Feedback Thoughts: The Source of My Anxiety

Anxiety by Topher McCulloch

It is funny that this topic would come up when it did. Today I asked a friend to review some scholarship essays I wrote for the CASH Scholarships. I was nervous about submitting, but I didn't actually think she would say anything bad about my essays. Low and behold... she had a lot of stuff to correct! I was mad she gave me the help I asked for. What the heck is wrong with me? I didn't like feeling like I was bad at something. For this exact reason, I decided I needed to learn 5 Tips For Taking Feedback Like a Champ.

In this article, I quickly realized it matched my situation perfectly. I didn't want to feel bad or uncomfortable. My friend had my best interest in mind, but all I could see was that she thought my work wasn't good enough. Furthermore, I am not a bad writer. My essays could just be better. With her pointing out what needed to change, I was having trouble seeing that she didn't think it was totally terrible. Ultimately, she just wanted to help me get some money and I was bitter the whole time. I wish I hadn't procrastinated this assignment so I would have had these feedback tips before I asked someone in real life for feedback... my flaws seem to be piling up in this one.

The next article I read was Eight Things Students Should Do When They Make a Mistake. I chose this article because I hate failing and I hate being less than exceptional. Even if my work is turned in right before a deadline, I aim for it to be quality material. With my fellow peers getting ready to start criticizing my work, I am anxious I am going to have a hard time correcting my mistakes, so this article seems like a goldmine. As I mentioned earlier, I can tend to return feedback with bitterness and snappiness. I don't mean to be cranky, but the whole situation makes me feel tense. This article showed me that I just need to change how I am thinking about it. Feedback is given because the giver wants me to do better, not because they want to point out how horrible I am. I can't put my anxiety on other people just because they were willing to offer me advice. Furthermore, I need to value my own work. If I want to be exceptional, I need to be willing to take advice and improve my work.

Topic Brainstorm: A Representation of My Indecisiveness

I can't believe it is already time to start exploring our storybook comments. It is about to be the beginning of Week 3 already! Does anyone else feel like this semester is already going way too fast? I even have an exam on the first of February. Anyways, this is the part of the class that I am most looking forward to.

Jack the Giant Killer from Wikimedia

The first storybook topic that I am considering is a compilation of stories about giants. Laura actually gave me this idea in my Favorite Places post when I talked about the legend surrounding the formation of the Giant's Causeway. Of course, I would have to include the awesome Irish tale of Finn McCool and his nemesis Benandonner in the storybook! She mentioned that I could pull different giant stories from different cultures, which I think is a great idea. I am thinking I would like to pull in giant stories from Gaelic, Greek, Norse, Japanese, and American mythology/folklore. I was actually surprised to see that American Folklore is an option. For some reason, perhaps because the United States/Canada is relatively new compared to most Western nations, I figured we wouldn't have any significant folktales. But we do! 

Hansel and Grethel from Wikimedia

The second storybook topic I am considering is another compilation. I want to retell some of the Brother Grimm's stories. We all know that the Grimm Fairytales are a lot more, well, grim than the ones we are used to seeing in children's movies. I want to preserve that eeriness, but tell it from my own perspective. There are a lot of stories from the Grimm's Fairytales that I have never even heard of. I am thinking I want to go for stories that deal with thrown out/stolen girls, like Little Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, and Rapunzel. I hope to include more stories, but I need to do some further exploration into the many many stories in the Grimm's Fairy Tales. It is possible I might even go for a totally different theme if I do go with this idea.

Rumpelstiltskin by Wikimedia

Next, I am considering a compilation of goblin stories. Goblins interest me because they sound almost gross and evil, but in reality, they are often portrayed as being clever and cunning. One of the good things about this kind of compilation is that I can include Rumpelstiltskin in this one too! It turns out his name translates to a type of German goblin. This topic I am actually finding to be a bit harder to research, as it wasn't a readily available topic to pick from the list. I know that goblins exist in European and Asian folklore, so I am looking forward to learning more. For now, I know I intend to include the German tale of Rumpelstiltskin. I also want to incorporate some Korean folklore about goblins. Perhaps this is outting my interests a bit too much, but I recently watched a Korean drama called Goblin, so now I want to look more into the folklore that the drama is based on.

Beauty and the Beast by Dawn Hudson

My last idea, for the time being, is to deviate from a compilation of stories. I think it would be nice to create a story that each part is a continuation of the previous part, like chapters in a storybook. The tale I want to rewrite in this manner is the tale of the Beauty of the Beast. I already did something like this for our storytelling assignment, but I really want to take it further and expand it. I had such a good time taking that story and manipulation it into something I wanted, but I wasn't able to go as deep as I'd like. I have good ideas for this story. I don't think I will resume where my assignment left off, but go in a totally new direction with a feminist lens. I can see some real potential for changing it from that perspective.

Week 2 Story: The Warlock and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast from Wikimedia

Once upon a time, there was a warlock who was known for giving gifts to those most deserving. He would travel far and wide just to find the perfect recipient. He often granted wishes as part of his gift. Sometimes he even changed reality to sooth the person's regrets. The thing that was certain, however, was that he changed people's lives for the better.

On one fateful day, the warlock came across a gorgeous but heinous woman who came from old money. She was used to gettings things with her charm and money, but it was rare for her to ever be giving. The warlock was immune to her charm and money, however, because he had no need for such things. He asked for her to prove herself to be worthy of his gifts, already knowing how she would respond. 

"I could give you any piece of land you so desire," she mused. She did indeed own quite a bit of land, among other things. Her lineage was quite impressive.

"I don't particularly desire any piece of land," he responded. "The only thing I desire from you is an act of selflessness." 

"Selflessness?" she asked with astonishment. "How could you only want something so simple from me? I have riches you could take if only you would award me the gift." 

The warlock studied her and made a decision that would change her life. "If all you can offer me are riches, I can offer you a gift, but it will likely be a gift you were not hoping for." Of course, the woman readily accepted this. All she wanted was to receive something. She'd didn't mind offering something she was in excess of to get something she knew she'd never have otherwise.

With a bang of light, the woman's reality was drastically changed. Not only did she lose her riches, she lost her charm. Where she used to have smooth, beautiful skin, she now had warts and sores. Where she was strong, she was now weak. Her hair was even affected. The beautiful auburn became a dirty yellow. 

"How could this ever be considered a gift?" she wailed. "All you've done is take everything away from me! You've given me nothing!" She collapsed to the floor in a dramatic fashion, sobbing.

"You only see the surface of my gift. If you look deeper, one day you will see how this is a gift, and at that moment, you will be freed from this new reality," the warlock explained. If she could manage to become a truly selfless person and learn to care for someone despite her circumstances, perhaps then she would become a better version of what she once was.

Now, all the warlock could do was wait and see how she does. He was accustomed to this wait and quite enjoyed watching the events unfold. He already knew she would one day be able to reverse his gift, so all he had to do was keep watch over her and enjoy the show. How was she the most deserving of this gift you ask? Only the warlock will ever know.




Authors note: So if you couldn't tell, this is a twist on the classic story of Beauty and the Beast. I decided to tell this story from the story of the witch who curses the beast, but I also gender-flipped everyone, so instead, it was a warlock. From the warlock's perspective, this is a gift rather than a curse... a learning opportunity of sorts. It ends abruptly, however, because this is the warlock's story, not the beauty's or the beast's.

Bibliography

The Three Roses by Josef Baudis

Reading Notes: Myth-folklore Anthology

While reading through the Myth-Folklore Anthology, there were quite a few things I noticed about how several of the stories were written.

Fairy Tale Illustration from PublicDomainPictures

In The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi, for example, I saw that the type of vocabulary used was unique. The story's flow was influenced by the fanciful words it used. Reading a story with this older style keyed me into the fact that this is an ancient story that holds some value that the people of Japan held during its conception. I know that this is not merely some commercial product wrapped in a nice cover to be sold on a shelf in a store. It has the characteristics of an old story that are often given away by the word and structure choices. 

In the story about the Man in the Moon, I also saw that it is important to show a story in a series of steps. Had the wise man punished the man after he asked for change only two times, it may have seemed harsh. There wouldn't be enough instances of his greed to really get the point across. Because the man was repeatedly ungrateful, shown in the multiple wishes made to change his life, the audience is able to find the lesson in the story more readily. 

My favorite story and the one I will focus on more was The Three Roses. Personally, I grew up on the story of Beauty and the Beast so it was easy to tune into this story and pull a deeper understanding from it. First, the story starts with the classic "Once upon a time..." phrase that has introduced fairy tales for ages. This phrase makes it easy to recognize that there will likely be some kind of magic involved in the story (and indeed there was). Second, I noticed that this story did not rely on a lot of actual dialogue, Rather than directly quoting what the daughter Mary would say, for example, her responses to situations would be described. This way of expressing Mary's thoughts and actions further goes to support the story-like nature of the store. There is a larger disconnect between the characters in the story and the audience. 

I hope to employ some of these writing techniques when I start storytelling. I want to write something that gives off the same kind of feeling that passing along cultural stories does, so I think using all of these techniques can be beneficial. 

Bibliography

The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi by  E. W. Champney and F. Champney

The Man in the Moon by Katherine Neville Fleeson

The Three Roses by Josef Baudis

Drowning in the Reading Options

I think I need to preface this post by letting the audience know I am indecisive and take ages to settle on what I want or like. The fact that there were literally trillions of different ways I could go with this assignment did not help with my indecisiveness.

Celtic Symbol by Hans

With that being said, I have bookmarked at least 15 units I am interested in exploring. For the sake of this assignment, I will only share a few of them (or else we would be here all day). As I have shared in a previous post, I am interested in Celtic mythology. I was happy to see that there are two different units on Celtic fairy tales! I clearly can't decide which would be best, so I am just going to say I choose both! Watch out though, this is going to be a trend. I've been to Ireland and England, which inspired my interest in Celtic things.

Sort of following the theme of Celtic mythology (regionally speaking), I next went with English fairy tales. This summer I will be going on a study abroad program with the psychology department to Scotland, and I saw that this unit contains some tales from the Lowlands of Scotland. Of course, I am going to consider this unit! And guess what --there are two units on English fairy tales. They are now officially one unit in my heart, joined in holy marriage by the power invested in me by myself (I never said this was a legal marriage).

Now to totally deviate from where I was going with this post, the next unit(s) I am considering is(are) on Japan! Okay, so Japan has like... a million units... or maybe it was just 4... but guess what! I am going to pretend they are one, as I have been doing, for the sake of this post. High-key, I am a bit of a nerd and threw myself into Japanese culture when I was around 13 to 15. I wouldn't mind adding Japanese mythology to my repertoire of (probably misinformed) Japanese knowledge.

In the end, there are a lot more units I am interested in exploring. I will probably read more stories from the units than I will ever need to for this class.