Online Education Review

While I have had friends who had bad experiences with online classes, I feel like I have been very fortunate. I've taken four classes that were completely online, and they were all fantastic.

All of my online classes have either been with Laura (Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics) or Sterlin Mosley (Intro to Women and Gender Studies and Gender Communication). Both teachers have been great online instructors and really helped and taken an interest in the student's education. The flexibility that online courses offer is so convenient. The ability to work ahead some and have multiple days to do reading and assignments (instead of like one set class period) is great, especially when I've been taking other intense, traditional classes.

While my women and gender studies online classes definitely taught me how to use the web services of the school (like D2L), one of the things I've loved the most about Laura's classes has been getting to learn about other internet tools, like blogging and website building sites. The tech tips and helped me so much! Because of Laura's classes I've learned how to set up blogs for my outside writings as well as for projects for other classes. Last August, when I began looking over our first week assignment for the Myth-Folkore class, I was kind of scared and overwhelmed with all of the new technological things I would be learning. However, Laura made it simple to learn with her guides and it's been a lot of fun to learn. I've learned so many useful technological things in the class that I will be able to use throughout college and far into my career.

Internet Tree. Pixabay.

General Education Review

I think I am one of the few people who didn't take the Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics classes for gen  ed credit (One counted for my religion minor and the other for my anthropology).

In general, I've had an okay, but very limited experience with OUs gen ed programs. I was concurrently enrolled in high school my senior year so I came in with quite a few general ed credits already earned. However, I have had a couple of great gen ed classes, and a couple not so much. Most of my gen ed classes have been good experiences, and I think that gen eds are important, especially early on in college, to help students try out new things. I changed my major three times before finally deciding on professional writing, which I hadn't known existed until my adviser had me look into the program and recommended taking the intro classes to get into Gaylord College of Journalism. I think that first year especially gen ed classes helped me see what I did, and equally important, did not want to study for the next three years.

I think my favorite gen ed class was an Intro to Astronomy class that I took freshman year. Science and math have never been my favorite subjects, but I've always been interested in astronomy, so I decided to take that class for my lab based physical science. To this day, that is one of my favorite classes. We would have regular lectures that were always interesting but then one night a week we would go to the observatory and do hands on work with the telescopes and comparing different planets and stars that we saw. It was a difficult class, but it was extremely interesting and rewarding.

I have definitely had some bad experiences with gen ed classes too, but I won't go into specific classes. The biggest problem always seemed to be when the professors didn't put much effort into the gen ed classes. Another gen ed class I had freshman, I was really excited about at first because I thought it would be interesting. But unlike the astronomy class, the professor always showed up late, never had lectures prepared, and outright told us that it didn't matter because we were all just there for gen ed credits so she wasn't going to spend time on it. That was probably my worst gen ed experience at OU.

Timeless Books by Lin Kristensen. Wikimedia

College Writing Review

I'm a professional writing major; so, writing has played a huge role in my college career thus far. However, the types of writing I do for classes has changed a lot over the past couple of years. Before, in Gen Ed classes and in my minor classes (religious studies and anthropology), analytic research papers were the only type of writing I did for classes. This all changed when I switched majors into PW. In the last year, my class writings have shifted from more academic papers to creative papers.

Every class inside my major has been extremely writing intensive, from Intro to PW, Short Story, and as I'm now beginning to prepare for the Novel class. Outside of my major, I have had some religion and anthropology classes that required a couple big research papers, but none as much writing overall as my major classes. Besides research papers, the two classes I've taken with Laura, Myth-Folklore and this Indian Epics class, have been the most writing intensive outside of my major. That is one of the things I have loved about these two classes. Having at least a story a week to write, along with reading journals and possible outside projects has helped me continue to improve my writing a lot.

The amount of feedback we get in Laura's classes, both from her and from fellow students has been a great help in making me more thoughtful observant in my own writing. Being required to edit and comment on other people's blogs and comments has given me things to pay attention to in my own writing as well. Outside of my major classes, the Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics classes have helped me more in my writing than any other. I've recommended both classes to a lot of people both inside and outside of my major. They have been some of my favorite and most rewarding classes in general, as well as helping my writing improve.

Power of Words by Antonio Litterio. Wikimedia

Un-Textbook Online Reading Options

1. For my first experimentation with the online reading options, I used my laptop computer.

2. I used Google Chrome for my browser. For the PDF option, I started out looking at it in Chrome then downloaded into Adobe Reader.

3.I liked the PDF option the best, although I also really liked Hathi. I think the reason I liked PDF the most is because it's easily downloadable onto a devise, so internet wouldn't always be needed. Also, most online readings I have for other classes are on PDFs so I know how to operate them. That being said, I liked the layout and format of Hathi a lot and I wouldn't mind reading in that at all either.

4. There were none that I would be opposed to reading in, but I didn't think Archive or Google Books were quite as good as the other. For one think, I think the ability to download online reading is important. When I went home for spring break, I downloaded all of my readings onto my tablet so I didn't have to use internet and since they were on PDFs it worked perfectly. I like the viewing options Archive gave, but the play button was completely unneeded and I wish it was more connected to the rest of the site, like how Hathi had the side and top bar if you wanted to look for something else. And Google books is easy to use but you can't download and it's pretty basic too, so I would prefer Hathi or PDFs to it.

5. Most of the longer texts that I have read are either on PDFs, whether downloaded from D2L or database sources (particularly for my anthropology and religious studies minors.) I've read quite a few classic texts from PDFs, such as Ovid's Metamorphoses and different writings by Homer, as well as modern anthropological journals. Whether I read online or offline depends on what I'm doing. If I'm going to be in my apartment for the entire reading and will only need it once, I read online. If I will need the reading more than once or am traveling, whether across states or going back and forth to campus, I am more likely to download the readings and read them offline if that option is available.

6. I don't have many online note taking strategies. Most of the time I have a spiral notebook that I put all of my notes in for a class. Physically writing notes helps me remember it more than typing it. However when I'm short on time I use Microsoft One Note and have different sections for different readings in that but they all get kept close together so I don't have to go between document files, just tabs on the program. I use this more often for notes for long research papers.

7. I don't have a different strategy for PDF note taking, either pen and paper or One Note. However, if the document is typed in PDF rather than scanned, sometimes I'll change it to Microsoft Word and use the comment tools on that to make notes. That is rarely an available option though, so once again, most of the time I use pen and paper with the occasional use of One Note.

8. There are a few times when I'll print out hard copies. One is if the professor doesn't allow devices in the class, I'll print out the reading to make notes on during the lectures. I'll also print out readings if I will need to use them often throughout a semester so I can write notes on the hard copy as the semester progresses. I'll also print out a copy if its either a really important reading or really difficult. I find that I can usually focus better if the reading is extremely hard if I can shove the paper into my face rather than on a screen. Where I print the hard copies really depends. If its short or at night, I'll print it in my apartment. If it's long or I'm on campus already, I'll print it in the Gaylord computer labs.

9. When I have a hard copy I am much more likely to highlight and make notes on the reading, however, that often leaves the notes fragmented. I do like online reading because if you take notes, whether in a notebook or a document, they are more together. I also like the availability of online readings when you don't have to remember to grab a book or hard copy before leaving home. That is one thing I have loved from both of your classes. There's been many times when I've been waiting for my friend at lunch or between classes when I've grabbed my ipad and read a story or two from the Un-Textbook.

Week 14: Jatakas Tales: Shedlock (Extra Reading Diary)

This week, for the essay option I decided to read the first half of Shedlock's verison of Jataka Tales. The stories I'm going to talk about in this post are The Hare that was Not Afraid to Die, The King who Saw the Truth, and The Elephant Honored with Old Age.

The Hare that was not afraid to die was the first story that really caught my eye. Most of the animals who actually could have helped the poor by some small hunting or foraging, instead stole the food that they then tried to give away. That seems like it is something that would happen if there was readily food available instead of working for it. I thought the Buddha-bunny was very brave to not only, offer himself up for a meal, but also protect the poor man by jumping on the flames himself so the Brahman didn't have to kill on a holy day.

Black Naped Hair. Wikimedia

The King Who Saw the Truth was a very similar story but I thought it was also very brave, especially since eyes are something that most people would be unwilling to give up. This story continued in the long line of stories where the Buddha was a good and righteous man who promised to do something that most people would never do and when tested, fulfilled his promise.

The last story I'm going to talk about was my favorite from the first half of this unit, The Elephant who was Honored with Old Age. There have been stories I read for the Myth-Folklore class and stories I read for this class that dealt with the issues of humans casting out animals once they become less useful. This was my favorite story that was in that same moral. Most of the times the animals are always cast out, sometimes they may find a way to live a happy life, but often they don't. I liked that in this one, the Buddha/Prime Minister fought for the elephant to be restored to her place of honor and not cast aside after all her long years of service to the king.

Week 14: The Clever Monkey (Storytelling)

Once, a monkey lived along the shore of a huge river. He would swing from tree to tree along its bank, looking for the best fruits to eat. There was also a small island in the center of the river. To get to the island, the monkey would jump from rock to rock over the river until the island was just a leap away.

Most monkeys were afraid to go to the island.  One, however, was not. This monkey was brave and clever and since he was the only monkey who would venture over the river to the island, he had all of the ripe fruits on the island to himself. He would often go there and feast on the many fruit trees the island possessed.

Still, the monkey wasn’t always happy. From the island, could see even more good fruit trees on the opposite riverbank. But there were no rocks on that side to jump across. Still, he’d often sit on the island and think about one day making it all the way across the river.

One day, he got up early to go to the island. When he got there he ate and sat, looking across the river at the other side. He was startled when he heard a voice down below him.

“Hello, Monkey,” the voice said. When the monkey looked down, he saw a crocodile swimming down below, right along the edge of the island.

“Hello, Crocodile. What brings you to my island?” The monkey asked.

“Well, you have a beautiful island,” the crocodile said, “but the trees over on the far side of the river look even better. I could take you over there if you’d like…you could ride on my back.”

The monkey watched the crocodile cautiously. The monkey was smart and knew that this was probably a trap because crocodiles loved eating monkeys. But he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to try the fruits on the other side of the river.

“Alright,” said the monkey, as he hopped down onto the crocodiles back.

The crocodile swam towards the far riverbank for a while, then suddenly, he dove beneath the water. Money was terrified. He couldn’t swim, so he had to keep holding on to the crocodile who seemed to want to kill him. After a long minute, the crocodile surfaced again, with the monkey clinging to its back.

“What were you doing?” The monkey coughed and shook, trying to dry off.

“Killing you,” said the crocodile. “I want to eat monkey heart for dinner tonight.

The monkey thought quickly, devising a plan. “Well,” he said slowly, “that’s really too bad. You see, I left my heart on the island. If you just would have told me, I would have brought it. Why don’t we go back and fetch it?”

The monkey could see the crocodile thinking, but crocodiles were not known for their intelligence. “Okay,” said the crocodile finally. “We can go back and you can get me your heart.”

The crocodile, with the monkey on its back, swam back to the island. As soon as the crocodile swam close enough, the monkey leapt and scrambled up a tree on the island’s shore.

“You’re very stupid, Crocodile,” the monkey said. “My heart is not on the island and now you can’t reach me.” The crocodile was angry at himself and Monkey for the trickery. But he devised another plan to catch the monkey for dinner.

The crocodile watched as the monkey went back to his feast on the island. The monkey ate all the fruits he could and was about to return back to his side of the river. It was just getting dark. Crocodile swam up, stealthily, and tried to disguise himself as one of the rocks Monkey jumps across to get home.

When monkey got close, he noticed that the rock was higher than it should have been. To see if the crocodile was hiding, the monkey called out, “Oh rock, shall we talk as we always to on my trip home?”

The crocodile, thinking that the monkey and rock were friends, answered, trying to convince the monkey he was a rock. “Of course, as we always do,” the crocodile said, trying to make himself sound like a rock.

“You are the crocodile!” the monkey yelled. “But, I suppose you have trapped me! Why don’t you open your mouth and I’ll climb in?”

The crocodile was giddy with monkey’s surrender. He did as he was asked and opened his mouth wide.

Monkey took this opportunity and jumped over the crocodile’s open mouth and onto his head. As quick as he could, the monkey jumped from the crocodile, to the rocks, then to the shore.

“I have outsmarted you again, Crocodile,” the monkey said.

The crocodile saw that the monkey was once again out of his reach. “Yes,” he said sadly, “you have. I won’t continue pursuit of you, Monkey. You are too hard to catch.”

“Nonetheless,” Monkey replied, “I will always watch out, as you almost ate me twice.” With that the monkey and the crocodile parted ways, they never saw each other again.

Author's Note: The original story was called The Monkey and The Crocodile from the Jatakas Tales (Babbitt) reading unit in the Un-Textbook. The story is about a crocodile and a monkey. The crocodile keep trying to kill the monkey, but the monkey keeps outsmarting the crocodile. 

I kept most of the story the same. I added more background for the monkey, such as him being the only monkey who would venture onto the island. I also condensed the story. Originally it was in two parts and the two parts were weeks apart. I changed them to happen in a singular day, one event right after the other. Besides that, the main events of the story are the same. 

Story Source: Story source: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, illustrated by Ellsworth Young (1912).

Week 14: Jataka Tales: Babbitt (Reading Diary B)

This week I read Babbitt's Jataka Tales unit from the Un-Textbook. The stories I'm going to talk about from the second half of the reading are The Golden Goose, How the Monkey Saved his Troop, and The Elephant and the Dog. (Story source: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, illustrated by Ellsworth Young (1912).)

The story of the Golden Goose was what I expected from the White Elephant story that I talked about in the first reading diary this week. The goose was so kind to help the mother and daughters by giving them golden feathers to sell. Not only did the goose give the women one feather, but he continued to return and give more and more feathers to the family until they were rich. Of course, it was not enough for the mother and she caught the goose and forcibly plucked all the feathers.  I was so glad that the woman didn't benefit from her violence towards the goose, as all of the goose's gold feathers turned white when the mother stole them.

The next story I'm going to talk about was How the Monkey Saved his Troop. I really liked this story, not only because of the monkey chief's ingenuity but also the respect and honor the king showed the monkey. I was a little frustrated by how the king just took over the entire tree and tried to keep all the monkeys after it and ordered his arches to shoot any that tried to come down. However, I thought the monkey chief was really creative to make a bridge out of his body for his entire troop to escape on. I was so glad that when the king saw how the monkey saved his troop, the king decided to help and take care of the monkey for the rest of his life.

My favorite story from this entire unit was the story of the Elephant and the Dog. I love friendships between different animals. And this one was so sweet. I loved how happy the dog and the elephant were together and I felt so bad for the elephant when the dog was sold to the farmer. I was so happy though when the king saw how sad the elephant was and decided to pay to bring the dog back. The dog and elephant's reunion with the elephant lifting the dog over his head was so adorable and I'm so glad they lived together happily after that.

Week 14: Jataka Tales: Babbitt (Reading Diary A)

This week I read Babbitt's Jataka Tales unit from the Un-Textbook. The stories I'm going to talk about from the first half of the reading are The Foolish Timid Rabbit, The Princes and the Water-Sprite, and The King's White Elephant. (Story source: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, illustrated by Ellsworth Young (1912).)

The story of the Foolish Timid Rabbit reminded me a lot of Chicken Little. I think that this is a great lesson for a story though because so many people do react immediately to things and are mistaken about what is actually happening. Nevertheless they go and spread the word and soon everyone believes the misinformation. I also think stories like this that have the chains of animals talking that just keeps getting longer and bigger are fun to read.

I also liked the story of the Princes and the Water-Sprite. This story was like a cross between Rama and Lakshmana's exile from Ramayana and the story of the Pandavas at the pond in Mahabharata. I liked that the youngest brother went with his two older brothers after his mom had the older two exiled. It reminded me a lot of Rama when Bharata, I think it was, who tried to stop his mother from exiling Rama and didn't want to be king. I liked the fairy question that the sprite asked and I was glad when he gave the Prince both of his brothers back.

The last story I'm going to talk about is the King's White Elephant. The entire story I was expecting the humans to start mistreating the animals. So many I have read are about how bad humans are to other animals so I guess I was just thinking that would happen again. I was very glad that it didn't happen. I was glad that the carpenters helped the first hurt elephant and continued to treat the animal well when it helped them get trees for their work. I was also worried that the king would hurt the young white elephant but I was so happy when he took the elephant back to his palace to live a long good life. 

Portfolio Guide

Threatening the Sea

The story of the sea god's encounter with the legendary hero Rama.

A Ghost Took Over My Life

The story about a man pleading for justice after his identity is stolen by a ghost.

Maricha's Choice

Ravana disrupts Maricha's peaceful life with a terrible ultimatum. 

Two Travelers and a Dare

Two friends traveling come across an inscription telling them to attempt a seemingly impossible task.

Racing Monsters

A mother tells a bedtime story about creatures who used to capture humans.

Week 13: Santal Readings Review (Essay)

I read the Santal Folktales reading unit of the Un-textbook this week, and I thought it had a lot of great stories. My favorite units are ones that have people and animal stories mixed together and this one was perfect in that regards. Almost all of the stories had animals and humans interacting, or at least both playing a large role in the story.

I love how in so many of the Indian epics, fairy tales, and folktales, the animals are nearly human, with the ability to talk, reason, and decide their own fate. They also often have similar flaws as humans as well, such as distraction or fear. One story that this was seen in from this unit was the story of the Brave Jackal. In this story a goat goes and hides in a leopards cave to keep from getting killed by humans. The goat makes such a horrible noise, that the leopard thinks a fearsome beast is in it's home and runs away terrified.

Some stories where humans and animals are nearly equal are a bit more disturbing, like the story of the Tiger's Bride. In this story, a mother gives a tiger her daughter in marriage after the tiger helps her finish some work. I did like this story though, because the girl is very clever and tricks the tiger to escape, but also won't return to her mother after the betrayal. The girl just runs away to the treetops where she has a decent life singing about her ordeal.

There was nothing in this unit that wasn't clear in the reading. That can sometimes be an issue with Indian stories because the language is so different, but this one was very clear and the stories were extremely easy and enjoyable to read. I would definitely recommend this reading unit.

Bengal Tiger. Wikimedia

Week 13: Racing Monsters (Storytelling)

The mother sat down at the edge of her oldest son’s bed. After an hour of trying to wrangle the two boys, Rico and Ari were finally tucked into bed.

“It’s time for a story, mommy,” Rico said. Ari, who had only just started talking, nodded enthusiastically while arranging his stuffed animals around him.

“Okay,” the boys’ mother said. “What story would you like tonight?”

“The one with the scary one-legged men,” Rico said excitedly and his mother laughed.

“You only want to scare your brother, don’t you?”

“No! Well… not only… it’s my favorite!” Rico shouted. He had nuzzled under his covers, watching and waiting for his mother to start the story.

“Alright.” The mother looked between her two boys; both were watching her expectantly.

“Once, a long, long time ago,” the mother began, “there were creatures called ghormuhas. Now the ghormuhas were fierce and terrifying creatures. They had a human body, except only one leg, and the head of a horse. And what’s worse, they liked to eat people…”

Ari gasped and pulled his stuffed animals closer. Rico smiled and waited for his mother to continue.

“But don’t worry,” the mother reassured her younger son. “The ghormuhas all disappeared a very long time ago. Anyway, one day a young hunter was chasing a deer through the woods. Little did he know, the ghormuhas were following him.”

“To eat him?” Ari asked in a quiet, shrill voice.

“Well, they wanted to,” his mother answered, “but this hunter was clever. So when the ghormuhas caught him, the hunter watched how the monsters treated other humans and planned his escape.”

“You see,” continued the mother, “the monsters liked the humans they ate to be strong. So every day they would run with their human captives. The ghormuhas were fast runners. And they wouldn’t eat the humans until the humans could beat them in a race. Then they knew the humans were big and strong enough.”

“I could beat those monsters,” Rico said. “I’d be so fast. The hunter was fast too, huh?”

The mother nodded. “The hunter was very fast. But he was also smart. When he saw that the ghormuhas only ate the people who won the race, he made sure that he always ran slow enough for the ghormuhas to beat him. He did this for a few days. He would almost beat the monsters, then fall back and let them win.”

“So he didn’t get eaten?” Ari asked. He was hiding behind his stuffed animals, only his face sticking out.

“No.” The mother smiled. “Then, after doing this for a couple days, he knew that he was fast enough to get away from the ghormuhas, so he planned his escape. You see, usually the monsters would race with the humans in an open field, but the hunter had a different plan.”

“This is the best part,” Rico whispered, looking at his little brother.

“The hunter asked if they could race on the mountains the next day. He said that the ghormuhas could have a much prettier view while they ran because there were flowers all around. The monsters thought that was a good idea, so they agreed.”

“And he didn’t get eaten?” Ari whispered again.

“No, he escaped!” Rico shouted impatiently and then nodded to his mother to continue.

The mother said, “The hunter took off as fast as he could through the mountain forest. The monsters tried to catch up, but they tripped over roots and rocks. The hunter didn’t stop running until he reached his village.”

“And then he told everyone about the monsters,” Rico said.

“He did,” the mother said. “And after that, everyone knew how to beat the ghormuhas and not get eaten. Soon after, the monsters disappeared. And now, we can all safely travel through the forests and the fields without having to worry about being eaten by the ghormuhas.”

“The end,” Rico said, nodding in approval.

“The end,” the mother echoed. “Now both of you boys get some sleep.” She kissed both of her children on the forehead. Rico smiled and buried his face in the blankets. Ari looked a little worried but his eyelids were already drooping.

“And he didn’t get eaten,” Ari whispered one more time.

“No, he didn’t get eaten,” the mother confirmed before shutting off the light and leaving her sons to their slumber.

Gorumara National Park in India. Wikimedia

Author's Note: the original story was called The Ghormuhas from the Santal Folktales unit of the Un-Textbook. The original story was about a group of monsters who ate humans and looked the same as described in my story, and a hunter who outsmarted them to escape.

These monsters did many horrible things, including smoking, fattening, and eating humans, but they would also arrange their parents' deaths and eat them once they died as well. This hunter understands what the monsters are doing by feeding them a lot and constantly making them run, so he always stays slow enough to not get eaten. Finally, when he hears they are about to eat him anyway, he runs so fast that the monsters can't keep up and he goes back through the forest to his village where he tells everyone about the ghormuhas. 

I decided to tell this story as a bedtime story to a couple of boys. I changed a couple of things in the story. I didn't include any of the more gory details about the ghormuhas preparing or how they eat the humans and their parents. I included more about the races, because the story didn't go into much detail, but I thought it was weird that while the monsters could catch other people that beat them, they couldn't catch the hunter, so I had him change the setting of the race. I also changed the ending so that the monsters disappear because the hunter warns everyone about the ghormuhas and the monsters can no longer survive.

Story source:Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas (1909).

Week 13: Santal Folktales (Reading Diary B)

Once again, I read the Santal Folktales unit from the Un-Textbook for this week.

The stories that I will talk about in the second half of this reading diary are The Jackal and the Hare and the Fox and His Wife.

The Jackal and the Hare story was fun to read because of all the tricks the Jackal and Hare play on both the humans and each other. It was really creative at the beginning when the Jackal and Hare worked together to steal the food from the humans by using the Hare as a distraction while the Jackal swiped their meal. However, the Jackal was too mischievous and self-centered for his own good. He spoiled the meal of both the old woman and the Hare even though they were both helping him and friendly. In this unit, as well as some stories from others in the Indian Un-Textbook readings, the Jackal fills the spot of the fox in many European folk and fairy tales.

Engraving of Indian Jackal by J. G. Keulemans. Wikimedia

I thought the Fox and his Wife story was good because of how the fox's wife tricked the tiger who was so set on eating them and their children. Especially because she is so modest about her cleverness at the beginning when the husband was so boastful, it was great to see that flipped when they were actually faced with a life or death situation.

Week 13: Santal Folktales (Reading Diary A)

For this week, I read the Santal Folktales unit of the Un-Textbook.

The stories I'm going to talk about from the first half of this reading unit are the story of the Ghormuhas and the Tiger's Bride.

The story of the Ghormuhas was very different from other stories I've read and I thought it was really interesting. The description of how the ghormuhas lived was just disgusting. The part that shocked me the most was when it talked about how when the ghormuhas parents became old, they would be put on the roof to die. When the parents fell of the roof, the ghormuhas would invite all their friends over and feast on the bodies.

 It was also gross how they described the creatures eating humans. They were very specific about how the ghormuhas prepared and ate the humans. One thing I didn't understand was how the ghormuhas were so fast. I would have thought that since they have only one leg and the huge head like a horse, that they would be much slower than the humans. 

The Tiger's bride was probably my favorite of this half of the unit, although I'm not completely sure why. Once again, it's a story that I don't think I've heard anything like before. When the mother promises her daughter in marriage to anyone who helped her, I expected her to try to back out when the tiger approached but then relent.

Instead she happily gave her daughter to the animal. I also thought that the tiger was going to eat the girl. I was surprised when he instead wanted her to make food and cakes for him and his friend. I liked that the girl tricked the tiger, ultimately leading to the tiger being ostracized by his friends. And finally, I thought the outcome of the story for the girl was interesting. I thought she would go back to her mother but instead she just forever lived in the trees singing the songs about her mother's betrayal. I thought this was a really intriguing and unique story.

Panthera Tigris. Wikimedia.

Week 12: Khasi Folktales B (Extra Reading Diary)

For the extra reading diary assignment this week, I read the second half of the Khasi Folktales unit. 

The two stories that I liked the most from this half of the reading unit are the one's I'll talk about here. The first is the story of What Caused the Shadows in the Moon and the second is the story of How Cats Came to Live with Man.

One of the main reasons I liked the moon story is because earlier this week in the Indian Fairy Tales Unit, I read a different version of why the moon has a softer, more shadowy light and the two stories couldn't have been more different. 

In this story, the moon used to be as bright and brilliant as the sun, but because he didn't listen to his mother and disrespected his sister, the sun, he was burned, leaving him dimmer and scarred than he was before.  This is a much more depressing story than the one in the Indian Fairy Tales unit, where the moon was the only child to help her mother, so she was blessed with soft, beautiful light, where the sun was cursed to be harsh blinding. I personally like the Indian Fairy Tale version more, but I did like how this version also explained the shadows and markings that we can see on the moon.

Full Moon by Gregory H. Revera. Wikimedia.

I also thought that the story about how the cat came to live with humans was really cute and different from many of the other similar folktales. First I thought it was cool that they talked about how the cats were related to the tigers, and how the cats began hunting small animals because the tiger wouldn't share his food. I thought the story was really cute how the cat had been so abused by her family, especially the tiger, but when she went to the humans, she was welcomed and loved and played with. After that, she didn't take any more abuse from her brother and she began living with the humans permanently.

By Payman Sazesh. Wikimedia

Week 12: Indian Fairy Tales (Reading Diary B)

As I said in the first reading dairy, this week I read the Indian Fairy Tales unit from the Un-textbook.

The two stories I'm going to talk about in this reading are Pride Goeth Before the Fall and How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner.

The Pride Goeth Before the Fall story was different than any other story I have read so far and I thought it was a fun one to read. When I began the story, I thought it was going to be about someone coming and helping the traders after they were robbed but I loved that it was different and featured the traders rallying together and taking back control from the thieves. This was particularly impressive because the traders had lost everything, including most of their clothes, and took out the robbers. I liked that ending of the story included that after this the traders always armed themselves and their friends loved hearing the retelling of their fight with thieves. 

I liked the story of How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner. I've always liked reading myths or folklore that explain why the earth or life is the way it is, particularly when the elements are personified. I thought that this story did a great job showing how the sun and wind were cursed to be harsh while the moon's glow is soft and gentle. I liked the way the writer told the story of this family of elements and how it gave an origin for things in everyday life. 

Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).

Week 12: Indian Fairy Tales (Reading Diary A)

For this week, I read the Indian Fairy Tales unit of the Un-Textbook.

The first story I'm going to talk about in this diary is the story of Harisarman, which was my favorite from this unit. The second story I'm going to briefly touch on is the Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal. 

I thought the story of Harisarman was really entertaining and fun to read. Stories about men like Harisarman who always get ahead by lying and getting really lucky are so different than most stories, but at the same time there are many stories like that (i.e. the story from the Myth-Folklore class about the archer who lied about his accomplishments but ended up accidentally scaring off an army, giving him even more fame and glory).

The Harisarman story was one of the best of these types of stories that I've read. I liked how the first time, his deceit was so well planned out but the next two, which cemented his power and wealth, were complete accidents. On both of the two occasions, the solution practically fell to him from the sky and his luck continued. Really, how many girls in India are named "tongue"? Stories like this are really fun to read because you can see the pieces coming together before and in the end, everyone usually lives happily as long as their luck holds out.

Storybook illustrations by John D. Batten

The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal was very much like the story from the Bidpai Folktales Unit, which I discussed in depth in the Week 11 Reading Diary B. However, I waned to mention the Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal because it was so similar but I loved the few differences in his story from the last I discussed. 

In other similar stories, the animal or creature trying to kill the person who saved them is tricked back into he cage by something, and usually quite quickly, but I thought this one was so much better because of the confusion the jackal caused in the tiger by pretending to be completely stupid and not mentally stable. I thought the tiger's furied response was so much better than just trying to prove he was locked up. Instead he was trying everything in his power to make, what he though, was an incredibly stupid creature understand a simple situation. 

Week 11: Bidpai Reading Unit (Essay)

For this week, I read the Tales of Bidpai unit from the Un-textbook. I really enjoyed this unit and thought all of the stories were fun to read. The stories were all diverse and all of them were interesting. I personally like when the un-textbook stories are only a page or two long, so I thought this one was great since none of the stories went over a page.

This was the first unit I had read in this class or the Mythology Folklore class that had some pages with multiple, extremely short stories  one one page. I thought this was great because i was such a different set up from many of the long stories we read, especially with the epics in this class. I also thought they were grouped very well, for example, having multiple stories on a page that all focus on apes. 

I also don't think I'd read a unit for either class that had an introduction quite like this one, but I really liked it. I liked how it set up the original scribe of the book of stories, almost as a myth himself. I thought that this was a great way to begin a storybook like this. The talking about the libraries of the king and the amount of knowledge there, was amazing. When reading it it made me think of the Library of Alexandria. 

There were many stories I liked, including the Two Travelers, however I talked a lot about that one in my first reading diary and my storytelling assignment, so I won't talk much about that one here. I also liked the King, Hermit, and Two Princes story. I thought this was a great story to show the moral of no living above your means, saving your money, and not relying on other people to bail you out of debt or bad situations in general that you get yourself into. The story was very similar to modern day versions that are in movies and TV shows where the trust fund kids are cut off and party away all of their money before they realize it. 

I liked this reading unit a lot and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different. I have loved reading the epics this semester but it is nice to read stories that are a little simpler sometimes and this unit was great to do that.

(Bidpai and the king, from the
Arabic Kalila-wa-Dimna)

Story source: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Week 11: Two Travelers and a Dare (Storytelling)

“Let’s stop here for a rest,” Salem said. He and his friend Ganem were far away from home, traveling to find work and wealth.

This place had trees dotted around, offering shade from the high sun. A fast running stream was to their left with plenty of fresh, cool water. The thick, green grass gave a comfortable place for the two men to rest before they resumed their journey.

After they sat, Salem went to work pulling food out of their bags. Ganem took some bowls and went to the stream. Not long after, Ganem returned without the water.

“You’ll never guess what I found, Salem.” His eyes danced and he kept fidgeting, unable to contain his glee.

Salem watched his friend calmly. “Obviously not water. What happened?” The men had often been through this routine together. Ganem was easily excited and always came up with great schemes to get them rich. Well, Ganem always thought they were great schemes. So far, none of his hundreds of ideas have become anything. Salem on the other hand was much more practical and rarely got as excited as his friend.

Ganem shouted, “You’re going to love this! There was some writing on a boulder by the river. It said that there is a city on top of that mountain,” Ganem pointed to the closest mountain on the other side of the stream. “And there is wealth and food and whatever else we want there.”

Salem looked at his friend skeptically. “There are not towns or even villages on the map, Ganem. The closest thing is a farm a few miles from here. And even if there was a city, I don’t think they just let anyone come up and take their wealth.”

“Of course they wouldn’t give it to just anyone.” Ganem rolled his eyes at Salem’s hesitation. Salem was always too cautious with new adventures. “There are tests you have to go through. You have to swim through the stream, then pick up a lion statue, then run up the mountain with the lion statue. They want you to prove your bravery and strength.”

Salem raised his eyebrows. “First of all,” he said, “that river has a fast current. If you didn’t die, you’d be lucky. And I saw that lion statue when we were getting settled. It’s huge. There’s no way you could carry that thing up a mountain. It’s probably a prank. If there was some huge wealthy city, I think it’d be on the map and those tasks just sound deadly. That would be stupid, not brave.”

Ganem quit pacing and looked between his friend and the stream. “Fine,” he said. “You don’t have to do it, but I am. I’m going to find that city and become rich.”

With that, Ganem strode purposefully towards the stream, Salem close at his heels. When they approached, Ganem took off his shirt and jumped in. Salem watched anxiously as his friend struggled in the current. As he had said, the current kept pulling Ganem under and downstream.

Salem grabbed a rope from his bag, ready in case Ganem called out. He followed along on the bank as his friend continued. Almost half an hour later, Ganem crawled, exhausted, onto the other bank. He shook and coughed up water.

After resting enough to stand up, he slowly trudged back towards the lion. Ganem was already weak from his fight across the river, but even on his best day, the lion was impossibly heavy. The statue barely budged when he tried to scoot it, much less pick it up.

In defeat and exhaustion, he sat up against the lion statue. He could feel Salem watching him from the other side.

“Okay,” he called. “You were right! But I can’t make it back across the river.”

“When you’ve rested up, I’ll throw you the rope and help pull you across.” The men sat on opposite bands for hours before Ganem was finally ready. When they were both together again, they continued on their journey, slower than before as Ganem was still exhausted.

That evening they reached the nearby farm. The farmer invited the travelers to stay for dinner. Salem asked about the inscription on the boulder up stream and the farmer laughed.

“Oh, that was my boy,” he said lightly. “He just got good at writing and he wrote that yesterday. I figured it wasn’t a big deal; it’ll wear off with the first rainstorm. And who would actually think they could swim across a stream like that and pick up a huge statue?”

Salem smiled a little and glanced at his friend who did not find the child’s prank amusing.

Stone Lion Statue. Pixabay

Author's Note: This story was from the Bidpai Fables unit of the Un-Textbook. The original story was called the Two Travelers.

The original story was about two travelers who come across an inscription by a stream. The inscription tells them to do seemingly impossible tasks and if they do, they will be given all the wealth they could want. One man thinks it's a joke, because the tasks are so impossible, and he leaves. But the other thinks it's a test for bravery, and he sets upon doing he tasks. The tasks he must accomplish are swimming across a fast stream, carrying a stone lion up a mountain through thorns and wild animals until he reaches the top. He accomplishes the task and is made king of the city atop the mountain. 

While I was reading this story, I thought the moral could have gone one of two ways: brave men get money and glory and wealth, or practical men don't die. I figured, based on the stories and epics we read, that the moral would be the first. However, if I came across this same situation, I would have responded the same way as the man saying it was impossible, so I decided to switch the morals of the story to where that man ended up being right. 

So I changed the end of the story by having the brave man unable to perform the tasks and changed it to where the inscription was a prank by a child. I also had the man who didn't try the tasks stay with his friend and in the end help him back across after he almost dies in the river the first time. 

Story source: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Week 11: Bidpai Fables (Reading Diary B)

Once again, for this week I read the Fables of Bidpai reading unit from the un-textbook. From the second half of this unit, the main story I'm going to talk about is the Camel Driver and the Adder.

The Camel Driver and the Adder reminds me of a story that I think I read in Laura's mythology and folklore class (I can't remember what unit it was in) about a genie who is saved from the ocean by a fisherman. As soon as he fisherman finds and releases he genie, the genie says that he is going to kill the fisherman. The fisherman tries to convince the genie to reconsider and go on his way, but the genie refuses. In the end, the genie is tricked back into his jar (I think i was a jar) like the fox tricked the adder in this story, and thrown back into the sea.

While these two stories were very similar, I liked the Camel Driver and the Adder story more because of it's connection to how humans treat the world around them. Unlike with the genie, who just decided that he would kill the person who found him, the adder had his ideas about how the world worked from seeing how humans treated others. Because of this idea, he logically decided that if humans would harm animals that helped them, they couldn't be trusted and he should do the same. While it is extremely ungrateful and the Camel driver was right to trap the snake again, there was a least a reason for he snake to do what he did and also let the moral of the story be to treat everything and everyone that helps you kindly and fairly.

Loch Shin Adder. Wikimedia

Week 11: Bidpai Fables (Reading Diary A)

For this week I chose to read the Fables of  Bidpai reading unit from the un-textbook. From the first half of the readings, my favorite story was the Two Travelers. There were many great stories from this unit, but this one was the one that I liked the most.

The Tale of Two Traveler's story I really liked because I had never read anything like it before. I know for sure, that if I was in a situation like these two friends came across have responded exactly like Salem. Ganem was so excited for a chance to do something that was brave and exciting, but Salem thought much more practically about the situation. I was convinced that Ganem was going to die in his trials and his feast would have been in some type of an afterlife.

The tasks of swimming across a strong stream then carrying a stone lion quickly up a hill would not be something that I would ever attempt because it seems reckless and stupid. There's the old saying that there's a thin line between stupidity and bravery, and I think that was shown in this story. In the end Salem misses out because of his realistic view and Ganem becomes a wealthy king because of his bravery in completing the tasks.

I personally would love a version of this where he moral is changed from "be stupidly brave and you could become a king" to "be practical and don't die in a river or crushed by a stone lion". That may be my storytelling assignment this week.

stone lion statue. Pixabay.