Andrew Elaryan's Mythology and Folklore Blog

"I don't know, honey, this seems dangerous..." "Oh hush, darling, trust me we'll be fine. Have I ever let you down before?"  Mr. Tanuki grabbed his flashlight and peeked around the corner. It was almost midnight and time for another one of his heists. The mission was simple: sneak into the jewelry store under cover of darkness and take whatever they could fit in the bag. The jewelry store had just moved into the city from the next town over and had made the mistake of bringing over some of their inventory before the security system was fully installed. Mr. Tanuki, of course, would take advantage of this. The store was fairly protected from the outside. Standard camera setup, barred windows, motion detectors, the whole nine yards. The inside, however, did not have these same cameras and motion detectors yet, so it was only a matter of finding a way inside. A classic break-in would be futile and certainly leave evidence. However, the ventilation sys...

The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901). The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903). Greed: One thing that I've noticed in the stories that I have read so far this unit is that greed is never rewarded well. Usually, the reward for greed is death. This is shown in The Crab and the Monkey  but is also apparent in The Envious Neighbour and The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue .  How the Wicked Tanuki Was Punished Tanuki: I have actually seen a tanuki in real life at the zoo! It was really cute and looked like a mix of a fox and a ferret and a raccoon. Although the one that I saw looked nice and cute, these stories show that a lot of them can be evil in Japanese folklore! A tanuki, the Japanese "raccoon dog". Source:  Wikimedia He Kind of Forgot: Wait... so the tanuki's son just kind of... forgot he could do magic? This is giving me major Game of Thrones Season 8 flashbacks. How do y...

The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903). The Stonecutter Grass Always Greener: I love how the story comes full circle. He wishes for all these things but simply ends up being a stonecutter again in the end. It also shows that there is no absolute scale of "mightiness". Just like rock paper scissors, there are different advantages that certain entities have over one another, but none is all-powerful. Rock Paper Scissors diagram. Source:  Wikimedia Not Granting the Wish: I wonder if there is a story where the spirit or genie just does not want to grant the wish. That could be because it is something bad and the genie tries his best to prevent it, or it could just be a wacky wish and the spirit is trying to look out for the person wishing. This may be an interesting topic to think about or a potential story. Personability: I think making the spirit of the mountain more personable would add to the story. In a lot of the Arabian...

I am pretty happy with my progress so far. Admittedly, I missed a few assignments early on, but as I've gone along in the course I've definitely found my rhythm and fallen into a routine. The grace period is really useful because there are a lot of times when I may be working late into the night doing homework and could use some sleep to get the creative juices flowing again In the future, I absolutely want to start getting assignments done ahead of schedule. My plan is to work a little bit over spring break and get a lot of my reading done. That way, I can focus on the creative portions of the class during the week with a bit less stress. Shia LaBeouf's "Just Do It" motivational video. Source: Flickr

What I've noticed about the feedback that I have received on my stories is that it is largely mechanics related. Oftentimes, there will be a slight grammatical mistake that I may not catch on my proofreading. This isn't a huge deal but can really take the reader out of immersion. I think I need to just start proofreading twice to try to catch these things. I try to provide helpful and encouraging feedback, definitely focusing on a what-if style. For me, I find myself pinpointing what exactly I liked about the story and expressing that t the author. Then, I will ask questions or make suggestions on how the story can be expanded further in that area. I definitely feel that I have gotten to know people in this class through their blog posts! Whether that be by teaching me about their heritage or expressing one of their hobbies in a story, there is certainly a sense of familiarity from reading people's stories throughout the weeks after reading their introduction. Moving ...

Wow, this class really has been amazing. It is a lot of work, but I've never been miserable doing it as it's hard to not like reading stories!. However, my favorite part of the class so far has been writing the stories. As an engineering major, I don't often get the chance to flex the creative writing portion of my brain. This class has really provided an outlet for me to do that, and I've found myself actually caring about my stories and wanting to make them as good as they can be. Looking back, I don't really like my Susan vs Orville story. I just think that it was really a stretch trying to keep the plot of the story the same while completely changing the setting. It feels like a naive way to approach twisting a story if the structure isn't there to perfectly draw parallels. Going forward, I actively took steps to focus on changing one area of the story. In Pig Out, I definitely tried to throw a single wrench into the story: Circe not actually being evil,...