Week 3 Reading Diary: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

This week for my reading diary I chose to read classical stories instead of biblical stories. I chose to read The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs. I was really happy I read this unit because one of the topics I was interested in for my storybook was animal stories. Through this unit, I got a clearer idea of some animals I would like to focus on. After this reading, I'm thinking I would like to write about foxes or cats. Foxes because they are so cunning and tricky. I think this could be something really fun to expand on and think of new ways that the fox could trick the other characters in the story. Also, cats because I liked how they were described as "self aware and focused". I think they are more cautious, which would be the opposite of a fox, but definitely something I would have fun developing in the stories. 

From this unit, I also discovered some other aspects that I might like to include in my own storytelling. The first would be to characterize historically strong characters as weak, like in Androcles and the Lion. For a storytelling idea, I think it would be cool to switch the roles of two characters and make the strong one weak and vice versa. I also liked the message of this story- that we can all learn from gratitude. I think in America, it can sometimes be extremely difficult to be grateful for all of the things we have and always want more. I think this fable does a good job of reminding us to do so. 

From The Lion in Love, I realized that I like stories that are more realistic. I understand that this was a fable, however the story of a lion falling in love with a woman and having his teeth and claws removed for her seemed very far-fetched to me, which kind of turned me off from the story. In my attempts to be creative, I want to do it in a way that it seems clever rather than stretched. This way, the reader may not experience the same feelings as I did while reading.

As mentioned above, I am heavily considering using foxes as the focus should I decide to write a storybook on animal stories. The Fox and the Stork is a good example to me because I love the craft of the story. The tricks were simple but still creative and added humor to the story for me. This is something that I would like to include in my stories to add another element for the reader. Also, the story of The Fox and the Grapes is another story that drew me to foxes because it is so relatable to me. Oftentimes, if I cannot have something, I convince myself that its not something I wanted in the first place, just as the fox did with the grapes. Lastly, the story of The Fox and the Mosquitos  interested me because it is such a wise story. I was really surprised while reading it because I had almost an epiphany moment. It is so true that should the hedgehog shoo away the mosquitos for the fox, only more would come that were even more hungry and suck him dry. This kind of insight is not something I had really thought about before but is so true. I'm not 100% sure how it applies to my life right now, but I am confident it will at some time and would be a valuable lesson to remember. 

The Fox and the Mosquitos. Illustration by Walter Crane's Baby's Own Aesop (1887)

I did not enjoy any of the wolf stories because I thought the wolf was downright mean. This is probably an indication that you will not see many mean characters in my stories. Maybe I should write one just to practice that style of writing? I don't even know what I would say in the dialogue. 

The last story that caught my attention was the story of The Cat-Maiden. While this story almost falls into the "unrealistic" category with The Lion in Love, I still liked it because I think it teaches a very valuable lesson. Beings will never abandon their true nature, so its important to accept them as they are. You wouldn't expect a cat to not act like a cat, so don't expect a jerk to act kind and gentle or vice versa. Granted, everyone has their moments but they will always revert to their true nature. This is, unfortunately, something I've forgotten at times and would have done better to remember. 

Generally, I've really enjoyed how both the Bible stories from last week and the Classical stories from this week teach lessons subtly from the story. This is something I would really like to incorporate into my writing because I feel like it makes it so much more meaningful. I will definitely need practice, however, because I feel like this skill is difficult to master.