Week 11 Essay

Alice in Wonderland and Drugs

Alice in Wonderland poster. Image Information.

A lot of people I know like to say that Alice in Wonderland is all about drugs or at least that Lewis Carroll was on a lot of drugs when he wrote it. Personally, I think that is taking a great piece of work and reducing it to something lesser. It is a shame when someone takes something that an artist has worked on very hard and they say, "well I could've done that too if I was that high." It is said so much that a lot of people think you need drugs to "expand your mind," or to be truly creative. 

The book was written about 150 years ago, but that does not mean there were not drugs. However, the drugs then were opiates and were not generally hallucinogens. I know that everything in this story is like you are "trippin," at least from what I have been told, but the intention of the book was to recreate the overactive imagination of a child. I think I get overly protective of the story because when I was little, the stories and places that I came up with while playing were way weirder than Wonderland.

My favorite game was one called mirror land and I would jump through this old, rusty frame of a large mirror to be transported there. Basically everything was backwards there, so I had a different name, a different family, and there were different rules of physics. The rules of physics were broken via trampoline. At some point, I decided you must also talk backwards, and to this day, I can say entire sentences completely backwards almost as fast as I can say them forward. Of course there are different rules of pronunciation when talking backward, but they can be learned.

I understand that it may be a possibility that the author was high. And I know that the candy makes her grow or shrink. In fact, after changing shapes so many different times, she has an identity crisis because she says that there is no way she can be the same person she was before she changed size so many times. The part about the mushrooms also having weird effects, like making her neck so long that she is basically a snake and gets attacked by birds in the air, definitely points to something weird going on. If you wanted to make this into a story about the consequences of drugs, it would not be difficult. But to me, you are taking a very innocent piece of art and making it into something very bad. 

So, the fact that kids can actually think of awesome worlds and stories on their own means that everyone is creative at some point in their life, and I believe that saying things like, "he must've been so high when he wrote that," limits your own creativity.

Full Story.

Storytelling Week 11

A Mad Starbucks Chai Tea Latte Party
Alice was sure she was lost in the forest, but the Cheshire Cat told her that this was the right way to get to a party. Suddenly, she heard an outburst of intense laughter that simultaneously reminded her of a wild dog and a squeaking mouse. When the source of the noise came into view, she discovered a mouse, a rabbit, and a man with a very large hat. She assumed the man to be "The Mad Hatter," and the rabbit to be "The Mad Hare," but no one had mentioned the giant mouse. It did not seem very important at the moment, considering he was asleep.
She waited for a lull in the laughter to politely ask if she may take a seat at the table, but the cackling remained constant. Finally, she decided to sit down and talk over the laughter, saying "Hello, how do you do? May I join your tea party?" Much to her surprise, the laughter quickly came to a halt and the hatter stared at her with a surprised look in his eye. Just as quickly as the laughter had stopped, it started again. Alice could not help but chuckle a little herself, being in such an odd situation.
"My dear," said the hatter, "this is not a tea party. No no no no no, this is so much more than just tea! This is a Starbucks, and we have every drink imaginable and there are endless combinations to the extras you can put into your drink!" Alice just looked at the man, knowing that his nickname had been know joke and that he was indeed quite mad. "But what else is there to drink, sir?" asked Alice so very politely. "WHAT ELSE? WHAT ELSE? this young woman must be educated! Hare, go get the specialty!" The hatter yelled out some more orders to the hare, but Alice did not understand a single word of it.
After a presentation on the different categories of drinks that the hatter could make, including cappuccinos, lattes, coffees, iced coffees, frappuccinos, espressos, and about ten types of tea, he asked Alice what she would like to drink. She hesitated and responded, "hmm, I believe I will just have some plain, English tea, sir." Quickly, the hatter snapped back at her, "Nope. See, I have spent all my days trying to find the perfect drink for girls like you, and I have finally perfected it. HARE, bring in the orangey gooey one!"
The hare quickly ran over to Alice with a large cup filled with a frothy liquid that had an odd, orange tint but a very sweet smell. With the hatter watching intently, she took a sip. Then, she took another sip, and a gulp, and another and another until the entire cup was gone. "Wow!" proclaimed Alice, "that was the best drink I have ever tasted! What do you call it?"
The Mad Hatter leaned over to the hare and then said, "well, we were debating on the final name, but we have decided to call it 'The Pumpkin Spice Latte.'"

Official Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks website. Info here.

Author's Note: This is clearly based off of the Mad Tea Party section of Alice in Wonderland, but I decided that if Alice heard the hatter and the hare talking about all the different things on a Starbucks menu, she would assume it was gibberish and that they were crazy. The pumpkin spice latte also needed an origin story.


Bibliography: Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. "The Mad Tea-Party." 1865.


Read the original.

Week 11 Reading Diary: Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

Down the Rabbit Hole
-Everyone is quite familiar with these stories from the movies and because the books are so popular.
-As she falls to Wonderland, she takes time to ponder things like being polite to people walking on their heads and how to tell if she is in Australia without rudely asking.
-Her thinking about politeness and the length to the center of the earth at the same time is to point out how some of the stuff she is learning about she finds silly.
-The ridiculous height of the fall and the gentle way she lands shows that this is fantasy, and now would just be accepted in a children's book, but Carroll was the first to create this "nonsensical" kind of plot.
-"very few things were really impossible."

Advice from a Caterpillar
-The caterpillar may be my favorite character.
-People always try to say that this is about drugs and this is one of the parts that they say the characters do drugs. People are dumb.
-He is smoking and contradicting everything she says or is thinking about
-"Father William"
-She ponders whether she is the same or if her experiences have changed who she is as a person

Pig and Pepper
-Frog butlers and THE Cheshire cat
-Baby pig
-Cat in the tree
-"you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

A Mad Tea Party
-Pretty ridiculous conversations
-They're the kind of mad that is amusing and not harmful
-Alice seems not to understand when to ignore what they say and when to take them seriously

The Queen's Croquet Grounds
-Off with her head!
-Flamingos and Hedgehogs
-The king and queen are some of the most memorable characters from these stories.
-They may be how many of the public thought of many of the nobles: dumb and quick to kill.
-She may be bloody mary but I think she is just a generic, bad queen

Who Stole the Tarts?
-Court of law, wonderland style.
-basically, nothing works
-And then it's all a dream


Read the story here.

Week 10 Essay

The Use of Magic in Native American Fairy Tales

Every hero or villain in this section could do se sort of magic. Sometimes they were given this magic by nature and they considered it their responsibility to help others with it. Those people generally ended up being the heroes of the story. Others seemed not to be magical at all until they came to a point in the story where they would say "Let us turn into birds and fly away," and they they actually would turn into a bird. 

The magic seen in Grimm fairy tales or other European tales, is seen as unnatural, evil, and comes with horrible consequences. There are only witches, and the occasional wizard, who have sold their souls to the devil or have done some other dirty deed to obtain their powers. However, in Native American culture, nature was seen to be magical itself and almost at one with the gods. When the character in a european fairy tale needs to turn into a an eagle and escape, nothing happens and they run. When an indian needs to turn into a bird, they state it or ask someone how to do it, and then it happens.

The respect of nature and animals tends to show through in these stories. While many of the stories include the theme of conquering nature and animals or at least ruling over them, there is always a large amount of respect for the power of nature that is necessary to rule justly. The ease of magic in a lot of these stories suggests that magic itself is not a big deal. Every animal, every forest, every star has its own kind of magic. The hero always has access to this magic, kind of like a borrowing system, if they are in tune with nature and if they have honorable intentions.

"Magic Effects." Info.

Storytelling Post Week 10

The Boy on the Moon

"Le Voyage dans la lune" clearly shows the man in the moon. Info.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who was living out the dream of many young boys and girls on earth. This little boy happened to be the son of "the" man on the moon. He hopped around with low gravity, throwing rocks and bouncing balls as far and high as he could imagine, and generally just having a good time. However, though the boy enjoyed his time in his spacey, light home with his father, he longed for friendship and something new.

His father told him stories of earth and all the colors and wonderful, different animals that lived on there. The little boy longed to see the birds, which did not just jump high in the air and simply come back down but flew as high as they wanted to wherever they wanted. He was excited about the animals that were so big and strong that you could jump on their back and ride them! As the boy grew up, he made his father tell him more and more stories. Every day after the stories, the boy begged his father to let him live on earth, for the man on the moon is magical and can make such things happen.

Eventually, the boy's daily begging wore down his father, and he agreed to let him live on earth with certain conditions. Though the man on the moon was magical, his magic still had its limits, and he could only provide a one way trip to earth. In order to make the most of his time left with his son, he told him that he was not allowed to leave until he turned 15. When he did move to earth, he would not be able to hear from his father but he promised to always look over his son.

When the day came, the boy was very excited but was sad to leave his father. The man on the moon kept his promise though, and transported his son to a nice, small village with friendly people who would treat his son as one of their own. Before the mysterious young man's arrival, the moon looked like a blank gray surface in the sky, but the night that he arrived, mysterious shapes appeared on the great sphere. The villagers all said that the shapes resembled an old man's face, and the boy knew that it was just his dad, watching over his son like he had promised he would.

Author's Note: This story about the man on the moon is very very loosely based on The Child of The Evening Star. In that, the kid lives on the evening star with his parents and several birds in a silver palace. Instead of his parents sending him to earth, he scrapes a bird so that it bleeds, which breaks the magic bond on the star and everyone is sent back to earth. The boy was still very lonely though and did want to see all the animals. I just wanted to do the story of a boy coming home to earth.
Read here.

Bibliography: Larned. American Indian Fairy Tales. "The Child of the Evening Star." 1921.

Week 10 Reading Diary

Iagoo, the Story Teller
-His great knowledge is from family and nature, expecting these to be strong themes
-Uncle Dr. Suess Santa Claus
-Story within a story, but Iagoo is only kind of the narrator.

Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind
-Basically, we have spring and winter as gods/characters.
-The hero here can change into a duck.
-Theses stories generally have magical components, in a different way than other fairy tales
-"Cheerfulness and courage can overcome even the North Wind."
-The story ties back into the first layer, and the narrator continues to tell other stories to the children

The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds
-Nature preservation themes
-Animals running free and not "in cages"
-Mostly describes animals of an old time, where they are all friendly and none are dangerous
-They do not teach animals like this at the time of the storytelling
-Includes lots of animals and the different things that they can do, normal children's stories stuff
-Worm gets to the top with patience, taking a month, but saving the children.

The Child of the Evening Star
-10 daughters, only one at a certain point has not chosen a suitor to marry
-She turned down the handsome ones for a very old man because she had the ability to look at their heart.
-This is starting out as a much better lesson than other fairy tales
-His curse is lifted but then transfers to her, making her old
-Move to the evening star, magical, and have a son, title
-He longs for the people and animals of Earth, he is lonely
-Return to Earth, because these stories point out the beauty of nature on earth

The Boy Who Snared The Sun
-Iagoo comes up with a story of a little boy and girl who are brother and sister when there are giant animals and they are the only humans so that the brother and sister in his tepee will like the story
-Still themes of conquering nature, and in this case, growing up
-Animals character traits are determined by type of animal

How the Summer Came
-Getting more and more of the setting with Iagoo and the children
-He has a story for everything
-This one is for how the ice age ended
-This is another story where the hero is magical and he will conquer winter for the good of the people
-This is actually about the Big Dipper I think

The Fairy Bride
-Girl likes fairies, won't marry a tall hunter
-Hero still magical, or at least able to see magical things
-




Read the Stories.

Week 9 Essay

Crime and Justice in Native American Heroes

Headdress of Distinction. James Ayers. Photo info.

These stories all feature male heroes who are usually wise as well as skilled warriors. Also, though the stories come from different tribes and even different regions, they still have the same governing structure with a chief. Always a man, always a good warrior, and at some point he would have proven his wisdom or strength by defeating an enemy and gaining approval by the rest of the tribe.

Most of these stories feature a chief who has gone bad, and our hero is the one to replace him. But since the bad guy is still the man in charge, whatever evil things he does are not met with justice until he is overthrown.

In "The Jealous Uncle," the chief keeps killing his own nephews, and everyone knows and disagrees, but they do nothing to stop him. Even the father and mother do not avenge their children in any way, or even run away. If another man in the tribe were to act so murderously against his own family, then we would be brought to justice, but the chief is given ultimate power and with it, an ultimate pardon. In this particular story, the last nephew outsmarts the uncle and survives, but the only reason he ever exacts his revenge on his uncle is because he uses the resources of another tribe. What makes this character a hero is that he is the only one in the entire tribe who keeps the leadership accountable to their own rules.

In "The Son-In-Law Tests," the chief waits for his daughter to be married, and when he decides that he does not like them, he kills them. This happens multiple times without anyone doing anything to stop him. The father in this instance has more reason to be feared since he is not only the chief but also a god. Native American gods are often similar to Greek gods in that they are very flawed and interact with humans on the regular, causing trouble. Still, the only way that the justice of the land (which was supposed to be upheld by him) was brought was by outsmarting him and bending the rules.

All these stories show a common trait that the most important law in these communities was to obey the leaders. Even when the leaders had turned evil, the hero found ways to overcome them while still doing what the evil leaders had commanded. It is an odd and twisted trait, but it reveals a great loyalty to the tribe and to its leadership.

Read the full stories.

Storytelling Week 9: The Jealous Uncle

The Savageness of the Cow

One time, on a ranch in Wyoming, there was a large herd of cattle that were unlike any other in the world. These cows could talk and understand almost as much as humans did. In fact, some would say that their ability to hide the fact that they could talk proves that they were smarter than the humans. One thing is for sure though: even if they were not as smart, they definitely felt emotions as much as their human counterparts, especially jealousy and rage.

The leader of the herd was the biggest and strongest bull. He was called Wayne. Wayne was not particularly clever, and he was always scared that a younger bull would finally beat him out for leader of the herd. Whenever Wayne's brother would have a son, Wayne would kill the young calf.

The third time that Wayne's brother had a calf, they lied to their leader and told him it was a female. For a year, they told their offspring to go by Pat and only do as the females do. Eventually, Wayne caught on to their schemes and was enraged. "I am going to kill that boy and his parents too!" said Wayne.

Native American depiction of an Eagle by T. Baker. Image information.

Since Wayne was in charge, all the cattle feared him and would never challenge him, even if he was going to kill one of their own. Pat knew that if he was going to survive, he would have to outsmart his uncle, and he would be on his own. One night, Wayne came to Pat and said, "Nephew, come with me to kill these snakes that are bothering our neighbors." Pat knew that it was a trap, but he had prepared ahead of time. He had found old, hollow logs and stepped through them like shoes, protecting his legs.

When they went to the snake pit, Wayne pushed Pat to the middle of the pit and made a loud noise, waking the snakes. The murderous uncle quickly ran away without looking back and assumed that his nephew was dead. However, the snakes tried to bite Pat and became stuck on the wood around his legs. Pat took off his wooden armor, calmly walked back to the herd, and went to sleep.

The next morning, Wayne was burning with anger at the sight of his still-healthy nephew, but he would not give up. This time, he invited Pat to accompany him to the rancher's house. When they arrived, Wayne tricked his nephew into a trailer, and then locked him inside. The trailer left the ranch and drove for nearly a day.

When Pat arrived at this unknown land, he was very thirsty and headed toward the first pond he saw. While drinking from the pond, he began to sink into the mud without noticing and soon became stuck. Before he could call out for help, a shapely young heifer came to his aid and pulled him out of the mud. Pat thanked his savior, and soon made it clear that he did not intend for her to be a heifer for much longer.

These cattle were not like his herd in Wyoming, and they could not speak, but they did have their own kind of magic. They had special clothing that allowed them to turn into eagles. As a welcoming gift, they shared this magic with Pat. Though he liked this new herd, he decided that he must use his new skills to protect his parents. He turned into an eagle and flew all the way to his old ranch in Wyoming. When he arrived, the whole herd stared at the largest bird they had ever seen. Wayne announced that the bird was a gift from the gods to himself for being the best leader ever. As he was speaking to all the cattle, the eagle swooped down and cut off Wayne's head with his large talons.

Satisfied with his parents' safety, Pat flew back to his new herd and lived happily ever after.

Author's Note: This story is based off of one called The Jealous Uncle and is actually more similar to the original than you may think. The characters are not cows, they are human, but it involves an uncle killing his nephews to stay in power. Nephew number three outsmarts him and even when he is shipped across the sea in a box, comes back to avenge himself in the form of an eagle.

Bibliography: Thompson, Stith. Tales of the North American Indian. "The Jealous Uncle." 1929.

Read the full story.

Reading Diary Week 9: Native American Heroes

The Jealous Uncle
-The culture in this story is more unfamiliar than I expected. The uncle is killing his nephews, but since he has power, not even the parents have done anything about it.
-It looks like the only one fighting for the kid is himself and he is going to outsmart the uncle.
-Even after multiple failed attempts on his life, no one is doing anything to stop Unnatural Uncle.
-Besides the magic eagle clothing, this is kind of like Moses.
-His brothers are killed, his parents disguise him, the girls who find him are daughters of a chief of a different tribe, he goes back and kills the evil chief (all similar to Moses).

Bluejay and His Companions
-This features a man who is very silent about being mistreated but takes his revenge very seriously.
-I see how this would fit Native American culture better than the first story.
-The main characters are all types of different animals but all act human and maybe also have human bodies?
-Story takes a turn from revenge to a journey with all the other characters.
-Bluejay, who had caused the troubles was now completing tasks that allowed everyone to survive.
-Everywhere they go, people are trying to kill them, which I guess is generally how the Native Americans treated each other for a very long time.

Dug From Ground
-This one is much more mystical
-Babies from the roots of plants and giant beanstalk trees with large acorns
-Boy is kind of like Hercules or Superman, is finding out who he really is and if he is an immortal
-He is very strong and travels to the edge of the world with somewhat ease.
-While he is somewhat accepted, he must prove himself time and time again. This may be a lesson that was valued by this group of indians.
-He beats all the other brothers (animals and forces of nature and such). These are about living and nature but still conquering it.

The Attack on the Giant Elk and the Great Eagle
-Story of monsters and man overcoming powerful nature
-Also they form the modern world and landscapes
-Also why animals look how they do

Lodge Boy and Thrown Away
-Ridiculously violent. The witch lady is basically an indian serial killer
-These stories are much more violent than the other units, but the Native Americans had many tribes that were warrior societies.
-This may be where stories about zombies and indian burial grounds come from
-The boys disobey everything their father says
-They literally do like 14 things they are explicitly told not to do.
-They kill all the bad things for the rest of their lives

The Son-In-Law Tests
-Once again, the chief is killing his son in laws and no one does anything about it.
-He will be outsmarted in this story though
-They cannot defy the wishes of the chief, but they can trick him

The Jealous Father
-Two wives, one son, son sleeps with other wife of no blood relation. This should be a cautionary tale against polygamy, but instead it points the blame on the dad
-These stories always have very creative weapons and supplies
-Also, this story is now also kind of a journey tale
-The heroes and/or villains often turn to a specific animal at the end of the story

Dirty Boy
-This is the first story in the unit where the Sun and Star, kind of gods, come down as humans without telling anyone.
-The dirty boy, sun, is going to win some wives using his archery skills
-This story is kind of like the story from the odyssey with the bow. He is even disguised as an ugly, sick, lame boy
-The girl is rewarded for being loyal to her sickly husband

Read the full stories here.

Reading Diary Assessment

As far as the length and the requirements of the reading diaries, they have been perfect. All the labels and titles and links are there and are working. However, for some reason the format of some of these posts had some mistakes. Several of them contained a very large, empty space at the bottom of the post, consisting of a bunch of empty lines from when I was fixing the paragraphs. These empty spaces have been removed to relieve any confusion that may have arose with their presence.

Another problem with the posts is that some of them are very very long. The instructions say not to include much of the plot, but all of my notes are fairly heavy not only on my reactions to the plot and characters but a step by step synopsis of the report. Cutting down on the amount of space wasted on plot summary should make the posts shorter and easier to review or look over. I do find that it is easier to remember what I am reacting to if I have some summary, but there should be a limit. For instance, my notes for week 1 are almost entirely a detailed description of the story of Cupid and Psyche until the last couple of lines. It is possible that I was not aware of the correct instructions at the time, but there still remains a trend of lacking analysis in my notes.

So, the bare requirements of the assignment have been met every week, but I could definitely do a better job at being more analytical and succinct to help myself out when I look back over the notes. These notes have been very helpful so far, and I am glad that they are assigned because I cannot remember the reactions I had to the many stories I have read so far.

Week 7 Essay: Memories of Reading

The first memory I have of reading is my mom reading a Bible story to my sister and I in our room. She would read to us every night, but this is the first time that I remember looking at the page and noticing that there was more than just pictures on the page. My mom explained to me that she was reading what was written on the page and not just making stuff up from the illustrations. I was very impressed since I had no idea how it worked. To me, reading was basically a kind of magic that I did not know how to do.

The next step in my reading journey was when I was in kindergarten. I am the youngest of four (three older sisters), so all my siblings learned to read and write a very long time before I did. One night, I went into my dad's office and saw two of my sisters reading in a chair and my dad reading at his desk. I got very jealous very quickly, so I walked up to my dad and asked him to teach me to read. He told me I would learn soon in school, but I was stubborn and told him that I wanted to learn now.

Children who are much less confused than I was when learning how to read. 

Image information.

My dad first explained that the page was made of paragraphs which were made of sentences, which were made of words, which were made of letters. So, he told me that I just needed to know what sounds the letters made and I would be set. He pointed to the first word on the page. The word was something along the lines of "everything" and I immediately told him that it was impossibly long. He agreed and went to "and." Now, I know the "a" sound and "d" and he helped me with the "n." However, I could not understand why it did not make three syllables.

This lesson continued and the same problem kept happening. It was probably about five minutes, but I was convinced that there were way too many letters and words and I would never be able to read. Fortunately for me, my first grade teacher was a genius for teaching how to read, and I could read small books by the end of the first semester. I also learned to really like those books because I could be like my big sisters and be in on my newfound magic skills that turned symbols into stories. I know that my dad actually did a pretty good job of trying to teach me, but it is probably for the best that I was quickly retaught by someone else.

Storytelling Week 7:The Fortunate Fish-Hook

The Golden Spatula

One time, in a land far away, there were two brothers. One, Bob, was a talented chef at Le Krusty Krabbe, and the other, Pat, was the best contractor in The City. Their work was known throughout the land for being the best in their respective trades. The only problem was that they were so good that they both grew more bored with their jobs.

One day, they went to the pub late at night, had a few drinks, and made an unusual bet. They agreed that the next day, they would each go to the other's job and whoever did the best job won. The chef had a special golden spatula that he claimed added extra flavor to everything he cooked, and he refused to cook without it. The contractor had a lucky pen that he used to sign off on all the blueprints and contracts. Every job he used that pen on was accident free. For that day, they would switch their lucky items to make it more fair. The prize had still not been determined, but it was to be glorious.

The Golden Spatula from Spongebob. Information here.

When morning came, Pat went to his brother's restaurant, and Bob went to the high-rise that his brother was building. By the end of the lunch rush, the sous chef had actually organized a mutiny and kicked out the contractor for the rest of the day. The construction managers "accidentally" locked the chef in a room and left him there for three hours after he had dropped blueprints out of the window on the 39th floor. Needless to say, both were horrible at the other's job.

At the end of the day, both agreed to return the lucky items and call it a draw. Bob handed back the pen, and Pat reached for the spatula and suddenly realized that he no longer had it. Furious, the chef went into a long, gory description of what he would do to his brother if it was not found. The contractor quickly ran back to the restaurant to search for the golden spatula. He searched everywhere, but alas, it could not be found there. Discouraged and afraid, he decided to try to buy a new one. There are not actually any stores that he could find with a solid gold spatula, so he went to a personal jeweler.

When Pat walked into the store, he saw the most beautiful girl in the world. Luckily for him, he had plenty of time to explain his predicament and his unique request. The girl agreed to do the job for him as quickly as she could, but only if he promised to taker her to dinner at Le Krusty Krabbe. The contractor quickly agreed, paid for the new golden spatula in advance, and walked out of the door with a smile on his face.

Author's Note: The Fortunate Fish-Hook features two brothers who are a hunter and a fisherman. When the fish hook is lost, the hunter goes on a long journey to find the fish who has it. He ends up marrying the sea god's daughter and getting them to help him. Then there is like battles and things, but my story did not go into that. So I changed the time and vocation of everyone, but the beginning plot is still the same.

Full story.
F. Champney. Romance of Old Japan Part 1: Mythology and Legend. "The Fortunate Fish-Hook."