Week 9 Story: Anansi Being Messy & A Tiger.
Story One:
Anansi was a skilled farmer, but also selfish and greedy. Not wanting to share the harvest with his family, he suggested they go home for three weeks as he had business before they could enjoy their harvest. They agreed, but Anansi lied and stayed to build a hut and ate their harvest. Anansi's son returned to the farm to weed, and found the food dwindling, so Anansi's son set a trap. Anansi was caught after getting stuck to his son's trap, and in his shame transformed into a spider and hid in dark corner so no one could see him.
Author's Note:
The first story I chose is Why Spiders Are Always Found in Corners of Ceilings in West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair. I think it's really cool that the West African unit gives all these aetiological stories as to why certain creatures do things, which is why I decided to write this microfiction because I would've never thought a spider hid out of shame. For my version, I had to leave out the villagers helping Kweku Tsin since it would've gone over the word limit, but overall I think my version gives you all the simple essentials to understand why spiders hide!
- *The honey jar was used to cover fruit and toss them into the princesses' bathing-house, and when one by one they picked them up they revealed the other's name.
- *Anansi asked the King to use his chicken to wake him up in the morning so he wouldn't be late, but instead he killed it, put it into Lizard's house, and poured boiling water into his mouth so he couldn't speak. He then confronted the King and accused Lizard as the perpetrator, and because his mouth was swollen the Lizard could only nod his head.
The last story I chose is Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They Are Provoked in West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair. Like the previous story, this one was also a little difficult to condense down, but I was able to demonstrate the point of the story. In the original, it goes into more detail about their first meeting, living situation, and how Tiger had a cub of his own, but those things I cut down or out completely for the sake of the 100 word limit.
Jaicee, I like the concept of these three stories! These stories are kind of like the Jataka tales that I read about in Indian Mythologies. These are like the short stories where it includes a number of animal characters, as well as gods, and tells a tale that usually involves some kind of human fallacy or explains how certain phenomena happen. My favorite of the three would have to be "Why the Lizard Moves His Head Up and Down." It's very interesting and clever how it was due to the boiling water that would cause the lizard to only nod. However, a question I have about the short story is why did he pour the hot water down? Was that allowed? Why didn't the Lizard just spit out the boiling water? I look forward to reading more from you!
ReplyDeleteHey Long, in the original story Anansi poured boiling water in the Lizard's mouth while he was sleeping! It's one of the details I left out of the story, which now looking back I realize it was important, but that's why the Lizard didn't just spit the water out.
DeleteHi Jaicee!
ReplyDeleteI loved how you decided to write three smaller stories instead of one big story. For me personally, that always keep me more intrigued and interested versus one long story. I thought all of your stories flowed very well and were clear to your readers. I liked how all three of the stories were about animals because I love animals. I think for in the future you could use more transitional words in your stories to make the stories flow a little more. However, overall, I thought you did a great job. I enjoyed reading your stories and thought they were fun stories to read. Great job!
Hey Kylie, I'll definitely keep that in mind! I love writing microfictions, but it's difficult to stay within the word limit sometimes, so that's why they may come off as stiff. But I'll try to add more for future stories, thank you!
DeleteHi Jaicee!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job at condensing these stories down into one hundred word microfictions!
I know that working in such a small frame can be a real challenge. I did it with a story a few weeks back.
I feel you definitely succeeded with them though, since I was able to get the general idea of the story from each one!
Hi Jaicee!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job at mastering the short/mini stories. I know these stories can be a bit confusing and I think you translated them in easier to read forms was perfect! It really challenged you to think critically as to what the most important details were needed to be included. I love writing mini stories too! I love how you chose to write them all about animals too! Overall, great job! Keep up the good work!