Andrew Elaryan's Mythology and Folklore Blog

Portfolio Entry:  https://sites.google.com/view/taletwists/grass-cleaving A vast field of grass and weeds sprawled Yamamoto's front lawn. A suburban jungle grew completely unhindered in front of his house and the time for apathy was no more. With a sigh, Yamamoto resigned himself to spending the morning bringing order to his chaotic lawn. Opening the door to his garage, Yamamoto found his way to his home improvement tools. There lay a standard pull cord lawnmower, the red exterior covered in dust from months of lacking any sort of use. Yamamoto took a nearby rag and wiped the dust off of the handle, coughing as the particles entered his lungs. Yamamoto's lawnmower. Source:  Wikimedia Returning to the daunting task before him, Yamamoto made up his mind that there was no going back. He allowed the lawn to grow unkempt for this long, so it was his job to eliminate it. Bending down, Yamamoto gripped the handle of the pull cord tights, braced his core, legs, and back, and...

Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend  by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917) The Grass-Cleaning Sword Sacred Glass-Cleaving Sword: This is a pretty interesting name for the sword. This sword is one of the 3 Imperial Regalia of Japan, the three most important and powerful items in all the land. Why is it called the Grass-Cleaving sword? Is it good at cutting grass? Perhaps it would be interesting to write a story about a dude who is having trouble mowing his lawn until he gets his hands on the Sacred Grass-Cleaving Sword! The Sacred Sword Mean: Yamato is such an a-hole! He has a loyal wife who rushes through fire and burns herself for him, but he still calls her hideous because of her wounds. And I totally get if you don't love her anymore and want to go for the siren. That is okay. But at least be respectful of the Princess in the process. I hope he gets what's coming to him and the Princess has a good ending. Note: as I finished reading the passage i...

Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917) Izanagi and Izanami (cont) Favoritism: This chapter shows a lot of favoritism by both Izanagi and Izanami. Izanagi shows more love to Amaterasu than any of his other children, including her brother Susa-no-wo. In turn, this makes Susa-no-wo bitter and causes strife for Izanami by riling up the rest of the gods because Izanami is playing favorites with the mortals of Earth. A lot of strife could have been avoided if they were more equal in how they treated their children. The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi First Story: This is actually the story that I wrote my first blog post on! It's cool coming back to reread it after reading all of the preceding stories. Now I have a better idea of the world of Japanese mythology, as well as who Susa-no-wo is himself. I went back and looked at my original  reading notes  on the story which was pretty interesting. Heaven Descended...

The Danger of a Single Story - I totally agree, we are very impressionable as children and even alter and falsify the world around us to fit the media and stories that we consume. While this can be a healthy imaginative exercise, it also holds the potential to create disillusionment with our situation in life. - She isn't saying to read stories that are directly related to you. Rather, she says to, in a way, diversify your storybook portfolio and be exposed to multiple varieties of literature. Make sure you read stories which may shed some light on your own life and culture, but also read the other stuff to get a wider view of the world around you. - I believe that you can do all the research in the world on culture, but you will never understand it unless you go there and meet its people. Stories are amazing, but can only take you so far. Hearing from other peoples' accounts, no matter if it is a single story or numerous and diversified versions, will always include a le...

Story source:  The Arabian Nights' Entertainments  by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Not Getting the Hint: In the 2nd part of the story, Aladdin sleeps in the bed with a frightened princess. That's kinda creepy. It seems like he does not have any game at all. Overuse: Every time Aladdin uses the lamp or the ring I get a feeling that he's overusing it. Neither Genius never says anything about there being a limit to the number of wishes that he'll grant, but maybe there is. Also, how is the vizir the only person who thinks that Aladdin is using enchantments? You would think that some random tailor's boy being able to do all of this fantastic stuff and instantly build a window that not even the sultan could be a dead giveaway. In Plain Sight: Why would Aladdin keep the lamp, his source of power, just laying out? Like at least put it in a drawer or something. Aladdin seems like a person who got to much power t...

Story source: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). Scheherazade It Doesn't Work Out: So basically Scheherazade is planning on stalling the Sultan by telling stories. However, what if her plan doesn't work? Her plan requires her sister to wake up an hour before and say a specific line to her. What if the sister is fast asleep? What if the sister forgets what to say? What if the king just does not oblige her request? That would be interesting to see if Scheherazade has a backup plan or not. Filibuster: Her strategy reminds me of a filibuster in Congress. A filibuster is when somebody wants to postpone a vote on a bill so they just talk and talk and talk so that nobody can vote, as they are by law not allowed to be interrupted. I think that the longest filibuster is 24 hours long. Sen. Bernie Sanders engaging in a filibuster. Source:  Wikimedia Implication: It seems that through these stories, S...

Egyptian Myth and Legend  by Donald Mackenzie Ra and Hathor "I bet you wonder why I have gathered you all here today," belted Ra, king of the gods. "It seems that humans no longer respect my authority and wish to revolt against me. This is unacceptable and as the gods, we must come up with a suitable punishment." "Poison their water!" yelled Isis. "Let the earth open beneath their feet and swallow their cities whole!" exclaimed Geb. "Scorpions in their bedsheets," suggested Serqet. The room was filled with cruel and unusual ideas as to how to punish the mortals. Ra took note of each, and, although there were some clever ideas, he finally settled on a quite simple one. "Hathor," Ra beckoned. "You are to go and slaughter as many mortals as possible so that those remaining will become reverent of my power again." "What, no that's psycho," said Hathor. "If you kill them all they'll j...

Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907). The Two Brothers Persistence: Bata definitely showed some persistence in this story. From showing up as a bull, popping up as a tree, to even being born as her son, Bata popped up everywhere. This really reminds me of the TV show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". In the show, Charlie is obsessed with a girl known only as The Waitress, but the feelings are definitely not mutual. Charlie is basically a stalker and always pops up out of nowhere to try to make a move. The funniest part is that the two actors are married in real life. I think writing a story based upon this sort of schtik would be funny, and I may go for that this week. Charlie in his costume from The Nightman Cometh . Source:  Wikimedia The Book of Thoth Forbidden Fruit: The Book of Thoth makes me think of similar stories in other cultures, such as the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve consume and Pandora's Box. Human curiosity a...

Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie Secret Name of Ra Agins: It's kind of crazy how Ra, in the first story, is set up to be this completely all-powerful god. However, he ages similar to how a mortal would. This seems different than a lot of other mythologies or religions where the deities are completely immortal and unaging. Funnily enough, in the end, it is hi drool from old age that eventually becomes the catalyst for his downfall. Ra vs Ra: Funnily enough, as Ra is described as all-powerful, the only thing which was able to defeat him is himself. That sort of gave me an unstoppable force vs immovable object feeling, and I guess the unstoppable force won. I am confused as to why he couldn't just heal himself though. Nonetheless, props to Isis for being able to use Ra's own strength against him. Ra and Hathor Mild Inconvenience: I always like scenes in movies or books where all of the gods get together, and I think it is an opportunity to have some...

Tale Twists Spinning ball. Source:  Public Domain Pictures

Bibliography: King James Bible (1611): Genesis 3. Adam tweets after being kicked out of the Garden of Eden: Dad really cares more about a piece of fruit than his own son smh if anybody has somewhere to crash for a bit hit my dms Adam and Eve debate eating the fruit: Eve: "Take a bite" Adam: "No" E: "Just a taste" A: "Nah" E: "A tiny bit" A: "Nope" E: "A nibble" A: "Negative" E: "Just one bite" A: "Ok, fine" God: "Am I a joke to you?" meme. Source:  imgflip Author's Note: I decided to try out the micro-story option for week 4 and had a lot of fun with it. The first story is Adam's first tweet after his "dad" God kicks him out of the garden. It was actually kind of hard to get it under 140 characters! For the second one, I wanted to look at the discussion between Adam and Eve. While writing it I thought about the "Am I a joke to y...

Story source: King James Bible (1611): Genesis 3. Housesitting:  In a way, the story starts off like God is letting Adam and Eve housesit the Garden of Eden for him. In the end, Adam and Eve definitely did a poor job. God said "my house is your house" and you can do whatever you want, just don't touch this one thing: the tree of knowledge of good and evil. These bad housesitters broke the one rule that God gave them. This could make for a good story retelling, where maybe a man and his wife are housesitting for his boss and they sit on his favorite couch and break it or something of the sort. A movie I like: There is a really good movie that my friend showed me once. I don't want to say the name in case anybody who reads this also watches that movie, which I definitely recommend. So basically the whole movie is a series of events that don't really make sense when taken at face value. However, the movie itself is an allegory for the bible and the treatment ...

I don't know if these articles are necessarily arguing that we should never praise our kids. If it is, then I don't agree because positivity is very important especially early on in life. However, I do agree with point number 1 and point number 2 and point number 4. Five Reasons to Stop Saying Good Job It is definitely possible for kids to get "addicted" to praise, living their lives for nothing but the approval of their elders, as I'm sure we've all seen in our school careers. When people are overly praised, the will tend to lean toward acting toward that same behavior. However, that only lets them act the way that other people set forth for them, which inhibits creativity. Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback I also think that the "feedforward" instead of "feedback" is a good thing. People are reluctant to change once they make a decision. Therefore, if you think there is something that people should do differently, it is importan...

I have settled on having the theme of my project be a sea voyage. However, I don't think I want to be constrained by one time period. My story will string together many of the stories that we read throughout the weeks. For one story may have the main character caught up in a Greek myth, where the next finds him face to face with a band of pirates, and the next has him battling a legendary sea serpent. I think a sea voyage really lends itself to exploration, in the obvious sense, but also in the thematic and historical sense. Ship braving a stormy sea. Source:  Public Domain Pictures 1) Homer's Odyssey  http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-homers-odyssey.html I really want to base my story structure after Homer's Odyssey. This week I've really enjoyed reading about how Odysseus had one final destination, but his journey takes him on multiple stops, twists, and turns. That type of structure is perfect for exploring multiple worlds and themes...