Storybook Brainstorming Topics

Image information: The Siren by John William Waterhouse; Source: Wikipedia

Storybook Brainstorming:

Readers, 

      This is basically just another post in which I will be brainstorming for a larger project for the end of the semester. Just like my other brainstorming posts (and reading posts) this is basically going to be just me putting thoughts to paper.

Storybook Idea 1: Mermaids

For as long as I can remember, my sister has been obsessed with mermaids. And where she has been obsessed with mermaids, I have been obsessed with mythology. So it seems only natural that I would be able to write my storybook on mermaids. The topic analyses are endless. I could talk about cultural representation of mermaids and what that says about the culture’s beliefs and views on women. I could look at how each culture alters the representation of mermaids and where the alterations could stem from. For as many topics as there are, there are just as many titles: The Mysteries Hidden in the Deep, Mermaids and Mythology, etc.

Someday, my sister is going to get this poem by T.S. Eliot permanently affixed to her body somewhere. Could there be a more fitting tribute to her and our sisterly bond than to speak and write about mermaids and in doing so possibly relive our childhood?

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

(Excerpt from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot)

            When I was a young girl, I loved the book Sirena by Napoli. I think that her story would be really cool to include in this storybook, if only because it would be another tie to childhood mythologies and ideologies. If I used this book it would be really interesting to follow up with stories that portray mermaids as either good or inherently evil (monsters) since in Sirena, the main mermaid is so horrified by the fact that her beauty and singing cause men to die that she exiles herself. It would make a good starting story that at the same time would act as a middling ground between the stories in which the mermaids revel in their monstrous qualities and the stories in which the mermaids are little more than fairytale creatures. An example of a story that could be used for the “good” mermaid side could be Han Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid whereas an “evil” mermaid story could be the Sirens present in much of Greek Mythology such as in The Odyssey.

            Sample Story: The Fisherman and His Soul by Oscar Wilde.

Bibliography information: Wilde, Oscar. The Fisherman and His Soul.  London: James R. Osgood McIlvaine, 1891. Link to original story. 

            I chose this story because it was a good representation of a mermaid story in which the mermaid is not a malicious creature but instead a creature who falls in love. It makes for an east comparison to the stories of other sirens.

Storybook Brainstorming 2: Fairy Tales

            Who doesn’t love a good fairy tale? Our culture (and basically every other culture out there) has a multitude of them—even if in our culture they are warped almost beyond recognition by Disney. Doing a Storybook on Back-To-The-Basics Fairytales would be a really interesting adventure. I chose Celtic Fairy Tales because when I went to Scotland and Ireland this summer I fell very in love with all of their stories and brought home with me a bunch of books on Celtic Fairy Tales.

            For this storybook there are so many stories to choose from, but I think I would start out with “The Fairies” by William Allingham from the book Irish Folk and Fairy Tales edited by Gordon Jarvie. This story is actually more of a short poem about Fairies—it includes information about the Fairy Realm, the Fairy King, and the Fairy Queen, as well as mentions their penchant for child stealing a mischief. A great introduction to the Fairy Tales of Ireland, and a great place to start for this storybook. It would act as an introduction to the story—a song sung around campfires and told from the old to the young, but something that people don’t really believe in anymore.

            Bibliography information: Allingham, William. "The Fairies." Irish Folk and Fairy Tales. By Gordon Jarvie and Barbara Brown. Belfast: Blackstaff, 2009. 3-4. Print. http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/l_fairie.htm

Storybook Brainstorming 3: Greco-Roman Mythology

            I chose to focus on this unit because I love Greco-Roman Mythology. Being forced into taking another language for a Gen-Ed requirement, I settled on Latin. Maybe because I like to hurt myself, but also because I love old stories. I thought it would work out; it was hard (And not pretty). For this Storybook I think I would probably like to focus on either Women or Gods and Goddesses. However, I chose to focus on the Constellations aspect of this Unit because it is something that I am not as intimately knowledgeable about and because I think it would be really interesting to make it into a storybook.

            There are all kind of myths about the constellations and their origins in Greco-Roman Mythology. For this Storybook, however, I think I would start with a myth from Astronomical Myths: Based on Flammarion’s “History of the Heavens.” I would choose to write first about the Scales (Libra). After reading the story I learned about how the Scales are tied to the story of the Virgo zodiac. It would be very interesting to do a storybook based on the zodiac signs and how they became that way.

            Bibliography information: "Star Names and Their Meanings Paperback – September 10, 2010." Star Names and Their Meanings: Richard Hinckley Allen: 9781162588728: Amazon.com: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Sept. 2015. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=5xQuAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA155

Storybook Brainstorming 4: Creation Stories

            I have always been fascinated by creation stories and how they differ from culture to culture.  So it only makes sense that I would enjoy making a storybook focusing on creation stories. I’d really like to focus on different cultures and the differences and similarities from place to place. I’d like to see how the stories treat men and women differently and what that implies for men and women in that particular society.

            Possible stories I could focus on would be the obvious Adam and Eve Christian Creation Story or something less known such as the Creation Story adopted by the Hindu religion. In this religion creation is triggered by the god Vishnu, whenever he awakes the world gets recreated and whenever he sleeps the world ends. I thought it was very beautiful that their creation story is very circular. There are three main gods and they all serve a real purpose in creation and ongoing life.

            Bibliography information: "The Hindu Creation Myth." The Hindu Creation Myth. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Sept. 2015. http://www.read-legends-and-myths.com/hindu-creation-myth.html