Backup and Review: Tom Gauld

From Laura Gibbs

This is another comic from Tom Gauld, who made another image that was the focus of the first writing assignment in this class. It reminded me a little of XKCD. Look for more from me soon.

Famous Last Words: Exponential

Image showing I made a total of 84 posts during Epics of India. 

I chose "Exponential" as my title this week because I feel that I am moving through this class at an exponential rate. I finished the sister class to Myth & Folklore, Epics of India, around week 9-10 during this most recent spring semester. However, I did not finish all the extra credit for Epics of India each week as I have done for this course. Therefore, I am hoping for a week 8 or week 9 finish, because if I recall correctly week 8 has some different assignments to shake things up a little. 

As far as the actual details of my assignments in this class are concerned, I read Brer Rabbit this week. Being honest, it may be my least favorite reading from this class and Epics of India combined. It wasn't so much the content as the way it was written. The attempt to write in a very "laissez les bons temps rouler" style of deep Louisiana Cajun made the reading hard to decipher and understand. I also saw Deepwater Horizon on Friday night, and some of the Cajun accents in that movie were atrocious (looking at you John Malkovich). There have been too many reminders of some of my least favorite extended family members this week. Therefore, I decided to write my story this week based on my extra credit reading, Andrew Lang's European Fairy Tales. I did a modern retelling of Puss in Boots helping his owner find a job, which my or may not be subconsciusly related to the fact that I need someone to do the same for me right now. However, I did connect Brer Rabbit to the IRS in my Wikipedia Trail this week. I didn't like the reading, but this is one of the Wikipedia trails I have enjoyed most so far. 

Week 6 Extra Credit Reading: Aesop for Children

This post will cover part A of Aesop for Children by Milo Winter.

The Eagle and the Jackdaw, from Laura Gibbs

• I like how each story has a very simple sentence that directly states the moral of the story. 
• I think the main difference between these stories and something like the Jataka tales is that not even the "good" characters are innocent of making mistakes or giving into their ego. As best I can tell, the smart animal always wins even if they might not deserve it. That seems to be the overarching moral, regardless of of the individual details of each story. 
• I think another key element to these stories is to not over extend yourself trying to be nice or to not overestimate your own abilities, even if the stories don't always end badly for the characters who do this. 
• Another difference from the Jataka tales, as I have mentioned in previous reading notes, is what I feel to be a lack of animal archetypes. For instance, no animal is always good or evil. I think this is a more realistic look at human personalities than the Jataka tales, but maybe it is harder to understand and more confusing for children or younger audiences. 
• Some of these are lessons that I feel belong more in The Art of War than a children's book. For instance: "Do not let flattery throw you off your guard against an enemy." But some like "Always stop to think whether your fun may not be the cause of another's unhappiness" are clearly simple anti bullying messages. 
• There does appear to be an exception to the lack of archetype rule I stated early, and that is the Donkey. The author must have hated Donkeys because they are always stupid, stubborn, and lazy in these stories. 
• The Travelers and the Sea may be the darkest story I have read this semester. "Do not let your hopes carry you from reality" is something that can be hard to swallow at the best of times. 

Thanks for reading along with me. 

Week 6 Storytelling: Puss in Boots

Michael was the youngest of three sons. His parents were poor farmers in Oklahoma who barely managed to scrape by when they had good seasons. When they died, Michael and his brothers were forced to sell their farm to pay off their parents debt. The only thing he managed to keep was the old family barn cat. His brothers saw that there was nothing left for them in their hometown and decided to move on. Michael spent his days locked inside his trailer daydreaming and lamenting to his cat.

Michael's cat, from Bahrat International

One early Sunday morning, Michael heard his cat said to him "If you don't want to have any more worries, just get me a pair of scissors, a plastic bag, and a pair of boots". Michael knew the cat was smart but he was second guessing whether or not he was dreaming or had has cat actually spoken to him. A few days later, Michael was feeling bored and sad after an unsuccessful morning of job applications, so he decided to indulge his cats request. He fashioned up some boots and dug the scissors out from the junk drawer then placed them in front of his cat with the bag, who proceeded to do absolutely nothing.

That night, the cat stole out of the trailer with his new belongings, determined to find his owner a new job. The next morning when Michael woke up he was even more dejected than usual when he thought his cat had abandoned him. He still drove to town, somehow even more determined than usual to succeed in his daily grind despite all of his recent setbacks weighing on him.

His cat had arrived in town the night before and broken into the hardware store where he knew Michael would be applying the next morning. He was prepared to do whatever it would take. His new boots kept his feet from slipping while he climbed to the top of the managers filing cabinets to wait and hide. When Michael arrived he waited patiently as the manager interviewed another man for the stockroom position. Michael gave his usual spiel about how he had fallen on hard times after his parents death and was now looking for a new job. However, the manager was not impressed and Michael knew it. He went home after another long day of failure.


The cat laid hidden in the office all day while he waited for the manager to leave. He knew that the manager would call back the first man who interviewed that morning and offer him the job. So, using the scissors, he cut the first mans application into a thousand pieces. He carefully put the pieces in the bag so that there would be no evidence. He now knew that the manager would have no choice but to hire Micheal to fill the position. The cat then collected his bag and crept back out of the store. The next morning, Michael received the phone call he had been waiting weeks for. He was hired to start work the next day. He shared a glance of happiness with his cat, not knowing the bad things that his cat had done to help him.

Author's Note: For my story this week, I was inspired by Andrew Lang's collection of European Fairy Tales, specifically by Puss in Boots. I decided to keep most of the themes and motivations from the original story line for my telling. The main things I updated and changed for my story was to bring it into modern times and I hope make it more relevant to the struggles of us who are graduating soon. 

I decided to cut out the romance element of the story line, and have the cat help our hero simply find a job. The cat still does an objectively bad thing to help his owner in this version, the man whose resume he cut up was more qualified than Michael. I felt that this was an important element from the original. The owner of the cat is either innocent or ignorant in either version depending on the readers interpretation. The cat is definitely malicious though, even if he comes from a place of wanting to help his owner. I also decided to remove the cat actually speaking to anyone to preserve some element of realism, Michael is convinced that his boredom is getting to the better of him. Thanks for reading. 

European Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang

Wikipedia Trails: Brer Rabbit to the IRS

The IRS, from Wikipedia

I began this week at Brer Rabbit, the main focus of the story I read this week. Brer Rabbit is inspired by African and Cherokee traditions, but those who are familiar with him are probably familiar with him due to his adaptation by Disney. Disney is the secod largest media company in the world, making $52.46 Billion dollars of revenue in 2015. They are second only to Comcast. Comcast is the largest cable television provider in the US, and well known for having some of the lowest customer satisfaction ratings of all corporations and agencies, even behind the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS, as we all know, is responsible for collecting taxes in the United States.

Learning by HEART: Everyone

From Laura Gibbs

I chose this not only because I love Bill Nye (who is likely one of the reasons I am an engineer today), but I believe that it is an important message. Everyone has a different story in life, and that is difficult to understand sometimes.

Growth Mindset: Creativity

From Laura Gibbs

I chose this because coming up with creative ideas for my writing is something that I often struggle with. I hope that if I'm having difficulty in the future that I remember to come back and reference this picture.

Week 6 Reading: Brer Rabbit Part 2

This week I am reading Brer Rabbit by Joel Chandler Harris. This post will cover part B.

Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, from Wren's Nest

• Unfortunately I am in the library right now, and cannot try reading the sound effects out loud. 
• The use of prose in this story reminds me of the proverbs again. This one has a simple message - what goes down must come up. 
• Brer rabbit using the allure of gold to trick the buzzard just reminds me that he shouldn't have agreed to fly with Mr. Buzzard in the first place. Luckily he was smart enough to recognize that Mr. Buzzard is an opportunist. 
•  Rabbit framing Bear seems somewhat dark to me. I know the rabbit is supposed to be a trickster, and not necessarily a good person, but the bear might get punished for this. 
• On second thought , these animals are always trying to trick and out do each other. They are all smart enough to come up with somewhat successful schemes, they could probably get a lot done if they pooled their resources. 
• I think the biblical influences are really clear in the last two stories. One is a retelling of Noah's Ark as best I can tell. The other is a collection of proverbs. 

Thanks for reading with me. 

Week 6 Reading: Brer Rabbit

This week I am reading Brer Rabbit by Joel Chandler Harris. This post will cover part A.

Brer Rabbit, from Sogorep

• I can tell that this story is placed in the deep South, the Cajun accent is really clear in the reading. It seems that this is a story designed to be told and not read. 
• Once I move past the language, the story of the Tar Baby had a really clear moral - don't get angry. 
• I understand what the Coon is saying, that fighting and being brave is important. But, the possum has a good point. Living to see tomorrow is important, and pretending to be dead takes some level of bravery to pull off. 
• Although the Brer Rabbit later escapes by tricking the fox, his temper landed him there in the first place. 
• The introduction of Proverbs reminds me a lot of this stories Southern influences. I wonder if this story was inspired at all by Proverbs as a method of story telling, and not only a moral influence. 
• The similarity between the turtle stories across this, Native American, and Buddhist traditions is surprising to me. I think it's fascinating that people view animal "personalities" so consistently across different cultures. 
• I wonder how much stories like this are the influence for more modern cartoons like Bugs Bunny - I can easily see a number of similarities. Like characters and themes. 

Thansk for reading. 

Tech Tip: Reverse Image Search

Using reverse image search, I discovered that this mystery picture was a actually a picture of Aphrodite, who we are all very familiar with now. By doing the search, I found her wikipedia page as the first result. If you ever need more info about an image, you should try this for yourself.