Reading Review Week 8

Overall I am very pleased with the reading selections offered in this class. I knew Myth and Folklore was a good choice for my last upper division elective (and heck, I probably would have taken it anyway for the fun of it). As far as feedback goes, there are a few suggestions I have and a few complaints.

Readings thus far

Favorite: Honestly, I have to say my favorite readings (so far) were those from Ancient Egypt. I really enjoyed reading the raw mythos of the strange Egyptian animal gods and even some other stories that didn’t relate to their stories at all. I’m looking forward to the Native American unit because I’ve always wanted to read Native folk tales and stories but could never find a good enough source.

Least Favorite: The Biblical stories were a trek. There’s a reason I never really wanted to go to church as a child, and it’s because the stories were either too confusing or too boring. Trying to wade through the prose these stories were written in was probably the hardest part. I guess Biblical stories just aren’t for me.

What I would like to see: Honestly, I was surprised that no tales from the Norse sagas or Epics were featured here, especially with all the popularity the ‘Thor’ movies have been getting! I saw that the Kalevala is an optional reading, but I was really hoping to re-read some of the Norse myths. Oh well - it’s probably best they aren’t available in this class because it forces me to try something new.

Concerning the storytellings, I don’t often use my notes for the retellings. My notes are usually just summaries of the stories, because when I take actual notes (like I did early on in the semester), nobody understands what I’m talking about unless they read the story themselves.

The layout of the Un-textbook is great! It’s really comprehensive and easy to locate stories. I particularly like that each storybook section has a little summary of the stories included - whether or not there are monsters and wizards, dragons and jewels. The set-up and accumulation of all of these amazing stories is truly impressive and I am more than pleased with the easy-to-follow layout (especially since I consider myself technologically challenged).

The picture I'm using is one of my personal favorites. It's from my notes on 'Urashima Taro and the Sea Turtle' and I just love how elegant Urashima and the Sea Princess look. The colors are astounding and everything looks so peaceful.

Urashima Taro by Edmund Dulac