Feedback Focus

3. Use a Timer

This one is just really ineffective for me and the way that I read. I'll fess up to it, I'm a really slow reader. Some of this is probably because I get distracted and think of 57 other things when I'm supposed to just be thinking about what I'm trying to read. Using a timer and setting a goal to think of nothing else for 10 minutes seemed really hard for me because the more I think about focusing on one thing, the more my mind wants to wander to 100 different other things. 

Interestingly, when I was in the 10th grade, my AP European History teacher had this thing she called a "vacation sheet." She told us that whenever we sat down to read our book, we should have a blank piece of paper next to us so whatever our mind wanders to, we can jot it down and go back to what we were supposed to be doing. I felt like I needed my vacation sheet all over again!

2. Copy & Delete

I like the concept of deleting past paragraphs. This helped me keep my place in the reading a little better, but stopping every paragraph or so to write comments down kind of took me out of my "zone" and I kept thinking, "Okay, what just happened?" when I would try to hop back in. I would LOVE to try to combine this with the reading out loud though!

1. Reading Out Loud

I honestly thought that I wasn't going to like this at all. I thought I was just going to be able to read something out loud without focusing 100% of my attention on it, but this really worked! The one disadvantage I can think of for this is that it may slow you down a bit. But, I'm a slow reader anyways so it works great for me!!

(A cat and a dog, web source: Pixabay)

Story: Twenty-Two Goblins

HOST: Hello! And WELCOME to the Love Triangle, the show where distraught people who have 3 or more suitors seeking their hand come to FIND. THEIR. FOREVER!

We have a great show for you today. We have a lovely contestant who has three men that want to be hee husband. This contestant has a special twist, that you won't want to miss! Stick around, and we'll be right back with Contestant #1, Coral!


HOST: Welcome back to the Love Triangle! We have our contestant all setup here. Hi Coral, why don't you tell us a little about yourself here? Show the audience why these men over here are pursuing you so intently.

CORAL: Um, okay. Hi, I'm Coral. I have always been told that when the Creator made me, he gave me unparalleled beauty and loveliness. So, that was nice of him, I suppose.

HOST: Well, I think whoever told you that was right on the money! Weren't they, audience? So, Coral, tell us how these three men came to pursue you and seek your hand in marriage. Audience, listen up. Here is the twist I promised. So, Coral is sitting here with this dilemma of not knowing who to choose. She's just really torn up about it. Alright Coral, then what happened?

CORAL: Well... I died.

HOST: Say that again for us, Coral?

CORAL: I died. I came down with a fever and it killed me.

HOST: Can you beLIEVE that, audience? Well, let's meet our suitors and hear from them just how heartbroken they were when they discovered that their beloved had died before their very eyes.

Suitor #1, hello. Can you tell us what it was like coming all that way, mustering up all that courage to ask for Coral's hand... just to have her die without making a decision?

SUITOR #1: Hello, there. Yeah, it really broke my heart. I mean, I wanted to spend my life with her. I wanted to prove that I should be the one that she should choose and that just all went up in smoke.

HOST: So, what did you do after she died?

SUITOR #1: Well, me and the other guys took her body to the cemetery and burned it to ashes. Then, after that, I don't know. I sorta felt lost. I could really find any meaning or see a way for me to move on. So, I just made a hut right near where her ashes were and lived in it.

HOST: You lived in a hut... ?

SUITOR #1: Yeaah, I mean, I don't know.. It was the only thing to do that made sense at that time. Anything else seemed to disrespect her memory.

HOST: Alright, so one of you lived in a hut. Let's talk to our other two suitors.

Suitor #2, hello. So, we know what happened immediately after Coral over here died. You and these two guys took her to a cemetery and burned her ashes. This guy over here decided to live in a hut over her ashes. What did you do?

SUITOR #2: Well, I did the only thing I felt would be beneficial and might help the situation. I took up all of Coral's bones and dipped them in the sacred Ganges river.

HOST: You... dipped the bones.... that are in her body right over there... in a dirty river.

SUITOR #2: No, no. The Ganges river is supposed to be the purest river in the world. It's said to have certain powers about it. I thought that the best thing to do would be to purify her bones, in the hopes that it would bring her back to us.

HOST: Well, alright. You wanted to badly for her to return to you, that you would carry the literal bones from her body across miles to a river. That sounds pretty good to me, what do you think, audience?

There you have it. Alright, now let's meet our third and final suitor, Suitor #3!

SUITOR #3: Hi! I'm really excited to be here!

HOST: It certainly seems like it! Okay, we've got one of you living on Coral's ashes, one of you traveling the countryside with her bones. Tell us about your journey post-death.

SUITOR #3: Yeah, I took to wandering to other countries and stuff. I was wanting to find someone else out there. I was waiting to find something that would put me on the right track. And I did just that, it was perfect.

HOST: And what was that?

SUITOR #3: Well, it's kind of a long story. I wandered into this random city and this family in this house just decided to bring me in and entertain me. We were having dinner and then the craziest thing happened. I still can't believe to this day what I saw. So we were eating dinner. And the son of this family starts crying. Nothing that anyone does is comforting him. He's just sobbing. And then... the mother takes this kid - I'm not making this up - and throws him into the fire. And POOF! He's burnt to ashes.

HOST (horrified): Suitor #3, how can you be so nonchalant about that!?

SUITOR #3: No, no! Don't worry! That's what I thought too. I was absolutely disgusted. And then, the dad pulls out this book and says a few words then sprinkles some water on the ashes, and POOF again! He was there like nothing had happened. So, in the middle of the night I stole his magic book and brought it back to use on Coral. And then I - not the other two - I brought her back.

HOST: Okay, tt is TIME! The suitors each get 30 seconds to show why they should get to marry Coral. Alright Suitor #1!

SUITOR #1: Coral, I knew I wanted to marry you since the first time I heard your name spoken. Your beauty is unparalleled and your loveliness exceeds this world. I know you are the one for me because, when you died, my entire world fell apart. I could not bring myself to do anything but weep and grieve for you. I have experienced what this life is without you, and I cannot do it. I want to be your husband, please choose me.

HOST: Very nice, certainly gives Coral something to think about! Suitor #2, you're up!

SUITOR #2: My dear Coral. You are the love of my life, this I know very deep in my soul. You are lovely, yes, but you are compassionate. You are kind. I want to live out the rest of my days surrounded by your grace as your husband. When you died, I knew I had to have you back. I knew the world would be worse off with you. I thought immediately of a story my mother always told me about the healing powers of the Gange, and I knew that if I did not try to bring you back that I would regret it the rest of my days. I walked and will continue to walk miles and miles for you. Please choose me.

HOST: These guys certainly aren't making it easy, are they? And we still have one left! Suitor #3, now's your chance. Tell Coral why she should choose you.

SUITOR #3: Coral, I love you. It may seem silly to say with what little time we have had together, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that I love you and you are the one I am meant to be with. Without you, I am lost. After your death, I wandered with no purpose. I knew I needed to find something, but I didn't know what. The fates led me to that house, to that family. Coral, I am the one who brought you back to this life. My love knows no bounds; I would go to the greatest lengths to bring you back to me and I did. Coral, I love you, please choose me.

HOST: Wowee, okay, that's it! Coral, you have a lot to think about here. It's time to make your decision.

CORAL: I choose...Suitor #1! He acted in a way that true lovers should act, instead of as a son or father.

(Hut, web source: Flickr)

Author's Note: The entirety of Twenty-Two Goblins is comprised of many different riddles and puzzles that don't truly have a factor that ties them together. The main theme of the story follows a king who is sought out to do a favor for a monk. This monk needs for the king to get a dead body, which is hanging from a nearby tree. However, the body has been invaded by a goblin and each time the king tries to take it from the tree to the monk, the goblin tells him a riddle. The deal is, if the king correctly answers the riddle, the goblin flees back to the tree. If the king knows the correct answer but refuses to say it, his head will explode. If the king doesn't know the answer, the goblin will simply tell him another story on their way. The story above is based on one of the goblin's puzzles. Nearly every aspect is intact above, I just presented it in a very different way. At the end, the king answers with the 1st "suitor," because he saw that he had acted like a lover who had lost their love. The 2nd had acted as a son should. And the 3rd, who you may think should have won her heart, acted as a father would do (doing anything they could to get her back).

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder. Link to reading here.

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins Part B

Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder. Link to reading here.

These chapters of the overarching story went along like the previous grouping. Nothing truly progressed here until the last two chapters. This does not fit well to retell that part of the narrative. I think I'll spend most time focusing on the individual puzzles and riddles to gather what I need to retell this story.

Most of the puzzles from this half went along in a very similar way to the original grouping. Very often, there's a love story or marriage aspect to the stories. However, the first part has more groups of men seeking a woman, for instance. The final puzzles all seemed fairly unique from the others. While it makes for a more interesting read, it makes it harder to tie them together to retell or organize them into a greater narrative.

There were a couple of events within these riddles that caught my attention, however, and some were nearly impossible to predict because of the seemingly outrageous quality of the events. For instance, the daughter of the merchant falling in love with the thief after little to no contact with him. He was literally on his way to being executed. That seemed a little crazy to me. Also, the general offering up his wife to the king (as if she was some sort of chattel, ugh). Thankfully, the king was too noble to accept such a gift. So he died. Literally withered away and died. That in and of itself was shocking, but there's a cherry on top when the general decides to kill himself out of service to the dead king. Fascinating.

What really ground my gears was the fact that we never got an answer to the riddle that the king was stumped on! I can't say that I would have gotten all of the riddles thus far correct, like the king, but this one truly stumped me and sort of shut my brain down. I would have loved to hear how exactly that offspring would be related to the two pairs.

Also with this specific story, why couldn't the father and son just marry who would be appropriate? Why in the world would they cling to a decision they made based on SHOE SIZE? I digress.

(Hawk with a snake, web source: Pixabay)

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins Part A

Twenty-Two Goblins, translation by Arthur Ryder. Link to reading here.

These riddles and puzzles are among the most heartwarming stories I've read yet. Not in the cheesy way, but I just really loved reading them and finding out what the moral of each would turn out to be. I was getting pretty frustrated with the arching story of the king having to return to the tree over and over and over and over and over again. It's obviously going to take a while for this part of the story to progress (if it ever does).

One thing in particular that struck me about these individual stories is the seemingly outrageous things that seem to happen to all of these people. For instance, in the Girl, Husband, Brother story, her husband just decides to behead himself after he successfully got the girl of his dreams? And then her brother beheads himself right after in an act of grief? These things just seem absolutely insane.

I think a kind of game show layout would be cool for something like this? Like a transcript of an episode of Jeopardy or something, where the contestant has to answer these riddles but never wins anything. Or if I wanted to play with the stories individually rather than the overarching narrative, if someone from modern times was placed in these kinds of situations, seeing how they would react would be interesting! Especially with the random beheadings and all. Another idea, since many of these individual riddles involve a handful of people having to prove their cleverness or what have you, setting up dating profiles for each man seeking the girl's hand would be good. This could show off their characters, give them some more background and exhibit the parts of the story without using prose.

(Goblin hanging from the tree, web source: Wikimedia)