Week 4 Storytelling: Everest

Personal Journal of  Christopher McCandless

March 17th, 1754. Base of Mount Everest.

As I prepare for this tremendous journey in my life, I am left with one thought in my mind. What will my view be like from the top? Will it be too cloudy to see, or will it be clear skies as far my eyes can see. I am left pondering this moment and cannot shake it until I see for sure. 

April 12th, 1754. Camp II. Elevation: 14,514 ft. 

The journey has just began for me I unfortunately must say. The weather is bad. It has not stopped since we have set foot on this damn mountain. I wish only for warmth and protection from this treacherous weather. I wish only to make it home alive. 

May 3rd, 1754. Return to Base. LAST ENTRY. 

This is the day my life was taken by cruel mother nature. The weather has only worsted. An avalanche has taken the rest of the crew; I am the lone survivor. As I sit in this snow slowly dying, I have one and only thought left in my mind. Why did I ever decide to take such a journey...

(Moments before Christopher's last breath, A rescue helicopter had taken him off the cruel unforgiving mountain and restored his health. Three years have now passed since this journey and Chris is returning to conquer Mount Everest once and for all.)

Personal Journal of  Christopher McCandless (Continued)

March 12th, 1757. Round II: Base. 

I sit here once again not thinking about the past, but focusing on the future. I am unsure for what it holds. I am not 100% sure why I have returned, maybe call me foolish. I must defeat this harsh beast after cheating death from it once before. Has my luck ran out, or am I still on a winning streak. The future can only say for sure. 

May 9th, 1757. Goal Achieved. 

I sit here on the top of Everest, kissing her unforgiving fists. I remembered her all too well on the journey up. Words cannot express the view, if only my words could capture this moment forever. I must not waist this moment writing. I must take in what I have accomplished. 

(That was Christoper's last and final journal entry. He died in his journey down from the mountain. An avalanche had taken him and his entire crews lives. Chris paid his life determined to do what he did not finish the first time. Some may call his actions foolish and that he asked for death, regardless he died a happy man having accomplished his main goal in life.) 

(Mount Everest: Source)

Author's Note

Okay, so this is a pretty long stretch from the original story. I tried to keep the same moral of the story, but use a completely different style of writing. The original story this is adapted from included two brothers. One of the brothers goes on a journey trying to awake his "luck" so he can live a better life. He ends up helping everyone else besides himself. In the end, he loses his life because he makes foolish decision and does not take advantage of any of the opportunities given to him. I tried to incorporate this into my story as well. Christopher returned to conquer Mount Everest, but it proved to be too much and he had also made a foolish decision that cost him his life. 

Bibliography

The Man Who Went to Wake His Luck which was translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Persian Takes Continued

This is one of the most creative stories I have read so far. I could almost predict what was going to happen in the end; the final clue given was that the poor brother never asked Luck what his future holds. The poor brother was too concerned helping others and giving them their answers than finding an answer for himself. I think this story is implying that only so much should be done for others and that time should always be set aside for yourself, no matter the circumstances. I also noticed how both this story and my last reading diary from Persian Tales both contained a wolf in the story. I also caught a little bit of gender discrimination in this story, maybe because it is so old and the Persian tradition is much different than the American traditions. There was a woman king in the story whose people would not listen to her solely because she was a woman. The Poor brother passed up marrying this woman "king" and  also splitting all the gardeners gold coins that were buried. I think this story is also implying that everyone should take advantage of the opportunities given to them. In this case, the poor brother failed to take advantage of any of the opportunities presented to him and also did not care to find out his very own luck, resulting in the final death of him. I found it interesting how the brother's "luck" was a physical person who was sleeping in a cave; it was also interesting how luck stated that he was supposed to be asleep for many more years. Why was this mans luck supposed to be sleeping for this long? Was everyone's luck sleeping in caves for years and years?

(The Poor Brother Awakening His Luck: Source)

These thoughts were recorded after reading The Man Who Went to Wake His Luck which was translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer. 

Week 4 Reading Diary: Persian Tales

I think this story is very interesting because it is told from the perspective of animals; more specifically goats and a wolf. This story incorporates a very important life lesson not to take any shortcuts in life; by taking shortcuts the wolf ends up getting all of his teeth pulled out. It is funny how the wolf not only took shortcuts that led to his downfall, but also gorged himself on too much water and could not jump over the stream resulting in him falling in and ultimately being defeated by the goat. Just as I expected, this Persian tale displays some very important morals in life that can apply to anyone. It shows how taking the easier way and being lazy ends up in downfall. If you want to succeed in life, you must take the more difficult path and constantly push yourself for success. The wolf thought he was smart in the beginning by painting his foot red to fool the younger goats, but in the end he was defeated by their mother because he was lazy and took shortcuts. In college especially, I have learned that success does not come easy. Perseverance and determination are needed in order to achieve any final goals. By not taking any shortcuts or being lazy, the mother goat ended up saving all her babies and returning home after defeating the foolish wolf who thought he could outsmart the goats.

(Mother Goat: Source)

These thoughts were accumulated during reading The Wolf and the Goat, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer.

Week 3: Storybook Topic and Styles

Topic

The topic of my Storybook has not been chosen from my previous brainstorming post, but rather chosen from my last storytelling assignment from week 3 regarding creation. After creating my own story about creation and man, I am captivated to go much further in depth about this subject with my storybook for this course. Many of the stories I want to choose for my storybook come from the Adam and Eve unit of the Untexbook; some of the specific stories I want to use include are The Creation,  Paradise, and The Darkness. I believe with these stories, and some others within the Adam and Eve unit, I should have more than a sufficient amount of readings to further detail my own story in my finished storybook.

(Creation of the Universe: Source)

Bibliography

1. The Creation, King James Bible: Genesis 1-2
2. The Legends of the Jews, Louis Ginzberg: Book 1, Chapter 2 Adam
3. The Forgotten Books of Eden, Rutherford H. Platt, Jr: The First Book of Adam and Eve 13-14-15

Possible Styles

Perspective of the Creator. This would be my first and main approach for my creation story adaptation. I really want to stick to the same theme as my last week 3 storytelling post, and by telling it the creators perspective it allows for details of each and every different planet contained in the universe, rather than keeping the focus on just one specific "Earth". I plan on splitting the different sections of the story up by century, following all the different planets each century and tracking their progress individually. I think this would make for the most interesting read!

Native Storyteller. This perspective would be from a native storyteller on a specific planet. I am taking  a "Native American Philosophy" course this semester and have been learning a lot about their spiritual ways of life. It would be cool to think that on one planet out there, there are native people that know the exact truth about the creation of our universe and pass the story down generation after generation much like the Native Americans do now with stories from the wise elders.

Animals. The perspective of different animals on different planets would be a very interesting take on my own creation story. For this style, each section could be broken up into different planets; describing the details of each different one from the perspective of all the different animals each planet contains.

Reincarnation. Being interested in the though of reincarnation, this style would follow the many different lives of one soul who is "reborn" again each time on a different planet. This style could also be broken up by each different planet and follow the new reborn life of the single soul on each one. This style also allows for description of each different planet which I think would be most interesting to read.

Storytelling Week 3

The dawn of time has come. God has started life on thousands if not millions of different planets scattered all throughout our universe. Once he spoke the words, we all entered into existence for the first time all together. His planning was precise; leaving enough light years between each planet so that they could never discover one another. He was to leave us all be and watch what we would become. Many planets of life had short lives by being destroyed by meteors and asteroids within the first 500 years or so. Many planets had tremendous advances in science and technology and many planets were still living in what would be considered the dark ages of their lifetime. Free will was key in all this planning from God; He chose to let us decide our fate for ourselves. His one and only plan for the future, is to show the last final standing planet all of the universes beauty. This last planet will be so far advanced from all the others that they will be the only ones who can truly comprehend the universe in its entirety and harness all its energy it has to offer to make even further advances for themselves. This final standing planet was to be called "Earth" by the people who habitat it. There was a period of downfall for this planet though, between the years of 1950 and 2200, heavily pollution almost caused global warming to end life as they once knew it. A life saving change occurred in the 23rd century, their breakthroughs in science allowed them to reverse the process of global warming prolonging the life of "Earth" well into the 51st century, where God finally showed them the entire universe and his final plans.

(Creation: Source)

Author's Note:

This is my adaptation to the creation of our universe as told in the Bible in Genesis chapters 1-3. How life was started on this planet has always been of great fascination to me, I really enjoy pondering all the different possibilities. I love watching science fiction movies like Prometheus or 2001/2010: A Space Odyssey that involve the creation of mankind. Prometheus alone has really been my main inspiration for this adaptation of this creation story. Here is its IMDB page if you care to get more info on the film!

Bibliography:

Here is the link to the original "Eve" post regarding creation. This original story is from chapters 1-3 of Genesis in the King James Bible.  

Week 3 Reading Diary (Continued): Adam and Eve

The punishment of Adam and Eve after betraying God and eating the forbidden fruit sounds harsh to me, but after reading "If I had let My wrath fall heavily upon thee, I should have destroyed thee, and had I turned thee into darkness, it would have been as if I killed thee.", I guess it could have been a lot worse. Adam and Eve were given one rule to follow: do not eat the forbidden fruit. How hard could this have been? This story describes one of man's greatest downfalls, temptation. Temptations are placed all around us in this world, sometimes unknowingly, and man has been known to fall for these temptations whatever they may appear as. This "forbidden fruit" represents all of life's temptations. It sounds dumb that they could not follow this one and only rule they were given, but when you take a step back and think about the meaning, it describes man very accurately. We are imperfect creatures with many flaws; giving into these temptations can be considered just one of these flaws. God could not take control over Adam and Eve's actions because then there would be no free will and they would not be able to think for themselves. God gave them 12 hours of darkness as part of their punishment; does this mean he created the moon and physically sent our planet into orbit around our sun for this darkness to occur? When was the rest of the universe created? Were there other planets that creation form God happened on besides just Earth? What if there is an ocean of "Earths" out there that were all suddenly spoke into existence by God all at the same time, and God is watching for the final outcomes of each and every different one. I believe we will manage to kill ourselves off slowly but surely by scavenging all of this Earth's precious resources like hungry vouchers always craving to do more and push the limits further and further.

(Darkness engulfing the world for the first time. Source)

These thoughts were taken during the reading of Adam and Eve: The Darkness contained within The Forgotten Books of Eden, edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr.

Week 3 Reading Diary: Eve

I am very interested in possibly creating a story that rhymes. This thought came to me as I read "...And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise..." I find it interesting how Eve was also made directly from Adams rib. This makes me think about how far back woman's rights go. I feel like the thought of the mother being a "stay-at-home" wife dates very far back and though I do not believe it, I feel like this creation story has had some influence on the way the woman has been viewed by society in the past. What if both Adam and Eve were created in parallel in this story? Would we still have all the same views of women as a society in general? Would we have had so many issues regarding woman's rights in the past? Why was voting such a huge issue for women at some point? The same judgement's can be applied to racism against blacks I think. Maybe all our flaws throughout history can be connected back to these early creation stories...Food for thought.

(Creation of Eve from the rib of Adam. Source)

These thoughts were accumulated while reading through the story titled Eve within the Biblical unit of the UnTextbook. The story source is form the King James Bible: Genesis 2/3. Here is the link to the section.