The genie grants you a wish. What is it?
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Oh no, I read the myth of Midas, I’m not falling for that one.
PROMPT: Genie
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Category Archives: mythology
PROMPT: Fictional Animal
Daily writing prompt
If you could pick any fictional animal to be your lifelong companion (like a Pokémon or fantasy pet), what would it be?
None of the fictional animals I’m aware of (e.g. Dragons, Minotaur, Hydras, Werewolves, Fu-Lions, etc.) would make good “lifelong companions” as they would not be conducive to a life that was long. Perhaps the kind of foxes one sees in Chinese and Japanese folklore, though those relationships also usually end poorly (not to mention being weirdly sexual.)
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PROMPT: Biggest Dream
PROMPT: Close to Home
Daily writing prompt
Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.
Exhibition: Bigfoot! (a.k.a. The Sasquatch Museum.) It’s not very close, but it is by far the closest of this nation’s many Bigfoot and Sasquatch related collections.
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BOOK: “Stories and Myths of Eight Immortals” Trans. by Li Yanjia and Nathaniel Hu
Stories and Myths of Eight Immortals by AnonymousMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Available online – Internet Archives
This is a fine collection of stories about the adventures of the Eight Immortals (mostly as individuals, but with a few stories that feature the whole group.) There are twenty-eight chapters, but a few less than that of stories because the first chapter is an introduction to the Eight Immortals, and there are a couple of chapters at the end that discuss the origins of cultural artifacts associated with the Eight Immortals.
The stories are pulled from varied sources. I would give the stories a five, but this edition is loaded with grammatical mistakes — to the point of being distracting and unpleasant to read. It reads not like a present-day Google Translate translation, but rather as if it was being spoken by someone with an uneven (remedial to elegant) grasp of English. [Not everywhere, but enough to be problematic.]
The stories themselves are engaging, often have moral, and are quick reads (mostly a page, a few more than three pages.)
If you can tolerate reading through patches of bad grammar, this is not a bad collection of stories and information about the Eight Immortals, but if it’s too much to stomach, you might want to look elsewhere. The stories themselves are widely available, though not necessarily in English and, if so, not necessarily collected into a single volume. With editing, this would be an excellent collection of stories.
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Family Resemblance [Kyōka]
Chinese temple pond:
dragonhead tortoise sculpture.
live turtles swim
and sun in those waters.
do they see the likeness?
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DAILY PHOTO: Bronze Guardian Lion
Dragons [Lyric Poem]
I see Dragons on the walls
Of temples and market stalls.
From Shanghai to London way,
I've seen them by night and day.
I've seen them skewered by St. George
And belching flame like a forge.
I saw one once in Baku,
But never saw one in a Zoo.
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BOOKS: “A Man Was Going Down the Road” by Otar Chiladze
A Man Was Going Down the Road by Otar ChiladzeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site
This is the English translation of a novel considered to be one of the most important literary works of Georgia (i.e. the country, not the state) in the twentieth century. The multigenerational tale adapts from Greek Mythology, most notably the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece and Daedalus and Icarus (the former taking place early in the book and the latter towards the end.)
Given its pacing, multigenerational sprawl, and the rambling ordinary life interactions between big events, this book isn’t of the highest readability, but that has its benefits. Supposedly, the author was taking digs at the Soviets and their invasions and operations in Georgia, but – apparently – the Soviet censors never made the connection due to the abstruse nature of the story. Otherwise, we might not have this book to read, today.
Regardless of my comments about readability, the book does have a number of positive things going for it. I found the translation to have some beautiful stretches of language. There was an opening paragraph of one of the latter chapters that floored me. Also, it’s not all soap opera, the more intensely plot-driven bits are compelling, most notably the Golden Fleece story.
I’d highly recommend this book for readers who don’t mind the challenge of literary fiction pacing and everyday minutiae.
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“Lethe” by Walter de la Mare [w/ Audio]
Only the Blessed of Lethe's dews
May stoop to drink. And yet,
Were their Elysium mine to lose,
Could I, sans all repining, choose
Life's sorrows to forget?
