to work, the pupil kills the wizard. The pupil is supposed to be the good guy and is rewarded by becoming part of the king's court. This sort of justice seems a bit twisted to me. The wizard was not a good man, but the boy was just as dishonest and violent (hence the killing in the end).

This image by Arthur Rackham is how I imagine the man and the imp. Image information here.

While this is definitely a more interesting story and maybe more realistic than other fairy tales, there is generally a lesson to be learned, which does not happen here. Another example of odd, Turkish justice is from the Imp in the Well. When the main character's nagging, horrible wife falls down the well, no one does anything. The imp is so scared of having to spend time with her again that he flees when her name is mentioned and never returns. So, though she may be the most annoying person ever that does not mean that she deserves to die. But in these stories, anyone who is not the main character who breaks a rule is probably going face a horrible fate.

The justice in fairly tales is often skewed in favor of the main character, but no main characters have as morally questionable actions as the ones in the Turkish Fairy Tales.

You can find this reading unit at Turkish Fairy Tales.

Storytelling for Week 5: Mad Max Madjun

Mad Max Madjun

After nuclear holocaust, the earth is left a wasteland and in order to survive, people must travel far distances to trade and barter. For this travel, they drive modified cars that are faster, more durable, and weaponized. Mad Max was the best (and the craziest) of these drivers.

He was just a young lad when one day he came across an Indian witch doctor who was being attacked by a notorious, dangerous, mangy, road gang known as the Crows. They were known throughout the world as the biggest and most evil crime organization. Max bravely drove in a tight circle around the witch doctor and popped the machine guns out of the side of his car. The Crows reluctantly retreated, vowing their revenge on Max. However, the witch doctor was forever grateful for what Max had done.

"MadMazAus" from the post for Mad Max. More information.

To pay the debt of his life to Max, he told him one word that would help him when in danger or trouble: MADJUN. Max did not take the witch doctor seriously, but remembered the word just in case.

Soon after, Max passed the mansion of the Sultan of Red Planet (Earth’s new nickname). There, he laid eyes on the Sultan’s daughter and instantly fell in love. He begged the Sultan to let him court her -this had sort of fallen back into fashion since marriage and having children were actually a necessity to the replenishment of humans on Red Planet. The Sultan at first refused, but Max persisted and asked every day for two weeks.

Finally, after two weeks the Sultan said, “You may court my daughter, HA! you may even marry her, if you bring me every last one of the Crows dead or alive by midnight tomorrow!” Max was overwhelmed by this task, but accepted the challenge.

Immediately, he set out on the road to find the Crows. Since they were also looking for him, it did not take long before all of them surrounded his car. Every Crow was there, slowly walking toward Max’s vehicle. They set off an EMP, disabling his weapons. As they reached his car, Max’s mind raced to find out what to do next. Almost as a reflex, he shouted, “MADJUN!” and every single one of the Crows froze in place.

Max pushed them and even punched a few to see if they would react, but it was as if they had become statues. Slowly, Max loaded them one by one into one of their own semis and delivered them all to the Sultan’s prison. The Sultan was amazed that the impossible task had been accomplished and was so thankful that he pronounced the engagement of his own daughter to Mad Max to all of the Red Planet.

Mad Max fell more in love with the Sultan’s daughter every day, and she fell in love with him. He remained as crazy and wild as ever and was made the captain of the World Road Police Force. They lived happily ever after.


Author's Note: This original story is called Madjun, and obviously it does not have Mad Max as a main character. However, it is a Turkish fairy tale about a young boy who must capture every bird in the world in order to marry the Sultan's daughter. A wizard tells him about a special tree all the birds go to and to say Madjun when they land on it. They live happily ever after. The original can be found here.

Reading Diary Week 5: Turkish Fairy Tales

Fear
-These characters seem to be very different than European fairy tales
-This boy is already brave and rather than learning a big lesson, teaches everyone around him about bravery and having no fear.
-Though the woman is in an odd position to try to get the boy to marry him, instead of forcing him, she is the only one who figures out how to scare him and it is simple and she actually earns the marriage and convinces him to be king.

Wizard-Dervish
-Hard to tell which characters are good or bad in these stories
-the wizard took away the prince at 20 years, but still, he gave them a prince for 20 years.
-He flogs the prince for three days, but then after he gives him one of his daughters for marriage.
-Very odd wizard
-There's also a witch, maybe she will be more clearly the bad guy
-They are in this chase with the witch, escape, the prince goes home, and then the dervish sets it up for the first wedding to become their wedding and they are married.
-I don't see any lesson to be learned from this and its fairly short on action, but it is still a nice story.

The Fish-Peri
-The boy discovers a fish and doesn't eat it because it's pretty, is rewarded with beautiful, magical wife.
-Very unlike other mermaid stories, but basically there is not a bad guy, but someone else who wants to marry the girl.
-Magic beats royalty
-Also, he keeps not following instructions and nothing bad is coming of it
-The magic slaps the king in the face, best ending

The Crow-Peri
-Same story as the fish but instead of completing tasks to marry his wife, he is saving his own life
-However, he does end up with the crow still and now the king gets a fairy queen wife too.

Patience-Knife and Patience-Stone
-Weird bird foretelling a girl's fate with a dead person.
-This may be an odd reversal of Snow White where the girl has to work for forty days to bring back to life the prince. So maybe more like the frog prince even.
-Arab swoops in and steals the prince at the last second, now the other girl is a servant
-Kismet wins. That's fate.

The Imp in the Well
-We continue with very odd characters where the good people are not really that good and the bad people are not that bad.
-The "bad guy" in this is kind of the imp because imps are just evil spirits in this that make you sick.
-But, the main man's wife is actually the worst wife ever and the most annoying woman ever.
-So annoying that the thought of her being near casts the imp out of a princess and saves the day

The Soothsayer
-This guy also has a wife that is jealous and kind of nagging, but this time we forgive her because she is really beautiful so the husband doesn't want her to leave. Everyone knows that  attractiveness to allowed crazy is a ratio and if one is higher than the other must be higher or deal off.
-Also, this man gets a position of high authority by lying and cheating just because his wife wants to take fancier baths.

The Wizard and His Pupil
-I am using this in my storybook section
-The pupil is a rebel against the wizard, but the wizard is bad so it's kind of alright when he kills the wizard finally
-These Turkish characters really are tough

The Liver
-This is more like a nursery rhyme
-It's a long list of things that the girl has to get so she can bring home the liver for dinner and the list slowly gets longer until she finally gets one thing and then is able to get everything else.
-Like the one with the lady who swallowed a fly

Madjun
-Similar to other stories where the boy has to complete impossible tasks to marry the Sultan's daughter
-Also, he is bald for some reason
-This one uses the same spell to freeze a bunch of people in place

Kunterbunt
-Really weird nonsensical stuff
-Don't worry it was all a dream

All the Turkish Fairy Tales in this unit can be found here.

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Week 4 Essay

Magic in Arabian Nights

Though the frame story of Arabian Nights is set in an old but realistic world, it does not contain any magic. However, almost all of the stories that Scheherazade tells and even the ones that her characters’ characters tell contain magic and destiny. They also contain a main character that uses the magic for good or defeats someone who is trying to use magic for evil purposes.

In her first couple of stories, Scheherazade shows a genie that is angry and bitter from being trapped inside of a lamp for 400 years. He does not think about things, he just kind of tells everyone near him that he will kill them for being there. Eventually, his mind is changed and the magic changes from a source of fear for the main character to a source of joy. This change in the view of magic mirrors what Scheherazade hopes will be a change of heart in her murderous husband.

"He's Behind You" from the UK national archives. Aladdin.

In Aladdin, the source of magic is also coming from genies. These genies seem to not care (or are perhaps forced not to care) how bad or harmful a wish may be. Aladdin is not a special character or very admirable, but after years of use of magic wishes, he learned the responsibility of the power that comes with the genies. When he is effectively the sultan, the people love him because he takes care of them and is generous. When the African wizard has the genies, he kidnaps the princess and moves the palace, striking fear into the hearts of the people.

Overall, the theme of magic in Arabian Nights is used to reveal character. The person who is made to deal with magic reveals either that they are smart enough to use it for good and avoid death or that they are cowards and usually ends up dying. In the case of Aladdin, the magic actually builds character as he grows up with it and in the end he brings justice to the ones who misuse it. He kills not only the African wizard, but also his more evil little brother.

The stories discussed can be found in the Arabian Nights Section.

Storytelling Week 4: The Story of the Second Old Man and the Two Black Dogs

You see these two dogs that follow me around, they used to me my brothers. About ten years ago, after they had fallen into some bad luck with the wrong crowd up in Chicago, we decided to take a nice long trip on down to New Orleans. Once we got there, we bought a boat and became fishermen. The boat was old, but it worked well and even had enough for us all to be somewhat comfortable.

Our business was good enough and being out on the water all day made it easier to stay away from anyone who might happen to know our friends from the windy city.

One day, as we were bringing in our catch to the pier, a beautiful girl caught my eye. Her clothes were dirty and old, but something about the way she looked at me made me feel alive. Obviously, being the man that I am, I went up to her and offered to buy her dinner. She agreed of course, and we went to dinner and stayed talking in the restaurant until they kicked us out. I was in love.

The next day, she appeared again, but in nicer clothes and wearing strange jewelry I had never seen. She told me that she wanted to be my wife and that she wanted to go with me on my year-long fishing trip. I knew I was in love and I agreed immediately, however I did not even bother asking my brothers, they were just going to have to accept our new member of the family.

Over the next couple of months, we travelled from port to port, selling our catch. As time went on, I grew more in love and my brothers grew more in their jealousy of my wife and me. During a tropical storm one night, they came into our room, wrapped us in our sheets, and threw us overboard to drown.

I thought for sure we would die, but my wife muttered some strange words, and suddenly we were back on the pier in New Orleans. I was dumbstruck and asked what had happened. My wife was furious and said that she was going to use all the voodoo she knew to find and kill my brothers. Obviously, her being a voodoo queen had never crossed my mind, but at that moment I got over that shock and begged for my brother’s lives. I told her that she needed to punish them but not to take their lives.

In the end, she cast a spell that turned them into two useless, fat, black dogs that could never leave this small town. After ten years, they would be returned to their human forms but would still not be able to leave town. The ten years is almost up and soon my brothers will be able to take care of themselves. I will be reunited with my wife in New Orleans and never be bothered again by their stupid decisions. Now, isn’t that just the craziest story if you ever did hear one?

Author's Note: This story is actually still pretty much the same as the Arabian Nights version except I set it in the US. I figured that it would work the same in modern times if I used a voodoo queen instead of a fairy and got the brothers to have more troubles with the law rather than poor business decisions. Also, I decided to keep the first person storytelling since this belongs in a story within a story. 

Bibliography: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by H.J. Ford. 1898. http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/04/arabian-nights-two-black-dogs.html

Black Pug from ToyBreeds.com. Find more information here.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights
-Scheherazade is basically a boss storytelling and possibly the smartest character I have come across in this class.
-It is odd to see a female character from the middle east be so cunning, smart, brave, and even independent.
-Second layer of story telling is fairly easy to follow and is entertaining enough for her to keep her life.
-Eventually there is a second set of second layer which in turn has a third layer.
-Very confusing way of telling a story, but it is necessary for Scheherazade to make the story linger as long as possible.
-Third layer of the story is getting confusing with its two fourth layer stories of defeat and betrayal.
-The end of this fourth layer goes back to the main third layer and will eventually go back to two, all the while checking in on level one (Scheherazade) to show that her elaborate storytelling is actually saving her life and another woman's life every night she delays.
-Every story and layer has had either a king or a genie (person in authority) that is threatening death of an innocent person. I assume that this will tie in to the attempt to make her king see the error of his ways and stop killing his wives every day.
-The fisherman actually did convince the genie not to kill him and actually to make him very rich.
-Now instead of being close to death, he is on an adventurous journey with his king.
-Scheherazade is showing that both the authority and the subjects can live in peace and even find adventures together.
-They now find another interesting man with a statue for a bottom half and he will take them to a different room on level 3.
-This story not only has the king releasing people from death but actively fighting for them and showing love for his neighborly kingdom.
-Also, that he shows his blessing to the young kind and pronounces him heir shows that he still has hope though he did not produce an heir himself.
-These attributes of a good king show what Scheherazade wants her king to do.

Aladdin
-Actually Aladdin is kind of Chinese and a sorcerer tricks him into going into a magic cave to get the magic lamp and he is trapped.
-Somewhat similar to Disney there.
-Aladdin finds a genie in a ring and he brings him home.
-No talk of only three wishes yet.
-Genie 2 was found in the lamp
-Genie 2 feeds them on silver plates and they sell the plates for several years (much longer than I thought)
-Aladdin's love at first sight leads to kidnapping the princess and her husband on their wedding night to make sure they do not consummate the marriage and she scares the princess perhaps too much for her to ever forgive him.
-No explanation as to why he does not just wish that the wedding was called off.
-After a couple of nights, the groom asked to be separated and technically the marriage was never complete
-This story shows the main character literally buying love and marriage by way of magic. His wishes seem to have no limit at this point, but he is still only using them to get to what he believes is his true love.
-Aladdin is a good man, leader, and fighter. And the princess is happy with him and the sultan is happy with him. Everyone likes him but the vizir.
-Power did not go to his head. This is perhaps another hint to the Scheherazade's husband of how a real man rules his people.
-Another bit that is probably for Scheherazade's benefit, Aladdin loses the lamp because he did not tell his wife what it was.
-I do like that they actually kill the bad guy and that the bad guy has an even more evil  little brother who is now out for revenge.
-Bonus points for faking a headache and stabbing the bad guy right in the heart. This Aladdin knows how to protect his wife.


Arabian Nights can be read here.

Essay Week 3: Animal Motif

Recurring Motifs: Saints Connection to Nature

In the Saints and Animals reading unit, the hero (saint) always had a supernatural command over or connection to wild animals. In almost all the stories, the saint has a deep connection to God and spurring from that, a deep connection to His creation. They clearly show the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These characteristics applied not only to humans but overflowed to all living creatures.

In these stories, the love for God’s creatures always led to some advantage over them, befriending them or using them for their bidding. In Christianity, it is believed that creation itself is proof that there is a great and powerful God. In the story of Job, when Job has lost all his family, his wealth, his friends, and his health, he cries out to God. The way that God shows him that He is in control is by reminding him about His awesome creation. In this description, God talks about wild animals that everyone fears and no one could try to kill with any real hope, but they are still under the control of their creator.

Carl Weidemeyer-Worpswede - Die Blümlein des heiligen Franziskus von Assisi.  Wolf

The theme of saints also being in control of animals is no different than control of any other part of God’s creation, including forces of nature. However the one thing that no saint ever has control over is another human. These stories may seem as if they elevate the importance of animals’ lives, and to some point, they do. But, the reason that humans cannot be controlled is because they have a soul and free will while all these animals, no matter how wild or strong they seem, still remain under control of the hero. In the end, though the animals may have been wild or killed people, they can always be tamed, and it is the humans in the story who always have the choice and ability to remain wild and are the real danger.

The story unit can be found here.