Reading Notes:Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria Part B

Benjamin Franklin as he is working on a piece of literature

source: Wikipedia

Finishing the final series of short stories has given me the direction I wish to take this week's planning period down. These folk tales provide a greater connection to this african nation and hopefully I am able to convey this message with my story writing for the week. Presenting a folktale that is able to convey a cultural message to an audience that is largely unfamiliar with the nation will be no easy task certainly. Now will story be longer than 500 words? No, but the minimum word count will be reached by writing five separate stories with minimum lengths of 100 words, with the maximum limited to the 200 words. This will meet the minimum requirement, while also guaranteeing the stories will come in under the maximum number allowed.  

Bibliography: Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, collected by Elphinstone Dayrell 

Reading Notes: Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria Part A

Map delineating the northern and southern regions of Nigeria 

source: Wikimedia Commons

This reading was a collection of different traditional stories from the river delta region in the southern region of the country. The stories were collected by a British colonial official named Elphinstone Dayrell who resided in Ikom, near the Niger River Delta. The stories are similar to other local folktales of differing nations where the message is intended to educate the reader on situation, provide a lesson, or simply produce a form of entertainment for the reader. The collection offers stories focusing on kings, animals, common folk, and mysterious events that become central to the culture of the region. A retelling of these stories is likely with possibly a different message being conveyed to the reader, or a similar one with greater detail than the original offered. 

Bibliography: Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria, collected by Elphinstone Dayrell   

Reading Notes: Jamaica Anansi Stories Part A

Reading a series of short stories is nothing new in this course or in the area of culture's individual folk stories that are passed down through the generations. Constructing a story around the misadventures of a scheming and mischievous animal would allow for creativity to be brought to the forefront. Constructing a series of smaller more direct tales would allow for different stories to take place in a variety of different ways, with a wide range of characters being present in the story telling phase. Do I tell a series of smaller stories that are all intertwined in one way or another? Or do I instead approach it as a series of short stories, each with the intention of teaching a lesson to the reader in the end?

writing sunset, Rome, Italy

source: flickr

Bibliography:Jamaica Anansi Stories  

Week 5 Story Planning: Sinbad Goes Westward

map of Northern Africa in the year 1900

source: Qala Bist 

Sinbad and his adventures will certainly be the basis of a story of mine this semester, but currently with midterms underway it would appear I do not have the time I wish I did to dedicate toward crafting a proper adventure story in the style I want to. The first person perspective that his adventures are portrayed in is an interesting style to attack this writing assignment in. As mentioned before I think it would be different and entertaining to present the first-person perspective through journal entries that Sinbad could have been keeping while he is undergoing his adventure. Traditionally he has been a sailor in a majority of the tales involving him, rather than continue forward with this I am considering a more explorer/ adventurer approach similar to the main character of Sahara, or the classic Hollywood adventurer Indiana Jones. Dividing the story into 15-20 different journal entries with corresponding dates and locations within the Sahara region of northern Africa. This presentation style is one that is perfect for the usage of sketched images being used rather than photographs or paintings. The sketches can be added to the occasional journal entry, possibly to emphasize in Sinbad’s writings for the specific day on an interesting location that was passed or a clue that was discovered that was a visual aid rather than verbal. The story could begin in the Egyptian city of Cairo moving westward into the desert. The group of individuals joining Sinbad on his expedition would be no more than ten totally, and it is likely that some would be lost along the way working toward their final goal of discovering a lost treasure of antiquity. The story would be set in the later half of the 19^th century, possibly in the early years of the 20^th when the British still held a major influence in the region, one that Sinbad could be working against to preserve the lost item for his own region and culture. The real challenge going forward with a period story is making certain I have the proper names and boundaries for the era of time I have chosen to write my story in. Wikipedia and other sources will be a huge aid in researching the geography of the region during this time. 

Bibliography: The Voyages of Sinbad   

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sinbad Part B

Finishing the final readings on the stories pertaining to his 5th through 7th voyages provided more ideas for further development of a story. For my story post this week I plan to take a more creative approach to a Sinbad story with bits being borrowed from the tales of Aladdin and more modern Hollywood films set in the Middle East. Inspiration will also be drawn from turn of the 20th century British explorers who made their way through the desert in search of lost items of antiquity.

A lone man wandering through the Sahara Desert

source: Wikipedia 

I plan to send Sinbad on a journey through the desert with a small contingency of individuals helping him along the way as he searches for a lost item that will be determined at a later. With the previous stories being told in a first person perspective, perhaps I could tell the story through diary entries that Sinbad keeps during the march through the desert. The diary perspective will allow for a more detailed story and for greater insight into the thoughts of Sinbad during this difficult adventure as he undertakes the challenge of uncovering the lost item of antiquity. 

Bibliography: The Voyages of Sinbad     

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sinbad Part A

Reading a story presented in a first-person style concerning the dramatic adventures of an individual is making their way around the known world. Sinbad is an intriguing character in classical literature and presents ample opportunity to begin weaving a new adventure for him on the high seas or potentially crossing a dangerous desert to obtain a rare item at the end of his quest. Sinbad is an interesting in his own tales, going forth with one of my own with him as the main protagonist could be interesting and far more entertaining to complete compared to attempting to create a creationism story that was possible this week when reading the mythos of ancient Egypt. So far my stories for the course have been presented in the third person perspective, with no dialogue, and straight to the point with limited insight into the mindset of the characters that the story revolves around. The first person perspective would provide a new challenge and one that would allow for me to bring more insight into the thoughts of my main character's mental state. Plus with the similarities of this story to that of Homer's Odyssey, a previous reading of mine, there are already ideas for a story beginning to form.  

(Sinbad the Sailor, The Enchanted Island 1894)

(source: flickr) 

Bibliography: The Voyages of Sinbad   

Week 4 Storytelling: A Las Vegas Odyssey

( Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign on South Las Vegas Boulevard, by Bill Debevc)

(source: WikiMedia Commons)

Following a long weekend trip to the magical city in the barren desert known as Las Vegas there was a group of four friends who were facing an almost impossible task at hand as they attempted to make their way home to Oklahoma. The four friends, Ody, Hector, Homer, and Don had the mistake of gambling away the money they had saved to pay for their trip home. All four had lost their cell phones during the week long trip and were unable to phone home requesting a money transfer to be sent their way to alleviate the issue at hand. Realizing what lay ahead the four men began planning a series of strategies for how to best make money as soon as possible in order to return home. The group realized the only way they would be able to return home is by picking up short term work in Sin City and saving to make their way home, or the more daring option of offering work services to individuals passing bye in exchange for travel to the next town over or potentially bus fare.  After wondering down the interstate for few miles holding a sign along the way with “will work for travel” written across its face there finally approached an old truck with an elderly man driving. The driver began asking the group their names and how they came to be in the situation he found them in. Upon hearing their story he began to softly chuckle, explaining that he had found himself in a similar situation before during his youth when visiting Las Vegas. He offered the four men a ride to Boulder City in exchange for some work in his diner there as busboys upon their arrival. The men agreed and settled in for a bumpy ride. This exchange of work for travel agreements continued as the men would work all day and then travel at night. They made their way from Nevada to Arizona and continued into New Mexico. The men had been working their way home for a week now, each feeling as if they would not be able to make it through the next work day without an actual nights sleep, but knowing this was their only way of making it home. Once they made it to New Mexico the jobs became more labor intensive, with the men eventually finding their way to ranch in need of additional labor. The men would be helping with the construction of a fence on the property, nothing new to the boys from Oklahoma. During this construction though Don threw out his back and was unable to continue working, forcing the others to pick up the slack. The jobs continued and the men continued making their way toward the Texas panhandle, with Don still sidelined due to his injury. The manual labor continued with each additional stop in west Texas until only Ody was left standing as the last healthy member of the group. He continued being the only working individual of the group as they closed in on making it home, hardly sleeping, working long days to earn the group a chance ride home. Ody persevered and eventually was able to bring his friends home safely and just in time to begin working on their ranch, with no rest granted his way.

Author’s Note: The original tale that was the basis for this homeward bound trip with different obstacles along the way was Homer’s Odyssey, a Greek Epic Poem that was the sequel to his more famous work The Iliad. The Odyssey tells the story of a Greek king name Odysseus, who is attempting to sale home with his crew following the Trojan Wars, but alas the trip does not go as planned and the men end up being tested along the way by the gods. The group eventually returns home, but not without hardship and losses along the way.     

Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey, retold by A. J. Church  

Tech Tip: Blogger Template

I had a bit of free time and decided to use this opportunity to redesign my blogger page to give it a more personalized look. Before it was barebones and a simple red color with no customization being done until this point, except for the addition of a weather widget. My redesign is more pleasant to look at and one I think readers will be able to navigate easily and in a timely manner when viewing my page. I absolutely recommend others to take the time to customize their own individual pages as well.

Reading Notes: Egyptian Myth and Legend Part B

(Great Sphinx of Giza and the pyramid of Khafre)

(source: WikiMedia Commons) 

The second portion of my readings focused more on stories that in the end search to teach the audience a lesson that can be utilized in their lives in a variety of different ways. The possibility of writing a story with this form of direction is much more enticing compared to constructing a series of gods who would represent different aspects of an individual's life that is deemed of high importance. Creating a story around two brothers potentially going on an adventure or struggling through a specific issue would allow for a wide variety of creativity to be used in a more comfortable manner than a creationism story. Writing a story with the intent of sharing a lesson with the audience would provide a quality opportunity to input dialogue into my story, a first for myself and a writing style that would test my abilities and stretch my comfort zone to new levels of challenging myself as a creative writer overall. If I do decide to not write my story using the basis of Homer's Odyssey than undoubtedly telling a story of two brothers, with a lesson being learned by the reader as the end result of the narrative experience would be my go to option from this section. 

Bibliography: Egyptian Myth and Legend, David Mackenzie (1907), http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/egypt-two-brothers-part-one.html 

Reading Notes: Egyptian Myth and Legend Part A

(Ra the Egyptian god of the sun and kings)

(source: WikiMedia Commons)

With the first two weeks subject matter being fairly familiar to me from previous experiences it definitely was far more difficult to begin choosing where to start my reading for the week. Ancient Egypt was the subject matter that most caught my attention; mostly due to the Brendan Fraser series of Mummy films and my roommate’s recommendation on the story, he is Egyptian himself. I do find it uncomfortable to consider writing a story centered on a pagan religion and retelling a story in a manner that is presentable for the time period of the writings. Using the multiple gods or creating new ones with similar positions in the universe for the reader to interpret seems to be something that is not quite suitable for my form of writing or comfort either. As I read more into the post it becomes clear this is a background in history focused on the meanings and purposes each god serves. If I were to write a new story using a similar method of a variety of different main characters it is likely my storytelling would come across more in the way of a comedy. I could use each character as a quasi retelling of the pagan god it originates from, with a setting in a similar Middle Eastern nation like Egypt, or even possibly a setting in another desert area such as Nevada here in the states. After introducing and providing the background of the characters the story could then shift to a more narrative driven, with each new story being told focusing on a different one of the main gods or characters from the narrative universe.

Bibliography: Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie (1907), http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/egypt-creation.html 

Wikipedia Trail: From Odysseus to The Championships, Wimbledon

(Contemporary engraving of the first Wimbledon Championships at Worple Road, London, in 1877) 

(source: WikiMedia Commons) 

I began my Wikipedia Trail this week by visiting the page concerning the main character of my reading from the prior week, Odysseus the main protagonist of Homer's Odyssey. The information on the page provided me a more in depth presentation of Odysseus and the way his story varies due to the multiple retellings and sequels that have been written since the original epic poem began being translated into differing languages. The series of spin offs lead me to another page and novel that has been influenced by the original character of Odysseus, this was the British literary classic Ulysses. This is a piece of writing I had always heard mentioned in school and some areas of pop culture, without ever really discovering the actual material that is behind the poem. Delving into this British icon lead me down a consistent path for the remainder of my Wikipedia Trail, with my next click of the mouse leading me to the page displaying information of the Victorian Era. Architecture and literature are things I have been familiar with prior from this era, but learning the peculiar practices of the socialites and plebeians of the era was interesting to say the least, especially their rather archaic medical practices that seem downright insane by modern standards. An area in the article that drew my attention was the section of sport during the period, specifically how tennis came to be a popular pastime for British culture and the championship that would be the crown jewel of the sport, Wimbledon. I had prior interest in the event ever since my sister and her husband attended the 2011 championships and spoke of the amazing time they had at the event, even with no prior tennis knowledge it was stills something they enjoyed. The Wikipedia page provided me with the history of the event and the storied history behind why all participants wear white when competing and the origins of the championships. 

Odysseus 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus 

Ulysses (poem)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(poem) 

Victorian Era 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era 

The Championships, Wimbledon 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Championships,_Wimbledon