Well this is it, the nitty gritty. YEESH!!! I'm still staring at the computer screen asking myself where the time went. So in this one, I'm supposed to reflect on what I've learned, or what I've taken away from this class. Well, I could certainly say that I learned what a fairy tale is, and how fairy tales link together. But I've already done that. I think the real challenge is saying now, I've learned all this stuff, "So What? I looked over my blog, my first blog, and I said, I enjoyed fairy tales as a child. Throughout this class I've been rediscovering why. In class today when we were discussing Pan's Labryinth the concept of time came up.
Dr. Mazaroff said an interesting quote. "You're first moment of life is the first moment towards death, Time eventually destroys us all." Ever since we are born into this world, we are constantly agonizing over time. It either drags on unbareably slowly, or we lement for when it is lost. We constantly search for ways to get more time or ways to end it. People spend ridiculous amounts of money getting facelifts and plastic surgery in order to feel young again. On the other hand, sadly we have others who commit suicide because they feel that their time has gone on long enough and that their final hour has come. They don't want anymore time. When we are little we want to move the clocks forward so we can do everything all at once. When we are older, we wish for ways to turn back the hands on the clock. When we grow up, and move into the working world, we find ourselves immersed in a complicated world with countless gray areas that change constantly over time. Sometimes we get so immersed in these gray areas that we don't realize that the simplest solutions are sometimes "Manichean" black and white. I think that's partially why fairy tales are so appealing and have been for so many years, everywhere in this world.
The second we enter a fairy tale whether it be "Once upon a time," or "So it was, and so it shall be, we are whisked away into a place where time fades away. In a fairy tale time doesn't matter because everything works out in the end just in time. Suddenly no matter how brief we are in the fairy tale, all these murky complicated gray areas don't matter because for now, it's okay to be in a world of black and white. " As we travel on a quest with supernatural animals, monsters, and magical items, we find that nothing is impossible. If we're in a jam, we find that a magical item, or a little wit goes a long way. Boundries, rules, predjudices, and other complicated issues can't hold us down as we fly around on a magic carpet. When we're in a fairy tale, we are all the same. No matter what country, or origin, the basic struggle between good and evil always remains the same, no matter if it takes the form of a wolf or a crocodile, or a witch. Perhaps if we took the time to learn about others fairy tales as well as our own we'd be more inclined to appreciate and accept the differences in others cultures, beliefs and values around us.
Dr. Mazaroff said, "The enchantment of fairy tales comes from it as a work of art." It's like going to a museum and bieng captivated by a beautiful painting; all of us can take away and interperet the meaning(s) in our own way. In doing so we excercise our ability to independently think for ourselves. But in doing so we are also united; all of us I believe are consciously or unconsciously searching for a little magic in our lives as time passes on. The beauty of it is, that it's always there waiting for those of us who want to look for it. And when we find it the possibilites are infinite.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Blog 12: India and Bangladesh Folk tales
I could state the many parallels that I've found along with every other presentation and tale we've looked at. But that's too easy. Now I'm going to challenge myself and point out what made these stories different and special from the others.
I guess the most obvious thing that stood out was the complexity!!! YEESH!!! In European fairy tales, It's normal not to focus on names. In fact names really just don't . . . matter. Women go by the names of "Hag, Woman, Mother, Wife." Men are usually identified as, "Man Old Man, Husband, Father, Woodcutter, etc." The point bieng, they really serve no purpose, so why bother to give them any names? If they have any relationship it's usually severed, like for example: " the Woodcutter died, or the Miller gave away his daughter." they serve whatever short purpose they had and we never hear from them again. Sometimes they have virtually no purpose, they might just be there for sake of saying that someone was related to the main character.
In the India tales however, there were nothing but names. In fact I spent about 20 minutes trying to keep track of who was who in Ramayana. . . . it was an utterly lost cause. Infact before the story actually started, I got introduced to a seemingly endless family tree that would've probably surpassed Jack and The Beanstalk's beanstalk. For example: "From Visnu's navel, his son was Marica. From Marica was born Kasyapa whose son was Ravi. From Ravi came Manu. From Manu Iksvaku, in whose lineage was born a king called Raghu."
That was just the beginning part of the intro paragraph. Even when they finally got to Rama there were still a list of nonstop names.
Which brings me to another difference; The plot of the tales. In European folk tales, there is a simple short episode in which the hero goes on some sort of quest to save the princess, kingdom, etc. In the end with the help of some magical item, he convieniently defeats the forces of evil (which comprises of usually one villian) and he lives happily ever after. Short, sweet, and predictably to the point. No if's ands or buts. There's usually one main hero, one main huge problem, one evil villian, and one solution which saves the entire kingdom. If it became any more complicated it would no longer be a fairy tale but a novel. That's simply not how the European folktales work. Indian folk tales however are completley different.
Dr. Alles told us "In India if the tales aren't completley complicated there is no point. there just boring." Unlike the European tales Ramayana started out fairly simple: The king was getting old and needed an heir so he chose Rama who was the eldest and most capable. Except that his stepmother gets tricked into having her son Bharata take his place, and banishes Rama. Rama however, is suprisingly chill about the concept of him bieng banished into a forest for 14 years, except Bharata doesn't want to be king and thinks Rama should be. Rama on the other hand thinks that Bharata should be king, and that just opens up a whole new can of complicated worms. Somewhere along the way Rama's wife Sita gets kidnapped and an army of monkeys and demons come into the picture, all with their own complicated set of names and the plot just gets more and more complicated along the way.
That's just one fagment of the short episode in the multiple books of Ramayana that rival the size of Harry Potter and the bible combined. Some just focus on a mere jouney to the forest alone. The episode started out simple and then what was once a simple easy problem, became a series of mulitple complicated problems, so new characters were introduced to help solve these problems, but these new characters just ended up causing more problems, so more new characters got introduced and they just ended up creating more new problems to deal with in addition to the ones already present. And soon we simply get started into an endless, visciously confusing vortex of plots within plots withing the plot of a plot's plot.
The Bangladesh tale of the Blue and Red Lotus had considerably less characters and a much simpler plot but even that plot was tricky to follow.
The last huge difference is the belief structure applied to these folk tales. The European folk tales were told more for entertainment and moral education. But they are just stories, "Old wives tales." To quote Dr. Esa, "In church we don't hear the priest talk about "Little Red Cap or Hansel and Gretel." It does not apply to our daily lives nor our belief system. In India these are not folk tales, they are real they are history. They apply these to their daily lives and belief structures. Casting these sacred tales off as mere "Old wives tales" is a great insult to them. Genocides and protests of all sorts have raged because of these tales. They believe these tales so fanatically that they are willing to die for them. They have lived by these tales for thousands of years till now because these tales are magical and sacred.
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| http://www.consciousart.de/galleries/painting/images/vrindavandas/ramayana_4.jpg |
I guess the most obvious thing that stood out was the complexity!!! YEESH!!! In European fairy tales, It's normal not to focus on names. In fact names really just don't . . . matter. Women go by the names of "Hag, Woman, Mother, Wife." Men are usually identified as, "Man Old Man, Husband, Father, Woodcutter, etc." The point bieng, they really serve no purpose, so why bother to give them any names? If they have any relationship it's usually severed, like for example: " the Woodcutter died, or the Miller gave away his daughter." they serve whatever short purpose they had and we never hear from them again. Sometimes they have virtually no purpose, they might just be there for sake of saying that someone was related to the main character.
In the India tales however, there were nothing but names. In fact I spent about 20 minutes trying to keep track of who was who in Ramayana. . . . it was an utterly lost cause. Infact before the story actually started, I got introduced to a seemingly endless family tree that would've probably surpassed Jack and The Beanstalk's beanstalk. For example: "From Visnu's navel, his son was Marica. From Marica was born Kasyapa whose son was Ravi. From Ravi came Manu. From Manu Iksvaku, in whose lineage was born a king called Raghu."
That was just the beginning part of the intro paragraph. Even when they finally got to Rama there were still a list of nonstop names.
Which brings me to another difference; The plot of the tales. In European folk tales, there is a simple short episode in which the hero goes on some sort of quest to save the princess, kingdom, etc. In the end with the help of some magical item, he convieniently defeats the forces of evil (which comprises of usually one villian) and he lives happily ever after. Short, sweet, and predictably to the point. No if's ands or buts. There's usually one main hero, one main huge problem, one evil villian, and one solution which saves the entire kingdom. If it became any more complicated it would no longer be a fairy tale but a novel. That's simply not how the European folktales work. Indian folk tales however are completley different.
Dr. Alles told us "In India if the tales aren't completley complicated there is no point. there just boring." Unlike the European tales Ramayana started out fairly simple: The king was getting old and needed an heir so he chose Rama who was the eldest and most capable. Except that his stepmother gets tricked into having her son Bharata take his place, and banishes Rama. Rama however, is suprisingly chill about the concept of him bieng banished into a forest for 14 years, except Bharata doesn't want to be king and thinks Rama should be. Rama on the other hand thinks that Bharata should be king, and that just opens up a whole new can of complicated worms. Somewhere along the way Rama's wife Sita gets kidnapped and an army of monkeys and demons come into the picture, all with their own complicated set of names and the plot just gets more and more complicated along the way.
That's just one fagment of the short episode in the multiple books of Ramayana that rival the size of Harry Potter and the bible combined. Some just focus on a mere jouney to the forest alone. The episode started out simple and then what was once a simple easy problem, became a series of mulitple complicated problems, so new characters were introduced to help solve these problems, but these new characters just ended up causing more problems, so more new characters got introduced and they just ended up creating more new problems to deal with in addition to the ones already present. And soon we simply get started into an endless, visciously confusing vortex of plots within plots withing the plot of a plot's plot.
The Bangladesh tale of the Blue and Red Lotus had considerably less characters and a much simpler plot but even that plot was tricky to follow.
The last huge difference is the belief structure applied to these folk tales. The European folk tales were told more for entertainment and moral education. But they are just stories, "Old wives tales." To quote Dr. Esa, "In church we don't hear the priest talk about "Little Red Cap or Hansel and Gretel." It does not apply to our daily lives nor our belief system. In India these are not folk tales, they are real they are history. They apply these to their daily lives and belief structures. Casting these sacred tales off as mere "Old wives tales" is a great insult to them. Genocides and protests of all sorts have raged because of these tales. They believe these tales so fanatically that they are willing to die for them. They have lived by these tales for thousands of years till now because these tales are magical and sacred.
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| http://s9.thisnext.com/media/largest_dimension/885027BE.jpg |
Friday, November 19, 2010
Blog 11: Arabic Folk Tales
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| http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Magic-Carpet-Vasnetsov-L.jpg |
This lecture was truly interesting, Mainly because I think there are so many parallels with the art of storytelling. It's true; stories were meant to be vocalized outloud to an audience rather than read. There is so much more meaning when a story teller speaks. When we read a folk tale the voices in our head carry a flat tone making it difficult to really understand the meaning of the folktale. I really enjoyed seeing the dance and music that went along with the stories. Much like the Kenyan Folktales we heard. I also liked how everyone somehow contributed to the tale whether it be a song, poem, prayer or phrase. In France nobles would "Slum it", by entering the houses of peasants and listening to the folktales they told. It's no coincidence that countries that had never seen eachother "somehow" derived very similar ideas, dreams, and cultural values.
I also enjoyed the story of how Shaharazad tricked the king into letting her live another night by telling stories and leaving him with a cliffhanger. Funnily enough, I actually had heard of this story before. When I was little the T.V. Show "Wishbone" did their interpretation of this story. It was nice to be able to go back and revisit my child hood again. This lecture was a treat. It reminded me that now and again it's nice to be able to fly away on my magic carpet once in a while. I just have to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Blog 10: Kenyan folk tales
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| http://winstonsdad.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/hare_and_moon.jpg |
I loved the lecture by Dr. Ochieng K'Olewe on Kenyan folk tales and story telling tradtions. It was truly a treat to actually hear stories being told instead of having to read and discuss them. There was audience participation, and singing. It was wonderful; you didn't have to think, but to listen, and let your imagination do the work. I loved the balance of logic with the magical element.
Realistically, hares and tortoses do not speak to each other or walk and talk as we do. Nor do they fly into heaven with feathers. (not that I know of atleast.) That's the magical part. But the things they do require logic and wit to solve things, not a magic wand.
In the European fairy tales, it's difficult to appreciate and apply the moral (even if it's blatanly stated) to everyday life. Reality runs on logic. In life we have to use our brains to solve problems.There's no logic in fairy tales because it's not needed. Why should the prince even worry? Sure there's an evil spell cast over the land but, at the right time, he'll just get an enchanted axe, or some magic potion from some magic toad, that will cure everything just in the nick of time. If real life was like that, why would we ever bother trying to do anything for ourselves? We can just have a magic wand whisk our problems away. It's certainly enjoyable to read now and then, but the lack of logic can be too much.
In the Kenyan folk tales I loved the wit that the hare applied, like when he was swinging from the trap in the tree, he thought of a brilliant way to get out of it. He pretended like it was the best thing in the world, because he knew that the chicken wouldn't be able to resist something so fun, and switched places. In European folk tales, like Snow White, the heroine is nauseatingly sweet and good hearted, which "wins" the heart of everyone. Unfortunalty in life, no one's amazingly sweet and good all the time, and sometimes no matter how pretty you are, or sweet and gentle, you'll never get yourself out of a jam if you rely on those tactics alone.
Snow White needed the seven dwarves to help her, because she clearly couldn't rely on her own logic to save her.
The hare could have been nauseatinly adorable and sweet. But that wouldn't have gotten him out of the trap by a long shot. Those farmer's would have been chowing down on rabbit stew if he tried to pull that. For those farmer's the only thing that's going to make their food grow is hard work and labor. No magic bean or spell is going to help them there, So they've got to protect that food at all cost because it's their life force.
So the hare did the only thing he could, which was trick the poor stupid chicken. Not nice at all. Did I feel sorry for the chicken. . . absolutley, probably because I would have been like the chicken going "My turn to swing."
Such an act in the Brother's Grimm book would surely cause the hare to be severly punished in the end. Not in the Kenyan version. The hare gets away. The hare pulled what surely any human bieng would pull in that instance. No real person would beg "Oh please kind farmer spare me." as they are swinging around in a trap that they stupidly walked into. Their adrenaline would be pumping like lightning, trying to get away as unscathed as possible. Self preservation is just too strong.
It's like now a days when a child breaks a vase, and risks getting punished by their parents. Their first inital thought would be "how to get out of it." Later they may or may not feel the guilt about lying to their parents. But if they see their sibling walking by, they'll jump at that opportunity and point fingers. It's one less spanking for them. Betthengheim pointed out that parents emphasize bieng "good" all the time, which causes the child to feel horrible when they make mistakes, because children would naturally like to misbehave. That's why it's so enjoyable to hear such a tale from Kenya where the hare sometimes does get away because of quick wit.
I really hope that there are more tales like this in the future.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Blog 9: Bluebeard
Bluebeard was certainly an interesting if not grizzly fairy tale. I mean it had serial killer, bloody bodies, bloody key, plus an arranged marriage between a girl that couldn't have been older than 13 or 14, to a man (Bluebeard) who I swear had to be over half a century years old. but My favorite tale that we read was probably the first one "BlueBeard" by Charles Perrault.
Yes this tale was grizzly, but I ended up laughing throughout the story, I definitey shouldn't have been; there was gore and attempted murder, but I couldn't help it. The first quote that got me was "The two girls couldn't bring themselves to marry a man with a bluebeard." I know blue beards weren't in style back then but, still I couldn't help but laugh thinking; rockstars, anime fans and other people nowadays dye their hair blue, why not their beards? Also what truly truly made me laugh the hardest was when Bluebeard gave her the keys particularly the key to the forbidden room and said, "You are strictly forbidden from ever going into that room."
Moron, Why in heavens name would you give her the key to a room you don't want her to go in? It's exactly like in those cartoons where the evil genius has a big, red "self destruct" button on the killer robot, that says "don't press." It always fails because people are going to press it. Just like the wife was going to go into that room. One thing I want to know is , was Bluebeard truly upset about that room bieng seen, or did he truly want her to go into that room?
Did he even want a "living" wife? What about the first wife that was finished off? There were no bodies before her (hopefully) did he just have a fight with her, kill her and then fail to properly dispose of the body? And from there possibly have the second or third wife accidently stumble into the room, only to kill them off? What wife did he actually give the key to? Did he plan to kill all his wives from the start? Or did it just become easiest to kill them after a while rather than explaining to them. I almost feel sorry for the old creeper, maybe he killed them because he knew they'd never accept him. I mean they didn't want to marry him soley due to his blue beard. I highly doubt they'd be willing to overlook a couple of dead bodies if they can't handle a blue beard. But at the same time couldn't he have just, shaved the beard off? Was it an enchanted beard? Killing was just cruel, he gave them the key to the room, that's like putting a sword into an executioner's hand and punishing him for chopping someone's head off. I guess only Bluebeard himself will know.
Yes this tale was grizzly, but I ended up laughing throughout the story, I definitey shouldn't have been; there was gore and attempted murder, but I couldn't help it. The first quote that got me was "The two girls couldn't bring themselves to marry a man with a bluebeard." I know blue beards weren't in style back then but, still I couldn't help but laugh thinking; rockstars, anime fans and other people nowadays dye their hair blue, why not their beards? Also what truly truly made me laugh the hardest was when Bluebeard gave her the keys particularly the key to the forbidden room and said, "You are strictly forbidden from ever going into that room."
Moron, Why in heavens name would you give her the key to a room you don't want her to go in? It's exactly like in those cartoons where the evil genius has a big, red "self destruct" button on the killer robot, that says "don't press." It always fails because people are going to press it. Just like the wife was going to go into that room. One thing I want to know is , was Bluebeard truly upset about that room bieng seen, or did he truly want her to go into that room?
Did he even want a "living" wife? What about the first wife that was finished off? There were no bodies before her (hopefully) did he just have a fight with her, kill her and then fail to properly dispose of the body? And from there possibly have the second or third wife accidently stumble into the room, only to kill them off? What wife did he actually give the key to? Did he plan to kill all his wives from the start? Or did it just become easiest to kill them after a while rather than explaining to them. I almost feel sorry for the old creeper, maybe he killed them because he knew they'd never accept him. I mean they didn't want to marry him soley due to his blue beard. I highly doubt they'd be willing to overlook a couple of dead bodies if they can't handle a blue beard. But at the same time couldn't he have just, shaved the beard off? Was it an enchanted beard? Killing was just cruel, he gave them the key to the room, that's like putting a sword into an executioner's hand and punishing him for chopping someone's head off. I guess only Bluebeard himself will know.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Blog 8 Cinderella
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Can someone reach success or riches through magic or marriage? That's an interesting question. It really depends on what you classify "Magic" as. By "Magic" I could see it being defined as being in the right place at the right time, where you meet the right person who gives you the right opportunity to succeed. Like take a musician for example that makes it big in the music record business. Before they may have been in "Rags" or selling almost no albums. But maybe by, well ,not nessecarily "magic" but more like a stroke of luck, they happened to be in the right place, at the right time, and met a record dealer who liked what they heard, and helped make them big. For that musician, I guess the stroke of luck might seem like "magic". So it could wourk in that context, I guess.
Marriage yes, could definitley help someone reach success, riches and or fame. Look at all those famous celebrities, who get married several times. Those spouses, for however long they stayed married to the celebrity, certainly became "successful" if not rich, just by marrying the celebrities alone.
I would certainly hope that that's not the only method people use to become rich or successful. I would also certainly hope becoming rich and succesful is not the only goal poeple have in life. While yes "marriage" would be realistic method to "rising up" I would certainly hope that people don't pin their future on that rare concept. In other cultures and countries around the world , arranged marriages to people with greater income, are one of the few ways anyone reaches success. But . . . for this question, assuming that we aren't looking at other cultures, but at America. I'd say no it's not realistic. In America, when I see in the news about how some celebrity got married again. . . or read about a 20-something year-old trophy wife just got married to a 65 year old billionare; my skin begins to crawl. All I can think of is, how shallow can you get? I mean, maybe they do truly love each other, but assuming that they married for money, I . . .lose respect for them.In other countries, especially third world countries, it's different; their culture's teach children to work very hard, early on in childhood. They don't always have all the wonderful freedom, and material objects we do, third world countries have people dying from starvation. Marrying "rich" for them is a way of survival. In other cultures and countries, you are disowned, stoned to death, etc. if you do not marry who is arranged for you. They don't always get to marry for love.
When I look at people that marry celebrities, or bilionaires, I get disgusted because I don't see the marriage as a way of survival, or due to lack of freedom in choosing a spouse, I see it as just another shallow, selfish way for them to indulge themselves in material wealth and finery to be "happy." We get the choice to marry for love, we are very very fortunate for that. We have material wealth, and we have people dying from too much food. and then to suddenly see how someone married a billionare or socialite, or celebrity, makes me so mad.
There are plently of ways to get successful and rich, Their are plenty of "cinderella's" that make their success through sheer work alone, and are perfectly content with very little money. I think bieng a "cinderella" and doing grunt work is needed. Now, I will admit, I've had my fair share of complaining when mom and dad used to have me do chores. But realistically, any chores I've done are cakewalks, compared to little children who walk for miles to a stream with a bucket to get water, or do laundry. I'm so lucky. But sometimes I can't help but wonder if they are the luckier ones. In having little material wise, I imagine they place value and sucess in their relationships with others. Their hard work teaches them not to take anything or anyone for granted, and to truly appreciate the life that they are given. I can only imagine how much character they've built. Something I can only admire and imagine. That strength and gratefulness they get to me from that hard work is far more valuable than material wealth, or success that "marriage" might get you. That strength they display to me is magic.
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Saturday, October 23, 2010
Blog 7: ASL Story Telling
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No good Fairy Tale storyteller would ever keep their audience if they talked like a robot. You'd have the audience asleep out of sheer boredom! The same probably applies for ASL. Another thing I found interesting, was the grammer structure, and how you cannot speak as you sign because then you're grammer will be turning into "English" spoken gramatical structure and not the grammer of ASL. Also, When Dr. Rose and Dr. Rust explained that music for a deaf person is more appealing when the song is not signed word for word, I thought it was neat. They prefer it if you put your own interperetation of the words as you sign, it keeps them more engaged. It parallels to the notion that A storyteller of folk tales will tweak the story however they see fit to keep the audience more engaged. Then the audience can pass down the story in their own terms as they see fit. Just as how the Coda Brothers interpereted "Every Rose" in their own way, which was fantastic.
Also I like how ASL Fairy Tales aim to poke fun at hearing people; it puts a new twist on things when you think about how hearing people have looked down upon the deaf. Like Folk Tales for the hearing people, there are morals for us to learn.
I was sad when they had to leave because it truly was a great learning experience, to a world that shows you the language visually rather than speaking it. It makes me think back to the quote "Actions Speak Louder than words". I wonder if it's really a coincidence that the Acronym of "Action's Speak Louder, also forms A.S.L as well. We should really look and pay attention at what the deaf have to say, and be more open to learning to look at things from their perspective. Their signs convey their messages loud and clear; and not a single word needs to be spoken to know that they're clearly important.
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