Myth and Folklore

Episodes Under Consideration -A Letter to Allah about the moon in the well -A Letter to The Sun and Moon Gods of the Blackfoot Tribe from their grandson Starboy -A Letter to Huitzilopochtli (Aztec Sun God) from his mother Formatting Ideas I want to play with true letter format in these stories, meaning there will be a salutation, a body, and a closing. Specifically, I want to experiment with informal/formal tones of letter writing. For instance, the letter from the peasant who spots the moon in the well to Allah might be very formal, whereas the letter from Huitzilopochtli's mother to him may be much more informal. Or perhaps because this is the expected choice, I will mix it up and switch these two story approaches. After all, many people feel a very personal connection to God(s) (in this case Allah), whereas the relationship between mother and son can be one of distant respect and obeisance as much as affectionate love. Rather than writing one-way letters, I am also thinking...

I am going to try my hand at combining two of my topics, relating letters to the gods about the sun and moon... Story #1: A Letter to Allah I will base this story off of a tale in which a hodja believes that the moon has fallen into a well. The hodja writes to Allah asking how he can save the moon from its watery fate, and proceeds to describe all the methods he has thus far employed. A bucket cannot scoop up the silvery puddle and a hook cannot pierce its rippled surface. The hodja asks Allah what he needs to gather the moon from inside the well and return it to the sky, but soon begins to wonder whether Allah has let the moon fall for a reason. https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type1335a.html#hodja Story #2: A Letter to The Sun and Moon Gods of the Blackfoot Tribe This tale will be based on the legend of Star Boy (nicknamed Poia), born of Feather-Woman and Morning Star. His mother was banished from the sky for digging up a forbidden turnip, and passed away from unhappiness soon af...

Day and Night  I've always loved the idea of personifying day and night: as the guardians of light and darkness, and as the timeless couple that works together to keep the cycles of earth in balance. My grandparents have two beautiful native American sculptures that depict the sun and the moon as vaguely humanesque creatures. They live side by side on a wall in their home, and I have always loved imagining the special bond they share as the keepers of day and night. For this project I would like to explore how and sun and moon have been represented in different cultures, and what the concepts of day and night mean to them. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013437416&view=1up&seq=294  (p.248) A New Alice Alice in Wonderland is a timeless classic, and one of the reasons it is so beloved is because of all the unique characters the reader encounters during Alice's journey. I think it would be a lot of fun to start with a different initial c...