Week 12 Famous Last Words

This week has been a fairly good week, at least other than the major fight I had with my psycho roommates. Sometimes I swear those three are out to get me. On a more positive note, this weekend is a football weekend! I am so excited because my mom is coming to town and is going to the game with me. I know this might sound lame, but my mom is one hundred percent the most fun person to watch football with, or any sports as a matter of fact. My family is a sports family. I grew up watching sports and attending watch parties for major sports events, like the Super Bowl, Final Four in basketball, World Series, and other play-off games. So as you can see, we are very knowledgeable about sports and we really get into it. My mom is so much fun that I actually brought her with me to the Sugar Bowl, and I would not have it any other way. I just really love how excited she gets! Watching games with her makes them ten times more exciting just because of her reactions. I cannot wait for this weekend!

Well thank goodness this week has somewhat slowed down. I have to say, I am a little bit sad that this class is coming to an end. It is definitely one of the highlights of the week, this class. I like the set schedule and the steady pace of it all. This class is kind of like math and art combined, which is an absolute perfect blend in my personal opinion. There are very few classes now a days that allows you to tap into your inner creative mind, even though it feels like mine is sometimes lost in the wind. Hopefully my art therapy class will help me to unlock my inner Picasso or Van Gogh.

Yes I know this is Van Gogh (Source)

Week 12 Essay: Way Back When

For this weeks essay I would like to focus on Fear. While reading More English Fairy Tales I noticed that many of the things discussed in the stories were there to scare people back then. So many things have happened in England throughout history, and I noticed that many of these stories were focused on ancestral fears. Perhaps my favorite, since it was what my storytelling was focused on, was The Pied Piper. I did a project, way back when, over the bubonic plague, or the Black Death. One thing I learned was that, because of the mass hysteria over witches, people believed the superstition surrounding black cats was linked to witches so they mass killed cats leading to the increase in the rat population who were carrying diseased fleas. This story is centralized around the large rat population in the town. I believe the rats in the story were used as a fear tactic, as well as a metaphor as a gateway to deeper evil. The fear of losing a child is the greatest fear any parent could ever have. The entire story is to place fear in parent’s eyes to the horrible things that can immediately affect them and their family in the world: disease that could wipe out their entire family or their child being lost or abducted. The story is there to scare adults about real world problems. I also think that this story is there to remind people to plan for the future and cherish every moment. The reason I say it is about ancestral fears is because at the time the story was written, the Black Death was way past. The bubonic plague occurred in the fourteenth century, about five hundred years before the pied piper. However, the rat remains a constant symbol of death and fear.

 

Cartoon Rat (Source) 

Week 12 Storytelling: Love Letters Of Pied Piper

My Dearest Lorali,

I lie awake at night, consumed with thoughts of you. I long for the day until I may run my fingers through your lush blonde hair again. Money is hard pressed and, while music is my greatest passion, I must find a way to provide for you my dear. I am resolute in pursuing a task for pay without surrendering my love for music. Tomorrow I travel to Franchville. I hear their rat population is vast, slowly causing the town to be in habitable. May my conquest over the ghastly vermin situation be swift so that I may return to you soon. Be calm my love.

-Pied Piper

My Dearest Lorali,

The squeaking of rats is incessant. My task is of great importance. My bravery to conquer the wicked of this town comes only from my undying affection for you. The Mayor bestowed me fifty pounds once my task of ridding the town of every rat is completed. Fifty pounds!

With my pipe laid to my lips, I stepped out of the hall and began to play. As each note pierced the air the rats began to swarm at my feet. I played for a great distance, with hundreds of rats at my heels. Still playing, I hoped on to a small boat and floated out to the waters, the rat’s still following me into the water. Deeper and deeper into the water I sailed until every last rat in the village was extinct. I arrived on shore a hero and hastened to claim my reward.

Remain in the greatest of health. My journey has nearly concluded. Do not have sorrow. Our distance only causes our passion to grow. If only our hearts were always close together, words would not be so difficult to say. Remain my one and only, my treasure, my always.

-Pied Piper

My Dearest Lorali,

Regrettably my journey is still on going. The Mayor had deceived me! He now wishes to pay me a lowly twenty pounds. My fury is greater than the depths of hell! My anger more vast than the deepest ocean! Oh my love, how I wish you were here to calm my outrage. This Mayor will rue the day he deceived my good will. I will be counting down the days until we meet again. I pray that you will not feel the pain of our extended distance. We shall surely see each other soon. Be strong my love.

-Pied Piper

My Dearest Lorali,

It is not possible for one to feel as euphoric as I, but ‘tis the day I finally begin my return to you. My journey was a tedious one, but I bring many gifts with me to help with our work. We will no longer be slaves to our fate, but will now live like royalty. With my pipe I have procured for us a grand group of gleeful souls, eager to toil away. If it were so I would fly into your arms and thus I would know what home is. Love me and make me the happiest of men? My longing for you grows deeper for I know I will shortly be in your presence. Rest my love, for we will be united soon.  

-Pied Piper

Old Letters (Source) 

Author's Note.

The story of The Pied Piper is about a man who comes to a village and says that he can rid the town of their humongous rat infestation for fifty pounds. The Mayor agrees and so the Pied Piper plays his pipe leading the mice to the water where they all drowned and die. He then goes to collect his reward but is told that the town can only pay him twenty pounds. The Pied Piper feels as though he has been deceived by the towns folk so he picks up this pipe and plays a tune the lures all of the children from the town out into the woods, never to be seen again.

I decided that many musicians have a muse, so I decided to make the Pied Piper a striving musician who was desperately trying to be with his love, Lorali (yes I have been watching too much Gilmore Girls). I thought the love letters would be a way to establish that he was a struggling artist, desperately trying to win over his loved one’s affection. I added in the love letter parts while still keeping the basic plot points, but decided to keep the ending, when he takes the children, vague. It does not specifically say what happens to the kids so I figured why wouldn’t he just keep them as servants to make life easier for him and Lorali? 

Bibliography. More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1894). 

Reading Diary Week 12: More English Fairy Tales

More English Fairy Tales

I have noticed that my stories have become a little bit long, so I am thinking about making my stories a little bit shorter this week. I feel as though this would be a challenge because then I would have to make longer stories into shorter stories. I guess I could leave out some of the unnecessary details.

One of my ideas was a role reversal. Like have you ever thought about what it would be like if we were actually our dog's pets instead of the other way around? Something crazy like that maybe?

While reading the Pied Piper I came up with a great idea: love letters! What if the entire reason for the Pied Piper coming to town was to get enough money for his beloved. Struggling artists always have a muse and back then there was not much money in music. This could be a way for him to make money and still be a musician, thus keeping his girlfriend happy. Writing love letters would also allow me to find a creative way to keep the story short. But writing a love letter might be a little bit awkward.

The majority of these stories did not seem to be just for children, but seemed to cater more towards parents. The stories were more cautionary tales to parents on how to keep their children safe.

I enjoyed the story Children in the Wood. It was very interesting.