Week 12 Extra Reading Notes: The Forest Fire

The Forest Fire

There was a mother and a father quail who had seven baby quails.
The mother quail instructed the chicks to be good.
If they were good, she and the father would bring them back worms, insects, and grass seeds to eat.
Every time the mother and father brought back the food six of the chicks at the insects and worms while the same one chick only ate the grass seeds.
As a result the six chicks grew strong wings while the one who ate grass seeds wings did not grow at all.
One night, while the family of quails was sleeping, they heard a loud cry from deep in the forest.
They peeped their head out of the nest to see what made the sound.
In the distance they saw red clouds of smoke rising up from the trees.
The little birds started crying as the red clouds made crackling and hissing noises.
The littlest of the baby quails said, "See, Father, its a fire in the woods."
The fire was drawing nearer. It was destroying all the bushes and trees in its path.
The mother, father, and the six chicks with strong wings flew away.
The seventh chick got left behind.
The flames and smoke danced around the nest.
Somehow, the little bird was not afraid.
Instead he stared at the fire approaching and started talking to it.
He said, "I am small and have no wings. Why do you come to this wee nest where I am left alone.  Go your way mighty flames; there is nothing here for you."
The raging fire went away and the woods become quiet.
Voices started emerging from the trees as animals began to talk to each other.
The moon became visible again.
The little quail had a smile on his face.  He was happy and remained happy in those woods for the rest of his life.

I enjoyed this story but I am not exactly sure what it is trying to teach.  Is it a story about bravery?  Is it a story about not leaving a family member behind?  I am not sure.  It was a fun read though.

Bibliography

The Forest Fire from Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat
Image Information: What the little bird faced: National Park Service

Week 12 Lab:TV Tropes

TV Tropes

When I was searching articles on the TV Tropes website I found a page on short films.  This caught my eye because in this class we are writing short stories.  What I didn't know is that a shot film is technically a film that is between twenty and forty minutes.  Our stories are nowhere near that length, but I still learned a lot from the page.  Short films are often projects completed by film students.  Disney was the first company that brought short films popularity.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs started out as a short film until Disney realized they could make more money turning it into a full feature film.  While short films are not as popular as the large feature films, I still enjoy them.  I will always remember the short film before the PIXAR movie Monsters Inc. titled Birds on a Wire.  Short films are great, but I think short stories (mostly children's books) have been more impactful and memorable for me.  Books like Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Suess were some of my favorites as a kid.

Bibliography

TV Tropes Website
Image Information: PIXAR: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes Week 12: Seven Secrets of the Goddess B

Seven Secrets of the Goddess

In the stories of Yami and Yama, two common themes occur.
One is the association with women and sexual pleasure.
The other is about war.
Yami is the sister while Yama is the brother.
Yami approaches Yama but Yama refuses her.
Yama then dies with no offspring in the mortal world.
He gets trapped then in the world of the dead.
His rejection of sex turned him into the god of death.
Yami is very sad and turns into the goddess of the night.
She is now called Yamini.  She also is the dark river Yamuma.

There is a similar story in Polynesian mythology where Maui tries to go inside Hine, the goddess of death.  He does this to try to gain immortality.
Hine wakes up and realizes what Maui is trying to do so she bites him.

Because of these stories, men started associating women with immorality, misery, and vulnerability.

Rejection of women can be found in the Bible (reason is completely different than this argument though).

It is also found in Buddhism as Buddha rejects women to find freedom from suffering.

Women started to get looked at more like an object than a human.
They were bought and sold.
They were put into slavery.
They were abducted.
We even see this happen in the Mahabharata.
Because women became something one could own women also started selling themselves.
This is when prostitution started.
Men took over the economic world and women had nothing else to sell but their bodies if they did not have a husband.
The women became the property of the men in their life (father, brother, uncle, son).
The father would choose who his daughter married.

Learning about all of this is quite sad.  I feel bad for all the things women endured through history and how poorly they were treated.  The world is so sex saturated.  Sex, meant for bringing two people together in intimacy, seems to have lost its value.


Bibliography

Seven Secrets of the Goddess by Pattanaik
Image Information: Yami and Yama: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes Week 12: Seven Secrets of the Goddess A

Seven Secrets of the Goddess

Gaia is the earth mother in Greek Mythology
Her children were Uranus, who clung to her, Aphrodite, goddess of love, and the Erines, goddesses of retribution.
Kronos, their father ate all of his children so that they could not overpower him.
Gaia saves one son named Zeus.
Eventually Zeus attacks and kills Kronos.
Zeus then calls himself the god of men and takes his position at the throne of Mount Olympus.
Gaia stays respected but she is distant.

Adya is the mother god of India.
She took form as a bird and laid three unfertilized eggs.
These ended up giving rise to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
Adya wished to unite (marry) with the three male gods she created.
Brahma refused because he only saw Adya as a mother.  Adya then cursed him so there would be no temples or shrines in his honor.
Adya found that Vishnu was too shrewd for her.
Shiva agreed but only if Adya gave him her third eye.
Adya agreed and gave Shiva her eye.  Shiva in return used the eye to set her on fire and turn her to ash.
Three goddesses rose from the ash.  These goddesses became the wives of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

One thing that I really love about this video series is that it not only covers the history of the gods in India but also the gods from other cultures.  Many of these gods are very different from each other while others are quite similar.  Details are often different, but overarching themes are often the same.
The images used in the videos are also great.  I'm sure it took a lot of time and hard work for the writers to find these.

I was surprised that in many ancient cultures, there were periods of time where women had more authority than men.  This is just the opposite of what I have learned in world history books.

Bibliography

Seven Secrets of the Goddess by Pattanaik
Image Information: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva: Wikimedia commons

Week 11 Story: The Loyal Carpenters

Along the bank of the Krishna River in Central India lived a village of carpenters.  These carpenters had inhabited the area for hundreds of years and made a profit by selling their wooden goods to all of the nearby towns and villages.

Each and every day, these carpenters went into the jungle to cut down trees.  One day when they were out, they heard a huge rustle in the brush nearby.  The sound grew louder and louder until eventually a massive elephant appeared.  Something was off about this creature though.  He was limping on three legs.

The elephant approached the carpenters and uttered, "Do you think you could help me?  I have a large splinter in my food and cannot get it out.  Will you take it out for me?"

The carpenters replied saying, "Of course, anything to help those who also call this jungle home."

The carpenters removed the splinter, and the elephant was very grateful.  The elephant was so grateful in fact that he decided he would help the carpenters with their work.

Every day the elephant helped the carpenters take down trees and transport them to wherever they needed to go.  He became great friends with the carpenters too and their work environment improved because of him.  The carpenters always provided the elephant with food as well.

The elephant worked for the carpenters for 30 years and realized that he would not be able to work for much longer.  He had a son who was starting to grow into the most beautiful elephant in all of India.  He had shiny white skin, large muscles, and long ivory tusks.

The elephant decided to take his son to work so that his son could continue to work when he no longer could.  The young elephant picked up on the job quickly.

Years down the road the elephant's son and all of the carpenters' sons were working at an even higher rate than their fathers.  They loved this life and this friendship they had built.

A king came through the jungle one day and saw the beautiful elephant working for the carpenters.  He immediately wanted the elephant and offered a large price for him.

The carpenters gathered together and decided they could not send away their best friend.  They kindly declined the kings offer and the king, who was a reasonable man, understood.

Authors Note

In this story I basically retold The King's White Elephant but added a twist at the very end.  In the original story, the carpenters sold the white elephant to the king.  The king treated the elephant well, but I wondered if the elephant missed the carpenters that had been so good to him and his father.  It seemed a little strange to me that the carpenters would sell a friend.  I changed the ending to the story to highlight the value of friendship and loyalty.

Bibliography

The King's White Elephant by Ellen C. Babbitt
Image Information: The Working Elephant: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales, Babbitt Part B

The King's White Elephant

The bank of a river located in a large forest was home to many carpenters.
These carpenters traveled on the river in boats looking for trees to turn into lumber.
One day while they were out, and elephant came to them limping on three legs.
The fourth foot that was in the air was swollen and sore.
This was due to a large splinter.
The carpenters pulled the splinter out of the elephant's foot.
They also washed the elephant's foot so that the wound would heal quickly.
The elephant was thankful for the nice act that the carpenters had done.
He wanted to return the favor.
The elephant helped the carpenters pull down trees and carry goods.
All the while, the carpenters gave the elephant food to eat.
The elephant had a son who was young, strong, and white in color.
The elephant was growing old and knew that soon he would no longer be able to help the carpenters.
The elephant decided to bring his son to work so that his son could learn what he does.
That way his son could continue to help the carpenters.
The elephant told his son how the carpenters treated him well when he was injured.
So the son helped the carpenters and they fed him just like they fed his father.
The carpenters sons and the elephants son became good friends.
One day after work, they all played in the river together.
The young elephant would pick up the kids with his trunk and put them in trees or on his back.
A king came through the forest one day and say the beautiful elephant working for the carpenters.
He wanted the elephant so he paid them a good price for him.
The king treated the elephant well for as long as they both were alive.

I guess this is a story for how elephants came to live under human captivity.  Kind of cool!

Bibliography

Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt
Image Information: The King on His White Elephant: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales, Babbitt Part A

How the Turtle Saved His Own Life

A king had a lake put into the courtyard of his castle.
This lake was for his daughter, the young princess, to play around in.
One day the king asked his boys to put fish in the lake.
The boys went and found fish, but with the fish was a turtle.
None of them had ever seen a turtle before and ended up thinking it was a demon.
The returned to the king crying a told him that there was a demon in the lake.
He told the boys to bring the demon back to him.
The boys got the turtle planned to kill it.
They kept coming up with plans.
An old man told them that they should throw it into the part of the lake that is flowing over a bunch of rocks.
The turtle begged them not to and said that this was the worst punishment of all.
He knew that the boys wanted the worst for him so he told them not to do the one thing that he actually wanted them to do.
The boys threw him in the water and he traveled safely home.

The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking

A Turtle who lived at the bottom of a hill met two Geese one day.
After a short amount of time they became good friends.
The Geese wanted the Turtle to come home with them
The Turtle asked how he could go with them because he has no wings.
The Geese offered to take them as long as he didn't tell anybody about it.
The Geese grabbed a stick and held it between them.
They told the Turtle to bite the stick and hold on.
The Geese and Turtle flew over a village and the children made fun of them.
The Turtle, defending himself said, "Well, and if my friends carry me, what business is that of yours?"
He fell to his death at the feet of the children.

Bibliography

Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt
Image Information: The Falling Turtle: Wikimedia Commons