Lindsi's Myth & Folklore

In this article I read many tips on how to be a good writer. Typewriter There was a lot of good advice and a main theme is to write something that is not mainstream to our culture. Write something that people do not usually write about. I think it is just good advice to keep people thinking differently instead of confirming our own believes over and over again. I specifically enjoyed the advice for women in fiction. "That she could be an effective problem solver, as women are in reality but not very often in fiction or on the screen."  -Sara Peretsky I also really enjoyed the advice of thinking about a character past the pages, as if the character has its own life outside of the book. Write a character not with just physical attributes, but with a certain air. A character should be felt and have behaviors that you can guess at as a reader.  There was also a tip saying not to describe too much. I thought that was very interesting and also entirely valid. I have...

Story source: Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane (1885). Buchettino I honestly wasn't a huge fan of these stories. They were so negative and someone is usually eaten for no good reason at all. I think if I were to rewrite one of these stories I would make them more reasonable. They do not necessarily have to be perfect fairytales. But so many of the characters are back-stabbing. Again the number three was prevalent in the stories. It would be fun to talk about this occurrence at the beginning and maybe give a reason why three is used so often. Many of the stories were repetitive and were not very enjoyable to read. I found myself skimming over them. I would probably rewrite those with a similar idea but cut out the repetitiveness. There is usually at least one very forgiving character that deals with a bunch of selfish people

Story source: Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane (1885). Damsel in distress All of these stories had a similar theme. I noticed that the number three was found in each introduction. Maybe three makes the most well-rounded story. These stories are also very black and white. If you do something, usually a man, thinks is wrong it is, "off with your head" or "send them to the dungeon to be hanged." There is no explanation, just death. And then a bargain is made so that person, usually a woman, can live. The punishment is always so much more harsh than the crime. The women in these stories are treated very poorly and are considered very little. There is not any discussion of how the characters feel, especially the women who are frequently the victims of a child stolen from a witch, a father wanted to murder them, a prince giving them no option on whether they will marry or not. And the woman just goes along with it. No argument at all. I think if...

Story source: The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908). The second part of the Canterbury Tales were a little more tricky. In the first story there was the fox that tricked the rooster to sing to catch him off guard so he could take him and in the second story the canon tricked the priest real bad by making him think he could be a philosopher and giving him false hope. These stories were very descriptive. My favorite was the description of the rooster. I would like to meet this beautiful creature.  These stories were longer and split up into smaller parts. I think this helped to be more detailed in the stories. They had more background, buildup. There were other stories thrown into the larger story. For example when the rooster had the bad dream and then there were a couple other stories about people who had bad dreams and they came true. Then the story went back to the rooster and its dream came true too.  Rooster

Story source: The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908) I have really enjoyed reading the Canterbury tales. They seem very well thought out. They are mysterious, charming, and romantic. Many of these stories I have read for this class are dark and sometimes end badly, but these were more... hopeful. Especially the story with Dorigen, which was my personal favorite. It is such a sweet and sad love story and in the end it is almost a fight of who was more selfless, kind in the end, which is kind of a twist in itself.  Storybook I love the first story, The Unknown Bride where the knight has a task to find what women want most to save his life. He finally finds an old woman and she tells him to trust her, that she would tell him the correct answer. He get the information from the woman and he lives. The old woman now wants the knight's love. She wants to marry him. Of course he is appalled. He does not want to be with an old woman that cannot give him, wealth, babie...

I watched Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley and A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Barry Kaufman on TEDtalk Brain   The first video I watched was with Kaufman. As someone who went to a very small school in a very small town I know how poor education can be and how misconstrued it is. Our SAT and ACT scores are all most schools pay attention to. They do not stop to think that maybe some people learn differently or maybe some are not as good at taking tests or being under pressure. Kaufman touches on this in his video and it is very enlightening. Through his life people told him no. They told him he is not smart enough, but he creatively made his way through to Yale and graduated. Throughout school he made A's but because he test score was below average he was not even looked at twice. It is so frustrating to hear over and over again. It is obvious there is something wrong yet we continue to do the same thing. I think it is actually the definition of insanity t...

Story source: The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs Beowulf's final words Once I read the Beowulf stories through again I realized how much detail they hold. Each battle and landscape described beautifully to really grab the reader. These are much more clear and understandable than the other stories I have read and I have enjoyed them immensely. In the second half of the Beowulf stories there is mostly tales of his heroic adventures battling Grendel, Grendel's mother, and The Dragon that hoards Geatsland treasure. Beowulf really finds himself in this time because he is really challenged. He loves the danger of it all and often goes into battle alone. These stories end reminding us that Beowulf is a mortal man even though he seems godlike. His battle with the dragon is his last and his dear friend is there to be a gentle hand and someone to listen to his dying wishes. 

The story of Beowulf written by Strafford Riggs Wealhtheow honoring Beowulf I am actually writing about a few stories of Beowulf for my storybook so reading back through these has been very helpful for refreshing my memory! I love the story of Beowulf. Beowulf is a strong lad from the beginning. He is always quiet in his stories and he is quiet a young man as well. It is nice to see how he evolves through his adventures. Before Grendel he was pent up with anger of having not been able to show or use his true power. His peers and elders are envious of Beowulf for he had already defeated dragons and other arrays of monsters. He was much stronger than them at his age. Beowulf is the son of the Queen's sister. The first half of this tale takes us through Beowulf's first journey to show his REAL strength.

Crash Course Myth: Monsters, Horses, Dragons This was a really fun one to watch! The definition for monster, "to describe something or someone outside the bounds of acceptable form or behavior," means there are more monsters out there than we know. This definition can easily develop into many monsters depending on how a person perceived another's actions. I may think someone is a monster for littering because in my mind that is outside the bounds of acceptable behavior. Wendigo Monsters are very important for mythological stories. Without them who would the heroes fight? Monsters make our stories more interesting and fun. I like the story of the Wendigo because it shows a human fear much like all monsters do. The Wendigo is a monster that originated in Canada. It lives in the forest and its favorite food is humans. This story came to be because in dreadful winters food was scarce and the people would often go hungry. Unfortunately this would result in cannibalism i...

Organized After reviewing this Canvas Calendar tech tip I am kind of sad that I have not been using it the whole time I have been at OU. I love how clearly it shows all of the assignments for the class and crosses out the ones you have already completed. I usually write down everything in my own personal calendar, which is great, but sometimes I miss things or a professor changes the dates on something so this digital calendar is a great option for that. I recommend other students trying out this helpful organizational application. I am graduating this semester so I will not be able to use it much longer but I will use it while I can!

I really like this tech tip! DuckDuckGo is an extension you can add to your google chrome so you don't have to get those annoying ads everywhere you surf the net. It is a search engine that does not leave a trail. This prevents your identification from being seen, which helps with the ads that pop up from one thing you searched about a pair a Bombas socks getting all over your computer. On a separate note, if you have not tried Bombas socks you most definitely should. Anyways, I recommend trying DDG to your search engine! It is nice to not be tracked all the time. Peace! DuckDuckGo 

Crash Course Myth There are so many people in these videos it is hard to keep track! I think there is really something about the reason we have all of these stories about the rituals of death and gods and goddesses and such. People fear death and this is one way we cope with it. We want to think there are other ways to live after death. The Egyptians built huge pyramids to keep their leaders preserved so they might live again. I am surprised that Greek stories have such violence but I suppose stories have always had a lot of violence and do now more than ever. I learned the differences between gods, demigods, and heroes. Gods are born from even larger entities and other very strange ways. I thought it was very cool and a little dark that Kronos was worried his children would overthrow or become more powerful than him so he swallowed him whole, which was a poor decision on his part because they are immortal and powerful. I liked learning about Hercules in more detail. All I know a...

Mississippi Valley/ Great Lakes stories edited by Katharine Berry Judson Aurora Borealis Many of the stories in part B are how animals got their characteristics. How the deer got its short nose, how the bear got a short tail and such. I think it would be interesting to do this but with human characteristics. One story tells about what food the animals want but it must make sense with how capable they are. When the deer wanted to eat the Indians the rabbit said it could not be done because they are too strong and he was right. The indian killed the deer so now deer eat fruits and grass. There are also a few stories about the stars, moon and sun. These could be changed in many ways. In the some stories they are human and in others they seem more powerful. You can tell that animals are important in these Indian stories.

Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes notes edited by Katherine Berry Judson The first half of these were difficult to decipher. The writer makes it sound like the animals are humans or maybe demons I am just not sure. These stories are full of tricks, which I do not like much. Maybe I will change the stories around to not be so tricky or make the tricksters pay. I would also like to make the stories more clear for the reader. My favorite story was at the very end with the tar baby because it was the most understandable of them all. There are character's like Kon that were not explained very well so I would like to give the characters more detail. Tar baby

Harry Potter fans For the story lab I watched the videos of " The danger of a single story " by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and " Imaginary friends and real-world consequences: parasocial relationships " by Jennifer Barnes. Both videos were very informative. I am actually doing a research paper about how society puts so much weight on media figures instead of their own personal relationships and how that can be damaging to a person's overall happiness. I thought it was kind of cool that this video by Jennifer Barnes talked about the same thing. I might even add the video in my paper!

Bibliography: This story is originally written by A. L. Shelton as The Tiger and the Frog Seal escaping jaws of shark There was once a very old shark that was making its way to the reef to fill its stomach. The shark had not eaten in a couple of days and felt very weak indeed. As the shark was gliding through the sparkling blue waters a baby seal up ahead saw him and became very frightened. The seal quickly came up with a plan as the shark drew near. The shark was about to pass by when the seal squeaked, "what are you up to?" The shark slowly turned around and said, "I am in search for food. I have not eaten in two days and I feel very weak. You would be a good meal but you are very small." The seal made sure to puff out its chest when it said, "I am the king of seals. I am strong. To test this lets see who can make it across that trench the quickest." The shark accepted this trial and made to burst off across the the trench. Before the shark sped ...

Tibetan folktales originally by A. L. Shelton These stories are short lessons. The Tiger and the Frog There was a very old tiger than trekked up the hill in search of a meal. As he was walking a frog noticed him and became scared. The frog asked what the tiger was doing. The tiger said he could eat the frog but it would not be much. The frog returned with a tall tale about how he was the king of frogs and was very strong. He challenged the tiger to jump across the river with him and see who could do better. When the tiger leaped across the river the frog grabbed onto his tail. The tiger turned around and was surprised to see the frog. The frog had tiger’s hair in his mouth and the tiger asked why. The frog cleverly said he killed a tiger the day before and he was still vomiting up hair. The tiger became very frightened by this and ran away. The tiger then found a fox and told him what had happened. The fox thought he was silly for running away from the frog. The tiger then convinced...

Bib: Congo Unit written by Richard Edward Dennett Three wives : the Dreamer, the Guide, and the Raiser of the Dead Husband : Nenpetro             He is a good hunter He kills an antelope and monkey but the wives are not satisfied. The husband realizes he must capture something larger, an ox. When he goes to slay this animal another kills him. The Dreamer dreams that the husband has been killed by an ox so they go to search him out. The Guide helps them find the husband and the Raiser of the Dead brings the husband to life. While he is rousing the women make food for him. How Gazelle Got Married Nenpetro has two beautiful daughters and promises to not marry them to anyone unless they can guess their names. Nsassi: A Gazelle that really thinks the two daughters are lovely but he cannot figure out their names. Dog: Nsassi’s dog who is very loyal and cares for his owner’s happiness The...

1. Looking back I am happy with my progress so far, especially with my storybook. It has been fun reading about Beowulf and then taking those stories and making them my own. Being able to strengthen my creativity skills has been a great experience so far. I feel like I can really be detailed with my writing. I am most proud of my storybook. With each story that I recreate I feel very confident in my writing skills. Motivational quote I think my favorite class assignments are the story labs. These are a kind of break but are also a great tool for learning how to be a better writer. All the little videos are very helpful and I enjoy watching them. I have used the extra credit options a couple of times when I fall behind. Those options are incredibly helpful to relieve stress. Being able to have a little buffer is a great option. However, with all of my homework I have not been able to work ahead. Developing my blog and storybook have gone very well. This week has been great for sh...

1. Feedback in I read a fair amount of my feedback and my favorite, most helpful comments are the ones with suggestions about how to change certain things in my writing. This feedback always makes sense and it is something I can work with. 2. Feedback out I always try to add a comment or question in my comments so I think that is helpful for the writer. I have been taking advantage of the two different feedback strategies. I think my favorite and the one I use the most is the WWW. It is a strategy that makes giving feedback not so difficult. 3. Blog comments The blog and storybook comments have been a great way to learn about the people in this class. You can kind of tell what a person enjoys by the way they write and what they decide to write about. One person writes their storybook like a broadcast so maybe they are into news writing and another person changes the classic mythological stories to a more feminist view. It has become an interesting way to get closer to our classm...