The Once and Future Blog

Prelude: I highly recommend listening to this song,  La Libellule et le Baobab , whose name and sound gave me the inspiration for this story. No really, I promise it improves the story.  A Great Baobab Tree At the center of a great, seemingly unending plain, there was a large lake at which many different animals came together to drink. Against the strain of the food chain, the animals here did not fight - the watering hole was not just an oasis against the elements, but against violence as well. No matter the day, no matter the rain, no matter the famine, no one dared to break the peace of the watering hole, lest they become the victim of its inhabitants in retaliation. Just a hair north of the lake was a great baobab tree, thousands of years older than any of the animals there. This baobab was no ordinary tree, but a spirit of unknowable wisdom and age. It was the symbol of peace at the lake, and told tales from eons before any of the lake's inhabitants were born. All ...

For the conclusion of the Japanese mythology, one particular story that better fits the themes I discussed in the Part A readings is the story of Urashima (I read the prose version, since I find verse particularly hard to digest), that is, Uraschimataro and the Turtle. This story more closely hits my "fairy tale or fable" theme I was hunting for in the first half, since my Thursday writing will likely be in the same direction. The story of Uraschimataro is a tale of a how a diligent man's mercy of a small creature, the turtle, leads him to utmost luxury and love, while his desire to return home and see his loving parents leads to his downfall. The tale's moral isn't obvious, or concrete, at least how I read it. At first, it stresses the importance of benevolence and mercy, showing how anyone can become a prince through good deeds, while it later shows how not fully believing in your place leads to your downfall. It seems to be a rewarding tale for those show merc...

Today's bits of stories do not necessarily help toward my project particularly, but they do offer a not only interesting but unique set of qualities to them that are intriguing as a reader and a writer. I've had my mind on a short fable-like story, so many of the more folklore-y stories lately have been helping to develop it for a finally original story. Susanoo and the Serpent The one story that checked many of my favorite boxes this time around was the story of The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi. I'm always a sucker for monster-slaying, and especially for the use of trickery therein. When dealing with gods in stories, it can be difficult to split the whole "omnipotent god" idea away from the reading - after all, if they were omnipotent, we wouldn't have any sort of interesting story! This particular story offers no shortage of gods - the gods are the characters needing help, providing it, and the one causing the destruction. It's no sort of divine ...

Following his triumph over the demonic Rakshasas, Rama was taken to the court of Janaka, wherein he was met with a great feast fit for the visit of a foreign royal. Rama, adorned in eloquent gilded armor, was abreast with Lakshmana as they entered the great hall of the Rajah. Their presence was immediately felt by all the in room, as though the very spirit of divinity flowed like smoke in the air. On entry, each ceremoniously disarmed themselves, and removed their helmets so that their radiant beauty could be taken in by all. Janaka, seated at a grand throne at the end of the table, rose to his feet in likewise respect. "Greetings, o anointed guests of my domain. Sit, and feast your hungry bodies to your delight in celebration of your victories." The lord gestured to a pair of seats at either side of his, labelled with the names of the young princes. As each seated themselves, they made merriment with the other guests as the feast swung into its peak tempo. Just before the f...

Today's reading comes from Turkish folktales. Turkey is an area of culture I've experienced very little of in my life, so I was excited to get to experience the way another culture views itself and its values. The first tale I found particularly interesting is Fear, a charming tale of (moderate antisemitism and) a young boy's journey to find the object of fear. To me, it almost reads like a continuing joke, as though someone is trying to keep you on the hook before a disappointing punchline. The boy goes through much tribulation, including making sweets in a graveyard, trespassing a robber camp, and fighting an ocean god, but what gets him is an unexpected sparrow in the soup. To me the moral of the story is that fear comes not from the setting, but from your expectations - surprise is scarier than suspense. The second tale I enjoyed was that of the Fish-Peri. It's a charming tale about how conveniently loving a magical fish woman will bring your monarch great gifts a...

The story of the Ramayana is one that fits my recent theme of Hero stories to the nose. Rama is the legendary demon slayer and hero prince of the story, defeating a villain of celestial magnitude to free the world of its domination and save his beloved. But before we can arrive at demon slaying, we must meet the hero and his life. For my story later this week, this reading section gives me two primary ideas. Before I select one fully, I'll need to finish the Ramayana, but this details some of the better options from the first half. The first of these ideas comes from the story of Rama's birth - the idea of a divine ceremony held to ensure the birth of a successor is one of deep interest to me, and would fit well with one of the main themes of my project (birthright). I could "translate" the tale into a different culture, shift it to a different time period, and/or change the setting and conditions surrounding the need for a successor. This would let me explore some ...

Comment wall for my storybook project, https://sites.google.com/view/thefallofbritain/home Battle of Camlann - from the game Fate/Grand Order

I chose this as my first reading lab for one reason - the Hero's Journey. The origination of my project's focus is the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table - one of the most well-known myths in the Western world, and one of the most major Hero's Journey stories, second maybe to the works of Homer. However, my project is not on any such hero, but on the tale's final villain, Mordred. The final video in the playlist covers this topic extensively, which was quite helpful. Many of the steps I had never heard before, more just the major steps and the big three phases. I'll be looking to mimic or even mock the Journey in the work, shooting for more of a "Villain's Journey" or "Anti-Hero's Journey." A chart of all seventeen stages of the  Hero's Journey The videos in total were incredibly interesting. I had never considered several of the constructs and histories surrounding mythology. In my own readings, I had learne...

This week, I will be reading the last few parts of Ovid's Metamorphoses, a compilation of Greek and Roman myths of transformations - at times, explaining the existence of some phenomena, or providing the explanation for the name of some land or feature. The first of these stories in this block falls into the latter category - the tale of Daedalus and Icarus. The story of Icarus is a caution against hubris, older than much of the Western world. It tells of an artificer named Daedalus, who desires to escape his exile on Crete with his son, Icarus. He fashions wings of feathers, reeds, and wax to sail high above the domain of the tyrant Minos, who keeps him there. He warns Icarus not to fly too low, lest the moisture of the sea pull him down, and not to soar too high, lest the sun melt the wax holding the wings together. They soar off of Crete, like gods in flight to spectators below, and Icarus is so enamored with the experience, he forgets his father's words and soars too high,...

King Arthur's mythos is not the most consistent the world - but what myth is, anyway? Even better, the focus of my story - Mordred - has even less material focusing on him, so much of my writing will be necessarily original. The parts of Mordred's life I'll be focusing on will be: His Birth (and attempted murder) His early life His service on the Round Table The Betrayal The Battle of Camlann Some stories I've found where Mordred is most relevant: Morte d'Arthur  - The Death of Arthur, which tells the story in poetic form of Arthur's death and Bedivere's task. King Arthur and his Round Table  - Contains much relevant information for the Battle of Camlann specifically, including Mordred's betrayal. Sir Mordred , looking dashingly evil. The Wikipedia page for Mordred  - Doing its best job to maintain the rather chaotic amounts of information

For the first article I read, the title immediately struck a chord with me:  Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!" . If you've read my other feedback articles, you'll know immediately that the rest of this one is going to be interspersed with references to judging in Magic, and this article hits it close. One of the first pieces of feedback I got on my feedback was to avoid praise that wasn't specific, with a different reasoning than this article hits - by and large, so that people who are doing something well know exactly what  they're doing well, and to keep it up. This article focuses largely on younger children, but the fifth point still stands well for everyone. When you simply say "Good Job!", you ignore things that may have been done specifically well, and you minimize things that could use legitimate criticism. From the  Feedback Cats For the second article, I decided to look at a strategy I was unfamiliar with:  Be a Mirror . While ...