Week 11 Storytelling: The Fate of the Disobedient

“Dad, I’m so sorry! I didn't mean to be out that late!” began Ferra as she was startlingly confronted by her father who was posted waiting in the living room.

“You KNOW that you have to be home for dinner. Do you have any idea what time it is?” her father sternly stated, attempting in vain to hide his anger.

"I'm sorry! It won’t happen again! I promise!" she said with sadness.

“You’re going to have to prove yourself,” he said trying to be understanding. “If this ever happens again, you’re going to be in some serious trouble."

“I promise! This is never going to happen again,” Ferra said as she gave her forgiving father a hug.

A few months went by and Ferra was the usual good child that she had been her entire life. She feared what would happen if she disobeyed her father and knew better than to cross him. 

Ferra managed to keep her promise, that is, until this incident happened again. 

"THAT'S IT!" her father screamed as she, once again, attempted to sneak into her home without her father noticing.

"You're in serious trouble, Missy. I gave you a second chance and you blew it. What were you even doing? It's midnight! Dinner is at 7 o'clock every day. I was patient until 8 o'clock.... and then 9 o'clock came and went and then 10 o'clock rolled by, and you NEVER answered your phone. Do you know how worried I was? Do you have ANY idea what that feels like? To have no idea where your kid is?"

"Well, no. I'm not a parent," Ferra thought as her father looked at her with angry eyes. She suppressed her sarcasm and expressed another apology.

"Really, Dad. I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? How do I make it up to you?"

Ferra's father was silent as thought for a moment before he came up with the perfect solution. Suddenly, it came to him. His eyes lit up and Ferra saw evil wash over his face. Her father smirked as he looked at his daughter and dictated her punishment.

"So….Ferra…” he maliciously began.

"Think of your most HATED task. You know, one I never make you do because you hate it so much? The one that I always do because I'm just such a nice father? Now dig deep," he arrogantly and teasingly stated. 

Ferra's face dropped and her eyes filled with terror as she realized what was happening. 

"Oh God. No. Dad, ANYTHING else. PLEASE. Please, don’t make me do it. Dad! Anything!" she begged.

Her father giggled as he realized the genius of his plan.

"Come on. Why don't we start right now?" he said as he walked toward the back door.

"Dad! No! PLEASE! Anything else! Don't make me pick up the dog poop!" Ferra wholeheartedly begged as she hesitantly began to walk toward the back yard.

"How long are you going to make me do this?" she asked already dreading the answer.

“Every weekend,” her father replied.

“Forever?!” Ferra gagged as she filled with fear of the impending doom of dog poop.

"Oh, no, of course not forever,” he said, hardly settling Ferra’s worry.

“Then how long?” she hesitantly asked.

“Oh, you know... We will see, but I'm thinking until, well, you're married!" he said teasing her as he grabbed his sulking daughter's hand.

Image of Father and Daughter
Provided by Pixabay

Author's Note: I wrote this story based on the story of the Eleventh Goblin in the story of The Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. In that story a King falls in love with a Fairy and asks her to marry him. She agrees to marry him as long as he lets her disappear four times a month. The King cannot hold back his curiosity and follows her. The Fairy is swallowed by a giant and the King nobly saves her, or so he thought. The Fairy was punished to this fate of being eaten because of an issue she had with her father long ago but she does not remember the pain of being eaten until the King "saves" her. I found the back story so incredibly interesting. In writing this story, I explain the series of events that led to her fate with her father in a modern-day situation. I changed the Fairy to "Ferra" and used a different story-line but the plot stays similar. Both the Fairy and Ferra were late and needed to be punished. While it may not seem so to Ferra, the severity of the is drastically reduced in this modernized story. The end of my story hints to the fate of the Fairy in the Twenty-Two Goblins when she meets her King and is married.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder (1917)

Google Define Tech Tip

Bourgeois

I have always found this word rather interesting so I figured I'd get to know more about it!

Week 11 Essay: Twenty-Two Goblins Overview

Essay: Twenty-Two Goblins

          This week, I explored the Un-Textbook Stories of Twenty-Two Goblins translated from the Sanskrit version by Arthur Ryder. These stories began with an introduction of King Triple-Victory, the indirect focus of the stories.

          In this introduction, King Triple-Victory received fruit every day from a Monk. The King did not want the fruit and would give them to his Treasurer. His Treasurer also finding no use for the fruit would throw them out of the window. King Triple-Victory gave the fruit to his monkey who decided to open the fruit one day to find a gem in it. Shocked, King Triple-Victory went and asked the Treasurer if all of the other fruit had gems in them as well and soon realized that there were heaps of gems. The Monk returns the next day and King Triple-Victory asks him why he gives him such a nice gift each day. The Monk leads him to a tree which contains a goblin, beginning the series of stories.

          Throughout each story, there is a weird paradox of morality that King Triple- Victory must answer to the satisfaction of the Goblin. Each story is a different strange situation that seemingly has no real answer. However, King Triple-Victory manages to answer to the goblin’s satisfaction leading to another story each day.

          These stories were quite strange to read but so entertaining. Each story was a strange series of events that did seem to go together. The introduction of the story was hardly a preparation for the first series of events, which was different from the next set- each sentence was something a little… wonky, could I say? The goblin also asked equally as strange morality questions that King Triple-Victory always instantly knew the answer to. It was as if the stories King Triple-Victory were hearing were not the same stories I was interpreting which made it even more interesting to me; everything came together as an incredibly interesting story.

          Each story was something of a “Food For Thought” that made me pause in my busy day and think about what this story was truly about and what the point and lesson of the story was. While I still don’t know for some of these stories, I really appreciate the process of “Read and Think” that Twenty- Two Goblins led me to do.

Image of a Book Cover of
Twenty- Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder
Provided by Tumbler

Links: 

         Twenty-Two Goblins

          Introduction 

         And also because I thought it was a strange word to choose in this          mythical setting: Goblin

Reading Diary B: Twenty-Two Goblins Continued

My Favorite Story From The Second Portion of The Twenty-Two Goblins

The Eleventh Goblin: The King Who Won a Fairy

• Oh no. A corrupted King… He only cares about his pleasures and his desires. This can’t be good.
• The poor counselor just wants a few days away from the King and he won’t permit it.
• So now the counselor has to sneak out on his own pilgrimage.
• He finds a merchant and decides to go on his voyage with him. This pilgrimage isn’t so bad after all.
• And now a magical tree in the ocean with a fairy???
• Farsight tells the king about his journey and he falls in love with the fairy. Must of been a good story…
• And of course he wants to go on this journey to meet this fairy.
• So the King gets out of the boat to find a beautiful city with jewels and pillars and pearls but it is an abandoned city. (Having images of Disney’s Ariel)
• They decide to get married on a CONDITION that she can just disappear for 4 days every month. This is NOT going to end well.
• She goes to visit a giant who swallows her because of a curse her hungry dad cast on her???.... WHAT?
• The King follows her and kills the giant and conveniently breaks the curse. Oh and she conveniently remembers all the pain. And how to fly. Ok.
• So now she has to disappear again… and she comes back without her powers.
• And the counselor dies of sadness because…? What?

Image of The Mermaid and Satyr inspired by
The King and The Fairy
Provided by Wikipedia

Reading Diary A: Twenty-Two Goblins

Thoughts from Twenty-Two Goblins

Introduction

• The king receives fruit with gems inside of them? I can dig        it.
• The king cut down a tree and it screamed. And now it’s laughing? Oh… It’s   a goblin. OOOOHHHH It’s gonna tell stories!

First Goblin

• Oh goodness a love story. This can’t end well.
• She likes him too! This is starting better than expected.
• Oh wait. She leaves. Nevermind.
• Ear-Lotus, daughter of Bite, named lily, hand on heart        means love?… Where is this coming from….
• This counselor is interpreting all kinds of things from this   crazy girl!
• And this crazy –signs girl tries to poison the counselor who        helped her husband understand her… ok….
• And now the counselor wants to get her drunk and steal her jewelry… this is getting even weirder.
• And now she’s dead…
• And all of this is a test to King Triple-Victory's judgement?

Image of Lotus Inspired by The First Goblin Story
Provided by Wikipedia

Second Goblin

• King Triple-Victory is intrigued with these goblins as much as I am!  He goes back for another story!
• This story starts with another beautiful girl named Coral. I’m cautiously optimistic
• She doesn’t marry anyone because she doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. How nice.
• SHE DIES. WHAT.
• And now all three of these poor guys are obsessed with her and pay tribute to her dead body.
• This poor guy wanders around dedicating his life to being a monk and then this lady throws her kid in the fire. He’s having a tough life.
• Wait. This guy is a wizard or something? His magic can just like… un-kill people?
• And now the monk is going to steal the spell book to bring back Coral. What a sweet gesture. And it works!
• And the three guys are back to fighting over Coral…..
• And once again this is a test for King Three-Victory.

Image of Coral Inspired by The Second Goblin Story
Provided by Pixabay

Week 10 Famous Last Words: We Can't Stop.... We Won't Stop

Once again, I am asking myself. When does the crazy end?

I have reached the point in the semester when I am fairly certain I am a zombie-just goin’ through the motions hopin’ to get by. EVERY single time I “get my life together” something comes around and throws the pieces around the room again. I guess that is life, but I don’t exactly appreciate it.

This week, I finally came to the hard decision to drop OChem 2 and take it at a later time. It isn’t a pre-req for anything, and I have more than enough time in my college career to take it, but I can’t shake the feeling that I gave up. I know, I know, it was a wise decision and I was spreading myself too thin etcetera, etcetera, but I’m still a little bummed that I didn’t troop through. It’s never a good feeling to realize you can’t reach your goals, even if they were set hideously high in the first place.

That aside, the medieval fair was in town this weekend and a few of my friends and I decided to fight the crowd and look around (even if it was only for turkey legs). It turned out to be a lot of fun! I went last year but was only there for a short amount of time I didn’t get the full experience I did this time. There were tons of venders that were selling anything from animal feet to soap to jewelry. It was really cool! It is definitely something I would recommend if you’ve never gone!

My goals for this week are simple: to finish all of my assignments. Online classes can quickly be put on the back burner when things are stressful and busy. Once again, I am incredibly grateful for extra credit! Lord knows I need it!

Image of Myself With a Beautiful Turkey Leg
Image Provided By Myself

Week 9 Storytelling: Loving a Crazy Lady

Santanu’s Story

Have you ever been in love? Well, I have, and let me tell you...it is NOT worth it.
You might ask "why?" Good. Let me tell you my story. Let's begin by introducing myself. Hi, my name is Santanu, and I am a hopeless romantic. AA-meeting-style introduction aside, let's jump into my tragedy. 

It all started out swell! I was born as heir to an absolutely beautiful kingdom. I was happy; my people were happy. We were flourishing! Absolutely everything was perfect… except for one little detail of my life; I was single.  In my defense, running a kingdom is really time-consuming! I didn't have time to date! A few years passed and I was starting to realize just how old I was getting and couldn’t help but begin to consider ending my bachelor ways and settling down with a beautiful girl. I wasn’t searching but I definitely wasn’t going to stop myself from finding love if it happened to wander into my life. 

One day, I decided to go on a hunting trip. I absolutely love being outdoors and taking in the beautiful trees and grasses and animals. I get a stupid little smile on my face every time I think about it. It's just so calming!

Anyway, I went out hunting one morning. It was a normal hunting trip like every other trip I've taken. Near the end of the day,I was tired from all the action and decided to go to the river to sit down, take a drink and relax. Just as I was approaching the river, my eyes were trapped on the most beautiful woman I had ever seen! I simply couldn’t begin to think of how my life would be without her. I guess you could say it was love at first sight. As nervous as I was, I walked up to her and began to talk. You know how it goes; eventually one thing led to another and I asked her to marry me! I know, "Yay! Santanu, you're getting married!" But everything was NOT as I planned.

She agreed to marry me on one condition: I would let her do what she wants without questioning it. Okay, yeah, that’s reasonable. After all, I'm not a mean, controlling husband. She should have freedom to do what she wants! I trust her.

Everything was great! She was exactly the wife I was looking for! She was loving, and caring and oh, so kind. She took such wonderful care of me. Marrying her was the best decision I had ever made... that is, until she went absolutely psycho. We finally were going to have a baby, again "Yay Sanatu!" but no. This crazy lady took the baby as soon as she gave birth and ran to the river. And I mean AS SOON as the baby was out, she was gone. Not only did she run to the river RIGHT after giving birth (can I just say ouch?) she DROWNED our child. She MURDERED our kid. I didn’t want to report her. She had been such a wonderful person. She had to have a perfect answer as to why she did such a thing. I wanted to understand, but I vowed to never ask questions. I had to keep my promise! 

I simply put my pain aside and let it be. I grieved and accepted our child's death and kept moving forward. Our marriage soon recovered and things were going well. Or so I thought. It kept happening. Every time she gave birth she would get up and run to the river (again, can I say OUCH?) and drown our baby. WHO DOES THAT?

This happened seven times. SEVEN TIMES before I couldn’t take it anymore. After the birth of our eighth child, I had to confront her. I could not stand being with this crazy lady anymore. I HAD to know why she kept doing this. I asked her why she did it and she immediately went on and on and on with this crazy crap about how she’s the river.

Uhm…. You’re standing right in front of me… how can you be a river? 

We kept fighting and fighting until she agreed to give me the child, Devavratha, after he grew up. AFTER HE GREW UP! She drowned our children and I am supposed to let her RAISE Devavratha? Before I could do anything, once again she was running to the river. She was gone. She was gone with our kid. I was so heartbroken, I didn’t know what to do. I tried my hardest to move on but I just couldn’t do it. She didn't kill him, but she took me away from me. Knowing he's out there somewhere being raised by a CRAZY LADY worried me so much.

Yesterday, fourteen WHOLE years later, Ganga just shows up at my doorstep to drop off Devavratha like this is planned out and okay. And just like that, I had my son back and she was gone forever. Again. I have no idea what he’s like. I don’t even know if we will get along. What if she raised him to be just as crazy? What has she taught him?

Now, guys, I’ve gotta run and get to know my son, but I will tell you this: STAY AWAY FROM CRAZY LADIES. Seriously. Don’t do it. It's not worth it. 

Image of Ganga Running away with their child
Provided by Wikipedia

Author's Note: I wrote this story based on the story in the very beginning of the Mahabharata-the story of Ganga and Santanu. In this story, Santanu fell in love with a beautiful woman who only had one request: do not question her. They were married and had children. Each time Ganga would give birth, she would drown the child in the river. This happened seven times before Santanu questioned her actions and, in turn, ironically still cost him his child. The whole series of events was rather crazy and very quickly discussed in Mahabharata. Upon reading this story I was quite literally shocked at not only the story, but how casually it was told. Narayan's version of the story was told as a bit of background to set the scene. It was such a huge and bold way to begin a book-- I couldn't help but elaborate. I wrote this story in the point of view of Santanu and his thoughts and feelings looking back on the birth, and death, of his children. Being such a dark topic to discuss, I wrote this story in a humorous, dramatic dialogue to lighten the mood without having to exclude information. I found this image earlier in the week and used it, but I included it in this post as well because it so accurately depicts the story in its entirety all in one image. 

Bibliography: Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.