I'm going to be really just a huge square and say that I don't find it necessary to improve this class. The class is already well done. There are a variety of resources and everything is explained perfectly with each assignment. The professor listens and responds quickly (not to mention she's pretty fun to chat with out of context). Not only that you are always given adequate and informative feedback to help improve your writing.
If anything I wish the class was longer because I wanted to read everything (I know, I know. I can always go back and do it on my own) and create a story from each. There is so much creativity involved in this course I found it helped me to find more creative ways of doing things at my job. I think that's great. So, to change anything that can teach someone the importance of literature and writing (things I love with all my heart) I find incomprehensible.
I have one more course (I have one more language class to take) before my time ends here at OU and I have to say I really did save some of my BEST courses till the end. Ending this class is really bittersweet and I will certainly miss talking to Gibbs (who knows I may shoot her a pesky question for old times sake).
1. The Seven Maidens: Invisibility cap-competition whoever wins, wins the cap. The Maidens are the judges.
Come up with challenges.
Make it like a modern competition show.
Make up reason why the swan left her husband. There is a gap and no reasoning for her to abandon the husband she learned to love and her children.
Why did she put the robe on again, especially after the acceptance of her husband and life.
2. Androcles and the Lion: Epic hero saves lion and gets a lifelong companion. Fights his slave owner for freedom.
Androcles has the lion and the slave owner has a different animal.
Look up other animal that are common in Roman literature.
Look up Roman names.
Epic Gladiator type scene.
3. A Visitor from Paradise: I was a little confused by the last sentence; "It was and it was not." So, there is a possibility they didn't live happily ever after?
Maybe the robber came back for more stuff or came to give back the horse? Hmm..the possibilities really are endless.
4. Inside Again: So gratitude did not win out.
Make up people that something similar to the original story happens to them.
Give a lesson about self-preservation by putting the focus on what the snakes says in the folktale.
5. Johnnie and Grizzle: Hansel and Gretel. I definitely recognized this version of the story. Only instead of bread crumbs at the beginning its pebbles. Instead of finding there way back home multiple times, they get lost at the very beginning. That is when they stumbled on a trader that thinks the pebbles are magic sent by a witch to trick both Johnnie and Grizzle. They don't believe it and ultimately meet there fate in the Gingerbread House.
6.Thumbkin: Thumbelina (SP)! I haven't read or seen this movie in ages!.......EWWWWW.
Europa's Fairy Book by Joseph Jacobs and illustrated by John Batten (1916) Europa's Fairy Book
[SOME SPOILERS] 1. The Cinder-Maid: I'm a little dumbfounded that Cinders father is actually a part of the story and furthermore does nothing of the abuse Cinder endures. Since his death has not happened I would like the father to take on a bigger role. I would like Ever After to be the basis and explain why he did not die a particular day changed Cinders fate. What would have happened if he died or survived in this case.
Really put emphasis on magical nuts planted by an old wizard.
Series of mishaps for Cinder before getting the right nuts.
Explain how the tree came about.
How odd I never even considered a honey trap just seems strange and unfitting to this story. Okay, that foot scene is insanely drastic and gross just to fit a shoe, just to be queen.
2. Beauty and the Beast: It kind of seemed like the father did the most un-father-like and coward thing by sacrificing his daughter to the Beast. What if he sends the oldest daughters, but the beasts find fault in them. Then in a desperate attempt to save sweet Bella he sacrifices himself (other daughters were selfish and etc).
What if the Beast didn't change back?
What if Bella never said "I love you"?
A story of what ifs. Basically, what could have happened.
3. The Language of Animals: There are a lot of similarities to Snow White.
Draw more connections together from Snow White.
The huntsman is actually a woman. They fall in love until she is killed by his father.
Jack dies of heartbreak.
4. A Dozen at a Bow: What odd scenes and even a little gruesome at some points. At the same time its a really amusing story and funny. It just causes all sorts of mixed emotions. The wife goes from wanting to kill him to being proud of him in two sentences. Bring me drawn out story any day!
5. The Earl of Cattenborough: Awe, what a cute story. I really think I could play with the idea of the cat being part of a royal court at one time, only he was dismissed from his position. in an attempt to gain status again. He tries to make Jack an Earl.
Make cat male.
Bent on status not the well being of Jack.
Europa's Fairy Book by Joseph Jacobs and illustrated by John Batten (1916)Europa's Fairy Book
Please
tell me why mother would make it so cold?
I feel it in my toes, they are like icicles hanging from the ledge above me.
I
feel it in my fingers that are as cold as the wind that blew through my hair. I
didn’t know what I did so wrong at home, to deserve this. I tried to sell those
matches, I really tried. All those people with their nice warm coats, all those
ladies with crocheted hats, they look so warm as warm as a log fire.
Here
I’m dressed in burlap, a tattered apron and no shoes on my tingling toes. So,
sad to think that these little matches in my basket would have saved me from
the bruises on my cheek and the lashes on my back. Most of all it would have
saved me from, being tossed out like the trash. Why do I have those matches you
may ask? In my terror, I grabbed what I could and the only thing I managed to
grab before the slap on the face was my basket.
It’s
been hours now, I have yet to warm myself, I rub parts of my body to attempt to
be warm and even lit all my matches. Nothing is helping, I will die here. I
have no doubt. My eyes drifted and I felt so tired. I began to see images as
vivid as the night my mother locked me in the closet. What a memory to end my
days with, that’s a memory I never wish to resurface ever again.
Winter
1863-Lonely Old Woman.
Brr,
that’s all I wanted to do that cold winter day. I had bundled myself as much as
I could, my bread basket filled with warm bread. It was selling like it had
never sold before. I had made enough money that Winter to survive for many
years afterwards. I was as blessed as ever, I had a drafty home, but a warm
fire. I had books to pass my days in the Winter and I had stored apples from
the fall to make as many apple pies as my stomach could hold. It was, it is a
simple life, but it was lonely.
I
had dwindled away my younger years, in search of something far more than what I
was capable of. I sought out dispassionate men and was faced with many unsavory
characters, but throughout that I had a mother and father who was wonderful.
Showered me with love and
encouragement, wished nothing but the best for
me. Sadly, they had died in a carriage accident
when I was only seventeen. I was unmarried, but courting a man they never
really cared for. He spent his days in pubs, squandering his measly earnings
and at night he would visit the local whore house for what I was unwillingly to
give. It was with these moments that I found that I was stronger on my own and
with courage and the poverty I knew I would face I denied his proposal of
marriage.
It
was the best decision I could have made at the time, even now I would have
rather been poor than the wife of a scoundrel.
This
Winter was no different as the others, I only sold more bread. I wandered the
streets in search of throwaways. It has always amazed me what the wealthy would
toss. I found chairs with broken legs that I fixed by carving wood myself. I
found clothing and shoe with holes, that all they needed was a steady hand to
sew. It's amazing how much you learn when you only fend for yourself.
It
was unexpected to find the poor thing that would change my life that night. She
was bruised and blue, her baby toes curling and turning a black. The poor thing
tried to warm herself as I took off one of my extra shawls and wrapped her as
good as I could, placing her body against my breast. I walked the miles to my
home, hoping and praying to my god she would last till I got her under my
quilted covers.
Old
Woman: I bundled her up so, and found some hose to put on her feet, managed to
cover her fingers with over-sized gloves. I made her potato soup and a hot tea.
Little
Match Seller: She took care of me that day and it was the first time I felt
love. I was lucky she found me and just as lucky my mother didn’t care to. The first
moment I woke up and saw her face I knew I was home. She was my real mom, not
the one who birthed me and left me to die.
Old
Woman: It is with her awakening that I knew that I would never be unloved,
lonely and that the wished of my own parents so long ago has at last come true.
Little
Match Seller/Old Woman:At last we were home.
Author's Note:
This was one of my favorite stories I read this week and it was also one of the saddest. I changed only minor things and I hate to give spoilers, but I feel like I must so you understand the changes I did make. First of all, I made it to where on the brink of death the Little Match Seller survived the cold and I highlighted her abuse in a way to really pay respects to abuse victims. The lonely old woman and her entire backstory is of my own creation. I thought a kind woman, the exact opposite of the Little Match Seller's own mother would showcase that there is still good people in this world. Since the Little Match Seller did not die I felt no need to revisit her visions, but instead I focused on the feelings and recollection of her past. Most of all, I wanted a happy ending for the young girl because the story just broke my heart.
Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872).
I drew inspiration from LHOP (I grew up with this show!) I see the Match Seller as Caroline Ingalls in the future. All because an old woman took kindness on her. I think this video showcases how different the Little Match Sellers future will now be. I hope it makes sense.
1. The Little Mermaid: Give different descriptions of what the mermaids saw.
Instead of them seeing beautiful things they each saw bad things, that the report back to t
he Little Mermaid.When the youngest mermaid finally goes to the surface herself she doesn't see the bad, but all the good. That is when she vows to be a "land dweller".
Basically, a story that showcases what causes the Little Mermaid to be desperate to live on dry land.
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I like the idea of fusing the sea creature from The Odyssey be the same thing that causes the ship to sink in this story. I think it would connect to seemingly different stories together, kind of give it a crossover appeal. In my version of this story the prince does not survive and the Little Mermaid defeats the creature, with her
Side Note: The story is really difficult to read. It also had the tendency to make me way more tired/drowsy than I actually was.
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Siren mermaid luring men to their death.
Accidentally kills princes that she loves.
Sings a song to many sailors on the ship as the prince is in the chambers. The sailors are poaching sea creatures, wanting no part of it the prince retires to his chambers. The Little Mermaid didn't know this and punishes the sailors. In turn, killing the prince.
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Side Note (SPOILER): I never expected the cutting out of the Little Mermaids tongue. Seems like a darker story than the white-washed Disney movie.
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The evil sea witch becomes human as a punishment for cutting out
the Little Mermaids tongue. After what she had done the sea witch was banished to live on land as an old, ugly human. There she also becomes a bad witch, plotting and trying to kill the Little Mermaid.
Come up with spells for the sea witch.
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Side Note (SPOILER): I really hated the fact that the prince kept calling the Little Mermaid dumb. It bothered me because if a person doesn't know how to sing and cannot speak doesn't necessarily make the ignorant. I think this part in the story really shows the time period, in which, it was written.
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Side Note (SPOILER): I'm not really sure what to think about the
ending its pretty, yet whimsical way to end the Little Mermaids story. Yet it was a HUGE disappointment because she sacrificed so much, gave so much for the prince and she couldn't even win him.
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Technically the Little Mermaid did save the prince, but her lack of voicing this condemns her. Making a story where she wins the prince and etc. is the ending this story deserves. Disney knew that and therefore gave and worth ending to the Little Mermaid. I would like to do the same.
Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872).
