During our first week we have moved through the basic hero’s journey and read books I and II of Ovid’s Metamorphosis. By this point you should be comfortable with reading/journaling the two works; if you are having trouble please drop me a line.

Your assignment—due Monday, March 21st—is as follows:

• Read through chapter 1 of Hero with a Thousand Faces and book III of Metamorphoses
• Write an extended comparison between a myth and another work (of any period, medium, or genre). In this essay you should (1) prove that the two works are similar either in theme or structure and (2) explain how the newer work alters the theme or structure of the myth to attain a different result.

To prepare for your essay, try to recall other works that have a similar plot or message as you read book III of Ovid (or look through your notes on previous books). If you have trouble making a connection, find a myth you enjoy and break it down into its most basic structure. For example, we will read “Pyramus and Thisbe” ((The story goes that two lovers are separated by a wall (and families that don’t want them to be together) so they decide to meet under a mulberry tree one night. Our fair maiden goes first, dropping her white scarf on the way. In a twist only possible in Ovid, a lion (freshly bloodied from a meal) drops by to gnaw on the scarf (or use it as a napkin). Our young lad sees the lion and bloodied scarf and, heart-broken, kills himself on the spot. Our impatient maiden returns, sees her beau dead, and kills herself with the same knife.)) in book III. We can break that down into “boy and girl in love but separated, die of tragic irony.” You should be recalling Romeo and Juliet, as Shakespeare ripped off the story for his play, but that connection isn’t all that interesting. How about Shrek? He and Fiona are physically together but separated by a dark secret. This would make a more interesting comparison/contrast because the structure is similar (that’s the comparison bit) but the ending and moral are different (the contrast).

We decided to have the final drafts of your research papers finished by last Friday to allow the final three weeks for work on our adaptations. While Boreas has meddled with our class schedule, your research papers should be nearly completed. I will look through the documents tomorrow (Tuesday). If you have finished, please send me an email with the document attached. ((To do this from Docs: open your document, go to File, then Download As… and choose “Word.” Open the document, make sure the formatting is correct, and attach it to an email to me.))

If you find yourself stuck or want me to review your work, send me an email and be sure your work is shared with me through a Google Document.

…and Adaptations

Your next step is to tell an original story using either the “Verbubble” or the moral of a myth. ((While you do not need to adapt the myth you wrote over, your familiarity might help you.)) You have spent the last several weeks discovering and analyzing examples of this for your paper, but to be clear: your final story should not be a simple re-telling of the myth, but a new work that carries the message or structure further, thereby extending the line of influence you have traced in your research.

Past stories have been told through musical compositions, poetry (both epic and limerick), comics and longer graphic works, prose, and (once) an interpretive dance. The medium is up to you. Again, email me with any questions that arise.

Your goal for this assignment is to research your story or archetype, discover diverse examples, and write a paper explaining how each example differs (in moral, tone, purpose, argument, medium, etc.) while still maintaining elements of the original.

You have already chosen your stories and “verbubbled” them, reducing them to their bare essentials. At this point you should be looking around for interesting mutations of the essential story or character type. With each new source, note similarities and differences from those already on your list. We will continue our research and begin outlines next week.

As a review of what we discussed Wednesday, here is a video I made last year to help with a library research assignment for my seniors. ((For the record: I was researching “nerd culture” for a paper on Twilight. Don’t judge me…)) Commentary on the video is below.

After accessing the tulsalibrary.org, I navigate to the EBSCO databases, which is an aggregation of many peer-reviewed journals and other sources, and log in. I select “all” of the sources, but you could pick those you think will be most relevant.

(Jump to the next paragraph if you are familiar with Boolean operators in search engines.)

After searching “nerd,” it becomes clear that the term is also an acronym for “non-erosive reflux disease.” Because I didn’t want to read through 500+ articles about the disease, I include another search term, “reflux,” which isn’t likely to appear in the articles I’m looking for, and change the operator from “and” to “not.” In this way I can exclude any article that includes that word.

While I use Word to collect my notes and sources, it would be a good idea to use Google Docs instead. That way you don’t need to mess with corrupted files or remembering your flash drive.

As I read through the list, I open each article that might be valuable in a new tab. ((To do this, left-click and choose “Open in a New Tab.”)) I’m not reading them, just looking for sources at this point.

After finding 10 or so potential sources (note the number of tabs at the top of my screen), I skim through each, closing those that aren’t related to my topic. Some aren’t available online, so I close those as well. ((If you find one that seems indispensible, you can ask for an inter-library loan of the journal and pick it up in person at your local branch.))

If I find something interesting (don’t say journal, Stallings!), like you do when you’re journaling (dang.), I copy a chunk into a Word document ((You can see that I’ve already begun my outline in this example. I also remove those pesky line-breaks with a search-and-replace.)), add an in-text citation, and continue pulling information. Once I’ve decided that this will be a source I will likely use, I head over to the OWL at Purdue and look up the citation guidelines for an “Article in a Scholarly Journal that also Appears in Text.” I pop that into my Works Cited ((This example has an annotated bibliography, which requires me to explain how I used each source underneath each citation. You are not required to do this.)) and keep searching.

Rinse, repeat.

See you all Tuesday; enjoy the weekend!