Week 7 Story: The Golden Mirror

Today was gloomy and dreary which perfectly ruined Jane's plan for the day. She was supposed to spend the day outside in the sun and refresh her mind, but the weather had other ideas. Still wanting to get out of the house, Jane decided to go to the local museum as history had always caught her attention. 

Once she arrived at the museum, she wandered slowly through each exhibit. This was a worldly museum which walked through the various history and tales of different cultures. The variation of the displays covered America, Russia, India, and even all the way to Japan. Each display had fascinating tidbits about each country, but Jane found herself drawn to a mirror that was twice her height and as wide as her arm span. The golden frame that surrounded the mirror exposed the age of the piece as there were wear marks and scratches in the brassy frame. The mirror itself looked to be made out of greatly polished gold. In result, the reflection you saw was highlighted by a gold tinge. This massive mirror had a small placard beside it which explained the mirror's origin.

The placard read the following: 

"The Miraculous Mirror

After the frightening appearance of Susa-no-wo,

the Dragon of Hell, 

scared Amaterasu into hiding,

this mirror convinced Amaterasu, 

the Sun Goddess,

to reappear and bring her light, once again, to the land.

Without Amaterasu, we would all be cloaked in darkness.

The mirror tells the truth."

Jane thought this to be an odd description. The information about the mirror spoke as if everything that was described was true. In curiosity, she decided to gaze into the mirror to see if she could understand what the last cryptic sentence of the description meant. She spent some time pondering her reflection, but this was the same as every other time she had looked at her reflection in a mirror. Just as she had decided to move on to the next display, she saw a flicker of light on the edge of the mirror. Surprised, she looked behind herself for the source, but saw nothing that would have emitted that light. She looked back upon the mirror, and the light was still there but now the light was slowly rising behind what seemed to be several peaks. The shape of mountains were forming before her with the light acting in place of a sunrise bringing light to the landscape below it.

Once the Sun had reached her peak placement in the sky, there was a violent tremble, and a vicious-looking dragon broke free from the Earth. Susa-no-wo flew into the sky with fluid actions of a snake. His roar was grating and no one could be free from the sound of his screeching claim to the land. His claws were razors and his teeth rivaled the height of a full grown elephant. Once gazing upon such a sight, the beholder could only do their best to look away. Jane's heart was pounding as she looked upon this scene with trepidation as she saw the Sun quickly disappear again behind the mountains, and there was nothing but darkness. She heard the cries of the people as the fire dragon wreaked havoc across the land and took what he desired. The people quickly had to find a solution to bring the light back to their world.

Jane soon found herself looking upon a beautiful goddess weeping in a cave lit by her own light. She knew this to be the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, which provided the light to the land. From outside, she could hear laughter. Jane watched as the weeping being of light stood up to go investigate what was outside. She wiped away her tears of fright and peered outside to the source. Outside stood numerous townspeople and the Goddess of Laughter, Uzume, who called to Amaterasu. They told Amaterasu that they had found a new goddess and brought out the golden mirror that Jane had looked into in the museum. The mirror shone with a golden brilliance that brought Amaterasu to stare into the shining surface herself. Within the mirror, she saw her own reflection whom she assumed to be the rival goddess the people told her about.

With jealousy and a wish to not be replaced, she raced out of the cave to meet her opponent. As soon as she did this, Taji-Karao, the Strong, closed the entrance to the cave with a massive boulder. Amaterasu could no longer retreat to where she had been hiding from Susa-no-wo. The townspeople cheered and welcomed back their sun-giving goddess of light.

Jane backed away from the mirror. The scene she had just witnessed felt like she had been drawn into the story herself. She had been within the tale of the Sun Goddess. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before, and when she looked around the room, no one else appeared to have noticed everything she had just seen. In bewilderment, she shook off the rare event that had just occurred. Jane decided that the next time the weather ruined her plans, she would just stay home.

Author's Note: This story was based off the tale of the Miraculous Mirror. I altered the story to be about the Miraculous Mirror that had found itself in a museum many years after the events of the original tale. In this way, I was able to bring a magical element of my telling of the story, as the mirror showed Jane how everything happened in the tale of Amaterasu. In the original story, Amaterasu is providing light to everyone, but Susa-no-wo comes out and scares Amaterasu into hiding. She stays there long enough that the townspeople have to strike up a deal with the Goddess of Laughter to convince Amaterasu to come out of her cave. The plan was to take a golden mirror and tell Amaterasu that they had found another goddess to take her place. When Amaterasu saw her reflection in the mirror, the trick had worked, and she came charging out of her cave. With a strong god in place to close off the cave with a boulder, they successfully worked together, humans and gods alike, to get Amaterasu back to provide light to their world.

Bibliography

The Miraculous Mirror, Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Image Information: Golden Mirror, Flickr

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part B

From the second part of the Japanese Mythology unit, I was drawn into this world by the first story I read. In this story, Yamato is enthralled by the many wonders and delights of Benten, a sea goddess. This was the story of a man who had apparently gotten tired of having a faithful and loving wife, so he went off in search of something else. For some reason, his wife's constant devotion to him was somewhat of a burden. This is not at all the reason I was drawn to this story. Why I liked this story was because of the way the story was told.

The visual details of each part of this tale were vividly described in a way that made me think about and see things in a new way. Colorful words like emerald and golden brought new layers to the elements that were part of this plot. This painted a picture that truly helped to bring this story to life. I had not realized until now how few stories really emphasize these details in favor of explaining more in depth what action or dialogue is happening. These details are what really help to flesh out a story and bring an image into the reader's mind. I personally cannot fully immerse myself into a story if I cannot picture how the world looks in my mind.

Adding meaningful and compelling visual details is a method I would like to strengthen in my writing. I need to consider that if I cannot picture what is going on by the words I have written, then this will be even harder for the reader to piece together. Of course, creativity is a key value to making sure there is enough description for the reader while enough flexibility for the reader to also use their imagination.

Bibliography

The Labors of Yamato: The Grotto of Love, Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Image Information: Benzaiten, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part A

The story I liked this week was The Miraculous Mirror from the Japanese Mythology unit. I thought the character of Amaterasu was unique for the various powers she possessed. The power she had that contributed to the majority of this story was her light giving abilities. She was the Sun Goddess that brought light to the land. Unfortunately for her, Susa-no-wo decided to come crash her party for no real given reason. This frightened Amaterasu so much that she went into hiding and with her went the light of the land. To get Amaterasu back out in the world, the people and gods had to work together. By the help of the Goddess of Laughter, they coaxed Amaterasu slowly from her hiding place. Together, they convinced the Sun Goddess that there was a better goddess outside. This was where the mirror came in because they "showed" her the rival goddess in the mirror. In actuality, the mirror showed the Sun Goddess a reflection of herself. This trick was enough to get Amaterasu out from the cave and the cave was sealed behind her. In result, the people got what they wanted which was light back to their world.

The elements that I would like to incorporate from this story would be the interaction between the gods and common people. They create a dynamic where when together, they are stronger. The will of the people brought about the inclusion of the Goddess of Laughter, so their need and want for the Sun to be returned helped to push the story forward in a direction where the light would be out in the open once again. The fact that they used a mirror to convince Amaterasu to leave the cave is a reminder that even simple items can play an important role in a story like this.

Bibliography

The Miraculous Mirror, Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Image Information: Sun Goddess painting by Utagawa

Week 6 Lab: Creative Writing and Style

From this group of videos, I enjoyed the first two videos the most. I liked these videos because they correlated more with my interests in life. The first one was about reaching limitations and finding new ways to surpass them, and the second one was about heroes. The first video called The power of creative constraints by Brandon Rodriguez from the Story Lab: Style playlist really got my attention because of the scientific approach they took to explaining their concept. In engineering, I often have to use my creativity to figure out a way to make something work if I even have any idea how to start. This video was also pretty cool for me because they mentioned rovers. Since I am on the rover team, I actually learned how the top engineers of the time approached dealing with realistic constraints in creative ways. Their ideas in theory did not sound super great, but they definitely did get the job done which is what mattered. Their innovation and new ideas helped to bring about the landing of multiple rovers that have now explored another planet for years.

The second video that caught my attention was What makes a hero? by Matthew Winkler. This was a really neat video to me because of all of the animations that brought the lesson to life. We learned about the monomyth and how this pattern for heroes is used constantly for the majority of our most popular heroes in fiction. The person narrating the video brought up examples like Harry Potter and Katniss from the Hunger Games to prove how theses heroes follow the same storyline. The basic storyline is the hero starts in their ordinary world, they are called to adventure, they have help from an older mentor, they head out to action, face their biggest enemy, and then eventually head back to their old life but with new hero status.

Bibliography

The power of creative constraints by Brandon Rodriguez

What makes a hero? by Matthew Winkler

Story Lab: Style playlist

Image Information: Harry Potter, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part B

The second story that I enjoyed from this unit was The Wizard and his Pupil. As for many people, magic is an item of intrigue. This was what began the series of events for the main boy's story. He was drawn to a wizard and wished to be this wizard's apprentice. The wizard teaches the boy a good deal and then teaches him his best trick. This is the trick that is really a con. The wizard turns himself into an object to be sold. The boy sells the object and transforms himself back into a human and leaves wherever he was taken after being bought. This way, the cunning wizard is able to make a lot of money with the only cost of it being transforming himself. The only catch is that the boy must keep watch over a specific item each time the wizard transforms to make sure the wizard is not lost forever as that object. 

The young boy left the wizard's house after the wizard had changed into a horse that was sold and went home to his mother. Here at his mother's house, the boy convinced his mom to help him pull off this same trick that the wizard had shown him. This all went well until the wizard showed up to buy the boy, in his house form, that was for sell. The wizard was upset because the boy abandoned him. Once the wizard bought the home and took the key which was the boy's way back to himself, the boy transformed into a bird and flew away. This led to a series of transformations that I thought were clever whilst the wizard was chasing the boy trying to be undetected. At one point, the boy even changed into a rose. I would like to incorporate magic into my stories, and maybe characters that can transform are a nice way to do so. By the end of this chase, the apprentice had outperformed his master, and the apprentice lived to see another day whereas the master did not. I can understand why the master was upset, but this tale expresses that sometimes it is better to leave things alone than try to get revenge.

Bibliography

The Wizard and his Pupil, Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).


Image Information: Rose, PxHere

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part A

The story I read this week was called The Fish-Peri. This was an intriguing read because I have not read many stories with shape-shifters in them, so I was not fully expecting the twist in the story. The story opens up with a man going fishing. He ends up finding a fish that was so much better than the rest that he decided to keep this fish. I do not go fishing very often, so I have never quite thought myself that I would want to keep a fish that I had just caught from the open water. This was where the story got a bit odd to me. Since he did not have a tank, he put the fish in a well which seems a hard place to observe the nice fish. 

When the man leaves and comes back, he realizes that his house had been clean, but he did not know who would have cleaned his house since he lived alone. We as readers probably already assume that the fish is the one that cleaned the house, but how? This continues to happen for multiple days until finally the fisherman decides to pretend to leave but stays hidden by the house. He then sees the fish turn into a beautiful woman, and he grabs her fish skin and throws the skin into the fire where she is freed from turning into a fish. For some reason, the woman that was a fish agreed to become the fisherman's wife. This woman was quite a beauty to all men that saw her, so eventually the Padishah wanted her to be his.

The Padishah asked the fisherman to do several impossible tasks to keep the woman as his wife, and reasons unknown to myself, the woman helped the fisherman. There are many possibilities as to why she helped him, but if I were her, I would not want to help him. The fisherman had captured her, burned her fish skin, and then asked her to be his wife. All of these events combined would make me want to leave that man as soon as possible. Maybe she agreed to help him, so she would not be owned by the Padishah whom was a stranger to her.

Since the woman decided to help the fisherman, this led to many unbelievable things that happened. I am curious as to the magic she had possessed. She was able to transform, and she had a powerful friend that could be asked to complete each impossible tasks that the Padishah asked of the fisherman. These hints of magic are what I would want to incorporate into a story. I would want to try to explain the magic of each event a little bit more though, so the reader gets a better understanding of what truly is possible in that world.

Bibliography

The Fish-Peri, Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).

Image Information: Fish, Pixabay

Week 5 Story: The Valley of Diamonds

"Once there was a sailor named Sinbad who wished for adventure and riches. He had tasted the thrills of trekking across the sea once before, and he set out to journey the sea again. On this voyage, he had joined a crew of sailors to go to different lands. Their ship made a stop at an island, and Sinbad was more tired than you are from his journey."

"I'm not tired!" insisted John. He was all tucked up in bed after being slowly convinced over the last half hour that it really was his bed time. The more he fought going to bed, the more tired he really was. "I'm only in bed because you told me you'd tell me a story about pirates!"

I softly chuckled, "Well, Sindbad was not exactly a pirate. He was a sailor, and as I was saying, he took a nap. When he woke up, he saw that everyone had left. He quickly looked around everywhere he could, but when he got to the shore, he saw the ship sailing off into the distance. So now Sindbad had to think! How would he get off this island? He explored more of the island and found a massive egg. An egg as tall as this house! Can you imagine that? Soon the egg's parent came back to land on the egg. Since Sindbad was right next to the egg, he was luckily undetected by the giant bird. This bird was called a Roc. The Roc was at least twice as big as the egg! Thinking quickly, Sindbad used his turban to tie himself to the bird. Once morning came, the bird flew off the island with Sindbad attached.

The bird eventually landed in a valley that was glittering all over. Sindbad quickly untied himself from the bird's leg as the Roc started fighting a snake so huge that it could swallow a truck. Who do you think wins this fight, John? The bird or the snake?"

John squinted his eyes in concentration for a moment, and then looked up at me with wide eyes. "I think the snake will win! Snakes have big teeth. I'm sure he has big teeth since he can eat a whole truck!"

I smiled, "That's a good guess, John, but what happens is the Roc gets the upper hand and carries the snake out of the valley to eat for dinner." I smirked, "Mmm, don't you think a snake dinner would be tasty?"

John scrunched up his face in response. "No snake for me! I like chicken nuggets!"

"Well, John, Sindbad was now trapped in a valley with massive snakes! He looked around him and saw that the entire valley floor was covered in diamonds. These diamonds would have made him so rich if only he could get back to safety! Night was soon approaching, so Sindbad had to hole himself up in a cramped cave to stay safe from the snakes that came out at night. The snakes slithered and hissed all night, so Sindbad barely got a wink of sleep. But morning finally came, and he was able to walk along the valley without fear. He was admiring some diamonds that were as large as his head when a huge chunk of meat dropped beside him.

Sindbad remembered that merchants tried to get the diamonds by dropping meat in the valley with hopes that some diamonds would stick to the meat. How they get the meat back out of the valley depends on the Rocs retrieving the meat and taking the meat back to their nest. So using the same idea as before, Sindbad took his turban and tied himself to the meat with a large collection of diamonds. Before long, a Roc came by and picked up the meat with Sindbad and the diamonds along with it.

Sindbad was then dropped in a nest of massive chicks that were hungry, but the merchants kept watch on the nest and scared away the birds. The merchants soon realized Sindbad was in the nest and were upset that he had cut their profit. Luckily, he did have diamonds to offer the merchants, but they declined after hearing his wild story. After surviving birds of prey, gigantic snakes, and angry merchants, Sindbad the Sailor finally made his way safely home."

"I liked that story," remarked John with his eyes nearly closed. "I want to hear more about Sindbad the Sailor next t-...," and with that, John was asleep.

Author's Note: This is a retelling of the Second Voyage from the Voyages of Sindbad. This retelling was done as if I was telling this story to a child as a bedtime story. There are many fantastical details that can be used for the drama of a bedtime story. The original tale follows Sindbad on his journey out with a crew on a ship to an island. Unfortunately, Sinbad takes a nap on the island and is left behind. Luckily, he finds an egg much larger than him that is the egg of a Roc, a giant bird, that he uses to get off the island by tying himself to the Roc's leg. Once off the island, he ends up in a valley of diamonds and snakes. Merchants try to get the diamonds by dropping meat in the valley, so Sindbad ties himself to the meat to escape by a bird picking him up once again.

Bibliography

Second Voyage, The Voyages of Sindbad, Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898)

Image Information: Diamonds by Ptukhina Natasha, Wikimedia Commons