Kat's Myth-Folklore 2018 Blog

I chose to do a Storylab again this week and went with the " Advice to Writers " again because I find it truly inspirational. The first one I went with was " An Artist Needs Passion ".  In this short, the writer says that kids that dream of pursuing art of any form:  dancers, musicians, artists, etc need to always have passion for the art they love.  They have chosen a career that is really, really hard & will pay very little for many years, if ever.  The only thing to keep you going in that time is passion for your art.  I believe this is true because if anyone ever pursues a dream career that isn't a common go to school, get a degree, get a regular job type of career, it's going to be hard.  It's going to take passion, belief in yourself & your abilities, and true grit & dedication.  Pursuing that kind of dream is hard.  It doesn't pay the bills very often, if ever. Another one I liked was " Literature is Not High School ....

There once was a prince, the son of a Sultan.  He was married to a most beautiful woman.  He was one day in the market & saw a parrot.  The parrot convinced the prince to buy him, telling him that a caravan was coming to buy all the spikenard & if he wanted to make money, he should buy it all up before the caravan got to the town.  The prince did and what the parrot said came true & the prince made a great deal of money. One day the prince had to make a journey to another country.  His wife was so lonely for her prince.  after about 6 months, she saw another foreign prince & liked him.  The foreign prince looked upon the wife & decided he must have her.  So he sent a messenger to try to convince her to meet him.  The princess told the parrot's companion bird about what she was going to do & the bird begged her not to go.  This angered the princess so she killed the bird.  The parrot was smart so he told ...

We find ourselves back at Hogwarts this week, checking in on the Golden Trio and their adventures.  As we look for them, we can see into the Dark Forest.  We see Harry & Ron trying desperately hard to sneak something out of the forest while also trying to avoid being seen and caught.  But where is Hermione?  Upon further searching, we find her talking to a centaur, trying very hard to keep him distracted.  "But sir, I swear if you'll just listen to me a bit longer, you'll find it's a very interesting story" exclaims Hermione. "I will listen to your story," replies the centaur thoughtfully, "but it better be very interesting or I shall have to go and examine whatever was making that racket farther into the forest."  So Hermione begins to tell him the tale of the "Merchant and the Genie" which soon morphs into telling the tales of three old men travelling along the same road, trying to also distract the genie and save the merchant...

This is another of Scheherazade's stories:  Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp There was a boy named Aladdin, the son of a poor tailor.  The boy wouldn't find a trade & it disheartened his father so that he died.  The boy was playing in town when a stranger asked if he was the son of Mustapha.  The boy said he was & the man said that he was his uncle.  Aladdin ran home & his mother said that he did have an uncle, but she thought he was dead.  The stranger was actually an African magician.  He set Aladdin up in a shop & bought him fine clothes.  Then he took Aladdin up on a mountain & opened up the entrance to a cave, telling Aladdin how to go in & get a treasure out for him.  The magician gave Aladdin a ring & told him how to retrieve the lamp.  Aladdin refused to give the magician the lamp until he was out of the cave, so the magician closed the cave entrance up, leaving Aladdin for dead in the cave.  Alad...

( Arabian Nights from the Untextbook) Sultan Schahriar had a wife he loved more than anything & he lavished her with things.  He later found out she had deceived him so completely that he had to obey the law of the land & have the grand-vizir put her to death.  He was so upset that he thought all women must be the same, so he would rid the land of as many of them as possible.  Every evening he would marry a new wife & every morning he would have the grand-vizir put them to death.  There was so much sorrow on the land that no one knew how to cope.  The grand-vizir had two daughters himself.  The oldest was Scheherazade and she was very beautiful but also very clever.  Scheherazade went to her father & said that she hoped to end the curse that was on the land and begged her father to let her marry the Sultan.  He was very distraught at this because if she failed, he would have to kill his own daughter.  But she begged ...

Here is the Comment Wall for my Storybook Site.  And here is the link to my Storybook Site: The Mystical Horses of Hogwarts Thanks everyone! ( Hogwarts at Night )

For this assignment, I decided to go with the Story Lab.  I liked the story I read for this week, but didn't feel like reworking it as it was pretty long.  As I have really started to enjoy writing again, I thought I'd check out the " Advice to Writers " page.  Here is one of my favorites:  " It's a Strange Way to Make a Living ." What happens is six months go by after I finish a book and I start to go out of my mind. I have no hobbies, I don’t garden, I hate travel. The impetus is not inspiration, just a feeling that I better do this. There’s something addictive about leading another life at the same time you’re living your own. If you think about it, it’s a very strange way to make a living. ANNE TYLER I hadn't ever really thought of it in this way, but I'm sure that's what it must feel like. I know every time I read a book, and depending on the size of the book I can get through at least one book a day if I have nothing else to do, ...

The story of Cupid & Psyche continues: ( Venus Chides Cupid ) Psyche now lays in pain from his wound that Psyche accidentally gave him.  A bird comes to Venus and tells her that people have turned against her & Cupid because there is now no love or beauty in the world.  Venus asks who Cupid is in love with & the bird tells her it is Psyche and this really angers Venus.  Venus returns home to take out her anger on Cupid.  Juno & Ceres try to reason with Venus & give Cupid an excuse, but Venus won't hear of it. Psyche is searching everywhere for her husband.  She happens upon the temple of Ceres, hoping that Cupid might be there.  He wasn't, but she set to taking care of the temple anyway.  Ceres sees her work and thanks her, but won't give Psyche refuge from Venus.  She next goes to Juno's temple to seek help, but again Juno refuses to go against Venus. Psyche can find no one to help her & can't find her hus...

For this week's reading I have decided to go with the story of " Cupid and Psyche " The story starts with a man turned into a donkey.  He is now the pack animal for a group of robbers.  The robbers go out on a raid and come back with nothing but a kidnapped girl.  They tell her they mean her no harm, only to use her for ransom, but she is extremely distraught.  They tell an old woman to sit with her & calm her. The girl tells the woman that she was kidnapped on her wedding day.  To make matters worse, she just dozed off on the old woman & had a horrible nightmare about being kidnapped on her wedding day & that her kidnappers had killed her husband-to-be. The old woman goes on to tell the younger girl a fairy tale to calm her.  It goes like this:  A king & queen had 3 daughters.  The oldest 2 were lovely, but the youngest was a beauty that no words could describe.  People came from war & wide to gaze on her & wond...

The first article I read was " How to Give Feedback Without Sounding Like a Jerk ".  I loved this article.  In upper level courses, we are often required to peer review or give feedback in discussion groups.  You want to be helpful, but most people really don't want to be a jerk about it because they don't want to hear feedback from a jerk themselves.  This article talked about the "feedback sandwich" where you give praise, then the real feedback (negative stuff), then more positive thoughts so the person doesn't hate you.  While that sounds good, most people are going to see right through that.  The article goes through steps to do instead and has some pretty good advice. The second article I read was " Why so Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise ".  This one intrigued me and I know for sure I have been accused of not giving praise myself in my last job.  I was always of the belief that if you weren't getting yelled at or told what you did ...

I think I have narrowed my topic down to horses (or horse-hybrids like centaurs) in mythology.  I'm definitely going to use Harry Potter as a way to tell my stories for this.  This was something I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do when the course first started, but I'm actually really excited about it now after the professor has helped guide me a bit. One of the stories I have chosen is the story of Chiron  in "The Wise Centaur" from Greek mythology.  I think it will be useful in my topic because centaurs definitely fit in with the Harry Potter world as well as mythology, and there is enough of the story to make good use of it. I found another story  helping explain more of the story of Chiron and also the history of centaurs a bit further. (Centaur photo from Greek Mythology:  the Story of Centaurs ) I have this story about the " Fortification of Asgard " which tells of how Sleipnir came to be in Norse mythology, but I'm not sure...

Aesop's Fables are such amazing stories but did you ever stop to think of how they can apply in your real life?  As I'm older than the typical college student (46) and have been married 26 years and moved 28 times in that 26 years thanks to my husband's career as a horse trainer, we have a lot of stories to tell.  Every time we tell some of our stories, people say "you should write a book!"  Well, maybe someday, but until then this will have to do.  Here are a few of my "Life as an Aesop's Fable" stories (because Murphy's Law wasn't an option for this unit!). The Tortoise and the Ducks:  The basis of the original story is that Jupiter punished the tortoise by making him have to wear his house for the rest of his life and in the end his foolishness cost him his life.  When you have moved 28 times in your adult life, you really learn about having to pack up your whole life and take it with you.  Never once in this time have we hired movers, s...

I decided to read from Aesop's Fables (Winter) because I remember liking them as a kid.  I always loved the morals to the stories as well and just because they are children's stories, doesn't mean there aren't lessons from them for adults as well. I started with the Winter page 1  and I really liked the "Tortoise and the Ducks."  You find that Jupiter has punished the tortoise by having to wear his house on his back for all of his life because he was lazy & didn't attend Jupiter's wedding.  I have lazy, home-body tendencies so I really can relate to the tortoise here & sometimes it causes me some trouble as well.  Thankfully, I've never been punished by having to wear my house!  I'd really have to declutter to do that!  Although I have joked that we need to have an RV as our home because we've moved 28 times in 26 years of marriage & it's a pain in the butt to have to pack up so many times.  So I guess that could be consi...