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.