Reading Notes: Week 10 (part 1)

This unit I am trying things a little differently. Because the Eskimo stories were very short and similar, I've decided to look at the reading on a macro scale. In the past, I have always written about every story in the unit.

Each of the sub-stories within the Eskimo Folk Tales unit had the same sort of plot. One of the stories even said the same thing. The main trend is a single man and his efforts to find love, his failed love, and his hunting abilities. Often times these were strongly correlated. For example, many of the characters in the stories were unable to find love because they were poor hunters. The women in the stories sought a man who could provide and held prestige in the community. Most of the men in these stories were not noble people. They were generally poor hunters without the help of others, and they struggled to provide.

In a couple of the stories, animals played significant roles. One elderly woman had a pet bear who was more like a child. In another, a community relied on a large dog to bring back food.

When looking back on this unit, I will remember the themes of pity and misery associated with the characters. It seems odd to me that the Inuit people have a tradition of miserable men in their folklore. After considering their situation for some time, I thought it may be because women are not as prevalent in the society. So it is possible that there were more eligible men than women, which led to a trend of sad, lonely men. It is entirely possible that I am way off base, but I think there may be some truth to it.

I am hopeful that the second half of this unit will be a bit unique compared to the first half.

A happy eskimo dog - flickr

Eskimo Folk Tales by Knud Rasmussen (1921)

Week 8 Progress

I am not sure that I would say that I am happy with how I have done in the class thus far. It is my own fault really. At this point, I am still on track for an A, but I was hoping to finish a bit early. Finishing early is still an option, but things are starting to get busier and it will be more difficult than it could have been. I am most proud of my story book. Though it is still in its development, I am very proud of how its turning out. On the other hand, I am enjoying the readings the most. In general, they are super entertaining. Sinbad was especially fun. I haven't been using extra credit. Mostly because I have been lazy. 

For the second half of the semester I am looking to be more proactive. I want to look into doing extra credit because that will help me finish faster. Ultimately, I am just looking to make an A in the class, but if I could finish earlier it would be awesome. I also want to avoid submitting assignments in the grace period (as I ironically finish this during the grace period).

Motivation - ThinkingHumanity

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I have been a big fan of the commenting portion of this class. In general, the comments are really encouraging, and I think they help motivate many students to write interesting and unique stories. Personally, the comments have been very helpful because they have given guidance on where I can improve. 

On the other hand, I feel like many of the comments I give are not as "critiquing" as others. I have a hard time criticizing classmates' posts. Many of them are awesome stories that I can't find much to critique, and other times I just don't want to be discouraging to the writer. In general, I have been focusing on the positive, but occasionally I have thrown in some small critiques. It seems a bit foolish to speak about how the critiques are helpful, but then I don't like critiquing because I don't want to discourage classmates with a critique. 

For the blogs in particular, I do think it is helpful to comment on classmates' posts to create a sense of connection among classmates, but the connection is not super deep. To be fair, it is pretty impressive considering this is an online class. I'm not sure much more could be done to create connections, but I don't think its necessary either. The blog comments are very good as they are. 

I don't really want to make any changes to my posts for commenting purposes because the comments I have received are very helpful. However, I would like to change my commenting style toward classmates. My comments lack the critiquing aspect that I have found useful in comments on my posts. I'm hoping to add that element into my comments more often to be helpful to my classmates more than I have been. 

Feedback Cats - Cheezburger

Week 8 Reading and Writing

The Mythology and Folklore blogging experience has been pretty interesting. I have largely enjoyed the assignments, viewing only a few as tedious and boring. In general, I am a bit dissatisfied with my blog. It seems that each week I fail to either do one-half of the reading, or write a story. Each time I have done two of the three reading and story assignments. I wish I had been able to convince myself to put the time in to finish all three. These assignments make up the heart of the blog, and I feel like mine isn't quite complete.

Sinbad - Wikipedia

This is my favorite image from my blog so far. It is just a simple cartoon image of Sinbad. The stories of Sinbad were very entertaining, and I feel that this photo really captures the adventure of Sinbad. I have no clue whether this is even remotely accurate in appearance, but it is definitely accurate in capturing his spirit!

For the future, I really want to find the time to write all three of the early-week blog posts. They are the most fun, and I really want to develop my blog and finish strong. I think by pushing myself to work ahead I will not find time constraints to be such an inhibiting factor.