Essay: The "Bad Guys" Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Emperor Antoku's Grandmother rescuing him from a Dragon, by Yoshitsuya Ichieisai (1860)

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   It seems that every tale in the series by Ozaki has "bad guys" that appear as demons or monsters, rather than relatable beings with feelings or reasons of their own for doing the things they do. For example, in the story My Lord Bag of Rice, it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to think that the large centipede was a monstrous, metaphorical manifestation of a foreign martial force that the people of Lake Biwa feared. There's no back-story to the centipede, or any elaboration for the root of its actions by attacking the Kingdom on Lake Biwa. Even though these stories are fairy tales, it's definitely within reason to say that the Japanese stories definitely give no aspect of gray-sided morality: there appears to only be a light and dark side.
   There is another example in the story of The Ogre of Rashomon: the ogre himself is only guilty of guarding a gate on a road. It's not unreasonable for people to go around the gate, but those who insist on it face his wrath. The bad treatment he receives subsequently from knight Watanabe just doesn't seem proportionate to the very little damage the ogre does by simply guarding his gate. However, the storyteller and knight Watanabe both seem to address the ogre's actions as mortal transgressions, worthy of severing his arm and keeping it as a trophy. As I mentioned before, no such attention is given to the ogre's story: he simply exists in the plot to represent evil. The mere fact that this plays out in the story makes me wonder as a reader if the author is not being very forthcoming with all the facts of the story. It makes me ask questions like: is the ogre's bad character simply bad because the author is not able to see past his/her own assumptions about those who are different from themselves? Overall, the author's bland portrayal of the bad guys in the stories makes me question their factual basis and truth.

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Storytelling Week 7: Goblin of Adachigahara Retold

Magic Circle, by John William Waterhouse (1886)

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As the warrior Saito headed home from his 3 year long job as a police agent, he pondered something that he heard from reports of his hometown: the cannibal of the Adachigahara province was on the rampage again. There was old folk tale about a cannibalistic goblin of the Adachigahara province, who disguised itself as human. Riako worried for his wife Tokio, who was waiting for him at his home in Adachigahara. He thought it was strange that the day he married his wife that the string of attacks stopped the last time the cannibal goblin was killing.

   As the night was beginning to show on the plain overlooking Adachigahara, Saiko finds his way to his home town. Nothing seems to have been disturbed or ruined, and everything seemed hauntingly quiet. He then makes it further into the forest where his and Tokyo's home is. He remembered that the one thing tha3t both his wife and him always wanted was a little home in the woods all to themselves: secluded enough to get peace and quiet, but not too far from town to be isolated. 

   As the wind whistles through the branches of the trees, Saito sees that the only light in the dark valley is coming from his home. He rushes up the porch to the door, hoping nothing has happened to Tokio. But just as he reaches for the door, Tokio comes from the shadow of the porch with a smile on her face. She greets him warmly and offers him dinner on the porch. "It's such a lovely night," she says. So they dine on the porch, and Tokio laments how she's missed Saito. 

   "I think we should head inside where it's warmer." says Saito.

   "Oh, that, I haven't finished cleaning the house yet. I would hate for you to see it now. We can sleep in the guest house tonight." Tokio replies assuredly. "That's where I have been for the past few weeks after all."

   But as they continue the conversation, Saito smells a distinctive scent coming from inside the house that only a warrior would know: the smell of blood. 

   Saito takes Tokio from the porch, then he turns toward the closed front door whispering "What is in the house?" 

   "Like I said, I haven't been there in weeks: I planned to clean it up after getting supplies from town." Tokio repeated, "Our shipments haven't been coming to the house as they usually do." 

   "Haven't you heard? The cannibal is attacking again. Haven't you noticed that's why the shipments haven't been coming in?!" Saito exclaimed, drawing his sword and leaping towards the door prepared.

   "But we have plenty to eat!" Tokio implored to Saito. But Saito didn't hear her, as he was stunned with horror: the entire house was strewn with the bloody remains of the townsfolk. Saito slowly turns back to face Tokio, who, in the wake of pure moonlight, shows her true self: she maintains her womanly beauty, but with the features of a terrible goblin with bat wings, lizard's skin, and the eyes of a cat. 

   "After I married you Saito, I found peace of mind," said Tokio softly "But when you left for your duties, I could not hold myself back any longer.... All I wanted was a little cottage with you, till we both grew old and died together. And we can still have that if you stay."

   Saito raises his sword, but Tokio floats up to his side and whispers in his ear, "Please choose me. Choose happiness. Now choose..."

Author's Note:
This story is a retelling of the Goblin of Adachigahara, which is about a priest who confronts a goblin cannibal disguised as a kind old woman and defeats her. Since the original story was told from a very detached point of view, I wanted to insert an element of personal entanglement to the story to make it more interesting. I thought it would be more enticing if the main character would have the skills and mindset to take down the cannibal goblin, but be conflict about taking the life of his own wife. After all, he could very well live with her as she wanted, or bring justice. And since I didn't know which would be the better ending, I chose to leave it as a cliff-hanger.

Bibliography:
Author: Yei Ozaki; Story: Goblin of Adachigahara; Year of Publication: 1908; Link to story

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Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Watanabe Tatsuna Fighting the Demon at the Rashomon, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)

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In the second half of the Japanese Fairy Tales by Ozaki, there is the Goblin of Adachigahara. This story is about a cannibalistic goblin of the Adachigahara province, who disguised itself as an old woman. A Buddhist priest visits the region by virtue of being lost.

   As the night was beginning to show on the plain, the priest finds a worn down cottage tended to by the old woman. He asks if he can stay the night, and the old woman reluctantly agrees. 

   She offers the priest dinner, which he gratefully accepted. The two talk for a long time, until the fire runs out. The old woman offers to get firewood, but the priest insists that he do the job. The woman does the job anyway, but bids the priest not to look in the inner room. For a while, he resists his curiosity from looking in the room. But he eventually gives in and looks to his horror: the entire room has the bones of men and blood splattered on the wall. 

   Realizing the woman is the cannibal goblin, the priest collects his stuff and leaves. As he does, he hears the woman's voice behind him, telling him to come back. As she began to give chase, the priest began to chant a prayer which makes the goblin disappear. 

Another story is that of the Ogre of Rashomon, which begins as a tale of a cannibal ogre that guards the Gate of Rashomon. A warrior general named Riako, who is told about the ogre by his band of five knights that accompanies him at all times. One of his knights, Watanabe takes a piece of paper signed by the other four knights to the Gate, which he plans to post there if he finds no ogre. He winds up finding no ogre and heads home. 

   But then Watanabe is grabbed by the helmet by a large, heavy arm. It turns out it was the ogre, and both it and Watanabe face off and fight for a long period of time. Once the ogre realized he could not scare or defeat Watanabe, he starts to flee. Watanabe then gives chase, but stops once he notices something on the ground: its the ogre's arm. He takes it as a prize and shows his comrades, but after a while starts to fear that the ogre might try to retrieve it: so he locks it in a strong box. 

   Soon afterward, an old woman asks for admittance into the Knights' headquarters. Watanabe allows this, and she praises him about driving away the ogre from the Gate. She then requests to see the arm of the ogre, which Watanabe initially refuses. But after much pleading from the woman, Watanabe shows her the arm. She grabs the arm and transforms back into the ogre. But fearing Watanabe's skill and courage, the ogre leaves the country which allows the citizens to rest peacefully from then on.

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Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Yoshitoshi Fujiwara no Hidesato, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1890)

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In the story of My Lord Bag of Rice, a warrior with the title Tarwada Toda, or "My Lord Bag of Rice", whose real name is Fujiwara Hidesato, agrees to destroy the enemy of the dragon spirit of lake Biwa: a centipede.
   Happy that Fujiwara accepted the task, the dragon spirit hosts a feast for the warrior. However, their feast is interrupted by the approach of the giant centipede itself from it's home (Mount Makimi). Using his bow and three arrows, the Hidesato attempts to kill the centipede, his first two arrows hitting it in the middle of the head between the eyes. Both glance off harmlessly, but then Hidesato remembers that human spit is lethal to centipedes. So he licks his last arrow and lets it fly, and it kills the centipede: piercing its brain.
   Afterwards, Hidesato was gifted five items by the Dragon King, each one having a magical power: a bell, a bag of rice, cooking pot, a roll of silk, and a big bronze bell. It turned out that the bag of rice would never empty, and so the warrior and his family never ran out of food.

Next in the unit are the Adventures of Kintaro, which features Kinataro, a boy with incredible strength. Kintaro was born to a widowed mother, who raised him alone in the forests, fearing the people who killed her husband. While growing up in the woods, Kintaro became friends with all the animals there: a monkey, a deer, a rabbit, and a bear. One day, they all decided to have a wrestling tournament.
   The hare beat the monkey, but the monkey felt cheated because his foot slipped. Kintaro allowed the monkey to re-challenge the hare. The monkey actually wins with the second round. And then the deer challenges the hare to the wrestling game, and the hare consents. After the day's game, it became late and the group started back on their way home. However, the have to cross a river, which has become a raging torrent. However, Kintaro, with his phenominal strength, topples a tree to make a bridge and saves the day.

Link: Table of Contents for the Unit

Essay: Magic in Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

Cover of Momotaro, by T. Hasegawa (1886)

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   There doesn't seem to be a single tale in Lang's collection that does not feature magic in some form or another. This is obviously a credit to the Japanese's culture and belief's in spirits and the supernatural. Now, magic is a common mechanic in many realms of tales (Andersen collection for example). However, the Japanese make a point to give magic an omnipresent quality: no matter what part of the story that the reader may be in, there's always a sense of destiny and that a magical force could intervene at any moment to propel the story forward.
   For example, in a relatively realistic story of the maiden with the wooden helmet (link), the maiden's deceased mother comes to her in a dream and tells her that she should finally accept a man's hand in marriage. Now, this maiden's mother was the reason she wore the wooden helmet to hide her beauty anyway, and previously in the story the author made it clear that the maiden was eternally loyal to her mother. So, the only way that the maiden could take her dream seriously is if the spirit of her mother actually intervened and appeared to her. The Japanese are often attributed with having the attitude that the environment and outside forces, rather than individual efforts, are the things that really drive the world. It seems that even in this very personal tale that they can't escape that tendency.
   Magic is also often associated with animals in Japanese culture. For example, in the tale of How the Wicked Tenuki was Punished (link), the animals themselves are described as magicians and spell-casters. They are so good at conducting magic that they actually are able to fool humans, which reveals that the Japanese culture attributes quite a bit of the strange happenings in the world (at least at the time the stories were written) to spiritual or magical intervention.


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Storytelling: Week 6 - Schippietaro Retelling

Schippietaro, by Fredrick Richardson (1862-1937)

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   There was once a boy, named Hiei,  that set out to make a name for himself, as was the tradition of the village boys of Japan once they reached manhood. He set out, using a mountain range covered in forest in the distance as his heading. He didn't know exactly what he was looking for, but he knew that the mountains were dangerous. There was bound to be some form of challenge that he could add to his name if he overcame it. 

   Once he was in the midst of the forest and he started his upward climb, it began to get dark. Though the forest was closing over him and the wind was howling through the oaks, he spotted a light shimmering through a clearing and then sees a small chapel. Despite the little shack being completely devoid of company, the boy saw that there was a fire already ablaze at the alter. So, he set his things down and started to doze off for the night. But then he woke when he heard some rustling in the rafters: dozens of black cats roamed on the beams and around the alter, chanting, "Don't tell Schippietaro! Keep it hidden and secret! Don't tell Schippietaro!" Even though the boy was in a corner of the alter that he couldn't be seen, he was still frightful. But then, he heard a loud barking in the distance, which kept getting louder and louder. Suddenly, after several moments of silence (because the cats had gone quiet as well), a large hound burst through the alter doors, barking madly at the cats. They all scattered and fled the alter. The dog then sniffed about, and followed Hiei's scent over to him. Hiei was still huddled, cautioned by any movement. But the dog simply just laid beside him and slept with him till morning.  

   When daylight broke, Hiei looked about and saw that the dog was still waiting for him by the alter entrance. "What do you want boy?" Hiei asked. The dog barked and set off running. Not willing to let his new companion out of his sight, Hiei ran after him. They both wound up at a little village in the mountain. When Hiei arrived, he found a crowd of people trying to console a crying woman, who wailed "Don't take my daughter from me! Couldn't there be some other way to appease the mountain demon?" Hiei inquired about this odd circumstance and was told by the village elders that each year the demon of the mountain asks for a young woman to be sacrificed so that he may eat her. Seeing this as his chance for glory, Hiei asked about all about the demon to see how to defeat it. But one of the elders cautioned him, "A young man, like yourself, wanting glory to put to his name, went to conquer the demon. Oddly enough, that was the same day and night that dog appeared. We think he is a spirit in animal form." Before heading back out to the alter that night for the appearance of the mountain demon, Hiei asked the elders to have his sword sharpened which they obliged. He then called to the dog, and headed out just as the sun was setting again.

    The boy reapproached, with the dog growling at his side. They both then step into the alter room and braced themselves. There was the horde of black cats again, but this time they were also dancing around an open top coffin: inside was a girl, who appeared to be in a trance-like sleep but was still breathing. Suddenly, all the cats melted into shadows and accumulated to form a singular, humongous cat, one that dwarfed the dog and boy. The three then fought, in a blurr of steel, fangs, and claws. In the fray, Hiei was thrown to the side, and his sword was broken. In that moment, the giant cat lunged for him with its claws. The dog intercepted the blow and was flung across the room, slumped over and whimpering. Not wasting a moment, Hiei grabbed the broken sword blade and plunged the sharp end into the neck of the cat, which wailed and hissed as it disintegrated into smoke. The boy ran over to the dog, trying to bandage the claw wounds up. "Don't worry, boy, I was the best healer in my village, I know I'll have you better!" Hiei cried. The dog's mouth opened, but instead of a dog's groan, the voice of a young man came out, "Hiei, I am Schippietaro. I am not a spirit, but I was once a boy like you, seeking to make myself into a hero by defeating the mountain spirit. I was turned into a hound by its magic." Hiei stared in disbelief but quickly returned to his healing. "Even if you can't heal me, it will be alright Hiei." Schippietaro continued, "You have helped me to achieve my destiny as a hero, and you own as well. So, thank you."

   Some say that the dog Schippietaro and the boy Hiei still roam the lands of Japan, seeking new adventures. But they nonetheless became legends in their own right, however they both knew that they wouldn't have lived to become heroes and friends if they did not have each other. 

Author's Note:
I don't deviate from the original main story of Schippietaro from the Japanese Fairy Tales. However, I thought it would make more sense to have Schippietaro have more significance than simply the dog of the overseer of the town, as he is in the original story. I thought it would add a lot to the story if Schippietaro was actually a young man that was seeking his last chance at glory with the boy Hiei, after Schippietaro himself had failed to defeat the mountain spirit and was transformed into a dog as a result. 

Here is a link to the original story


Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales retold by Andrew Lang, and illustrated by J. H. Ford. Link to unit

Reading Diary B: Japanese Folk Tales (Lang)

Defeat of the Mountain Spirit by the youth and Schippietaro, by J. H. Ford (1901)

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   The next story to come in Lang's collection of retellings is Schippietaro, which is about a boy who leaves his village upon reaching manhood and vows not to return until he has made himself famous. The tale says that this was once the tradition for young men in Japanese villages: to go out and seek glory for himself and his family. I don't find that hard to believe, but it is presented in the story as such a sweeping fact that I think it might be making a generalization. Anyway, he spots a mountain and aims to start his journey there, not knowing what would transpire after he goes down to rest from his trek. He finds that he has to stop to sleep for the night in the forest on the mountain, and rather than sleep in the danger of the trees, he spots a chapel in a clearing and makes his camp there. In the middle of the night he is awoken by the forms and shrieks of cats, who say, "Don't tell Schippietaro! Keep it hidden and secret! Don't tell Schippietaro!" When morning comes, the young man discovers a village when he resumes his trek. In this village, he discovers that each year, the people must sacrifice a young woman to the mountain spirit to be eaten and the girl for this year has already been chosen for the beast tonight. He is told that this maiden was strapped inside of a coffin in front of the chapel, so he makes it his duty to investigate. But before he leaves, he asks the people: "Who is Schippietaro?" They tell him he is the dog owned by the overseer of the village, who the young man convinces to let him borrow the dog to rescue the woman. The two investigate the chapel and face the Mountain Spirit, which is a huge black cat. Together they killed the mountain spirit and were forever considered heroes to the village.

   The next story is the Wicked Tanuki, which is a small badger-like animal that lives in Japan. There was a forest that had been purged of all but three animals: a tanuki, a fox his wife, and their son. But they hadn't escaped the purge on accident: they were all very clever and skilled in magic. As they begin to worry about starvation, the tanuki proposes that his wife, disguised as a human, takes him into the village to sell for some money so that they can buy food. The husband and wife agree on this. After the fox had gotten the most money she could from the bidders, her husband was locked away, but quickly escaped his holding back into the forest. Eventually they needed more food, and this time the fox would be the one being sold. But this time, the tanuki thought that if he had the buyer kill her, there would be more food for him and his son. So she is betrayed and killed. However, the tanuki does not give his son any food, and the son by this time had found out everything and planned a way to get vengance. He proposed to his father a wager: that no matter what shape his father could take, he could match it with magic as well. The father agreed and waited at sunrise on the bridge into the town. However, the young tanuki allowed the town's king and escorts to pass on the bridge first, so that his father would be tricked. Indeed he had: the guards, thinking their king was being attacked through the old tanuki into the river, where he drowned.

Reading Diary A: Japanese Folk Tales (Lang)

The Old Woman Opens the Box, by J. H. Ford

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   I have always heard the tales from Japanese culture were very topsy-turvy and expressive with their manner  and morals, and this seems to be true from the tales retold by Lang. This comes out with the tale of the two frogs: one wants to see Kioto and the other wants to see Osaka, the city opposite from the other. They meet and try to help each other see each others' city from a good vantage point. However, they wind up being tricked because when they think they see the other frog's city from their vantage, they mistakenly see their own and conclude that they wasted their time travelling there.
   Then there is the tale of the Sparrow with the Split Tongue, which tells of a sparrow that an old man becomes the recurrent savior of whenever it encounters anything threatening in the wilderness. Eventually, the old man's wife becomes jealous of the bird and how much affection the old man gives it. On a typical day, after the old man has saved the bird from its dangerous circumstance, the wife waits for the old man to leave his house so that she can take care of the bird for good. So, she captured it and slit its tongue, and released it back into the wilderness. Not being shamed in the least about what she had done, she tells her husband exactly what she did when he asks where the sparrow has gone. He leaves into the woods to find the sparrow, and happens upon a little cottage after many hours of searching. In this cottage is a young woman, who claims to be the true form of the sparrow that the old man saved time and time again. She and her sisters show their gratitude by singing and dancing for him, and gave him a choice of a gift: either a large chest or a small one. The old man takes the smaller chest, which he discovers is filled with the most valuable jewels. His wife finds out, and seeks out the sparrow-princess' cottage and demands that she be given the large chest. The sparrow-princess concedes and the old man's wife trudges home with the heavy, enormous chest. However, when she opens it, to her horror, two snakes pop out and kill her. Obviously, the woman was betrayed by her own greed and jealousy.

Famous Last Words Week 5

Thoughts of someone who knows french and browses the internet way too much

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So this week was a pretty busy one for me: got signed up for the MCAT, preparing a presentation on a scholarly article over epigenetics in psychosis, and I had an Ecology test. Not only that, but I'm studying for the MCAT itself, which is a mammoth of a task on its own. The main issue that a lot of people have when going into a full length MCAT test is the stamina factor: the new MCAT is 2 hours longer than the previous version and it'll require the student to be consistent throughout their performance. Thankfully, the new MCAT has their sections laid out like so: chemical and physical foundations of biological systems, sociological and psychological foundations of biological systems, biological systems and molecules, and critical reasoning. This gives a format that balances the time the student spends on the easier portions of the test relative to the harder portions.
   I think my best work in this class this week was my Storytelling, again, because I was able to find a way to make the original story's message more effective or just make the character's experiences more meaningful. This week I chose the Voyages of Sindbad, specifically the seventh and last voyage. I thought the original story was not very good at making Sindbad's experience very resolute in this tale. For me, the story's end is supposed to be the "punchline" of the entire plot, and I didn't get that impression when I read the original. The one modification that I wound up building into my retelling was that Sindbad experience different situations and creatures that he had encountered on his other adventures. I thought this would be a great way to show that Sindbad had indeed learned from all of his experiences and retained those lessons in his middle ages.

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Essay: Reoccuring Motifs in the Voyages of Sindbad

"Sinbad the Sailor - Episode of the Whale", by Edmund Dulac (1914)

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   Arguably the most important motif that ties all the voyages of Sindbad is how he begins and ends his stories in Baghdad, his home city. This narrative mechanism serves quite a few purposes that carry weight both in the real world and in the world of the story.
   This narrative device could be seen as a call back to the sense of nationalism that this story brings to the nation of Baghdad. The story of Sindbad would surely not be nearly as popular as it was when it was conceived  compared to today. Back then, it would have been easy to see Baghdad as a homely paradise in an otherwise unforgiving world. Truth be told, most of the middle east back then was the forefront of discoveries in science and medicine, making the economy in places like Baghdad free to support the lifestyle of an up-and-about sailor like Sindbad. It would have definitely been an Arabian paradise in the middle of a treacherous desert land.
   Another way this mechanism is useful is to build on Sindbad's character. Despite it being a repetitive device, it says more and more about the sailor each time it is used. What I mean is that he always returns home, against all odds, either by effort or by chance. He is able to refuse the invitations of being adorned with riches for the rest of his life in a foreign land if he stays. He also manages to avoid death, even when he's stranded in the middle of a land or part of the sea that is unknown to him. The ability of Sindbad to involve himself in all these problems, yet find his way back home, seems fated. This transition of events also points to what I consider one of the key points of understanding the Sailor: his desire for adventure, but a sense of belonging as well.

Here is a link to the reading unit

Storytelling Week: The Voyages of Sindbad- The Elephants Retold

7th Voyage, by H. J. Ford

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   Even in the throes of mid age, I found my mind and spirit lingering on the possibility of a final adventure. Many times I had gone abroad seeking the spoils of adventure, and every time I had managed to come back empty-handed... but never empty minded. I could tell tale upon tale, even beyond the six before this one. But this story is the last one, and the one that changed my entire perspective on what the rest of my adventures would mean to me for the rest of my days.
   Due to the perilous circumstances that I had braved before, word of my journeys had reached the Sultan of Baghdad. He and his vizier visited me in my humble home, which I had by this time strewn with ornate trinkets from my ventures, as well as the trappings of a stable home life that I then enjoyed. The Sultan asked me to take a message (along with other gifts) to another leader, the King of Serendib. Being promised a more luxurious accommodation of wealth and land to my sea-side home, I accepted.
   I do not have much to say of the journey to Serendibian lands, because it was a very peaceful journey. I almost wished I hadn't brought my entire crew with me, just so I could enjoy the solitary calmness of the ocean and the immaculate coasts of the lands that I visited before delivering my parcels. The King of Serendib accepted all gifts with great grace, and treated me and my crew delightfully. Then the King of Serendib showered us with treasure, many precious items that would make even my Sutlan blush by their purity and worth. After all our business concluded, my crew and I gave our highest praise and longing "farwells" and headed back to the coast of Baghdad. That is where the serene part of the story ends however.
  Our third day out at sea, my vessel encountered a gnashing storm, one that threatened even the fish below with the power of its waves. For three nights we battled this, which reminded me of my first adventures as a young man.  
   One early morning, with the storm still raging, the ship capsized completely. After moments that felt like eternities, the ship somehow righted itself. I heaved water from my throat and insides, catching my wind just as I was losing consciousness. Looking from the top to bottom, I saw none of my crew members. Below deck the treasure was still fastened, but this was the only fortune I was given. I could not man an entire ship on my own, and now that it was far out to sea, there seemed to be no hope. Again, this reminded me when I was stranded on a raft during one of my previous journeys.
   When the weather cleared, my vessel was then suddenly arrested by merchant pirates who confiscated everything I had to show for my trouble. The pirates then dropped me on an island, with nothing but a bow and a quiver of arrows. Their captain said,"Elephants roam this island. If you can have us 100 of their valuable ivories in a month, we will take you back to your homeland." Not being in a position to refuse, I begun my work.
   I used a tall tree to hunt all my game from: small mammals for food, and elephants for their ivory. However, elephants were much more difficult to subdue than I had thought. After many weeks of living on this island with only one day left, I had only collected only a quarter of the ivories that had been requested. I began panicking. "Would they kill me?", I thought, "Is this really how I reach my end?" Suddenly, through the brush I heard a rumbling. After they had cleared the first layers of foliage, I saw them: this was the same herd of elephants that I had been hunting for the past month. But they were all moving quickly in unison, and then I realized they were charging, right towards my tree. They crushed the truck like an avalanche, but somehow I remained unscathed. I was still terrified nonetheless, especially as the matriarch approached me. She gingerly picked me up with her trunk, which was clearly strong enough to snap me into pieces. She carried me away from my fallen tree and weapons, with the rest of the herd trailing behind her.
   We finally stopped at a large pit that must have stretched for a quarter of a kilometer. Inside this pit were the remains of hundreds of dead elephants. Still paralyzed with fear, I yet managed to see the matriarch pick up a piece of a dead elephant up and hold it to me: it was a large, elegant ivory. The herd, guided by the matriarch, started heading away when I realize: they brought me here so that I would not have to kill any more of them. Realizing that I might be saved by the mercy of an animal that I had showed none to, I cried to them "Thank you!"
   The next day I waited for the merchant pirates, but they did not show up. Instead, another ship, bearing the flag of Baghdad sailed along the coast towards me. On the port bow, the Sultan emerged and waved over to me. I was taken aboard and taken care of. I asked the Sultan, "How did you find me?"
   "My vizier interrogated a group of pirates who paraded as merchants, and they revealed your whereabouts.", the Sultan replied. He looked over my sorry state, "It is a pity that you did not manage to hang on to your treasure from the King of Serendib, and we were not able to recover it."
   "True,", I admitted,"but as a troop of locals here taught me: it is not the riches from a voyage that matters most, it is the journey itself."

(*Below this is the 1000 word mark*)

Author's Note: In this retelling of Sindbad's last voyage, I wanted to exploit a message that the original tales don't necessarily get across very directly in my opinion. We always get the idea that Sindbad is addicted to adventure, but he never admits that it is the thrill from embarking on a voyage that truly drives him. In this retelling he does admit it, but only after experiencing many familiar life threatening circumstances.
   So, its important to understand that Sindbad is a sailor who has gone on many adventures in search of riches. Each time he embarks, however, some unusual or life-threatening circumstance puts him and his crew on a completely different path than they originally intended. Sindbad usually winds up alone and is forced to find his way out of his predicament. He always succeeds through great tribulations, and makes it back to Baghdad (his home city) without any kind of treasure whatsoever. Yet he still tells his tales to all his family and friends, and vows to never go adventuring again, which he always winds up doing anyway because of his restless personality.

Here is a link to the story

Bibliography:
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang (1898)

Reading Diary B: The Voyages of Sindbad

Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor, by Gustave Doré

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In the Fifth Voyage, Sindbad actually shows enough savvy to buy his own ship and hire his own crew, which would give them much more incentive to look for him if he went amiss again. This happens, of course, after he and his crew escape a pair of angry rocs. Sindbad is thrown from his ship when one of the large stones that the angry birds volley destroy the vessel. He washes up on a paradise island, apparently, and encounters an old man. He attempts to help this elder wade across a stream, but he is suddenly choked by the decrepit man. Sindbad attempts to escape, but every time he gets up to walk away, the old man resumes tightening his grip. Sindbad receives some respite when he is able to drink the wine juice from a wild gourd. Realizing how it benefits Sindbad, the old cretin snatches the gourd to the last drop. This makes the old man drunk and woozy enough for Sindbad to escape.


Sindbad sets his expedition far away from the Persian Gulf for the Sixth Voyage, after resting back in Baghdad from his previous incursion of course. Due to a storm that drives him and his crew off course, they land in the "most dangerous spot upon the whole wide sea", according to the captain. Upon the island that they were stranded, Sindbad watches as his crew mates both make their graves and die in them from starvation. Not willing to let himself face the same fate, Sindbad makes a raft so that he can escape. He rides the raft down the river of the strange land, only to meet a group local natives. Sindbad is rescued by them and is kept well, telling his story to them which leaves them in astonishment. He returns to his own country after seeing the mountain that Adam was banished out of Paradise through.


On the Seventh and final Voyage, Sindbad once again feels the pangs of adventure tugging at him, and this time to deliver a letter to King of Serendib to establish friendship. He sets out with not just a letter, but many gifts in order to appease the foreign King. He delivers all of these things to the King of Serendib without issue, and received many presents himself from the nation's leader. After this, however, Sindbad and his crew are assaulted by pirates and have all their precious belongings confiscated. After this ordeal, his crew is rescued by a merchant, who recruits them to hunt elephants on a nearby island with the rest of his crew. Eventually, Sindbad fells one of them, and buried it so that the merchant would be able to recover the tusks when he returned. One day, after months of hunting elephants from the same tree (as per the merchant's request), Sindbad is attacked by a herd of the same type of elephants he killed. They bring him to a burial ground of elephants, so that he won't kill any more of their number by weaponized means. Indeed this works, and Sindbad appeases the merchant by the wealth of tusks that he collects. After this Sindbad returns to Baghdad and retires for the rest of his days, spreading his tales to family and friends.

Reading Diary A: The Voyages of Sindbad

The Voyages of Sindbad, from e_chaya

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In the First Voyage, we are introduced to Sindbad as a character as well as get a taste of his story's general mode of progression. His story isn't as rousing for an adventure story as Odysseus's by comparison, but rather it focuses much more on the culture of the time. This gives it a sort of "grassroots" feel to the whole narrative, because we're constantly reminded throughout the story of Sindbad's origins.

For the Second Voyage, we get to see Sindbad as a character that's incomplete without a journey to quest on. This becomes the driving force for all of his expeditions: no matter what kind of material wealth he hopes to attain while traveling abroad, on a subconscious level he is driven by the need for adventure. For Sindbad it's not the goal, but it's the journey that makes it all worth while. After all, he surely didn't plan on encountering the roc or the Valley of Diamonds that he had been dropped into.

During the Third Voyage, we get a sense of Sindbad's courage and cunning against the horrors of the world. Again, many parallels could be drawn to the tale of Odysseus and the Cyclops, but Sindbad's story in facing the giant emphasizes slightly different narrative aspects to the Odyssey. Now it is becoming apparent that not only is Sindbad a man of scheming, but one of sound survival instinct.

Now on the Fourth Voyage, we see the more sensitive side of Sindbad emerge, but not before his crew of shipmates are ambushed and stuffed by cannibal savages. Upon escaping from them, he helps a foreign kingdom and its ruler advance their technology (most notably with horse saddles and spurs), and in gratitude of Sindbad, the king of this place gives him many gifts and a beautiful wife. Sindbad grows to be very fond of this kingdom, and even attends a grieving neighbor when his wife dies. It's this kingdom's custom to bury the living spouse with the dead one, and ultimately Sindbad must escape from this when his own wife falls to illness. He does however, and manages to make it back to Baghdad.

Famous Last Words Week 4

"A variety of topics involved with pharmacology, including neuropharmacology, renal pharmacology, human metabolism, intracellular metabolism, and intracellular regulation" from File Upload Bot on Wikipedia

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   I have to say that I was rather proud of my Storytelling post this week: I always put myself under pressure to make some part of the narrative that I'm retelling "fresh and new". I knew I had the capability to write a good twist on Arabian nights, but it took me a while to figure out what exactly I would do. The tricky part was: Arabian Nights already has so much inter-textual and self-reflective power by itself, just how Scheherazade tells the stories of characters within stories. So the only way that I knew I could enhance Scheherazade's mental game with the Sultan would be to add a new rule: that the Sultan would be given the chance to tell parts of the story as well. I wanted to retain that Scheherazade was still trying to win over the Sultan's empathy, but I thought it would be more interesting if the Sultan had become aware of her strategy and was given some power, and I think it worked out well in my retelling.
  My other classes are really starting to pick up their pace, but fortunately it's not too overwhelming (even with taking 19 credit hours total). In my psychopharmacology course we are finally getting to talk about schizophrenia and the anti-psychotics that affect it. I consider this a big step in my education as a future doctor, not just this subject matter, but the whole course in general. I think it's important that pre-medical students are able to take courses in their undergrad experience that make them feel like they're in medical school already, and my psychopharmacology is definitely one of those courses.
   That quality also goes for my experimental genetics and cell lab: we get to study unusual specimens and are able to make experimental conjectures about how the genetics of an organism are altered in both the natural and artificial settings (Makes me feel like a Jurassic Park geneticist! But really...).

Tech Tip Diary- Blogger Design Templates

I probably should have done this when I changed my blog design in the first place. C'est la vie! I have designed my blog to how I want it to be (for now at least!) Who knows what I might add next!

Essay: Arabian Nights- Recurring Motifs

"One Thousand and One Nights", from uploader Chordboard on Wikipedia 

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   Probably the most obvious motif that comes with Scheherazade's tales is the way she keeps building each story within the previous narrative layer. The specific way she does this though is fairly interesting: every character who winds up telling a story within the story that they're in, tells their own story in order to save their own life or the life of someone they know. In the grand scheme of Arabian Nights, this is a blatant metaphor for how Scheherazade is using her stories to delay the death and suffering of not just herself, but of the families and girls that Sultan Schahriar destroys in his madness.
   Another motif that recurs in the series is that the person who is threatening to murder the storyteller is propelled by one of a few drives: either insatiable anger or unreasonable superstition. Ironically, Sultan Schahriar exhibits both in his current state of mind, because he hates women for both the deception that his wife used against him and he's completely convinced that all women are deceptively evil. Scheherazade is indeed deceiving the Sultan. However, she doesn't do this to harm him, but instead to heal him and stop the suffering he visits upon the families of his kingdom.
   The storytellers in each story seem to have more varied motivations than that villains however. They range from fishermen, a physician, and even a half-stone half-man. Like I previously stated, all of these storytellers are telling narratives to either save their own life, or the lives of those they pity or care about. I understand that the reason Scheherazade gives these people various backgrounds yet the same purpose is to convey the different backgrounds of the people in Sultan Schahriar's kingdom. They all hope to postpone the murder of themselves or those they care about by the antagonist, and their only hope is to try and get the antagonist to empathize with them. Knowing how the story of a Thousand and One Nights ends, I know that Scheherazade's strategy to evoke Schahriar's empathy works, saving herself and the kingdom.

Here is a link to the reading unit

Storytelling: Arabian Nights- The Story of the Greek King and Physician Douban Retold

"Arabian Nights", from Good Reads

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   And so Scheherazade tells the story of the Greek King and physician Douban, in her effort to try and save the girls of her city and their families from the horrible ritual of Sultan Scharhriar: each day the Sultan would marry a new young girl from the city to be his bride, and the next day she would be beheaded at the Sultan's whim. Like clockwork.
   However, the reason for this horrific practice was because of the Sultan's original wife betraying him with a leader of another kingdom, causing him to go mad with grief.
   The girl Scheherazade, who is an enchantress when it comes to storytelling, has been chosen as the Sultan's next bride, and her sister Dinarzade has insisted that she accompany her in the Sultan's palace. Up until now, Scheherazade has been able to stay her fate by offering a story every night for the Sultan to listen to. None of these stories has a true ending, for within each story that Scheherazade tells, a character within that story tells a story of their own to a different character. For one thousand and one nights, Scheherazade has decided to continue to tell these tales to Sultan Scharhriar until she sees that his spirit has changed for the better: hopefully he could find love in her stories again. And Scheherazade felt that tonight was that night.
   Before Scheherazade began her tale, she mentioned a new idea to Sultan Scharhriar,"My Sultan, would he who is as powerful as you indulge in a subtle change to my storytelling?"
   The Sultan replied,"What would be the nature of this suggestion?" Gathering her breath, Scheherazade responded,"That you lend me your voice and your mind to help me tell the story?"
   Scharhriar nodded and motioned her to begin the story. Scheherazade's sister Dinarzade, who was present, leaned toward her sister. "But sister!" Dinarzade urgently whispered in her ear "This gives the Sultan total rule over the story! Surely he will end it and your plan would have been for nothing!"
   "No, it does not." Scheherazade confidently retorted,"In order for him to continue enjoying my stories as he has for many nights before, he must now work together with me to continue it. I want to see if his heart has truly changed." Scheherazade then turned to Scharhriar,"Now where were we?"
 
   ...There was once a Greek King who had contracted a terrible disease that none of his royal aids could alleviate. He also never seemed to muster enough happiness to smile, no matter how joyful the circumstance he might be in. However, there was a wonderful physician, who had been reported to be the best in her corner of the world. She had heard of the King's illness and...-

   "No no..." Scharhriar interjected,"'HIS corner of the globe'... I have heard of Greek Queens, but I have never met OR heard of a woman physician."
   Scheherazade conceded,"Very well, my Sultan. But then the Greek ruler must be a woman, a queen, in order for us to reach the moral of the story."  Scharhriar huffed,"Very well, very well."

   ...He had heard of the youthful, beautiful Greek Queen's illness and decided to test his expert practice. This illness was from an old wound that the Queen had...

   "...And that wound came from her late husband," the Sultan interrupted,"who betrayed her not only in body, but in spirit."
   Scheherazade nodded,"I understand, my Sultan."

   ...So the physician had concocted a remedy, simple to him, that would cure the Greek Queen of her illness. Upon arriving and gracing the Queen in her current state, the physician asked,"...So, my Queen, when was the last time you went to frolic about, or be active for the sake of sport?"
   "Years... Not since shortly after my husband left." the Queen replied.
   The physician nodded,"I see... Might we try that? Perhaps only until you have sweat from your brow?"
   The Queen agreed. So she, the physician, and some of her courtesans played polo for most part of the afternoon until the Queen's brow slightly glistened with sweat. The physician decided to check up on her,"How are you feeling, my lady?"
   "Fine, fine! I haven't had so much fun in years! And now the ache in my head and my chest is slightly lesser." the Queen exclaimed. "Wonderful!" the physician replied,"Let us try tomorrow and see if you feel any better."
   So they did. For a thousand and one days and nights, the physician and the Queen had their sessions of play and sport, exchanging words and feelings of great importance to one another. By the end of this time, the Queen's illness had left her, and she was now smiling again. One night, as the the two were out riding alone under the moonlit sky, the Queen asked,"My dear, you have cured me, when all my other resources had failed me. How?"
   The physician smiled,"The body can never fully heal if the heart and mind remain ill." Realizing the cleverness of the physician, the Queen sighed and smiled back, kissing the physician on the cheek.
   A few days later, the Queen proposed that the physician not only become her court healer, but her husband. He accepted and they were wedded, living out the rest of their years together: laughing with each other in times of good, and helping to heal each other in times of bad. Yet, they had gotten into the unusual habit of telling each other the most wonderful stories, every night before they slept...

   Scharhriar was now smiling at Scheherazade, with a warmth and fondness that he hadn't shown in many years. Dinarzade blushed and looked away. Scheherazade realized that she was now blushing as well, but retained her gaze on the Sultan. "...Would you like to know what stories the physician told the Queen?" she asked.
   "Only if I get to tell the stories that the Queen told the physician." replied Scharhriar, beaming at her."Now, where were we?"

Author's Note:
   In the source story, a Thousand and One Arabian Nights, the girl Scheherazade has decided to become the wife of the Sultan that rules the city in which she lives. This is at the risk of her life, however: due to his wife betraying him with the leader of another kingdom, the Sultan Scharhriar has become mentally ill and adopted the brutal practice of marrying a new girl every night, and killing her the next day. He does this because his wife's betrayal made him convinced that all women were deceitful, and this is the theme to his madness. So Scheherazade becomes his wife as a step in her master plan: to tell him a never-ending string of stories, so that he would have to let her live "one more night" to hear the next tale.
   I chose Scheherazade's tale of the Physician Douban and the Greek King because I thought it would be a great juxtaposition to play on: just as Scheherazade intended to heal the mind of the Sultan with her stories, the physician would heal the Greek Queen. I wanted to add another layer to the narrative that Scheherazade weaves with her stories to Sultan Scharhriar: I wanted mostly to use the story of the physican and the Greek King to lead to a climax in the interactions between the Sultan and Scheherazade. The way I wanted to portray her crafting her story to the Sultan was to make her message abundantly clear: that she wants to heal him from his grief, just like the physician does with the Queen.


Here is a link to the story (The Story of the Greek King and Physician Douban)

Bibliography:
Arabian Nights' Entertainments, by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).
 

Reading Diary B: Arabian Nights

"The Arabian Nights, or Aladdin's wonderful lamp", by Courier Litho. Co.,

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   Continuing the fisherman's story about the King and the Physician Douban to the genius, I find it funny how the fisherman announces the redundancy and irony of the exchange that they're having. Completely breaking the narrative wall, the fisherman says,"You see what has passed between the Greek King and the physician has just past between us two." This is also an interesting choice made by Scheherazade, because it feels like she has made her point to the Sultan quite clearly through her metaphor upon metaphors in her stories. Now that her ruse has begun to become apparent, maybe instead of trying to outwit the Sultan she is trying to appeal to his feelings and nostalgia from listening to her stories. This story of the physician also seems to be the first story in which the storyteller dies, which seems to be further confirmation that Scheherazade is starting to prey on the Sultan's feelings rather than his logic. It's also kind of a geopolitical point: the Arabian leadership of the time of the Sultan might have looked down on the Greek leadership, so what would that say about the Sultan if he were to execute Scheherazade now as the Greek King had done to the physician? It would bring him down to their level.
   In the story of the King of the Black Isles told by the man who is half man, half stone,  Scheherazade makes another point in her story that breaks the narrative wall, but this time it seems like a full-on criticism of the Sultan's behavior, which is rather daring of her! The half man, half stone being tells of an enchantress who decimates the intertextual Sultan's people by turning them into animals. The intertextual Sultan orders the enchantress to change back the people to their original forms by saying,"Every day at midnight all the people whom you have changed into fish lift their heads out of the lake and cry for vengeance. Go quickly, and give them their proper shape." This acts as yet another metaphor for what Scheherazade is trying to get across to her Sultan: like the fathers of the girls that the Sultan weds and then kills, the fish all scream every day because of this barbarous act. Yet like the intertextual Sultan, Scheherazade fights every day to save her people.

Here is a link to the table of contents of the unit

Reading Diary A: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights, by pbario

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I have always wanted to explore the Arabian Nights tales, but I haven't had the chance up till now. I know the most famous of these stories, like most people, and I have also heard of the circumstances under which they are told: by the girl Scheherazade to her new husband, the Sultan. However, it's fairly enchanting to actually read the literature as it was originally structured, because the reader can readily understand the dire circumstances that cause Scheherazade to jump from story to story, each preceding one in the other.
   The story of the merchant and the genius is obviously one of the most potent tales, and it has to be (Scheherazade's life is at stake after all!). I find it interesting how the first day of Scheherazade telling the story ends with her talking about how the genius waits to execute the merchant, at least until he has finished talking about his wife and family. And then, when the story continues, the merchant is told that he has only a limited amount of time left. These twists in the story clearly show Scheherazade's state of mind desperately trying to find some kind of narrative foothold to make a story that never has to end.
   And then the next story, the First Old man of the Hind, continues because one of the three old men attending the merchant's execution by the genius wants to save the merchant's life a little longer. However, the intertextual irony does not stop here: the old man claims that his wife, the hind, was once a sorceress that turned is slave and his son into cows. However, whenever it comes time to slaughter either of them, they manage to arouse his utmost pity, even in their current forms. This could be thought of as a metaphor for how Scheherazade currently sees the Sultan: taking his cows (her) to slaughter, but not being able to do so. Granted, the Sultan is not executing Scheherazade for other reasons, but it's still a comparable situation.
   This narrative convention continues through all the stories the three old men tell to further delay the merchant's death.

Here's the link to the table of contents page for the unit

Brainstorm Storytelling Style

The Seven Ravens, by H. Vogel

Link to Source

My topic is going to be put into the style of a storybook frametale. However, I have a plot already in mind, and it will require more real-world immersion into a different storyline than those of the tales that I will be referencing. And I will be making sure to place my story's emphasis on the frametale structure, while still making sure that the outside, main story arc that I want to write is still being followed.

Style 1- Point of View
   The third person omniscient point of view I think will be essential to how I tell the tale I'm making. However, I plan to make the story narrative very character-centered and switch between the characters. In this way, I want to provide a window into each character's physical presence and mindset, yet remain free enough to be oblivious to details that might spoil the tension of the story.
   The sort of narrative perspective I want to take seems to be best represented by the Grimm Fairy Tales, especially those by Ashliman.

Style 2- Story Structure
   At this point I should say that I have already written my story, but it is a film script right now, and not a novel. The script is currently in a 4 act structure: the initiating event, the turning point, the point of no turn/climax, and the resolution. The plot itself is very long for a film script: 183 pages. If it were to be produced, it would take the shape of an "epic": this would be similar to the structure of Lawrence of Arabia.
   Though I can't identify the four act structure explicitly in the units from the UNTextbook, I anticipate that my story will play out structurally like Homer's Iliad.

Style 3- Avoiding Cliches and using Suspense
   The story itself draws heavily on fairy tale references, primarily because the secondary main character-storyline is about that character making the world around them into their own version of a fairy tale. However, in the interest of keeping the audience engaged, I have made sure to exploit all the fundamental morals and lessons in all of the tales referenced. I do this in such a way so as to lead the audience into a cliche that they might find security in (hinted at by the tale referenced), but then take the plot in a completely new direction at an unexpected juncture. By continually doing this, I am able to build suspense almost unlimitedly. However, like all great stories, there's always a point of no return, and my story has several.
    I think the Decameron by Boccaccio is a good example for comparison for what I intend for my story: it calls into question modern and past stereotypes and uses the satire of them to elevate the tragedy of the plot.

Style 4- My Audience
   Given that the underlying force driving the main plotline in my story is generational sovereignty, I will be focusing my attention on the current teen audience and my generation as well (who aren't quite teens anymore). I plan to visit extremely morally dark and gray territories with the characters in my story. However, this does not mean that I will not try to do my best at making each character defensible: by the end every reader should be able to take a side with at least one character in the story. And only one will truly be the victor, or will they?
   I'm going to make another reference to Alice and Wonderland, is seems to be the closest representation of how I want to relate to my audience.


Bibliography:
Title: ; Author: ; Year of Publication: ; Link to source
Grimm's Fairy Tales; Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; 1812; Link to source
Iliad; Homer; around 760-710 BC; Link to source
Decameron; Giovanni Boccaccio; translated:1906; Link to source
Alice and Wonderland; Lewis Carroll; 1865; Link to source