Extra Credit Reading Notes

 

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The Well-Trained Elephant 

-King Magadha ruler of Rajagaha in Magagha

-Bodhisatta was born an elephant

The elephant was white in color and described as very beautiful. One of the festival days the elephant proceeded around the city and the local people were excited to see the graceful elephant. The elephant was receiving a lot of praise which made the King very jealous. The king wanted to kill the elephant. The King called over the mahout and asked if the elephant was trained in which the mahout responded that it was a very well-trained elephant. The King argued with him and the mahout was insistent on that the elephant was indeed trained.

The King challenged the man to have the elephant climb the summit of Mount Vepulla since the elephant was so well-trained. The King got off the back of the elephant and the mahout climbed on with the king walking beside them. The King commanded the mahout to get the elephant to stand on three legs. The elephant did as was commanded. The King commanded him to stand on two fore-legs. The elephant once again did as he was told. The King asked the elephant to stand on one leg still testing his obedience. The elephant stood on one foot. The mahout realized that the King wanted the elephant to fall so he would tumble down to his death. The King had commanded the elephant to stand in the air. The mahout whispered to the elephant that the King was trying to trick him so that he needed to fly away to Benares. The elephant rose into the air. The mahout told the King that this creature was too good for a fool like him and wished him good bye. The elephant and the mahout flew over the town of Benares for everyone to see the mighty elephant. The King of Benares welcomed the elephant and told the elephant and mahout he was excited for their arrival. The King then divided the kingdom into three parts, one for the Bodisatta, one for the mahout and one for himself and they did charitable work happily ever after.

Bibliography: 

Title: The Well-Trained Elephant

Author: Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock

Link: Story

Story Laboratory: TED Talk Videos

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This week I decided to do a story lab instead of writing a story. I had never done a story lab before so I was excited to see what it was about! I chose to watch two Ted Talk videos and I really enjoyed each of them. The first video was The danger of a single story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I had remembered watching this video in my high school English class and I was very impressed once again by it. I love the idea of gaining other perspectives instead of hearing one single story. I think she has a great point that if we only focus on a single story there is a chance for many misunderstandings to occur. She states that if we could listen to other stories and perspectives, we could have the chance to gather the idea as a whole of the topic.

The second Ted Talk I chose to listen to I had never heard before so it was fun to get to watch. The Ted Talk was Imaginary friends and real-world consequences by Jennifer Barnes. I thought it was a cool detail that Jennifer Barnes is a professor at OU. This video really stuck out to me because I related to many of the points she made in the story. She had mentioned that sometimes with fiction novels we attach to a character and feel as though that we are a part of their lives. We also do this with celebrities where we read so much about them or follow them on social media and feel a connection to them. She had mentioned that since she is a fiction novelist, that sometimes when bad things happen to characters she receives a lot of criticism because the reader is so upset that something happened to this fictional character. Jennifer Barnes also mentioned a study conducted at OU where people named their favorite fictional character and then someone they sort of knew at OU. They were supposed to range how upset they would be if each of those people died and found that most would be way more upset if the fictional character died than the real-life acquaintance.


I really enjoyed both videos and was glad to watch both.

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales

 

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The story begins with a mother quail telling her little quails to be good and they would get to eat. Every time the mother and the father would come back from getting the quails insects, the seventh quail would only eat grass seed. The seventh quail was not getting enough food and was not growing. One night a forest fire started in the middle of the forest and the mother and father gathered the small quails. The seventh quail told the father and mother that it was a forest fire. The mother and father had to take off holding the little quails. The seventh quail was not scared of the fire and stood up to it. The fire shrunk back and the forest was no longer on fire.

Author's Note:
I really liked going back and reading this story. It was unique from the others and I think could be fun to retell.


Bibliography:
Title: The Forest Fire
Author: Noor Inayat
Link: Story

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales

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The story started out in a lake with a lot of water lilies and fish. The fish had commonly met up and on this occasion, they were meeting to hear a story told by one of their own fish. The Story was about a King who ruled the lake. The fish was golden back, more gold than the rest of them were. The fish, being as gold as he was, was described as the "star of their sky". When the water got dark he was the one to light it up. One day, when it was right before a heatwave, there was no rain in the air. The lake began to shrink in size until it became a pool. There were so many fish in the pond that the birds could come and devour most of them. The King of the lake spoke to the Queen of Rain and King of Thunder and they heard his calling. King of Thunder commanded all of them to fire and the whole world shook. Lightning sparked throughout the air, heavy raindrops fell and the pool of water began to become a lake again. The King feared that the pond would dry up quickly after the storm so he prayed to the Queen of Rain and King of Thunder to do another downpour. They listened and let rain fall once again. The Queen and King came down to earth and let the King of the Lake know that the lake would never be dry again. The lake was filled and everyone lived happily ever after.



Author's Note: I went back and read this story again and loved how sweet it was. The plot was simple but it was very impactful and fun to read. I would love to create my own story from this tale.

Bibliography:
Title: the Empty Lake
Author: Noor Inayat
Link: Story

Story: Week 13: Blue and Spike

 

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Long ago there were there two swordfish. The two swordfish were brothers and their names were Blue and Spike. Blue and Spike lived with their parents in a community of swordfish deep into the ocean. The community of deer were really close to each other and always looked out of one another. During the fishing season, all of the swordfish community were in danger.  The father of Blue and Spike warned the two siblings that they needed to take their own group of swordfish to the faraway coral reef to keep the community out of danger. The reason that the swordfish become so endangered is that the fishermen bait the water with food for the swordfish then capture them when they get to close. Blue, the swordfish, asked if the community should swim as a whole to the reef, but the father wanted to look out for his home. The father warned them that they should avoid the shallow waters as fishermen were always there fishing, and to travel at night. Blue did what his father told and took his group of swordfish through the deeper water to get to the reef and they left at night. Blue and his swordfish all arrived at the reef alive. Spike, lead his group early in the morning through the shallow coast. They swam through fishing boat, after fishing boat with over half of his group being captured by fisher men. When the fishing season was over it was finally safe for the swordfish to travel back.  Blue still led his group through deep waters and during the night back home to the community safely. Spike left that next morning, he led his whole crew past a few fishing boats, and once again, half of his group was captured. Spike arrived with only one swordfish left that next morning.

Author's Note

I decide to take this story and put it into my own group of animals. The original starts with a community of deer who have to leave during the crop season. I decided to do the same thing but with swordfish. 

Bibliography: 

Author: Ellen C. Babbitt

Title: Beauty and Brownie 

Link: story