Story: Dwarf Island

Along the sea Odysseus and his men traveled for months. They were growing tired and running low on food. They had drifted long from the land which they called home. As the days passed, all that surrounded Odysseus and his crew was water for miles, until one day. Finally, on the ninth day of the ninth month at sea, one of the crew members aboard the ship spotted a small island in the distance.

              As the crew sailed closer to the island they saw no immediate signs of civilization however many goats wondered the island. In addition, another member spotted crops which were growing across an open field. Lastly, Odysseus spotted nine huts on the corner of the island. As he and his crew landed the vessel on shore, they began to scavenge the island for much needed food. He and his crew took a lamb and some of the ripe plantains growing in the field. As the men began to replenish their bodies with the much needed food, Odysseus went out to explore the rest of the small island. As he crest the center of the island he finally spotted one of the inhabitants outside the hut. From which he deduced these creatures were dwarfs. He made his way back to his crew and told them of the news. Neither Odysseus nor his crew had ever seen a dwarf or the home of a dwarf and were immediately intrigued with curiosity and interest. Odysseus warned his crew of the unknown danger of the dwarfs and advised his crew that they should leave, since they had taken enough from the island already. However, the crew fought back the captain and the captain couldn’t resist his own inner curiosity, so Odysseus and his crew made a plan to sneak into one of the nine huts at nightfall.

Wikimedia Commons: Island Huts

              Upon nightfall, Odysseus and his men began to sneak across the island to the group of huts. Odysseys began looking for a door however could not find one. The rest of his crew began searching as well and found no presumable points of entry either. Then one of the members started yelling horrifically. Odysseus saw only shadows drag away one of his crew. Then suddenly he himself was surrounded by a group of nine shadows. The rest of the crew members fled to the ship across the island. The dwarfs captured the captain and took him inside the main hut on the island. As Odysseus was being carried inside, he caught a glimpse of the door hidden by palm leaves. Once inside the dwarfs began to argue about what to do with Odysseus and his other trapped crew member. The head dwarf in charge decided that at sunrise they would execute the thieves. All the dwarfs returned to their respective huts and the head dwarf went to rest as well in the main hut. Once, the head dwarf had fallen asleep, Odysseus and his trapped crew member devised a plan to escape. The only problem was they couldn’t find the key to which the door was locked with. The crew member asked: “How are we going to get through the door without the key?” Odysseus replied, “Simply, we’ll unscrew the door handle then put it on the other side.” And miraculously Odysseus and the trapped crew member escaped and trapped the head dwarf in his own hut. As Odysseus and his crew fled the island, Odysseus boasted with his victory and yelled with excitement. The dwarfs ran out to the edge of the island however were too late to hit Odysseus and his crew with their spears before they sailed away. And that was the last time Odysseus and his crew ever landed on an island on the ninth day of the ninth month.

Author’s Note: This story was inspired by The Land of the Cyclops in Homer’s Odyssey. I wanted to take some parts of the journey which Odysseus and his men did, however change the characters encountered and the method of escape. In addition, I included a reoccurring theme of the number nine throughout my storytelling. This is to symbolize a similar role in which wine played in the original sotry. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your feedback.

Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey, translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004).

Reading Notes Part B: Homer's Odyssey

Below is my part B reading notes over Homer's Odyssey:

• There is an almost comical recurrence of the author describing how Odysseus and his crew load and offload the vessel from island to island. I would like to include some monotony in my future story telling.
• I was not a fan of The Ghost of Teiresias, however I did like the use of explicit details throughout these passages. I also liked the use of a lot of dialogue throughout this passage.
• The Spirit of Anticleia was a passage I particularly enjoyed. I liked the use of rhetorical and direct questions throughout the story.
• In the passage of The Ghosts of Famous Women, I liked the repetitive structure of how each new paragraph starts with "I saw." It gives the reader I signal that a new character is going to be introduced.
• The Spirit of Achilles and many of the other ghost related passages all seem to tempt Odysseus with some gift or favor if he agrees to follow their wish.
• Lastly, when Odysseus sails back across the island of sirens he attempts to protect his men and himself , however fails and is the only one who survives. This is an interesting ending to which I may alter or keep similar in my storytelling.

(The Dying Achilles, by Ernst Herter)

Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey, translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004).

Reading Notes Part A: Homer's Odyssey

For my first reading I chose to read Homer's Odyssey. Below are some of the more interesting ideas that I thought I might be able to incorporate in my storytelling this week.

• The land of the cyclops grows crops without any work being performed on it.
• I think it would be neat to do the reverse and show how hard the cyclops work to protect their land, crops, and of course their goats.
• The word wine comes in at least 7 or 8 times in the story of Prisoner's of the Cyclops.
• I think it would be interesting to replace the word with another certain piece for the story as it seems as if the original author really wanted to emphasize this point.
• This wine comes in handy for tricking the cyclops and I would like to use a different object for a similar task in my future writing.
• Odysseus almost counts his chickens before they hatch when boasting back to the cyclops as they sailed away. I found this to be an interesting note of how he almost pushed his limit of luck.
• Lastly, I enjoyed how Odysseus was able to escape to very different traps through wits and luck.

(Odysseus and Polyphemus, by Bocklin)

Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey, translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004).

Famous Last Words: Week 1

During the first week of this course, I found myself struggling with getting into the writing of a few of the assignments. However, once I got into the groove I felt that some of my best writing, at least thus far, was displayed on my “Growth Mindset” post. I felt as if this post most directly affected me emotionally and I was able to get into the writing more. In addition, I felt as if I almost had a self-realization myself that I need to step back every once in a while and examine which parts of my life am I focusing on. In which I felt like time management, health, and attention were the most prevalent to me currently. Another thing I enjoyed greatly about this particular assignment were the videos that were posted with it. I can appreciate a really effective inspirational video. One of which I found humorous, the one about procrastination. In fact, the video about procrastination reminded me about renewing my gym memborship and staying committed to my new year's resolution.

New Gym Membership's (Real Muscle Forum)

In addition, I hope that I can continue to improve my story writing as this course progresses. I’ve read stories of some classmates in the Indian Epics and Myth-Folklore courses who really have unique writing styles. Some styles have a great delivery of the information. Others seem to have a very well portrayed setting which helps the imagery of the story greatly. As well as improve my writing in this course, I hope to improve the writing in my other classes as well. For example, I have a reservoir fluid mechanics lab this semester, which will entail lab reports to be written. Of course the topics may be different, however the same good writing behaviors can carryover. All in all, I will continue to self-examine my progress as I go through this course.

Wikipedia Trail: From Homer's Odyssey to Napoleon Bonaparte

Since I plan on reading Homer's Odyssey this upcoming week I decided to start my trail here. I then began looking at where geographically did this myth take place and I stumbled upon the Ionian Islands. These are the islands just off the west coast of Greece which Odysseus will travel. Then I started to look into the history of the Islands and actually stumbled across the Treaty of Paris. Which in this case stated that these islands were now under British territory in 1815. I found this interesting just for the simple fact that I remember talking about the Treaty of Paris in history class as a high school student. The last link I stumbled upon was Napoleon Bonaparte. This was connected due to he was defeated in 1815 and ultimately was the reason for the signing of the treaty.

Wikipedia: Ionian Islands

Week 1 Review

Growth Mindset Cats (cheezburger)

The topic of growth mindset was one of my favorite topics of the week and I found this meme to be humorous while being very fitting. I am looking forward to what is to come in Week 2. Thanks to anyone who commented on my posts.

Growth Mindset Exploration

Before watching these videos I had never heard of Carol Dweck. I find her message very inspiring as well and it reminds me of a particular instance when I was able expand my personal imagination. One day in calculus class it dawned on me on how to get my mind to visualize and interpret things three dimensionally. It wasn't something that I was necessarily taught how to do rather than just being introduced to the concept of expanding that critical thought process. It is an amazing thing what the mind can do, if you just plant the seed and let the brain take over the rest. In her video "Make challenge the New Comfort Zone", I find it difficult to get my mind to have these epiphany's, like the one when I was finally able to fathom three dimensional analysis. However the brain is not one to underestimate or ever give up on, and I try to make it a point to have this healthy critical thinking on my mind at least once a week. In addition when this mindset is reached, a whole new level of success is obtained. Your mind and body felt like they have opened a whole new realm of possibilities and scenarios for a given topic.

Mind Expansion (Louis Dyer)