Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales, Part B

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- The story, The Rabbi's Bogey-Man is a variation of the Golem of Prague legend. In it, the Rabbi creates two different Golems, one female and one male, at two different times. He is ultimately forced to destroy them both.
- The story presents the Rabbi's initial motivation for the creation of his first Golem as the desire for a servant. His motivation for the creation of the second Golem is to prove to the king that his action was not sinful. Most of the legends regarding the Golem of Prague state that the Golem was made to defend the city's Jewish community against those who wanted to oppress and/or kill them. I find the idea that the creature was defensive to be a more appealing take on the legend. It puts the Rabbi's actions in a more sympathetic light, and makes the Golem more ominous.
- One thread that seems to weave through this story and all of the other legends is the idea that the Golem eventually lost control, or began to act in unintended ways, thus requiring its destruction.
- Another common thread is that the Golem is brought to life and controlled by a scroll in its mouth, and that removal of that scroll results in the 'death' of the Golem.
- I think this story could be told well in a traditional, European style fairy tale manner as a sort of warning about future actions: simple, straightforward, Once Upon a Time style.



Bibliography: "The Rabbi's Bogey-Man," Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa. Web Source.

Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales, Part A

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- The story about the Giant and the Flood includes information about the criteria Noah used to determine what animals would be saved, the saving of a unicorn and a giant named Og, how that giant was forced to enslave himself to mankind in exchange for being saved, an etiological mention about wine and why it makes you drunk, and Og's ultimate betrayal of his oath and his death.
- The entire story is quite long, too long to include all of the details in a retelling. The most interesting part of the story, the part that stood out to me, is the etiological story about why wine makes you drunk.
- In the story, some mention of Og's origin and involvement with Noah would be required. Why was he a servant of Noah and, by extension of that, mankind? Why is Og so bitter and angry toward Noah that he would bless/curse the grapes in such a way?
- To flesh out the story, more can be included about the importance of the grapevine and the wine that will come from it.
- Why are animals getting sacrificed in the first place? There was just a massive flood that killed everything, except what was on the ark. That flood was obviously very recent in relation to the story of the grapevine being planted. Therefore, there are very few animals, and what is there are vital for breeding purposes. So, why are these vitally necessary animals being sacrificed over a plant in the first place?
- I could tell a story of someone retelling this story, in a shortened version, and have the listeners question the unnecessary sacrifices.



Bibliography: "The Giant of the Flood," Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa. Web source.

Feedback Thoughts

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I read the articles 14 Signs Your Perfectionism Has Gotten Out of Control and Overcoming the Fear of Feedback. I have some perfectionist tendencies, although they tend to be focused on specific things  rather than being a generalized perfectionism. Several of the points made in 14 Signs definitely applied to me, and are things that I'm aware of and try to control. Procrastination and a go big or go home mindset are probably two of my worst flaws, but I have managed to wrangle them quite a bit as I've gotten older.

The article about how to overcome a fear of feedback was very interesting. In some situations, particularly when the criticism seemed particularly harsh or unfair, I have had to pull back hard on a desire to lash out. Most of the time, I have a completely backwards way of responding to criticism: I fix the thing I'm being criticized or corrected for, and do it exactly the way the criticizer wants, but I do it out of spite. For example, while I was in Afghanistan, one of my coworkers accused me of never taking out the trash (it was a shared responsibility). My response was to not only take out the trash every single day, but to go out of my way to do all of the office clean up that we shared. He and I still laugh about it. He told me that I have a warped idea of what spite looks like.

There are some situations where I very much want feedback, and I think that I tend to take it well. I think that it comes across better when you aren't only slapped with criticism, but also receive positive feedback to highlight what you're doing right.

Topic Brainstorm: Narrowing Down the Overwhelming

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Legendary Creatures - The first topic that I became interested in, during my brainstorming session, is legendary creatures. Of the ones that interest me, this is perhaps the one that I'm most drawn to, because it allows for so much variation. My story could lean towards the fantastical and incorporate unicorns, a phoenix, or griffins into my story. I could explore the darker, gothic legends and focus on vampires, werewolves, and the undead. Then, there is a cryptozoological approach that incorporates things like bigfoot, chupacabras, or Nessie. In addition to offering an immense range of possible topics and approaches, this topic is the one that I am familiar with, but would enjoy digging deeper.

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Irish Ghost Stories - I like the idea of focusing my project on Irish ghost stories, particularly on a sort of survey of haunted locations throughout Ireland. There is a sort of gloomy ambiance in Ireland that I think amplifies a romantic, somewhat forlorn way of looking at the world. This provides an ideal setting for ghost stories to flourish.

Celtic Creatures - Focusing my project on the topic of Celtic creatures has a lot of the same appeal that the ghost stories had. However, it has a bit more room for variation. The frightening aspects of a banshee story can either be balanced by a mischievous leprechaun tale, or highlighted by a more morbid version of that same legend. It also allows a wider geographic pool of stories to pull from, including Scotland and Wales, rather than a more specific focus on Ireland.

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Japanese Ghost Stories - The topic of Japanese ghost stories piqued my interest for two reasons. The first, I simply like ghost stories of all kinds. The second is that, unlike the others that drew me, this is a topic that I am almost completely unfamiliar with. It allows an opportunity to dig deeply into something that I have no casual knowledge about, thus providing a blank sleight. During my initial research, I particularly liked reading about Onryo, or vengeful spirits. Such stories would provide excellent inspiration for a darkly atmospheric storybook.

Week 2 Story: Guinness Reminiscence

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“Hey John, how was the retirement party?” The bartender put down the glass he was cleaning, and began pulling a pint of Guinness for his favorite customer. “Oh you know how those things are,” John chuckled as he settled onto his regular stool, “a lot of handshakes, stuffy speeches, and impatience to get out of those uncomfortable uniforms. Twenty-seven years as a detective, and that dress coat still makes my shoulder blades itch. You would think I’d get used to it. Thanks Pete, I’ve been looking forward to this all day.” John savored his first velvety sip. His wife, Mary would only allow him two pints a week, so he relished every sip. “How’s your dad doing?,” John asked a short time later, “I haven’t heard from him in a couple of weeks.” Pete laughed, “yeah, he’s not the best at keeping in touch. Him and mom are still enjoying their ‘grand RV tour’. I’m going to have to pry him out of that thing when they finally get back.” John shook his head, “your dad was the best partner that I ever had, but sometimes I think the man would actually go crazy if he had to stay in the same spot for more than ten minutes. I need to give him a call. One of the rookies was asking about the weirdest cases I ever worked, made me think of him.” 

Pete leaned forward onto the bar, “so, what was the case? Dad didn’t like to talk about work in front of us kids. I think he didn’t want us to worry.” John poked at his glass a couple of seconds before answering. “It was a kidnapping case, beautiful young girl got entangled with some rich guy. It was the weirdest thing, but luckily it had a relatively happy ending. Too many don’t. Traveling salesman went on a work trip, left his wife and three daughters at home. He was going to be gone over Christmas, so he promised to bring lots of gifts back. The two older girls wanted every gewgaw you could imagine, but the youngest girl just asked him to bring her back a rose. He ended up having some car trouble just outside of town, when he was on his way home, and knocked on the door of this huge house. The man that lived there, a guy named Benny Basilisk, helped him out. But, before he left, the traveling salesman stole a rose for his daughter out of the man’s garden. Apparently, the dude worked for the mob, and he was nuts! He demanded that the man give him his daughter in exchange for the ‘betrayal’. I mean, who gets that pissed over a rose? But he did it, gave over his daughter. I guess he didn’t want to deal with the mob. So, the girl ended up locked in that house for a couple of days. Her mom came to the station, looking for help. Your dad was the only one to take her seriously, and thank the baby Jesus he did, it might not have ended well otherwise. So, we went to the house, and rescued that little girl. The guy had been drugging her, and convinced her that he was some sort of hideous monster. He’d told her that he needed her love to break some spell. The poor thing was so drugged up that she believed everything he said. She hadn’t been abused or anything, which was good, but it was just a matter of time. We got her out of there, though, and her mom put her in some pretty intensive therapy to deal with the weirdest case of Stockholm syndrome that I’ve ever heard about.” 

Pete’s eyes were huge as he listened to the strange tale. “What happened to the guy who kidnapped her?” “Well, he went to prison,” John replied. “I think he turned states evidence on some of his cronies for a lighter sentence, which would explain what happened later. He died about a week after he got to the prison, choked to death on a set of golden keys. No one knows where they came from, it was just one more weird thing on top of the already crazy.” John pushed away his empty glass, and stood up. “Thanks for the pint Pete, I gotta get home. Mary will have my head if she has to wait to watch Game of Thrones. Tell your dad to call me next time you talk to him.”

Authors Note - The story that inspired me was The Three Roses, aka Beauty and the Basilisk, a variation of Beauty and the Beast. A mother going to market asks her three daughters what they want, and the youngest asks for three roses. The mother got lost on her way home, and ended up at a strange palace with beautiful gardens. After taking three roses, she was confronted by the resident of the palace, a basilisk. He demanded her daughter in exchange. The daughter, Mary, was to nurse the basilisk in her lap everyday for three hours. After three days of this, he gave her a sword and told her to cut off his head. He then turned into a serpent with golden keys in his mouth. After cutting off that second head, he turned into a beautiful young man, and they married. I was never a big fan of the Beauty and the Beast story. It always struck me as odd that a kidnapping supposedly led to true love and a happily ever after, so I changed it. I made it a more contemporary story, without the magic, to highlight how wrong a modern audience would fine the situation. I also thought that the story would come out best being told by a third party rather than one of the individuals involved in the events, so I went with a cop telling a story about the weirdest case he ever worked.

Bibliography - "The Three Roses, "The Key of Gold" by Josef Baudis. Web source

Reading Notes: Beauty and the Basilisk

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Beauty and the Basilisk:

- Characters - A mother, her 3 daughters (eldest and middle daughters spoiled and demanding, youngest daughter beautiful, sweet and somewhat simple), and a basilisk (the beast, owner of a castle with perfect roses).

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The story follows a similar framework to most Beauty and the Beast retellings, with a couple of differences:

- The type/nature of the beast is specified: a basilisk.

- The captured daughter is ordered to "nurse" the beast in her lap for three days: an odd and precise task that contrasts with the more commonly known expectation that she just live with the beast.

- At the end of the three days, the basilisk has Beauty cut off his head, at which point he turns into a serpent, then has her cut off his head a second time before becoming human again.

Further notes: Beauty is given a name, Mary. The parent who acts as a catalyst is the mother rather than the father. There's no reference to how the beast became the beast, such as a curse, or who caused his transformation.

Exciting Reading Options

The UnTextbook has so many amazing reading options. Almost all of the sections looked interesting, but some were a little more exciting for me than others. There were many that I was already familiar with, but a lot were very new. I love Grimm fairy tales, and similar stories, but I'm pretty familiar with most of them. The readings that I'm most looking forward to are completely new to me.

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The unit on Chinese Fairy Tales is one that I am particularly interested in reading. I took several Chinese history classes, and they were wonderfully fascinating. Most of what we learn in school is so focused on western civilization that it was surprising to learn how young it is when compared to China. The history classes touched on culture, of course, but there was no exposure to the kinds of tales that children would have grown up on.

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Another unit that looks interesting, and is unfamiliar, is the unit on Nigerian Folk Stories. In particular, the story titled "The Disobedient Daughter Who Married a Skull." I cannot begin to imagine what that story might be about, but if it is even a fraction as magnificent as the title, it will be incredible.

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The unit on Russian Folktales is another one that I quickly honed in on. I also took a Russian history class that I enjoyed far more than I expected. I am not quite as unfamiliar with Russian folktales as I am with some of the other units, but most of what I know has come from indirect sources. I have read of couple of fantasy book collections that borrow heavily from Russian stories, but I've never read any of them directly. I tend to re-read books that I like over and over, so on my next reading of those collections, I think that I might have a deeper appreciation. Plus, I like stories about demons, vampires, ghosts, and the undead.