Week 2: Famous Last Words

This week has been a productive week for me. I feel like I have begun to get that hang of this blogging thing. I can see why some people like to do it so much. It is a nice way to just throw what you are thinking down on the "screen" so to speak. When I first started blogging for this class, I was a bit anxious as to what I should put down, and it would be hard for me to think of the "right" thing to say. Now that we have finished week two I feel like I am starting to catch my stride.

My best writing of this week has to be my story bout the Tower of Babel. I like how I put the perspective of the story in the hands of a person who lived in the city and saw first hand the atrocities that bred there. I feel like I can definitely polish this style of writing more. I always have my two roommates read my posts, so they can catch any proofreading mistakes I wasn't able to find. I feel like this helps round out my writing.

(Buddha with Rahula: Wikipedia)

I am a server at Cheddar's Casual Cafe. I was at work the other day and started a discussion with one of my coworkers about this class. I was talking about The Legend of Noah unit that I read for this week. We eventually started talking about a book that she had just finished reading about Buddha. I am looking to forward to reading the Jatakas and the life of Prince Siddhartha. My brother has also said good things about Buddhist fairy tales in general. Many of them have good themes intertwined in the stories that they pass down.

This next week I have decided to read the Jewish Fairy Tales instead of Saints and Animals. I chose this because it matches with the Legend of Noah reading I did this week. I enjoyed this reading a lot and figured that I should do the reading that matched the Legend of Noah.

Essay Week 2: The Legend of Noah

Thee very beginning of this unit, which is composed of readings from King James' Bible, I find to be lacking in detail. You only get a brief explanation of the stories and life of Noah. As I was listening to the Librivox audio recordings of the Genesis, which were a wonderful way to read/listen to the unit, I found myself questioning some of the details of the stories. 

One in particular that I questioned was in the Noah: Noah's Sons (Genesis)  reading. Near the end of the reading, Noah gets drunk of some wine and ends up passing out naked. According to the reading "Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without." When Noah awoke he cursed Hem's son Canaan. When I read this I thought to myself, "A. What could Hem have done to cause Noah to curse his son and B. Why is Canaan being cursed for something that Hem did." I was glad to learn, from the Legends of the Jews section of the unit, that Noah couldn't curse Hem because God blessed Noah's family as they left the ark.

(Drunkenness of Noah, Carlos Saraceni: Wikimedia)

My favorite stories from the entire unit would have to be, The Punishment of the Fallen Angels and The Generation of the Deluge. I enjoyed these stories because it talked about the evils of the world before God decided to create the flood. I hadn't known that there were giants and other creatures creating a world of chaos and destruction besides just mankind. These readings also talk about how easy mankind's life was before the flood. "The wantonness of this generation was in measure due to the ideal conditions under which mankind lived before the flood. They knew neither toil nor care, and as a consequence of their extraordinary prosperity they grew insolent." It was hard for me to believe that there was a time that mankind had it so easy. To think that children were born "after a few day's pregnancy" is ludicrous thought.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this unit. My eyes were opened to many different aspects that I had not known in regards to the story of Noah. My only complaints are the lack of details in the Genesis versions compared to that of The Legend of the Jews versions. I am a bit curious as to why  The Legend of the Jews version is so much more detailed, considering they both are different religions. 

Storytelling for Week 2: The Tower to Heaven

Long ago, after the flood that had cleansed the world of all evil, mankind began rebuilding itself. Mankind's first major accomplishment was a great and wonderful city called Nimrod.

When the city was new and small, the citizens still had the images of the devastating flood fresh in their minds. Those memories had made the people God fearing and they followed his teachings.

As the years went on, Nimrod continue to grow in size to the point that there were over half a million people who occupied the city. As the city expanded, so to did the thoughtlessness and evil within the people's hearts.  Eventually, the people of Nimrod cast aside the ways of God and decided to build a tower to the heavens. Their idea was that they could reach heaven and wage a war against God and his angels. In winning the war mankind would garner knowledge and immortality.

For decades the people of Nimrod worked on the tower. "So intent were they upon accomplishing their purpose that they would not permit a women to interrupt herself in her work of brick-making." The higher the tower got, the longer it took to bring bricks up to the top.

(Tower of Babel: Wikipedia)

As these people toiled endlessly on their tower, there were only a few families who still believed in the word of God. These families were forced to worship in secret and were only able to do it once or twice a week. There was a small boy named Hazel, who was a descendant of Noah through Shem. He had heard of all the atrocities the people of Nimrod were planning to do upon the towers completion. Hazel risked his life each and every day to worship God. He prayed each day to God about the horror and suffering the people were inflicting upon each other.

As time continued, Hazel sprouted into a strong young man. Unfortunately, Nimrod had started forcing every able-bodied man to work on the tower due mounting deaths, and thus, a diminished work force, which led to Hazel slaving away. When he showed up for his first day of work he was tasked with the grueling job of carrying the bricks up the tower. This wouldn't be such a terrible job, except for the fact that it took around a year for each trip up the tower.

Hazel's first three trips up the tower, totaled six years. However, each time that he reached the top, Hazel would kneel down and pause for thirty seconds. When he did this, he would say a small prayer letting God know of the treason that these men were prepared to do. He would also ask God for the strength to continue his trips.

After reaching the bottom of the tower on his third trip, he learned of his mother's death. Not only did sadness envelope him, but anger burst forth, as well.  In his rage he quickly grabbed the next sack of bricks and began his ascension. With each step up his thoughts of betrayal from God grew fiercer. For the first time of all of his trips he did not pause to pray at the top of of the tower.

After discarding his load he began his climb down. As he descended he heard a soothing voice in his head that froze him in place.

"Why did you not pause to pray?" God asked.

In his mind Hazel replied, "I have prayed to you each time I have reached the top of this tower, have I not?"

"You have, indeed." God answered.

"My family has been loyal to you my entire life, and yet my mother dies before her time..." he said back.

God spoke slowly and softly in his response, "Do not worry, my son. Your mother will be rewarded for her loyalty to me, as will you, come time. Everyone has their day, and I am aware of the situation at hand."

Hazel shrugged those words off as he continued climbing down the tower; trying not to think about the death of his mother. He didn't slow down until a couple hours later and dusk had begun to creep in. Days came and went as he continued his long trip down the tower.

When he was almost all of the way down the tower a strange storm raged for a day over the tower. Hazel looked towards the top of the tower and could see an aggressive fire, causing bricks to fall. As he reached the bottom he saw a massive battle between monstrous creatures and men. Thinking of the rest of his family, he began to weave through the city seeing man attack man. Hazel noticed that he could not understand what these people were yelling. God had confounded the peoples language, twisting their tongues into foreign shapes.

Once he reached his house he found only an old man siting in the middle of the floor. The old man told him that he was waiting for him to come. Visibly worried, the elderly man informed Hazel that those families that were loyal like his own were told by an angel to leave the city. The old man instructed Hazel to leave the city and that he would find his family in field not far from the edge of the city.

As Hazel left the city he looked back at all the destruction taking place. At that moment he paused for thirty seconds and thanked God for his family's salvation.

Authors Note: This story is based off of Noah: The Tower of Babel from the book The Legends of the Jews. I decided that I wanted to put forth a perspective of someone from inside the city. I couldn't believe that everyone in the city of Nimrod had given in to evil ambitions. I like to think that I am a glasses half full kind of person. The major story line is the same from the original story, I just added the part of Hazel and his experiences. I didn't a great amount of detail about the different things that God did to the bad people of Nimrod. God punished them based off of the different things that they wanted to do whenever they reached the heavens. Some got changed into apes/phantoms, some were pitted against each other in combat, and some were scattered across the earth. Gold als

Bibliography:

Book: The Legends of the Jews
Author: Rabbi Louis Ginzberg
Year Published: 1909
Web Source: Mythology and Folklore Un-Textbook: Noah: The Tower of Babel

Week 2: Reading Diary - The Legends of Noah

Here are my thoughts on the Legends of Noah

The Ark (Genesis): This story discusses how God began to see the wickedness in man. It is here that he declares his plan to destroy all living things of sin. I did not know that Noah took his entire family including his sons wives.

The Flood (Genesis): As God continues with his plan, he begins to brief Noah. Another fact about the Noah stories that I didn't know was how old Noah actually. I'm guessing that the difference between the sons of God and men were their life spans. Once the rain, that came down from the heavens, starts and lasts for 40 long days.

After the Flood (Genesis): I was surprised to find out that the reference of the dove and the olive branch that is so often used was in this chapter. I think it would be safe to assume that this is one of the original places that it pops up.

Noah: Noah's Sons (Genesis): The beginning of this story seems to be a spoken contract with God and Noah. God says that he will no more destroy all of the living things on the earth through a flood. I was unsure of what the last part of the story was trying to convey. In Noah's drunken state his son's cover him up since he is nude. This would seem like a good act, however, when Noah awakens it seems that he is condemning Canaan, Ham's son. I am particularly confused as to why this is.

The Tower of Babel (Genesis): This was by far the most boring story of this unit. It is basically an account of all of Noah's son's and grandson's. At the end, it seems that God restrains the ability of all of Noah's kin by "confounding" their speech. So God scattered them abroad making the world a more diverse place.

The Birth of Noah: This was a very enlightening story for me. From my understanding Noah was just a regular guy chosen by God to build this ark. From this account though he did much more than that. His birth caused the cows to obey the plowman and he also invented the plow and the scythe so man would no longer have to use their bare hands. I also found it interesting that Noah was in sorts a secret named that only his grandfather called him.

The Punishment of the Fallen Angels: This was a very interesting story. It accounts for all the reasons that God uses to make his decision on creating a flood to kill everything on the earth. It goes to show how full of sin mankind is that even they can corrupt angels. It reminds me a lot of the movie The Dark Night Rises. The main reason that the Joker does what he does is in order to corrupt Batman.

The Generation of the Deluge: This story including The Punishment of the Fallen Angels gives a really good account to all the sins that had befallen the world before the flood. God in his everlasting patience allowed Noah to preach to mankind about how they should change their ways. With the story ending with the death of Methuselah it seems that the flood is about to begin.

Noah: The Holy Book: It was a nice reprieve to find a story that wasn't all about Noah.  I was wondering where the knowledge came to Noah in order to build the ark. Coming from a mechanical engineer mindset I thought that it would have been extremely difficult to design and build an ark that accounted for thousands of different animals and would still float. The weight of that ark must have been an egregious amount.

Noah Leaves the Ark: I find Noah's reluctance to leave the ark very peculiar. Before the flood he spoke to those who were begging him to let them on with such conviction about god, and afterwards he is on the fence about it all. And such the seven Noachian Laws were produced as well. Not to be confused with the seven deadly sins.

The Curse of Drunkenness: I am glad that there was a second recount of the story when Noah gets drunk off of wine. The first story didn't give much detail as to why Noah curses Ham's son Canaan. In this one it explains how Ham had spoke ill of his father as well as preventing Noah from bearing another child. Since Ham was blessed when he left the ark Noah could not put a curse on Ham himself. It was good to find that clarification.

The Depravity of Mankind: It goes to show that mankind cannot help themselves but sin. This story has similarities to the 12 apostles. I don't know if those are the same people or not. You also see the first "miracle" of God when he saves Abraham for always staying true to God.

The Tower of Babel: This is probably my favorite story of the reading. I have really not known anything surrounding the story other than just knowing its name and that it was a tower to heaven. I didn't realize that this was a thing that mankind was building wreak havoc on heaven itself. I thought that they would use it to gain more knowledge of heaven and its surroundings. Sadly, that was not the case.

Week 1: Introduction

Hi, my name is Seth Strout.

I am a senior here at the University of Oklahoma. I have lived in Norman, Oklahoma the entire twenty-three years I have been on this earth. It is strange compared with people who moved here to go to OU. Soccer has been a passion for me my entire life. I have been playing since I was five years old and have loved every second of it. I have collected many different team scarves that I use for decorations in my bedroom. I am a big fan of the new semi-pro team located in Oklahoma City known as FC Energy.

(FC Energy Crest: Wikipedia)

One thing many people don't know about me is that I have a fraternal twin named Alex. He is about five inches taller than me so unlike identical twins it is relatively easy to tell the two of us apart. My family also has a dog named Nathan (I do know it is weird that he has a human name) who is the biggest teddy bear, however, he will let you know where his territory is and if you are allowed to be there.

I am currently majoring in mechanical engineering and am loving it. I initially started as an engineering physics major and found it too individualized. I thrive much better in a social atmosphere than a solitary one. This semester will be my last semester here at OU, it has been a long and arduous journey but has taught me so much. I am very excited to see what new opportunities I will have when I graduate. I hope to travel around the country for a little while to get a good feel of what kind of cities that I can see myself settling down in.

I am really excited about this class because I have never experienced blogging before. I think it will be an interesting experience and will help me hone my story telling skills.

Week 1: Storybook Favorites

The first story book that I looked at was I Am Not my Borther's Sister: A Changelings Journey. This one caught my eye because I have heard of changelings before, however, I know very little about them. The real reason I read the whole thing was how gripping the introduction. As soon as I started reading it I felt hooked like a fish on a line. The author immediately makes you sympathize for the person's whose point of view you are reading from. The only complaint I have for this story book is inability to go back to the home page. Unlike most of the other storybooks, the navigation for the storybook is found at the bottom of each story. It is as if you are turning a digital page to get to each new story. Where as the other story books, the navigation is always located in the upper left section of the page, and there is no real suggestion of order except to go from top to bottom.

The second story book that I looked at was Native American Tricksters. I chose this because of my interest of tricksters/riddlers in the story telling world. The introduction is extremely upbeat which gets you psyched up for the "trip" that the coyote takes you on. Sometimes it is struggle to read because of grammatical errors but those can be fixed easily. I do like how he changes up some of the story to make it feel less malicious and more trickish.

The last story book that I read was The Last of the Seapeople, and I have to say that the artwork that the author used was absolutely stunning. There is a ton of imagery in this story book that really paints the picture of what a merman is and where the setting is. The depth of the stories included in the book are deeply thought out which I really enjoy.

Week 1: Exploring the Un-Textbook

As there were 100 different options it was difficult to whittle it down to just a few ones that I am interested in. So here is my list of units that I am quite curious about.

Week 2-3: As a kid, my parents never really pushed me to go to church or to tead the bible. As I have gotten older, I have started wanting to become more knowledgeable on things like the Legend of Noah, as well as the backgrounds on the lives of the many different Saints (Saints and Animals).

Week 4-5: I have always been and always will be a fan or riddles. One of my favorite beers is called Lionshead, mainly because underneath the bottle caps they have picture riddles for you to solve. That is why I would definitely like to read the Twenty-Two Goblins units. Similar to the idea of being more knowledgeable on bible subjects I would also like to be more versed in the life and teachings of Buddha. I am not sure which of the Jatakas I would like to read more at this point.

Week 6-7: To continue on the interest of riddles I would choose both the West African Folktales and the South African Stories. The idea of a trickster and the lessons one learns from dealing with those kinds make me curious to read them.

Week 8-9: I would also like to look at the Native American units. I am currently living with an old friend who is a full Kiowa who has all kinds of stories passed down through his family. I also took the introduction to Native Peoples of North America and was fascinated by their culture, which actually led me to purchase a couple of Navajo sand paintings. With that being said, for the first week I would choose the California-SW (Judson) unit since it has some Navajo stories. As for the second week I feel like I would enjoy any of the remaining units and have no earthly idea what I would choose.

Week 10-11: One of my favorite childhood movies is the animated version of Robin Hood. So I would definitely choose the Robin Hood Ballads. As for the second week, it is similar to that of week 8 and 9. I know a brief history/familiarity with the English Fairy Tales so choosing between the Looking-Glass, Alice in Wonderland, English Fairy Tales, and More English Fairy Tales will be a difficult decision.

Week 12-13: I am very interested in all of the Brothers Grimm units. I have heard about these quite often, since most of the well known stories of my childhood are based off of these writings, I am curious to see what is different between the modern day versions and the actual stories. Choosing just two of the four Grimm units will not be easy for me thought.

Week 1 Storytelling: Simon's Simple Search

There once was a homeless man named Simon. He would frequent the main road through the town, meeting and greeting all who strolled through. One day there was a fair that held many excitements for the whole town to see.

Tall people, short people, big people, small people, Simon had never seen this many people come to his town. He said welcome to each one of them with open arms and a warm smile on his face. After saying hello, welcome, greetings, good day and every other known way to greet a person Simon hadn't realized how late the day became. As one of the last people were walking up to the town Simon's stomach startled to rumble with complaints of not having anything in it.

When that person finally reached a close distant, Simon could instantly smell what the man was carrying in his full rucksack. "PIE....." Simon thought to himself as a wry grin came upon his face. He quickly greeted the man in the most courteous way he could think of. Immediately afterward he inquired about the pie in the man's bag. "Is that pie for the fair? If so, I would surely like to taste your ware."

(Simon meeting the pie maker: Wikipedia)

(Delicious Pie)

The man responded, "Indeed it is, however, I need to see some penny." With that Simon's smile quickly faded as he was homeless and could not produce any... Simon thought quick and hard about how he could get some pie.

He though and thought, and then thought some more...Then an idea came to him quick, and he asked the pie man if he would trade for whale on a stick. So Simon went fishing hoping for a whale, until he realized "all the water he got was in his [own] pale"

Author's Note:

This nursery rhyme reminded me a lot of the homeless Chinese man that roams Norman. I have never actually met him but hear he is a very kindhearted man from many different people. I like to think that he is the Norman town greeter of sorts.

Bibliography:

Book: The Nursery Rhyme Book
Author: Unkown
Editor: Andrew Lang
Illustrator: L. Leslie Brooke
Year Published: 2008
Web Source: The Gutenberg Project

Blogger Templates Tech Tip

The blog template that I have changed to is under the watermark category. It consists of a soothing brown that almost looks like old canvas paper. It also has a flock of birds flying in the upper right corner. The reason I like this template so much is because it has such a strong vintage feel to it. Considering that I am in the class Mythology and Folklore some of the stories that we will be reading and discussing were probably written on stuff like canvas paper or other "worn" paper. It just puts me in the mood to read things!

Week1: My Favorite Places

I thought about my favorite places and was able to chisel it down to two places.

Norman, Oklahoma

I have lived in Norman for my entire life and loved every minute of it. From the busy fall and spring semesters to the slow summers, any individual can find a place to be accepted. It is a town full of wonderful and kind people who are always dedicated to the Oklahoma football tradition. I couldn't resist not saying BOOMER SOONER!

(Welcome sign on Main St.: Wikipedia)

(Oklahoma Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium: Wikimedia Commons)

Karlsruhe, Germany

Karlsruhe has a special place in my heart because of the family I have that live there. Two summers ago I spent a week there learning about the city and celebrating my great aunt's birthday. They made 12 different cakes from scratch. There was so much sugar I didn't know what to do with myself. One of the most beautiful sights I have seen is the Karlsruhe castle at night. The lights surrounding the castle make it a stunning sight to see and walk around.

(Karlsruhe Castle: Wikipedia)

First Post

This is my first blog post.