Ann's Blog

This is the story providing a reason for why Manx cats don't have tails. According to this story, during the time of Noah's Ark, the Manx cat was out hunting. She dilly-dallied too long and was late to make it on to the ark. She ran back just in time and barely made it, and the ark's door shut closed on her tail. She nearly drowned and lost her tail but she survived. That is why cats hate water and the Manx do not have tails. Link

Foolish Animals, By Jean de La Fontaine.  Translated by W.T. Larned.  I am glad I noticed this author on the list of European works. I am a French major, so I am familiar with some of Fontaine's original work. I googled the original version of this fable, to refresh my memory. Having read the original helps me better appreciate this translation. Larned did a good job of preserving the story content and creating new rhymes in English. I think he is inspiring.  The original poem in French is so much fun to read out loud, and Larned kept that aspect of it. The English version is fun too.  I enjoyed all of the poems but decided to focus on the first one, The Hare and the Tortoise. In the poem the hare challenges the tortoise to a race knowing he will win, however, he plays around too much and the tortoise ends up beating him. The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race.  (Image Information: Tortoise and Hare, Blogspot)

Advice to Writers: Interviews (Image Information: Rick Riordan,  Wikipedia Rick is one of my favorite authors of all time) For this lab, I chose to read three interviews with different writers off of the advice to writers website. I love getting advice from other writers. I find it very encouraging.  The first interview I read was of Mitchel Zuckoff  a professor of journalism and author of two books. My favorite piece of advice from him was "Write Scared.  That is, push yourself beyond what you think is possible or safe, to the outer limits of your research and your ability, to the point where it feels exciting and a little scary. When it works, it’s exhilarating for you and for the reader. " Next I read the interview of Lori Gottlieb , a journalist for The Atlantic. She is also a pyschotherapist. My favorite part of this interview is when she talks about writer's block. " I was like the gambler who kisses her spouse goodbye in the morning and then goes to t...

Bearskin , by The Grimm Brothers (Image Information: Bearskin, Wikipedia ) This classic European story is about a poor soldier who has nothing in life after the war ends who must obey the commands of the devil in order to receive money. The devil tells the soldier he cannot bathe himself for seven years and must always wear the devil's coat but in return, he will always have gold and if he survives the seven years he will be forever rich and free to do as he pleases. He becomes so ugly from never washing that people think he is a monster but he is able to bribe people with gold for a place to sleep and eat. Once, he helps a poor family and in return is promised his choice of the daughters as a wife. Two out of three refuse to marry him because of his looks but the third doesn't mind because she knows he is a good person. He leaves and returns to her after the seven years have passed and they live happily ever after. The moral of the story is don't judge a person by th...

Hansel and Grethel , By Brothers Grimm This classic story is one that probably everyone in this class has heard of before. It's about two children trying to survive and make their way home after being abandoned in the woods. They come across a witch who captures them and tries to cook and eat them, but they trick her and escape after trapping her in her own oven.  There are quite a few popular tv tropes that come from Hansel and Grethel. One of these is the trail of breadcrumbs trope where the characters leave objects behind them as they go on a journey in order to be able to find their way back home in the end. In Hansel and Grethel they leave behind breadcrumbs but this trope can manifest itself in other ways as well.  Some other tropes that appear in/originate from this story are those of the wicked witch, the gingerbread house, and the rule of three. (Image Information: Hansel and Grethel , publicdomainpictures)

(Image Information: Black Cat,  Pixabay ) The King o' the Cats:  By Joseph Jacobs This is the story of King O' the Cats from his perspective. My name is King Tom. I am the King O' the Cats. I have not always been king, however. Once upon a time, I was known merely as Old Tom. This was back in the day when I lived with a human family. My family's name was Marlow. Nights with the Marlow family were usually quite peaceful, and the night I became king started off like all others. It was a calm evening. Mrs. Marlow and I were dozing by the fire, waiting for Mr. Marlow to come home from work. All of a sudden, Mr. Marlow came running in, appearing nervous and agitated. Naps interrupted, Mrs. Marlow and I sat up.  "Why, what is it, my dear?" The Mrs. asked her husband.  "You'll never believe it, but I must tell you! I cannot keep it to myself! I have had the oddest occurrence and I simply don't know what to think." Mrs. Marlow and I look...

The Little Mermaid , by Hans Christian Anderson This classic story varies a lot from its Disney version but remains a great (though admittedly long) bedtime story. The plot is mostly the same as the Disney movie. In this original version, Princess Ariel rescues the prince when his ship wrecks. She becomes obsessed with him and humans. She seeks out a witch to help her become human. The witch tells her it will bring her great pain and suffering, but it is possible.  "Your tail will then disappear and shrink up into what mankind calls legs, and you will feel great pain, as if a sword were passing through you. But all who see you will say that you are the prettiest little human being they ever saw. You will still have the same floating gracefulness of movement, and no dancer will ever tread so lightly, but at every step you take, it will feel as if you were treading upon sharp knives and that the blood must flow. If you will bear all this, I will help you.” (Image Information...

The Little Match-Seller, by Hans Christian Anderson.  (Image Information: Little Match Girl, Blogspot ) This is a tragic tale of a poor child who dies on a cold winter night because she is too scared to go home to her parents because she had not sold any matches. It's a heartbreaking story, which is kind of a talent of Hans Christian Anderson. In this post I will be focusing on the details that make this story so sad, other than the mere premise.  Details: The first description that the reader is given of the girl is "a poor little girl, with a bare head and naked feet." We learn that the little girl originally had a pair of slippers, though they were not her own and much too big for her, but she lost them when running across the street to avoid being hit by carriages. This all paints a pitiful scene that makes the reader's heart ache. The poor child! The author goes on to describe her feet as being naked and red and blue from the cold. These details real...

(Image Information: Old Witch, Maxpixel ) The Old Witch , By Joseph Jacobs. This story is about two sisters from a poor family who encounter a witch and her wealth. One sister is kind and helpful to strangers. These strangers later help her escape and she has a happy ending. The other sister does not help anyone and thus they do not help her escape. The moral of the story is that sometimes doing good things pays off.  One thing about this story that I found interesting is the scene where the witch is trapped in the oven. This seems to be a recurring theme in witch stories, and I wonder where it originated from. I tried searching for this trope on TvTropes , but I did not find an answer. I wonder if the trope originated in one story and thus became a trope, or if it just appears in different stories because they were all at one point the same story.  A question I had about the story is why does the girl marry a rich man if she already has bags of money? Did she need ...

The King o' the Cats:  By Joseph Jacobs I loved this story so much. This is one that I will forever hold dear and hold on to for late generations. I cannot believe I had never heard it before! It's a funny and cute story about a cat and his family. I love how the author captured the cat, Old Tom's, presence and personality. I think the author must have been a cat lover, or he at least must have been around cats a lot. I like how the husband refers to the cat as "our friend" and the wife refers to him as "Old Tom here." It makes the tale even cuter to hear them speak of him as a person or respected being, as one should. Growing up, my favorite book series was Warriors, by Erin Hunter. The series was told through the perspective of cats living in the wild, and it deals with serious matters like taking care of each other, dealing with conflict, being a kind and good leader, and losing loved ones. Having loved those books so much, I think it could be fun ...

(Image Information: TARDIS, Pixabay )  For this story lab, I read chapter 2 of  EmpoWord . The chapter begins with a Doctor Who quote, which is why I thought it appropriate to share this picture of the TARDIS. The quote, which is actually from Steven Moffat, writer of the show, goes "We're all stories in the end." You may have heard this quote before as it is pretty popular, and for good reason. As EmpoWord discusses, there are multiple meanings we can derive from this quote. The chapter then moves on to talking about narration. According to the chapter, an interesting, well-told story in writing needs description and deliberate choices.  This story lab was very educational and I think having read the chapter will make me a better writer. It talks about everything from plot shapes and form to writing from different points of view. One of my favorite things that I read about was characterization and how to use specific details to enhance your characters. Specifical...

Mr. Fox , by Joseph Jacobs I highly enjoyed this story. Finally, a story where the good guy wins! It's especially rare that the innocent woman escapes the wrath of her opponent. I was quite pleased with the ending of this one. (Image Information: Mr Fox, Blogspot ) This story revolves around Lady Mary, who sounds like a pretty cool woman. The tale begins with "Lady Mary was young, and Lady Mary was fair. She had two brothers and more lovers than she could count." I think that's a pretty badass way to describe the main character, and especially to start your whole story with. So I am totally a fan of Lady Mary, which I think would make writing a story based on this one super fun. I found the plot of this story interesting; We already knew the premise, so when Lady Mary finds dead bodies in her lover's closet, that is no surprise. What I expected to happen next, however, was for her to turn around and find him behind her, only to be killed and added to the...

The Rose Tree is about a girl whose stepmother hates her and tries to kill her. She succeeds and cooks the girl's organs in a stew and tries to feed them to her husband, the girl's father. He won't eat it, even though he doesn't know what it is. The girl's brother buries her body under a rose tree. The tree blooms and a bird flies from it singing a song detailing the wicked events. In the end, the girl/bird gets her revenge by killing the step-mother. The Rose-Tree  by Joseph Jacobs (Image Information: The Rose Tree, Blogspot ) I think this would be a fun story to rewrite. There are lots of directions which this story could go. It could be elaborated on, for example, adding more dialogue between the wicked stepmother and the daughter. It would be fun to write a modern version too. I think it would be so cool to write about a wicked stepmother and daughter in 2019. In fact, it might even work to make the stepdaughter the wicked one instead! I have lots of i...

The Fairy Bride At sixteen years old, Annie was pretty sure she was grown enough to know whether or not something was good for her. Her parents, evidently, disagreed. She was being forced to marry a man whom she had no love for, just because her parents wanted it. She was currently in the kitchen, trying to argue some sense into her mom, who was washing the dishes. So far, Annie hadn't achieved much.   "Honey, if you would just calm down and listen to us, maybe you'd understand that we are just trying to do what's best for you. We love you more than anything and we know what's best." Her mom said, drying a dish. Annie could feel a headache coming on already. "Mom!" she said, "How can this be what's best when I am clearly miserable? You know, just because I'm young doesn't mean I'm not a human being with feelings and opinions!"  Mom sighed. "Annie now you're just being dramatic. I know you are unhappy right ...

Bibliography:  Tales of the North American Indians,  by Stith Thompson.  The Son-In-Law Tests (Image Information: Pike Fish, Blogspot ) This story reveals the origin of the Pike. Naughty Wemicus dies when one of his evil schemes goes wrong and where he was there was seen a Pike fish. So it is implied that he was turned into the fish. The plot of this story consists of Wemicus (the animal-trickster) trying to trick his son-in-law. Wemicus has previously killed all of his daughter's many previous husbands, so she knows of his tricks and is able to warn her current husband. Because of this, her husband avoids the traps and manages to trick Wemicus instead. Wemicus appears to perish and/or turns into a Pike. I think the plot of this story was pretty straight forward; we expect the husband to keep avoiding the traps and it seems likely he will win in the end, which he does. The most important event in the plot is when the wind upsets Wimicus's canoe and he falls into...

Bibliography: Tales of the North American Indians, by Stith Thompson.  Bluejay and His Companions (Image Information: Earless Seal, Wikipedia ) This week I am focusing on Plot and Characters. The story of Bluejay and His Companions begins with the reader learning that Bluejay is a bully and he and his four friends are mean to Grouse, who lives with them. They go hunting and always give the leanest parts of the meat to Grouse because Bluejay says he does not deserve better. Grouse takes his revenge by building a wooden seal to trick the men next time they go hunting. The men spear the wooden seal and are dragged far far away. One of the men drowns so Bluejay is left with only three companions. They finally reach land where Bluejay has to compete against one of the natives of the land in a climbing contest. He wins and kills his competitor so the people let him and his companions go. They leave and go to a different village where Bluejay is challenged again. This time it i...

(Image Information: Writer's Desk, Public Domain ) For this assignment, I explored the Writer's Write website. The first interesting thing I stumbled across was Book Reviews , under Everything Literary. I love book reviews, so this was very exciting for me. I read a few different reviews just for fun. The ones I chose were Record of a Spaceborn Few , The Paper Lovers , and Death Cup . I picked these three to read about because the titles grabbed my interest. They all sound good and are now on my to-read list. Record of a Spaceborn Few sounds like a deep, futuristic sci-fi book. It is the third in the Wayfarers series. The Paper Lovers sounds like a wild story; it is about a man who is caught having an affair and becomes a religious fanatic, as told by his wife. Death Cup is a spooky detective fiction starring a woman named Storm. The next thing I looked at on the website was the Writing Prompts section, also under Everything Literary. The first writing prompt I read was ...

Bibliography:  American Indian Fairy Tales , collected and published by Henry Schoolcraft. The Fairy Bride (Image Information: Puk-Wudjies, Blogspot ) Summary: In this story, there is a young girl named Neen-i-zu, who, like the other children, grew up listening to old Iagoo's stories. One of those stories that she loved was that of the Happy Land, which was " a far-off place where it was always Summer, where no one wept or suffered sorrow." She would often take long walks in the woods, alone, dreaming of the Happy Land. In these woods lived mischievous little fairies called Puk-Wudjies. Neen-i-zu believed that these faires were meant to show people the way to Happy Land. She often sat and watched the fairies play, hoping they would take her to Happy Land. Her mother wanted her to marry a man but Neen-i-zu was not interested. On the day of her wedding, Neen-i-zu disappears. The next day, a hunter sees her in the forest, acting strange, and joined by a fairy-m...

Bibliography:  American Indian Fairy Tales , collected and published by Henry Schoolcraft. Week 10 Reading Notes, Part A: The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds. (Image Information: Playground, Blogspot ) This is a beautiful story full of beautiful sentences. For this post, I will be writing about why I liked this story so much and what made it so lovely. Here are some reasons why this story is so pleasant. This story is full of happiness . There are happy people, happy animals, and a happy valley. Examples of Happiness: From the beginning of the story, we feel that the characters are happy. Iagoo is happy to tell the children stories and they are very excited to hear them.  In the story he tells, the people and animals are happy. The mountain lion, usually a ferocious predator, is described as thus: "T he Mountain Lion would growl pleasantly and pass you the time of day." The valley that the boy and girl live in, in the story Iagoo tells, is a...

For this assignment, I chose three cat pictures that I liked from the randomizer. (Image Information: Cat Explorer, Blogspot ) I chose this picture because I am an explorer at heart and all I really want to do with my life is explore the world and learn things.  I want to travel the world, meet people, explore places, learn about different cultures, and be able to speak many languages. I am majoring in French and I also plan on learning Spanish and Chinese within the next few years. There are many languages I want to learn after these, including Vietnamese, Arabic, Persian, Russian, and German. Sometimes I feel like I'm not very smart because I want to spend my life doing these things, but then I remind myself that you don't have to be a doctor or a lawyer to be smart and successful. Income does not equal success. (Image Information: Brave Kitty, Blogspot ) I liked this picture because I feel like it applies to my life currently. It seems like every day there is a n...