Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki), Part A
In the first story, a king asks for help from a hero to defeat his enemy. The hero agrees and does his job. The king rewards him with several incredible gifts. I like the idea of bestowing gifts that keep on giving. I could write a story of a homeless girl who begs for money. A woman offers her money in return for her labor. She requires the girl to farm, cook, and sew. When she learns these tasks, she has skills which she will be able to use to earn money for the rest of her life.
The second story tells of an incredibly strong boy who lives in the woods with his mother. A man with connections to the military offers him an honorary position to put his strength to good use. I would like to rewrite this as the story of a very intelligent little boy in a rough area. His family has little money as his mother is single and can't find good work. He knows he can't afford college and plans to work to help his mother. A man notices his intelligence and offers a scholarship for his college education.
The last story is about a man who wants to live forever. He searches for immortality, but when he gets a taste of it, he is unhappy. He wishes neither to die nor to live forever. He is more satisfied with the life he has than either of the alternatives. From this I'd like to take the idea of someone longing for something only to find that it does not make them happy. What the person longs for could vary, and I've not decided on a specific direction for my story. It could be about a woman in a fight with her husband. She wishes she'd married the hot jock from high school or her rich boss who's always flirting with her. In a dream, she'd have visions of both scenarios. Neither option would have been good for her and she realizes just how well off she is with the man she has now.
Image Information: University of Oklahoma's Evans Hall, Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki, link to the reading online.
The second story tells of an incredibly strong boy who lives in the woods with his mother. A man with connections to the military offers him an honorary position to put his strength to good use. I would like to rewrite this as the story of a very intelligent little boy in a rough area. His family has little money as his mother is single and can't find good work. He knows he can't afford college and plans to work to help his mother. A man notices his intelligence and offers a scholarship for his college education.
The last story is about a man who wants to live forever. He searches for immortality, but when he gets a taste of it, he is unhappy. He wishes neither to die nor to live forever. He is more satisfied with the life he has than either of the alternatives. From this I'd like to take the idea of someone longing for something only to find that it does not make them happy. What the person longs for could vary, and I've not decided on a specific direction for my story. It could be about a woman in a fight with her husband. She wishes she'd married the hot jock from high school or her rich boss who's always flirting with her. In a dream, she'd have visions of both scenarios. Neither option would have been good for her and she realizes just how well off she is with the man she has now.
Image Information: University of Oklahoma's Evans Hall, Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki, link to the reading online.
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