Native American Stories from the Northwest: Styles Brainstorm

Topic. I want to do my storybook on Native American tribes from the northwest. I was thinking of doing four stories on four different tribes from the region. One story I would like to incorporate and draw inspiration from in The Youthful Warrior, which comes from the Tlingit tribe. I like the story from the Coos tribe called The Ascent to Heaven and I am intrigued by the Chinook myth called Raven and Gull. Lastly, I want to use a cradle song from the Haida tribe called Qa'gials qê'gawa-i because when I was working at camp in British Columbia this past summer one of the cabins was named Haida.

Bibliography. The stories I used were all found on the Internet Sacred Texts Archive.
1. Haida Songs, John R. Swanton, 1912.
2. Chinook Texts, Franz Boas, 1894.
3. Tlingit Myths and Texts, John R. Swanton, 1909.
4. Coos Texts, Leo J. Frachtenberg, 1913.


Possible Stylezzzzzz:

Modern Scenario. I think it could be funny to have a story where Native Americans or even one by himself/herself are waiting in line to get the new Iphone on release day. Or maybe a character would be going on a cruise for vacation. I like the idea because I think it would create a rather funny visual for the reader when they are imagining the story in their heads. It could be a story where a Native American rides his horse into a downtown setting because he was chosen for jury duty and gets a ticket for "parking illegally". I think I would like to involve some sort of time travel for the characters so that they are feeling very disoriented in the future.

Love Story. I think it would be cool to do a Native American love story and have it not be very traditional. Maybe it could show how we have created marriage into this extravagant "looks at us" moment instead of celebrating the commitment both are making. Or maybe it could be a story that shows the birth of marriages that are focused on the wrong thing. It could also be just a good love story about two characters that meet and above all odds find a way to be together and find peace together.

Vancouver Island
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Trees as the storytellers. The trees in the northwest are so enormous and beautiful and they were one of my favorite parts about visiting up there. I think it is always fun to make things that can't talk normally suddenly come to life. I think the trees would be like old men with lots of wisdom that could be lending knowledge to squirrels or a bird of some sort that was much younger in years. It could be a story about a mentor and his apprentice perhaps. Maybe it could be about a boy who climbs the tree only to find out that the tree can talk and the story shares there experience.

Campfire talk. I think the best conversations occur while circled around a bonfire. This could be a story style that involves a group of Native Americans sitting around the fire and then one goes into a story about a hero or villain or something along those lines. I also thought that maybe whenever a tribe makes a bonfire they are able to speak to the fire and that was how they knew where their enemies were. The fire spirit could transport to any source of bonfire and hear what was going on around it and see who was there.

Chief Anotklosh of the Taku Tribe of the Tlingit people.
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Chief Anotklosh of the Taku Tribe of the Tlingit people

Storytelling for Week 3: Unfortunate Events in Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a nice neighborhood to live in, especially for men and women living in their twenties. This part of London has a certain vibe that gives the people who live their the feeling of excitement and youthfulness.

Piccadilly Circus
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James was 26 and from Manchester originally. He moved to the big city because he got a high profile job working for Google. His flat in Piccadilly Circus was beautiful and considered to be worth a fortune. He liked living in London because, with it, came a sense of accomplishment and success. He liked to think his parents were very proud of him and that he was setting a good example for his younger siblings. James drove a luxury car that was built for pure speed. It was extremely expensive and rather poorly suited for the city but he didn't care, he had it so people would look at him. He came from a family of money and was taught about the finer things in life and believed he was of a superior breed of man.

Emma was 25 and although she was in her mid-twenties she radiated youthful joy. She was originally from Vermont and had moved to the London in order to pursue her dream of working at the Museum of Natural History. She loved history and getting lost in stories from times long ago. She felt like it was the closest thing to time travel and when she visited London her senior year in college she knew she wanted to work at her favorite museum. Her grandmother had recently passed away and left her apartment in Piccadilly Circus to her so it seemed like fate brought her to the city in a way. It took her a while to figure out the subway system and get used to the city but now she felt almost like a local. 

Museum of Natural History, London
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What James and Emma didn't realize was that they were almost perfect for each other.

Emma first saw James when she was walking home from the subway and he was in his car stopped at a red light. Her gaze was drawn to him by some subconscious force. She saw the man in the car looking at the mirror. She thought maybe he was looking to see if he had something in his teeth. Regardless of what he was doing he was beautiful. She was hoping he would notice her but instead he drove off without glancing her way. The next week she saw him again at the cafe near he apartment. She sat down after getting her coffee and noticed him sitting with a friend right in front of her. They were close enough to where she could overhear his conversation with his friend about the recent bonus he had got from redesigning something, she didn't understand all the vocabulary he was using. Once again she was hoping he would notice her but he ended up leaving without breaking his conversation with his friend. The last time Emma saw James was actually when she was walking to the market on a Sunday afternoon. James was crossing the street when he accidentally stepped into a large puddle. It was the kind of puddle where your whole foot is wet up to the top of your ankle. It happened right beside Emma and she couldn't help but smile and laugh a little. James however did not laugh. Instead he scowled at her and told her his shoes were Italian leather and that she probably couldn't imagine how expensive they were. He scoffed off in a hustle before Emma could react.

From that day forward when Emma saw James she made an effort to avoid him at all costs. In fact, they did not ever come in contact with each other again. 

If only they had known what they could have been thought Cassandra sitting on the bench in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. 

Cassandra
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Author's Note:

This was inspired by the story in Ovid's Metamorphoses called Narcissus. Being narcissistic means being absorbed with yourself. In a way a narcissist is constantly consumed with themselves and experiences life solely from their own point of view. In the story about Narcissus he is consumed with himself and his own image that he first notices in the reflection off of water in a pond. He actually falls in love with himself and longs for the image he sees in the mirror. Cassandra is a greek god that was able to see the future that I looked up in order to go along with the story. She is not part of the story Narcissus but she would be someone of the same genre of character.
For some reason I wanted to make this story seem somewhat realistic rather than purely mythological. I have noticed that I have began to write stories like that or at least think like that. A couple summers ago I went to London and saw Piccadilly Circus and the Museum of Natural history and enjoyed them very much. I also really like history and thought it would be interesting to work in a museum where you could learn about a lot of different things. I think in today's day and age it is more often that you run into people that are consumed with themselves and it makes me bummed out. It is very hard to have a conversation with them or have a  friendship, which makes me sad because they don't know what they are missing. Relationships with people are the best thing in life and I think by being narcissistic you aren't able to have a true relationship with someone because you are too distracted by your own self.
I chose the images to hopefully help set the scene for the reader and give them and idea of what it might look like. I really like the picture I chose to depict Cassandra sitting and watching the whole story unfold. I wanted her to come off as the old wise lady that was watching the scene in life she had already seen before.

Bibliography:

Narcissus, Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline, 2000.

Week 3 Reading Diary Continued: Ovid's Metamorphoses

Below are some more notes and random thoughts on Ovid's Metamorphoses.

First off, the art in this section is incredible. How did someone paint this??

This is ridiculous.
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When I was reading the story about Echo I kept thinking about how interesting an echo is and how writers use it differently. Reading how something echoes into eternity kind of gives this erie feeling to the reader. It has way more of an impact than saying something survived throughout eternity. There is something spooky about an echo and it makes me want to incorporate an echo in one of my stories if possible. 

Reading the story about Narcissus makes me think about arrogant people and how it is never fun to have a conversation with them. When I do run into those conversations they always remind me not to lecture people or talk the whole time in a conversation. It reminds me to be a good listener and to ask questions to get the other person talking. In cases when I do that poorly I will leave the conversation thinking I should have asked more about them because I really do want to get to know people. I think it is way more fulfilling to learn about someone else than educate someone about myself. I think it has taken me time to realize that though. Maybe I can incorporate a similar moral involving listening and narcism in a story.

Week 3 Reading Diary: Ovid's Metamorphoses

There are some stories within this story it seems like and the first one of Lo was rather weird. Basically a God raped a Lo when she was a virgin. When she tried to get away he made fog and snatched her out of the sky and raped her. That is how it ended. Abrupt to say the least. It is surprising to see the Gods lie to one another and be so deceitful. Makes me wonder why ancient Greeks put them on such a pedestal.

A picture from the stories of Lo
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Another surprising moment came when Jupiter is scanning the walls of heaven to see if the fire has done them any damage. I wouldn't think there would be fire in heaven or that heaven could be tarnished in any way. The Greek mythology seems to generate a scene of heaven that is not so different from earth. It makes me want to write a story where I incorporate what I think might be characteristics of heaven.

There is another rape scene in the story and it just makes me feel weird and almost upset. I think it makes me upset because it seem thrown into the story in such a casual way. Almost as if it is saying that it isn't a big deal and that it is commonplace.

It is surprising to me to notice so much jealously involved in the relationships of the gods of Greek mythology. There is always a lot of drama going on and honestly it is kind of irritating. Almost like watching some bad reality TV show. I did find this picture below to be really incredible though.

The amount of detail is astounding
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