Week 8 Reading and Writing

I have been really enjoying the reading assignments so far. Other than this class, I am only taking STEM classes, so it is a nice break to read stories. Now that the weather has cooled down, I've been sitting outside to do the reading, so I usually look forward to it and it doesn't feel like an assignment.

My favorite readings so far have been "Cupid and Psyche" and the Japanese mythology unit. I liked Cupid and Psyche because it's an interesting story with a fun plot, and it created beautiful and unique mental pictures for me. Also, a couple years ago I read Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis, so I enjoyed comparing this story to Lewis's retelling. I enjoyed the Japanese mythology unit because I thought it was beautifully written. I especially loved the first story in the unit, "Izanagi and Izanami," because it describes the creation of the world so artistically and lyrically. It illustrates the birth of the world and all the gods and goddesses by two flowers shooting upwards and downwards, which I just love.

My reading notes have been pretty helpful. I think the act of writing them helps more than the actual notes themselves, because I don't rely on them very heavily while writing the story each week. I use them as sort of a brain-storming session, where I write a sentence or two about aspects of the story that interested me. Later, when I plan the story, I look back and choose one or two aspects that I want to expand on in my story. I think this system has been working pretty well, because it gives me a reminder of what struck me while I read, which gives me a starting place for my retelling.

It has been surprisingly nice to practice writing, since I haven't written anything nonfictional since I was a kid. I especially enjoyed writing the poem that I wrote for the Jataka unit, because I hadn't even attempted to write a poem of any sort since childhood. The writing feels like work more than the reading does, which I think is because I usually am not forced to be creative, and I have a harder time grinding through work when it requires creativity. Once I have an idea for the story and am in the act of writing it, though, it can be quite fun!

I think that the writing aspect of this class is where I need to look forward the most. It would be more enjoyable if I wasn't always writing the story Thursday night, up against the deadline. One recent week, I wrote the story Thursday morning, which worked well for me because I had a chance to look it over one more time in the evening and then turn it in with no stress. It would be even better if I could do the story on Wednesday, especially since my Wednesdays are much less busy than my Thursdays anyway. I think if I set aside an hour on Wednesday to work on the story, I would have an even more positive experience with my stories.

I am very happy with my project so far. I'm really interested in selkie stories, and I think they're very beautiful. My Storybook has a plan that I like, so I don't feel stressed about continuing with the project.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, woodblock print by Hokusai.

Source: Wikipedia.

This is one of my favorite images that I've used because of the sheer beauty of it. I love the muted colors (they remind me of a rainy day) and the "claws" of the waves. I think it illustrates the beauty that I saw in the Japenese mythologies that I read last week.