Reading Notes: Arabian Nights A

Reading Notes: Arabian Nights A

This week I was so excited to read Tales from Arabian Nights, since it is already a topic I am interested in. In fact, my topic brainstorm post describes how I own a personal copy of Tales from the Arabian Nights and would be interested in retelling the story of Aladdin and the Magical Lamp. Since the Aladdin and the Magical Lamp stories are in part B of the reading, I found a few different stories that would be interesting to retell. Since all of these stories seem to be stories within stories I think it would be best to combine the story of Sheherazade with another one of the sub-stories. The story of Sheherezade describes how a young woman. Sheherezade, is destined to be put to death in the morning by a bitter sultan so she must devise a plan to save her own life. Sheherezade ends up telling a story soon before she is supposed to be put to death and the Sultan is so intrigued that he grants her life for another day so that he can hear the end of the story the next evening. Each night Sheherezade continues telling stories, and each time a new character from the story she is telling has another tale to tell. This is what causes the "story within a story." Of the stories that she told, I really enjoyed the story of the Second Old Man and the Two Black Dogs. In this story an old man offers a story in to an angry genie in order to save a young man's life. The story is about a merchant who continually gives his brothers money because he is more successful  and eventually they scheme to kill him for his riches. The old man unknowingly marries a fairy and the fairy turns the brothers into dogs to to punish them for plotting the death of the nice older brother. Although I enjoyed the story, if I were to retell it I would go into more detail on the fairy and the role she played in turning the brothers into dogs.

(Arabian Nights, my personal copy)

Bibliography

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Andrew Lang and Illustrated by H.J. Ford

Week Five Story: Isis and the Secret Name

Update:

Hello, and thanks for reading my story! This story can now be found in my portfolio at https://sites.google.com/view/sarahsportfolio/isis-and-the-secret-name.

Isis and the Secret Name

Our story began long ago, when the earth was still young and humanity was but a child. For years I watched through the heavens as the world of men fought starvation and disease, and for years the Gods did nothing. One day though, something was different. As I looked onto the the Earth I saw a God among men. Osiris was helping the men work the soil for food and build sturdy houses for shelter. My heart began to flutter, as I had long admired Osiris and his physical beauty but I was surprised to see him be so compassionate. I knew I had to go confess my admiration to him.

As soon as I stepped foot in Egypt the God immediately turned around and began to defend his work, as many God's did not believe it was their duty to help men. "I do not care what you say! I will not come back. The men need my help and....." Osiris fell silent as he saw me, curious thing about a man (even a god), they only shut up when they see something beautiful. 

"Hello, Osiris." I said "I have watched your good work and I wish to work alongside you to help these men." Osiris accepted my offer and over the years we established the great kingdom of Egypt. In this time Osiris and I fell deeply in love, and we were also awarded the love of the people.

This happy time went on for years, and my love for Osiris only grew. I admired that he was a kind and gentle leader, and the people of Egypt praised his good works. One dark day, this all changed. Osiris had a brother named Set, who was known for his destruction and violence. When he approached our door  I warned Osiris to be cautious, but in his kindness Osiris offered a home to Set in our kingdom. I immediately saw the jealousy on Set's face when he observed the love that Osiris had acquired from his people, so I went to the heavens to warn Ra of Set's violent tendency. Ra quickly sent me away, claiming that a Set had no foul intentions. 

By the time I arrived back in Egypt it was too late, Set had poisoned my one true love and had taken the throne for himself. I was immediately overcome with anger, but before I could attack the God of Destruction, one of my hand maidens pulled me back. "Wait!" she exclaimed. "Set is the master of destruction, and would surely defeat you in battle. You must find a better way to defeat him."  Even in my anger I understood that the maiden was correct, and began to devise a plan to defeat Set and save my people.

For days I found refuge in the desert, attempting to devise a plan to defeat the powerful Set. One day I was beginning to get discouraged. How could I possibly save my people when Set is so much stronger than I am? At that moment I saw a small desert viper bite a much larger fox, and I watched as the viper's poison slowly killed the larger animal. This gave me an idea! I caught the viper and enchanted it to be invisible, and gave it a magical venom that could only be cured by Ra himself. If I could get the viper to bite Ra, he would be too weak to heal himself and would have to tell me his all-powerful secret name so that I could heal him. 

The next day I traveled to the heavens to unleash my plan. I had put the viper in a decorative box and offered it to Ra in exchange for entrance back into the heavens. As soon as he open the box, the invisible viper bit the God and the God began to scream in agony. "Save me, Isis! Save me from this miserable end!" he yelled. Calmly I replied that in order to save him I needed his secret name, as only his power was strong enough to save him from the magic venom. In his agony, Ra agreed and whispered the secret name to me. With Ra's power I saved Ra and immediately flew back to Egypt to confront Set.

When I arrived, Set was sitting on my husband's throne. "This is your warning, Set. You have killed my love and abused my people. Leave this land or be destroyed!" Set laughed in my face and stood to me, clearly much larger and stronger. "Oh, Isis, you poor little bird. Without Osiris you are nothing, and without your people you have no purpose. Leave me or be killed like your weak husband."

Without a word I summoned the power of Ra and sent Set flying through the air. When he hit the ground, I used the power of the sun to burn Set until all that remained of him was dust. Although sad over the death of Osiris, my people were overjoyed to be free of the evil God.

With Set dead and my people saved, I then began to plan a way to bring Osiris back to life. But that, my friend,  is another story entirely. 

(Isis, photo at Wikipedia Commons)

Author's Note:

When doing the reading for this week, I really enjoyed both The Secret Name of Ra and The Death of Osiris. In the Secret Name of Ra, Isis is determined to find out the secret and all-powerful name of Ra in order to posses the power that accompanies it. She creates an invisible snake to bite Ra and as he is dying she convinces him that she can save him, but only if he shares with her the secret name. In sharing the name, Isis did save Ra and was able to possess the power that accompanies the name. In the Death of Osiris, Osiris (Isis' husband) was killed by his jealous brother Set. When Set begins to rule Egypt, Isis is forced to flee and finds shelter with a poor woman.  When I read these two stories I immediately thought that the death of Osiris could be the perfect motivation behind why Isis wants the powerful name. In combining these two stories I was hoping to make Isis a stronger and more dynamic character, being motivated out of love and compassion for her people as well as anger over the death of her husband.

Bibliography:

Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie, link.

Reading Notes: Ancient Egypt B

Reading Notes:

The Book of Thoth:

(Thoth, Credit to Jeff Dahl)

The Book of Thoth is broken up into a few different stories that are all about a man named Nefer-ka-ptah. Nefer-ka-ptah was an avid reader of ancient script and searched for the Book of Thoth in order to gain the knowledge and magic that it possessed. When he succeeded, Thoth became angry that his sacred book was stolen and convinced Ra to kill Nefer-ka-ptah and his wife and his child. In this version of the story I was surprised at the amount of anger and vengeance that Thoth possessed after his book was stolen. I thought it was very cruel that he killed Neger-ka-ptah's entire family. I feel as though it could be interesting to tell this story from Thoth's perspective and give more reasoning on why the book is so important to him. In accordance to this, it could be intriguing to see Nefer-ka-ptah as a villain.

The Tale of King Rhampsinitus:

The Tale of King Rhampsinitus was probably my favorite story from section B of the readings over Ancient Egyptian mythology. This story was about a man and his brother who were told the secret entrance into the King's treasure room. The brothers stole all of the treasure from the King, but one night one of the brothers got caught and killed. The brother went to recover his brother's body and was so stealthy and cunning that the King promised to pardon him if he came forward. In my opinion, the story was a little gruesome when the man had to cut off his brother's head, and if I were to rewrite this story I definitely would not include that. In fact, I may not include the brother at all in the story and make the man even more clever and cunning. Another way I could change the story is to not include the part where the man was told the secret entry, but rather have him think of an ingenious plan to get in undetected.

Bibliography:

Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie, link

Reading Notes: Ancient Egypt A

Reading Notes: 

Secret Name of Ra 

When researching topics for my project, I was very intrigued by the stories of Egyptian Goddesses and even made them the focus of my topic research blog. Isis, being an intelligent trickster, is definitely one of my favorite Goddesses so I greatly enjoyed the Secret Name of Ra. When reading this version of the story in which Isis tricks Ra into telling her his all-powerful secret name, I really appreciated the emphasis on Isis' intelligence and cunning. If I were to retell this story I feel as though Isis needs a definite reason wanting the powerful name. In my research about Isis, there was a similar story that described how Isis wanted the powerful name to save the people of Egypt from the wrath of her jealous brother Typhon. In my opinion, giving Isis a definite motivation for wanting the power would make her a more dynamic and relatable character. 

The Death of Osiris:

In the Death of Osiris, Osiris is killed by his jealous brother Set (a god similar to Typhon) and Set rules over Egypt. I think that this story would give Isis the perfect motivation for wanting the all-powerful secret name of Ra to save the people and to get revenge against Set.  When I do my storytelling, I would really like to incorporate both of these stories into one. The story could start with Isis and Osiris happily ruling Egypt, but then Set or Typhon becoming jealous of how the people love Isis and Osiris and how they love each other. When Set or Typhon kill Osiris in order to take the throne of Egypt, Isis could start devising a plan to trick Ra into giving her his powerful secret name so that she can gain the throne from the evil gods of destruction and monsters. 

I am excited to retell this story!

(Isis, Photo at Wikipedia Commons) 

Bibliography:

Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie 

Comment Wall

Portfolio Link:

https://sites.google.com/view/sarahsportfolio/home

Note from the Author:

Thank you for reading and commenting on my portfolio. I hope that you found at least one story enjoyable!

Reading Notes: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs, A)

Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

When I first started reading Aesop's Fables, I was very surprised that every one of them had a lesson even though they were each relatively short. One of the stories, and lessons, I enjoyed the most was The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. The phrase "a wolf in sheep's clothing" is very familiar and immediately drew my attention while also making me wonder if this story could be the origin of that saying . After some research (here is the link), I found that Aesop lived in 600 B.C., and wrote many familiar stories that translate into common sayings. This included "a wolf in sheep's clothing." How cool! Anyways, the story was rather short and I feel that the lack of detail in the original opens the door to a different more creative approach. I have considered a few options for rewriting the story. First, it would be interesting to tell the story from the sheep's perspective and perhaps making the sheep smart enough to see through the disguise before he meets his untimely demise. On the other hand, telling the story from a villain's perspective could be something that I wouldn't usually do, and would be delightfully challenging. The idea for rewriting that I am most excited about is to really focus on the moral of the story; appearances are deceptive. Although it would appear that the wolf is only dressing up as a sheep to hunt his next meal, the truth could be that he is seeking companionship. After all, appearances are deceptive. 

Since many of these stories have a poem that go with them, I would be interested in attempting a short limerick to accompany my story. The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing did not have an accompanying limerick and my version would be different than the original, so it could be fun to spin a rhyme for my own version of the story with the same lesson.

(Sheep of the Fable, Credit to Harrison Weir)

Bibliography

The Fables of Aesop, Joseph Jacobs

The Baby's Own Aesop, W.J. Linton and illustrated by Walter Crane (Link)

Topic Research: Egyptian Goddesses

Nut: Goddess of the Sky

Nut is in the creation story, as she is the sky goddess and the mother of famous god's and goddess's as Isis and Osiris. Nut is the arch that is the sky and touches both horizons. I think that it would be interesting to give her a bigger role in the creation story, and to give her a voice to describe what her duties are. 

(Nut, The Arch of the Horizon. Credit to E.A. Wallis Budge at Wikipedia commons.)

Isis: Goddess of Earth

In the story of Isis and Osiris, Isis and Osiris were the first of the god's born from Nut, goddess of creation and motherhood. Isis and Osiris immediately fell in love, but Typhon the God of monsters was jealous of their beauty and love. Typhon came to Earth and began to acquire followers and cause war in the lands of Isis and Osiris.  Isis created a plan and tricked the God of all to tell her his name, and used the name to save her people. This condensed version of this story is in the Untextbook.

Hathor: Goddess of Joy

When rebellious words were spoken against Nu, the eldest god, he gathered the gods and goddesses to gather their opinions. It was suggested that the gods must take up arms against the humans, and Hathor  was the goddess in charge of the slaughter. When Ra saw the destruction Hathor was capable of, he ordered an end to the slaughter. In the end, Hathor was returned to a peaceful state. This story is from the Untextbook.

Feedback Strategies

General Thoughts on Feedback:

In my last feedback post, Feedback Thoughts, I spoke about how over the summer I did some job shadowing with a drilling company in Houston and they were trying to implement an anonymous feedback system. The most important part of the feedback system, according to the H.R. representative, was that the employees take it seriously and give honest feedback. This being said, my personal opinion on feedback is the same as the H.R. representative; in order to be helpful it must be taken seriously and be completely honest. Giving feedback can be difficult, since I always worry about offending someone, but I have found that being critical and honest is not the same thing as being mean.

Thoughts on Feedback Articles:

When choosing an article, I was immediately interested in How to Craft Constructive Feedback, by Laura Gibbs. I think the 3 step system to observe, describe, and suggest will be a very useful format to follow in the future when I am giving feedback to evaluate a performance. This is because in my potential career, the purpose of the feedback will not be focused on self expression, but rather performance.

I also found the article Specific Feedback that Helps Learning , by Justin Chando to be very helpful and informative. Although the article is directed to help a teacher give feedback to a student, I think the overall concepts will help me in this class as well as in the future. As the article states, great feedback gives a path to a better future, no matter what is being critiqued, so it is important to give specific advice that could act as a guide. Another piece of advice I thought was important was to be honest and transparent, in order for the feedback to be relevant and useful. 

(Feedback, Loud and Clear. Credit to geralt at pixabay)

Week 3 Story: Noah and the Giant

Noah and the Giant

Long ago, there was a man named Noah who was spoken to by God himself. God had told Noah that a great flood was coming to the earth and that he must build an ark in order to save a pair of each of the animals of the world. After years of preparation, the time of the flood was near and Noah had gathered pairs of all the animals of the earth except the unicorn. As the rain started to fall, a pair of giants the size of a mountains approached the Ark. Scared for the animals and the ark, Noah ran to meet the giants to see why they were approaching. "Why are you here, giants? " shouted Noah, "You are  both tall enough to withstand the flood and would not fit on my ark anyways!" The male giant boomed a response "It is not the water we fear, as we will be taller than the flood. We fear that we will not be able to find food when the water wipes out the animals and plants. We wish to make a trade." "What trade?" Noah asked. "We see that you have failed to acquire a unicorn for your ark. If you will give us food during the flood we will bring you a unicorn and promise not to harm you, your people or your ark." Noah thought for a moment before agreeing to the trade.

A night passed and the waters slowly started to rise, and Noah thought that the giants had failed to find a unicorn. As soon as Noah started to close the doors of the ark he heard the booming voice of the giant, "Wait!, we have found for you the last unicorn, and our deal is complete." Noah thanked them for keeping their part of the deal and every day of the flood he gave the giants some of the food stored on the ark. When the flood had finally ended, Noah and the animals left the ark to find an empty land. Noah immediately started to plant new crops for the future but the giants were disappointing at the barren land. In anger, the male giant wrecked the progress that Noah had made, breaking his promise not to harm Noah's people or anything on the ark. Noah approached the giants and said "You have broken your promise and must be exiled for your sins, if you ever come back I will use the strength of God to kill you both."  The giants ran far away, and struggled to find enough food to sustain them. Years went by and the giants shrunk from the size of mountains to the size of a very large human, and this is where Goliath the giant had his origins.

(Noah's Ark, credit to Edward Hicks)

Author's Notes

In the original story, The Giant and the Flood, a single giant named Og approaches Noah with a unicorn since Noah could not find one. The unicorn was so giant that Noah had to attach a rope to it's horn and as it passed by a mountain the giant jumped on the unicorn so it could steal the unicorn's food as Noah threw it out to it. Noah made a deal with the giant, since the giant was strong enough to destroy the ark, that if he fed the giant then the giant must be his servant when the flood stopped. The giant, out of hunger, agreed to the bargain. After years of serving the humans, Og got tired of the work and tried to kill the humans. Since he broke the promise, Moses killed Og. In my version of the story, I felt that it would make more sense for the giant to live and be an ancestor of Goliath from the famous story, David and Goliath. Because of this, there needed to be two giants so that they could be exiled together and continue the giant bloodline. I also cut out some of the story that I did not think was necessary, like the dialogue where Moses is speaking with a bird, or when Og sacrifices animals to a grape vine.

Bibliography

The Giant and the Flood, Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa.

Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales, B

Reading Notes

In Reading B of the Jewish Fairy Tale unit I was really interested in the story the Higgledy-Piggledy Palace. As I stated in my last reading notes blog, Reading Notes, Jewish Fairy Tales (A), I grew up in a Christian household and was taught many Biblical stories both at home and in church. In fact, I was named after the biblical character, Sarah, who is considered to be the mother of the Jews and is the wife of Abraham. The Sarah and Abraham story I am familiar with is the story of how Sarah was very old and prayed for a child and finally was blessed with a child in her old age because of her faith and patience. In the story the Higgledy-Piggledy Palace, Sarah was young and so beautiful that she needed to be hidden from the Egyptians, but was found and taken to the Pharaoh anyways. I was impressed with the in depth details of Sarah's beauty and I would try to include this if I were to retell this story. Also, if I were to retell this story I would really enjoy telling it from the perspective of Sarah. Both in the biblical version and this version the story was written without her personal thoughts and feelings throughout the stories entirety so I think it would be fun to give Sarah a voice. Another aspect of the story I would change is some of the word choices, such as using the term spirit to the supernatural being that helps Sarah. In my opinion, since Sarah is praying to God for help it would be more clear for the spirit to be an angel of God.  I am really excited to retell this story from a new perspective and am thrilled that there is a story about the biblical Sarah.

(Biblical Sarah, Credit to Jim Padgett)

Bibliography

Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa

Reading Notes: Jewish Fairytales A

Reading Notes

When I was young, my parents would take me to Sunday School at church every Sunday morning. Because of this I was interested in reading the Jewish Fairy Tales and Fables unit, as I am familiar with some of the biblical stories. In the reading I was very surprised at how even though there were some similarities to the biblical versions, they were all stories that I had never heard of before. The story that stood out to me the most was The Giant of the Flood. This story wasn't necessarily my favorite, but I enjoyed the incorporation of a giant into the classic Noah's Ark story. What surprised me the most was the giant unicorn since it was in The Shepherd-Boy to King story as well, yet I have never encountered a unicorn in the biblical versions. Something I enjoyed about the story was the origins of wine and being drunk from the grape plant. In the bible there are many stories with wine or about drinking so it was interesting to read about this origin story of wine. In The Giant of the Flood I would change a few things if I were to retell it. Since the whole purpose of the Ark was to take animals in pairs so that they could reproduce when the flood ended, I may add another Unicorn as well as another giant to the story. Also, I may remove the parts about the bird and the lion because to me they seemed out of place in the story. The biggest change I would make is the ending, because I think it would be really interesting for the giant to be an ancestor of Goliath from the classic story David and Goliath. Instead of Moses killing the giant in the end, Og the giant could be allowed to live in exile and have children, which could explain how Goliath is so huge. 

(Noah's Ark, Credit to Edward Hicks)

Bibliography

The Giant of the Flood, from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa

Feedback Thoughts

General Feedback Opinions

(Feedback, credit to pixabay user geralt)

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to job shadow a manager and engineer at a drilling company in Houston, Texas. During this week I knew I would learn about industry for engineers, but I was surprised to learn even more about management techniques and work dynamics. While I was there the H.R. department was setting up and online and anonymous system in which a worker could give honest and constructive feedback to their boss or coworkers. When I asked why this system was being introduced to the company, the H.R. representative said that feedback can make the entire company more efficient and happier by optimizing individuals work, but only when the feedback is taken seriously. Because of this experience, I am very excited to learn more about feedback and to even be receiving it later in the semester. Everyone has room to grow and I am interested to see what improvements I can make.

Article Opinions

I really found the article, 5 Tips for Taking Criticism Like a Champ article by Megan Bruneau to be both relatable and helpful. I have always considered myself a perfectionist and I agree with the article in that as a perfectionist, my performance is an integral aspect of my self worth. The tips were all doable and my favorite tip that I hope to utilize is to take feedback and consider it a way to improve, rather than a permanent negative aspect of myself. Since growth should always be the goal, this tip helps remind me that change is important to becoming the best version of myself, and traits can be developed.

The Using Harsh Feedback to Fuel Your Career article by William Tresender was  interesting and reminded me of my experience over the summer with job shadowing at Precision Drilling. Just like the H.R. representative said when implementing the feedback system, in order for feedback to work people must take it seriously, and in order to take feedback seriously one must not stay mad or defensive forever. In the article I found it interesting that the author encouraged readers to feel their emotions when they receive negative feedback, but ultimately get through with being upset before going forward with improving whatever was critiqued. I know that as a person it is easy to get offended or hurt when someone says something negative, and I hope through this class I can learn how to effectively receive feedback.

Topic Brainstorm

Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales

As I mentioned in my introduction post, my favorite novel of all time is The Picture of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde. Just from reading this novel, it is obvious that Wilde has an amazing ability write clearly and eloquently while still maintaining creativity and imagination. Because of this, to me it is an obvious choice to consider The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde as a project topic. Oscar Wilde has two fairy tale books and I am more interested in The Happy Prince and Other Tales because The Happy Prince is about a sparrow that travels to Egypt and meets a statue of a prince and I have always had the dream of going to Egypt and I am very interested in the culture and history. Below is a picture of a collector's edition version of The Picture of Dorian Gray from my personal book collection.

(My Personal Copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray, personal photo)

Ancient Egyptian Myths

After speaking about my interest in Egyptian history and culture, it should be clear why I have an interest in Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories. In my Reading Options blog I talked about how I have a life goal of seeing the Great Pyramids in Egypt, and I think that experience would only be enhanced by having a knowledge on the Egyptian Myths that the pyramids and other great structures were built upon. On Freebookapalooza there are many resources on Egyptian Myths and I am confident I could find many stories that are interesting to me. Specifically, I would be interested in telling stories about Goddesses because I love the idea of empowered women. 

Arabian Nights

For years, every Christmas or birthday I have asked for books as a present. Because of this I have been able to acquire a beautiful collection of books, including Arabian Nights. Although I have not been able to read all of the stories in the book I have read and enjoyed a few of the more popular ones like Aladdin and The Wonderful Lamp. Since I already have a physical copy of Arabian Nights, I think that it would be a great topic for a project. If I were to retell a story I would possibly do Aladdin since I already have knowledge on it and I think having the power to retell such a well known story could prove to be exciting. 

(My person copy of Tales from Arabian Nights, personal photo)

Alice In Wonderland

If you haven't been able to tell already, I like the idea of using a book as my basis for a project since I enjoy reading so much. Although I do not own a personal copy of Alice in Wonderland, there are many resources such as the Project Gutenberg which has many free books to download. (This is also a great resource for my other project topics) Although I do have previous knowledge on the Alice in Wonderland story, there is so much more to learn and being able to tell the stories from a different perspective would be very interesting.