Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales Part A

Japanese Fairy Tales, retold by Andrew Lang. Link to reading here.

The Two Frogs: This is a short and sweet story. There isn't a whole lot to work with, so one option could be expanding upon this simple story. Another could be to adapt the story to fit a moral and possibly use different kinds of animals or tweak the story just enough that it fits both the moral and still remains true to its original.

The Stonecutter: I really really enjoyed this story. I think it has a lot of good morals wrapped up in it, and it allows for some creative wiggle room. I think this story is my winner for this week. I may play with changing up the moral a little bit from, "Be satisfied with what you have," to "Be careful what you wish for." This way I could change up the ending and possibly not have an ending that is content, but rather a sad or unfortunate ending. I think that's my best bet.

The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet: I kept getting a "Mulan" vibe from this story, which may lend itself well to a combination of this story and that story. I also think that the female protagonist here is very well maintained; she doesn't melt into a damsel in distress or necessarily rely upon a man (although her mother appearing to her in a dream telling her to marry this guy isn't the best).

(Hua Mulan, web source: Wikimedia)

The Envious Neighbor: Okay, so I hate this neighbor. I'm not sure what exactly I could do with this story, so I'll leave it. I wouldn't want to write about a dog killer anyway.

The Sparrow with the Split Tongue: Why is it that there are animal abusers in these fairy tales!? This wife is the worst, that sweet old man deserves better. Good riddance.

The Cat's Elopement: I didn't really like this story as much as some of the other animal stories, so I think I'll stick with my original plan with the Stonecutter or the Maiden with the Wooden Helmet.

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