Reading Diary A: California and the Old Southwest

California and the Old Southwest

 

Native American storytelling time

Spider’s Creation:

This Native American story of creation was very interesting in the fact that the world was created by a spider named Sussistinnako. Such a long name that I probably mispronounced it. Sussistinnako created two women who were the mothers of all living things by singing near two parcels. He also created Cloud People, Lighting People, Thunder People, and Rainbow People. This story explained where every element of life came from as well as the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Creation of Man:

The thought of man being created by animals is an interesting idea. Throughout this story, each animal wanted to create man to be very much like themselves except for the coyote who had completed making the world. The coyote did not want to create man to be like him but to have different structures of every other animal. During the meeting about how man should be, all the animals quarreled with one another and began making their own vision of man from pieces of earth. The cunning coyote stayed up all night creating man like how he mentioned earlier and sabotaged the other animals’ creation. Soon man was created by the coyote.

 

Coyote looking off in the distance

Old Man Above and the Grizzlies:

Native American’s have a story that give an explanation for nearly everything in the world. This particular story gives the reason why grizzlies usually walk on all four legs except when they fight. It also introduces a new race of men which was interesting since they were created by a Grizzly and the Little Daughter. 

Reading Plan for the Second Half of the Semester

Week 9 - 10:
For the Native American unit for weeks 9 and 10 I am considering to read the stories of the California and the Old Southwest and the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes. I am interested in these units because they have myths and legends about the places that I have lived in the past. Honestly, any story that revolve around myths and legends will catch my attention because sometimes we don't know what is real and what isn't.

Week 11 - 12:
In the British and Celtic unit for weeks 11 and 12 I have planned to read the Celtic Fairy Tales and Through the Looking Glass. The stories in the Celtic Fairy Tales unit will be new to me while some of the stories from Through the Looking Glass will be familiar. There are a lot of fairy tales all around the world and some are similar but with their own version and twists. All this talk about fairy tales remind me of a game called "The Wolf Among Us" by Telltale Games. In this game, a lot of fairy tales and urban legends live together in the human world and trying to survive. The characters mainly consist of The Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, several princes and princesses, as well as Bloody Mary.

Virgil and Dante cosplay

Week 13 - 14:
The last reading unit about European stories for weeks 13 and 14 will be over Lang's European Fairy Tales I and Dante's Inferno. I have viewed a previous unit by Andre Lang and his stories were really good. I look forward to reading his European Fairy Tales and reading about the "Puss in Boots." For the second story, I have heard of Dante and Virgil from stories and games such as the "Devil May Cry" series and "Dante's Inferno" for the PlayStation 3. These games are not accurate representation of the stories in the reading unit but there are similarities. It will be very interesting to read both of these units.

My Reflections: Looking Forward for the Second Half

Walt Disney's Meet the Robinsons

There is a lot of catching up to do that I have to do if I want to pass this class. One thing I know that I am going to try to do is to finish more assignments. I am planning to accomplish this by trying to do 2 or more assignments a day. One assignment will be a normal one while the other one can be the next day's assignment or an extra credit depending on the situation. I will have to make more time in my day in order to get this goal done.

Secondly, I would love to get to read more stories that everyone has posted. I have only read a handful from the assigned blog and project commenting. For this second half of the semester I plan to read at least one story from someone before I go to sleep. Reading stories before sleeping will make my nights much more interesting since I won't know what kind of story I will be reading each night. One night might be action packed and the other might be a love filled night.

Lastly, it would be nice to start getting those good extra credit points to help finish early. I haven't been using those points to my advantage when I really should, but I will try to do as many as I can each week to boost up to my desired grade. If I do have enough points to finish early, I'll still be reading and commenting on stories that are being posted. My girlfriend loves it when I read stories from this class to her to help her relieve some stress so she can have a good nights rest.

I look forward to getting my grade up and trying to accomplish the goals I have set up for the second half of this semester.

My Reflection: Looking Back at this Semester

What's your story? A question that begins the storytelling.

Looking back at this semester I feel like I really got into the storytelling aspect of the course with our weekly storytelling assignments. All my stories that I have told share a common theme about fish. The main reason for this theme was because of the name of my blog. My most current story was the "Super Shiny Goldfish" and that story was based off of the "Handsome King of the Apes." It also shares a little reference to Dragon Ball Z with the "Super Shiny Goldfish" title that the main character receives.

Throughout this semester I know that I have not submitted quite a bit of my assignments and that is due to me not scheduling my time very well. However, I am trying to do more as much as I can. I am currently working part-time but my work hours are just a few hours shy of being full-time. With this I am mostly working when I do not have class on campus. There are a few occasions when I don't have work and I do try to do as much as I can for this class as well as my other classes.

My main places that I study and do homework are either at home, the library, or in one of the study rooms in Wagner. Each time I am in my study sessions I try to spread my time evenly with all my classes. Most of the time I only have a few hours at a time to get as much done as I can for everything. Then for the times after work, I usually go to Wagner or at home depending if I got off of work earlier than usual or later.

I'll keep trying my best to finish as many assignments as I can so that my grade will go up and so that I'll have more stories to choose from to add to my Fishy Portfolio Guide.

Week 7 Storytelling: The Super Shiny Goldfish

Bob the Goldfish Boss from the game "Earthworm Jim"

In the deep, deep valley of the West there lies a grand lake called the Lake of Plentiful. Inside of this lake there was a big shiny bubble.

This particular bubble had been in the Lake of Plentiful ever since the first drop of water that created the lake. The bubble became shinier and shinier throughout the years until it was so shiny that even the sun’s rays were outshined by the bubble. Then one day the bubble burst, and a shiny goldfish came out of it.

The goldfish was shining uncontrollably and blinding every living thing in the lake. Soon the shiny goldfish learned to control his ability to shine brightly by channeling his energy to the core of his body. However, the light that shone through the lake caught the attention of an excited fisherman.

“What was that bright light that I just saw? Could it be treasure? Or could it be a big fish that reflected the sun’s light?” pondered the thrilled fisherman.

The fisherman then set out on his boat to see what that light was. Armed with his fishing poles and a large net, the fisherman cast all of his equipment into the lake hoping to catch something shiny. In the end, all the fisherman caught was a little goldfish and released it back into the water.

“Well, this was disappointing. Maybe it was just my eyes deceiving me,” said the fisherman as he rowed his boat back to shore.

“Phew! That was really close. I thought I was gonna be a goner,” said the shiny goldfish in relief.

Later through the years, the shiny goldfish began to grow bit by bit and was able to swim faster than any of the other fish in the lake. He also gained enough power to jump high above the water and shine brightly with the sun.

One day the shiny goldfish was seeking for an adventure and saw a group of goldfish looking into a dark underwater cave.

The goldfish said to each other, “If anyone of us can go to the deepest part of this cave and light it up, we will name him the Super Shiny Goldfish and he will be our leader.”

The shiny goldfish swam up in front of them and confidently said, “I will become this great ‘Super Shiny Goldfish’ and lead you all in all sorts of fun and adventure.” He then proceeded to enter the dark cave and began to glow brighter and brighter. As he swam deeper into the cave, he noticed that the cave was not staying lit. Then the shiny goldfish came up with an idea and pulled his scales off and stuck them into the sides of the cave.

The shiny goldfish had the ability to control how much light was shining from his scales and used it to make the cave stay lit. Near the end of the cave he saw that there was another tunnel that seemed to lead to a world outside of the Lake of Plentiful. Above this tunnel were words that said, “Those who have the power of light will guide their people to a brighter path.”

He then went back to the entrance of the cave and shone brightly in front of the other goldfish and said, “Come on in! It is a great spot for us to live and hide from enemies and the fisherman.”

The goldfish acknowledged the shiny goldfish as their new leader and gave him the title of Super Shiny Goldfish.

They all went into the cave and enjoyed their safety and comfort for the next several years.

Author’s Note. I got the inspiration to write this story from the story of the “Handsome King of the Apes” in The Monkey King unit. In the original version the main character is an ape that was born from a stone that absorbed all elements. This caught the attention of the Lord of the Heavens and he sent down some people to check it out. His scouts then told him that it was just an ape and they had nothing to worry about. Soon after the stone ape grew up and became pretty strong. Then one summer day, the stone ape and a group of his friends were challenging each other to go through the waterfall without getting hurt. The winner would become known as their king. The stone ape took up this challenge and successfully went through the waterfall and back and became the Handsome King of the Apes.

In my story, the main character is a shiny goldfish who was born from a very shiny bubble that had absorbed tons of sunlight. The Lord of the Heavens was the fisherman who caught the shiny goldfish but didn’t recognize it at the time since the shiny goldfish knew how to control his shiny power. Both the cave behind the waterfall and in the lake were quite similar. In the end both main characters got a title and a leading position.

Bibliography.

"The Ape Sun Wu Kung" ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921). Web source: Internet Archive

Rare Shiny Magikarp from Pokemon

Reading Diary B: The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung

The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung

 

Sun Wu Kung and Son Goku

The Lord of the Heavens: In this part of the story, Sun Wu Kung was sent to the heavens to receive his punishment for causing mischief to the Dragon-King and the ten Princes of the Dead. However, the Evening Star convinced the Lord of the Heavens to forgive the monkey for his sins. This was an interesting part of the story due to the actions of these celestial beings. Why would the Evening Star go out of his way to protect Sun? Maybe it is like getting a warning on your first speeding ticket or something like that. Then after the Lord of the Heavens forgives the monkey, he gives him the position of stablemaster. I am really wondering if these divine beings really need someone like that.

The Great Saint: Sun was excited to have his position of stablemaster for a short period of time before he figured out that it was a pretty low title. Honestly, I would have never accepted that title even if all I had to do was take care of their heavenly steeds. After Sun figured out that his title meant nothing, he was enraged and smashed his way out of the heavens and went back to his Mountain of Flowers and Fruit.

Yang Orelang: This was an epic battle between Yang Orelang and Sun Wu Kung. Both powerful beings fighting against one another without end. Sun kept transforming into different animals trying to escape Yang, but Yang was hot on Sun’s tail and kept up with the transformations. Their fight was truly intense however, Sun was brought down in the end by Yang with the assistance of Laotzse.

The Destiny of Sun Wu Kung: After Sun was brought down by Yang, Buddha appeared before the monkey and spoke with him. Sun was not polite and challenged Buddha to give him the title of the Lord of the Heavens. The monkey was cocky as ever and summersaulted to the end of the world and wrote his name on a pillar. In truth, there is no end since the world is round. As Sun returned to Buddha, he claimed that he had won. However, Buddha told him he lost because on his middle finger was where Sun had wrote his name. Then Buddha punished the monkey by sealing him in a mountain of all elements for hundreds of years before he was released to accompany the Monk of Yangtze-kiang for the journey to the west.

Action Star Jet Li as The Monkey King

Reading Diary A: The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung

Sun Wu Kung in his armor and holding his staff over his shoulder.

The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung
I am quite familiar with the story about “The Monkey King” and “Journey to the West” because in my childhood I have seen movies about the monkey king and his journey to the west with his companions. Each movie had a little different take to how the monkey king became who he was and what his magical abilities were. However, there were a few qualities about the monkey king that appeared in all of the movies I have seen. What all the movies had in common were that he had his magical changing staff, could turn his hair into hundreds of monkeys, ride on a cloud, and was born from a rock. Now that I have a chance to actually read this more truthful version about the monkey king, I will be able to relive a nostalgic feeling while discovering more parts of the story that was cut out of the movies.

Handsome King of the Apes: In this unit over “The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung” the editor R. Wilhelm and translator Fredrick H. Martens has the king as an ape instead of a monkey like the original story. Other than that the story is still pretty similar. It is unbelievable how a stone that has withstand all elements including the heavens, the sun, and the moon, gave birth to a monkey. Even the birth of this monkey had the heavens send people down to inspect the powerful shock that reached them. The birth of Sun Wu Kung is very consistent in the movies as well as the stories that were about him.

Dragon-Queen: This part of the story was where Sun acquired his magical staff from the Dragon-King from the East Sea. It was amazing how Sun had the strength to lift up this heavy staff that weighed 17,550 lbs. and was able to control it by telling it to grow bigger or shrink down to the size of a needle. Another interesting thing about this staff was that it was used by Yu the Great, who was a ruler of Ancient China, to determine the depths of seas and rivers. In reality Yu was known for the introduction of flood control. After obtaining his staff, Sun also ordered the Dragon-King to give him a suit of armor that would protect him from harm. This was a greedy quality of Sun since he just obtained such a powerful weapon. At the end of this part of the story, it foreshadows that Sun will have trouble with the Lord of the Heavens later.