Caitlyn's Blog for Myth-Folklore Fall 2018

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends , Part A  (Raven: Image by Nikon D7200 ) I found these stories to be very interesting. From the start, I liked The Raven Myth: Raven's Creation by Katharine Berry Judson. I thought it was cool that the raven from this story had the power of creation. I have not read many stories at all that show a specific animal that has that amount of power. I enjoyed the rest of the raven myth stories that followed, since they all focused on a similar thing, where the raven is the creator and cause of many things. Similarly, a few of the stories that followed these described how some of the traditions of the Alaskan tribes came to be, which are all credited to the raven as well. I found it to be interesting that the raven is often written in a way that depicts a human in these stories. At least, I end up accidentally imagining a human when reading about the raven sometimes, due to the wording that is used. The Raven and the Seals is one of the stories th...

Extra Credit Reading: Crash Course Myth- More Pantheons (Part of the Indian Pantheon from the Crash Course Video ) From the start, these videos were interesting to me since I have never known much about the Indian, Norse, or African pantheons. My limited knowledge of many of the deities included in these pantheons comes from their names or likeness being included in video games that I have played. It is interesting for me to see that many of the details I have seen about these deities in video games are actually quite accurate. I had always wondered how accurately they were being portrayed. The Indian Pantheon video taught me a lot. I did not know what Sanskrit was before watching it. The idea of avatars was also quite interesting. It was also cool to see the explanation of Norse mythology and its Germanic roots which was presented in the Norse Pantheon video. It was interesting to see all of the parallels between the African Pantheons/Orishas and the mytholoy of Native Ame...

Reading Notes: Myths of the Cherokee Part B by James Mooney (Fruit bat: Image by Kdsphotos ) This section of the reading had more variety in comparison to the previous section. This section still included stories that focused on how certain animals came to be, or how they developed one of their physical traits. For example, the stories The Terrapin's Escape From The Wolves  and The Ball Game of the Birds and Animals both do this. While I still enjoyed these stories, I most liked the stories that differed from these by explicitly mentioning the Cherokee or other tribes. The stories  The Uktena and the Ulûñsû'tï and  Âgän-uni'tsï's Search for the Uktena both have more of an explicit focus on the tribes while still telling a mythical story. The idea of the Ulûñsû'tî being this powerful object that the tribes used was quite interesting. The stories mention that white men should not ever see this object, so I think it would be interesting to see what happens...

Reading Notes: Myths of the Cherokee Part A by James Mooney (Diamondback Terrapin: Image by U.S. Department of Agriculture ) I had fun reading the majority of these stories. Many of them were about creation. I found How The World Was Made to be especially interesting. In contrast to other creation stories I have read, this one often notes that no one knows who created the first of many things. This was different for me, since the creation stories I am familiar with are more certain of who or what created something. Some of the other creation stories in the unit that followed this one did not express the uncertainty that was present here. I enjoyed those other stories as well. It was interesting to see some of the details about certain animals being explained by something that happened to them that was caused by other animals. For example, the rabbit has a stubby little tail because the bear pulled the rabbit's previous tail off in How the Rabbit Stole the Otter's Coa...

Extra Credit Reading Notes: Crash Course Ancient Mediterranean (Herakles and the King from Crash Course videos) It's always fun to come back to Crash Course videos. The explanation of pantheons was very interesting to me since I have not ever heard this much detail about them. It was cool to learn about the Egyptian gods since I think those are some of the gods I am less familiar with. A large amount of details from the other videos related to Greece was very interesting to me as well since I have actually been playing a game that has many prominent characters from those times in them and includes historical events and icons. Though I was more familiar with some of the information about the Greek and Roman pantheons, I still learned quite a bit from the video that focused on that. The video that focused on Herakles was probably my favorite. I always loved the movies based on Hercules, so it made it all the more interesting for me to hear the original story about Herakles....

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki) Part B (Watanabe from The Ogre of Rashomon ) Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki The second part of this unit was somewhat different from the first, though I enjoyed this part as well. The Ogre of Rashomon is quite similar to a story I read a few years ago in my Japanese literature class. It was interesting to notice all of the similarities between the two stories. I enjoyed the story overall, but thought that the ending was somewhat unfulfilling because the ogre got away and it was not mentioned that Watanabe ever found the ogre again. The Story of Princess Hase was also interesting, as it had a Cinderella vibe to it. I was unsettled by the part where the step-mother killed her own child by mistake. Really, her behavior and attitude towards Princess Hase was unsettling the entire time, but the story ended well with Princess Hase being reunited with her father and the step-mother went away. I wish she had been actually b...

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki) Part A (Tawara Toda from My Lord Bag of Rice ) I very much enjoyed the stories from this unit. The stories were longer but also fewer in quantity. Depending on the unit, I prefer the stories to be that way and I thought it was good for this unit. The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die was by far my favorite story from this section of the unit. Sentaro experienced a lot of things while he was dreaming, which I thought was cool because it was not revealed that he was actually dreaming until later. I really liked the idea that was presented in this story, and that is the main reason why it was my favorite from this part of the unit. The story taught the lesson of greediness and selfish desires will not bring happiness even if they are granted. I also enjoyed all of the description and imagery provided in My Lord Bag of Rice . The way it was written made it very easy to visualize all of the grand things and events depicted in the story.  ...

Week 8 Progress I am okay with my progress right now, but I am a little behind where I want to be by the end of the semester. I would say I enjoy the readings for this class the most out of the other assignments. I have used the reading extra credit option once and plan to do so again. In terms of developing my blog and website, I think it has all gone very well. Looking forward, I want to be better about doing more assignments or extra credit since I am a little behind where I want to be. I think that is the most important thing for me to change.  (Image by Bich Tran )

Week 8 Comments and Feedback I think the feedback I have received has been pretty substantial. The comments seem to be thought out and it is clear that the people leaving comments on my stories have actually read them. I think the most useful comments have been the ones that follow the feedback styles that have been discussed for the class, WWW and TAG/Pretend. As for feedback out, I have also been trying to leave meaningful comments for other people. Again, I find that my comments seem best when I use one of the feedback styles mentioned above, though it is still difficult sometimes for me to find something to critique or question on someone else's writing. As for blog/introduction comments, I feel I have gotten to know the other people in the class a little bit, but not to a substantial degree. I am happy with my own introduction post as it is now. Looking forward, I wish to improve upon the frequency of my comments for others and also get better at leaving critiques/questions...

Week 8 Reading and Writing I have enjoyed the reading assignments very much overall. I have not kept up as well with the writing assignments, though when I have done them, I have surprised myself with how much I am able to write. I am happy with both my blog and project websites. I think my project has gone well overall since I have been able to choose appropriate stories to add to it even though I only have a few to choose from. I think my biggest accomplishments are that I have written my own stories and I actually like what I have written. I am much more used to writing research papers or essays instead of things like the stories for this class, so I was unsure of if I would be able to do okay at writing these kinds of things. Though, I feel good about the stories I have written and have been surprised by how easy it was to write them once I got started.  (Lion: image by Serg Zhuravlev ) This is my favorite image from my stories/reading notes because of how well don...

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) Part B by Andrew Lang (Tanuki: image by rumpleteaser ) Themes that are similar to the ones presented in the stories of part A are also shown in this set of stories. Again, I enjoyed the stories that focused on greediness. One such story was The Crab and the Monkey . I was hoping for less violent outcomes in this story, but that hope went away as soon as the monkey badly injured the crab. I was happy that the crab had friends to help her out, and that the monkey was paid back for the wrong he did. Though, as usual, the resulting death was unsettling to me since I do not think it needed to go that far. I also enjoyed The Magic Kettle . Out of the stories in this unit that involved a tanuki, I liked this one the most because of how the tanuki was portrayed. I think tanuki are very cute so I was glad that the tanuki in this story was portrayed more positively than others. I also liked that Jimmu gave some of his fortune that came from ha...

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) Part A by Andrew Lang (Sparrow: image by Laitche ) These stories were very fun for me to read since I have read many similar Japanese stories in the past. The Stonecutter was one of my favorites to read. I liked that the story focused on teaching a lesson by showing the stonecutter and all that he went through. He wished for different things many times, but in the end realized he was most content just being himself rather than something else. I also enjoyed The Envious Neighbor quite a bit. This one in particular reminded me very much of other Japanese stories I have read, since it focuses on the badness of greed. The abruptness of the dog's death caught me somewhat off guard, but I was also just generally upset that he was killed. I liked how the man and women's love for the dog was portrayed. I was also glad when the envious neighbor was finally punished for all that he had done. Similarly, The Sparrow with the Split Tong...