Week 3: Famous Last Words

(Velma loves jacket)

            I enjoyed reading the Turkish Fairy Tales unit as well as writing my version of The Wizard-Dervish. This was one story that I really could have written over the maximum limit for. To keep it within the maximum, I ended up leaving out a lot of parts that I would have liked to include. Hopefully the final product makes sense. It was such a strange (and pretty dark) original story that it was difficult to explain in the author’s note.

            I’m also looking forward to starting my Storybook project! The theme is: Love Across Time and Culture. I think I have decided to go with a sort of reincarnation premise and have one couple be the main characters in different snapshots of time and in different places around the world. I will start with the Indian epic, which will be useful since reincarnation is part of that culture. I think it might be a challenge, but it should also be fun!

            The stories I read for Blog commenting this week were very good. Both authors took a modern approach to their stories, one by using modern dialogue and the other by changing the entire premise of the story to take place in modern times. I thought both new stories offered a fresh new take on the old stories.

            This weekend, my family is coming to town! We are having a little early celebration for my birthday and going out for Italian food. We’re going to Victioria’s, which I’ve never gone to before but I’ve heard it is delicious. I am so excited to be able to hang out with my family for the day. My real birthday is on Monday (bleck), and I was really keeping my fingers crossed for a snow day! But it looks like I will have no such luck.

(Annie loves box)

Week 4 Essay: Fake it Until You Make It

            In multiple stories of the Turkish Fairy Tales unit, the central character gets help from others (both supernatural and ordinary) to convince important figures that they possess some kind of useful skill. The characters are rewarded for their first false display of their skill, usually delivering them from poverty. Then, a similar situation again arises, and the character is called on to provide help. As the character does not really posses the needed ability, he must find another way out of the situation or will likely lose his head. Somehow, the character is able to succeed a second time, keep his lie a secret, and continue to prosper under false pretenses.

            The Imp of the Well provides one example of this “fake it until you make it” motif. The main character of this story is a poor woodcutter whose wife is greedy, controlling, and constantly nags him. One day, he decides to leave her, but she follows him and ends up falling in a well after not listening to her husband’s warnings. The woodcutter leaves her there overnight, but goes back to retrieve her the next day. However, instead of pulling his wife from the well, he unintentionally helps an imp escape.

            The imp is so grateful to be away from the shrewd woman that he offers the woodcutter a great opportunity: the imp will cause the Sultan’s daughter to fall ill and will only leave when the woodcutter comes to “heal” her. The plan works and the woodcutter is rewarded with the sultan’s daughter in marriage and rights to the kingdom. Then, the daughter of a neighboring sultan comes down with the same illness and the woodcutter is called upon to cure her. He goes to her and finds the imp is the cause of her illness. The imp refuses to leave the girl, but the woodcutter cleverly pretends that his shrewd wife in nearby. The imp runs away and the woodcutter continues to prosper on the basis of a lie.

            The Soothsayer contains a highly similar story. After witnessing the royal treatment of a soothsayer’s wife, the wife of the modest main character demands that her husband become a soothsayer. The man shares his problems with a friend, who enlists the help of a bathhouse woman. She steals the ring of the real soothsayer’s wife, buries it in the mud, and convinces the woman to ask the false soothsayer for help. He “sees” the location of the ring and is rewarded. Soon, the Sultana also loses her ring, and the false soothsayer is tasked with finding it on threat of death. Luckily for him, the stealer of the ring comes to him for help and they devise a plan to hide her identity while still revealing the ring’s whereabouts. Again, the deceptive man prospers.

            Both stories go against some motifs typically seen in stories, such as those relating to the value of honesty. Instead, they adopt a “fake it until you make it” mentality in which the deceiver thrives. Then again, these stories don’t provide any evidence that not everyone is actually doing the same thing!

(The Imp of the Well illustration by Willy Pogany 1913)

Storytelling Week 4: Nimet and the Dark Wizard

“I am so sorry, my son.” His father’s tearful words echoed in Nimet’s head. He tried to make sense of what had just occurred. He was still dressed in his fine wedding garb, but instead of enjoying a wedding feast in the palace, he was tied to a tree in the shadow of a jagged mountain; he was the prisoner of Dark Wizard.

            His head slumped down and he closed his eyes, wishing to be back home with his father, King Buyuk. He longed for his joyful childhood of learning, playing, and hunting. Before today, he had never known sorrow.

            A rustling of movement caused his heartbeat to falter. He snapped his head up and looked around in fear of the Dark Wizard’s return. Instead, he saw three harmless doves fluttering around the river. Right before his eyes, the graceful birds dove into the water and resurfaced as lovely maidens. He closed his eyes tightly, assuming he was going mad with thirst and terror. But when he opened them again, the maidens remained, swimming in the gentle flow of water.

            Two of the maidens dipped below the water’s surface and reemerged as doves. The birds flew away, leaving one maiden alone. The girl locked eyes with Nimet. She stood from the river and walked towards him, her flowing dress and dark, wavy hair impossibly dry.

            “Your father once made a deal with the Dark Wizard,” she explained, answering his unspoken questions. “The Dark Wizard gave your father the means to have a son with the understanding that the child would belong to the Wizard after his twentieth year. You are my father’s captive,” she said sadly.

            “Your father?” Nimet gasped. He could not believe that such a beautiful maiden could be the offspring of such a hideous man.

            She nodded.

            “You must heed my advice,” she pleaded. “My father is a cruel man. Soon, he will come to you and torture you. He will try to speak with you, but you must never answer. Do not speak with him, no matter what he says. When it is all over, I vow to you that I will help you escape and return you to your home.”

            The maiden disappeared, replaced by a dove that was picked up by the wind and swept gently away. Nimet watched the bird go with a storm of emotions in his heart.

***

Nimet endured three days of torture at the hands of the Dark Wizard. As the malicious man went about his cruel tasks, he asked Nimet many questions and demanded a response. Weakened by pain, Nimet many times nearly gave in to the Dark Wizard’s demands, hoping it would stop the abuse. But each time he was about to speak, a single dove would fly within his vision. He remained silent, and on the morning of the fourth day, the chains that constrained him rusted away and fell.

            Nimet dropped to his knees. He was broken in body and nearly in spirit. But just as he was about to sink further to the ground, he heard soft footsteps. He looked up hesitantly and was greeted by the sight of the beautiful maiden.

            “You have succeeded,” she said quietly, crouching to meet his eyes. “Follow me. I will shield you from my father’s gaze and deliver you safely home.”

            She helped him stand. The touch of her hand was soft and warm. Soon that feeling radiated throughout Nimet’s pained body. He looked down, finding his bruises and lashes nearly healed. The intense pain subsided.

            “Thank you,” Nimet said quietly. “What is your name?”

            “Sevda,” she replied. “Look around you, Prince Nimet.”

            Nimet finally looked away from Sevda to their surroundings, astonished to see that they stood in the garden of his palace.

            “You are home,” she said. “Free to marry your betrothed and one day become king.”

            Nimet’s heart filled with joy. But there was one detail he had to correct.

            “Marry me, Sevda,” he said, taking both her hands. “I have no love for my betrothed. But I cannot say the same for you, who have been my light in my darkest days. Just say yes, and it will be done.”

             Her face lit up in a smile, and their happily ever after began.

(Turtledove by Johann Fredrick Naumann 1897)

Author's Note. This story is based of of The Wizard-Dervish, a two-part story from the Turkish Fairy Tales Unit. In the original story, a Padishah (great king) gets help from a dervish (holy man; in this case, he is also a wizard). The wizard-dervish helps the king have a son, but says that once the child turns twenty he will belong to the wizard. On the prince's wedding day, the wizard takes him away to the foot of a mountain where the prince sees three doves that are actually the wizard's daughters. One of the daughters helps the prince endure the wizard's beatings by providing him with the proper answer to his question ("Dost know?" "I know not.") The wizard then gives his daughter in marriage to the prince and they escape from her witch-mother and make it back to the prince's home, where he eventually does marry the wizard's daughter.

For my story, I wanted to focus more on the emotions of the prince and the wizard's daughter. It was a strange story to begin with, so hopefully my version makes some sense. I would have liked to write  more, but I don't think I could have expanded much within the word constraints while keeping the same writing style.

For the names, I decided to use Turkish words that could represent aspects of the original story. Buyuk means "great." Nimet means "blessing," as the king definitely viewed the birth of a son as such. Sevda means love.

Bibliography: The Wizard-Dervish from Fourty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignaz Kunos (1913)

Turkish Fairy Tales: Reading Diary B

Turkish Fairy Tales Unit

Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife: This was a pretty good story. It kind of reminds me of The Little Mermaid, when Ursula fools Eric into thinking that she is the young woman he loves. I don’t like how the maiden here is about to kill herself when she is saved by the Bey. I prefer the women characters (and all characters!) to have more mental stability and resilience than that! Although, after reading Cupid and Psyche, I see that suicide is a much more prevalent subject in stories than I thought.

The Imp of the Well: What a funny story! I do feel very bad for the poor man’s wife, though. Although she wasn’t a nice person, she was abandoned in a well by her husband. I like how the story tied together, kind of like a Seinfeld episode. I wondered what the wife had to do with the whole plot, and she turned out to be important to the very end in an unexpected way.

The Wizard and HisPupil had so many twists and turns. Despite what the narrator says at the end, they did not all live happily ever after! What about the wizard? And is it right that the boy ends up benefiting by getting a great job and a wife after he used the wizard and killed him? This might be a story I should rewrite…

The Soothsayer reminds me of The Imp of the Well. Both men in these stories trick kings into thinking that the men are somehow skilled. They also are both almost revealed by being asked to perform their skill a second time. In both instances, they end up maintaining their lies and prospering. 

(The Soothsayer illustration by Ignacz Kunos)

Love Across Time and Culture: Brainstorming Styles

Topic. I want my Storybook to be about love across time and culture. I would like to find four love stories from different cultures and time periods. I think I will include the story of Savitri and Satyavan, an Indian love story. I also might want to include Connla and the Fairy Maiden from the Celtic Fairy Tales Unit. Another story I'd like to include is The Cat's Elopement from the Japanese Fairy Tale Unit. I would most likely make the cats in the story be humans so that the there is more continuity between the stories. I should definitely have enough material to choose from!

Bibliography:

Savitri and Satyavan from “The Book of the Forest” from Mahabharata (an ancient Indian epic)

Connla and the Fairy Maiden from Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, illustrated by John D. Batten (1892) 

The Cat's Elopement from The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H.J. Ford (1897)

Possible Styles:

I will probably tell the story from a 3rd person omniscient point-of-view. Each of the possible styles listed below would be in third person. I want to be able to convey the thoughts and emotions of all characters.

One couple through time and culture: I've been thinking about trying to unify four love stories across time and culture by having one couple be the main characters throughout all the stories. Maybe it could be a kind of supernatural thing, like the two characters have the same souls throughout all the different times and cultures. (I think there is a novel or a movie like this?) I'm not sure if this would be too weird or complicated to try to pull off, but in my head it seems like it would be cool.

A frame couple telling the stories: If the first style doesn't work out, maybe it would be interesting to make up a frame couple that is perhaps facing some adversity in their relationship. To make themselves feel better, they tell four love stories to each other. They can learn and grow from each example.

An observer present throughout all stories: It might be cool to have some sort of mystical observer that was present as each of the couples' stories unfolded. It could be something like the wind or the stars, since these elements are present all around the world (as opposed to a tree or something that is sedentary). 

Death tells the stories: This one is definitely darker. I'm drawing inspiration from The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak (2005). Unfortunately, I've only seen the movie and not read the book. For my stories, at least one of them explicitly deals with Death. Maybe I could find a way that Death comes to take one of the members of each couple, but upon seeing their love and devotion decides to let them live. This could all be unknown by the couples (except for the Indian love story). Death could narrate what he sees of the couples and maybe even feel their emotions along with them.

(Romeo and Juliet, by Frank Dicksee 1884)