My Daemon

I designed my own daemon after the suggestion was made in class. I entered all the pertinent information and I was given, Nithreus, a snow leopard. The picture they showed was a large white and gray spotted cat; beautiful, intelligent and deadly. Just like me- Ha! Actually it sounded more like my real life daemon, Tigger. She is eighteen years old and hasn't aged a day since five. She managed to mangle my father's enormous hands when he tried to pick her up and bring her inside when he was visiting last May. See, it is forbidden to touch someone else's daemon! But for some reason we don't mind it when my husband touches Tigger...hmmm!

Universal Trees

The picture of the universal tree reminded me of Mary's tree in The Subtle Spyglass. That is exactly how I pictured it, but from the perspective of the Mulafa's. From here she could see everything she needed to see to save the trees and save Dust. It was a universal point of observation and when it was no longer needed to help save Dust, it passed on becoming Dust in itself. Its arms stretch out mirroring the currents of Dust spreading out over the world and the many universes that touch it.
Image from the Joseph Campbell Foundation

Dreams

Typically I dream every night and I can usually remember them when I wake up. But since Dr. Sexson demanded, assigned even, us to each have a dream we could remember I haven't had one that didn't disappear upon waking up. How's that for the power of suggestion? As a child I had recurring nightmares where I could hear someone walking up the stairs to my room and when he opened the door I saw that it was none other than... Michael Jackson??? Now remember, I was born in 1981, I LOVED Michael and in 1985 Thriller was huge and scary. Especially Vincent Price's laughing...I would hear it in my dreams.

Could I have known something that everyone else didn't; that he was a pedophile or at the very least had a bizarre attachment to children. This may have been Alice's feelings towards Dodgson as she grew older. His books were huge and scary, and Alice must have felt a little uncomfortable as she grew older being one of his special "child friends." This could be why she stopped seeing him and never answered his letters, because after the novelty of his attention wore off she could see his true intentions? Maybe her dreams got the best of her too, I know I stopped listening to Jackson when he started showing up in my dreams!

The City of Ur

I was thinking about the term "Ur Text" and why it sounded so familiar to me at the time Dr. Sexson mentioned it. It didn't hit me until tonight, as I was sitting in my creative non-fiction class, listening to a classmate read his essay of place. The city of Ur in ancient Babyon, now modern day Iraq is the site of one of the oldest civilizations in recorded history. Therefore it is considered a birthplace of civilization and knowledge, and that all we know has sprung forth from this ancient city. This is why the term "Ur Text" means a source text, a text from which all others have sprung forth. Just like Dionysis sprung forth from Zeus' thigh and Momotaro sprang forth from the peach, each was created from essentially nothing. All that has been uncovered from the city of Ur is the Great Ziggurat and the royal tombs. These structures remain only as foundations. The Great Ziggurat seems to me to be the foundation of the Egyptian pyramids, a mere stepping stone in human history. Just as Ur texts are the foundation, the source of our myths, fairy tales, and children's literature.

My Japanese Fairy Tale

Like my blog about Dutch fairy tales, here's one on Japanese fairy tales. When I was 13, I went to stay with my aunt and uncle (he was working for DuPont in Tokyo)for over three weeks. It was the scariest, most exciting, most stressful, most fantastic (sublime really) experience I had ever had up until that point. Exactly like a fairy tale!

I was on a plane for over sixteen hours (that's a hell of a long portal), and we arrived in Japan before we had left the U.S. (because of the time change). The food was different, but delicious. I ate everything I was given to try (chocolate covered ants, dried sardines, sashimi- real raw fish that they killed in front of us)and drank everything put in front of me (Cal-Pis,its like gatorade, milk from a vending machine in 90 degree weather, real loose leaf green tea, saki of course- there's no drinking age in Japan).I was exactly like Alice going through the portal and into Wonderland, eating and drinking everything in sight. Unfortunately I never grew or shrank, but I did pick up and expensive taste for sashimi and saki and that only shrinks my husbands wallet!

My aunt took me to a flea market surrounded by Buddist and Shinto shrines and there I found one of my favorite books as a child/adult. It was a picture book of different Japanese fairy tales. Most of them were traditionally performed in Karibuki theater to the accompaniment of the shamisen (a stringed instrument that is plucked to make the sound most recognizable from Japanese music). But these adult myths were displaced and re-told to children with beautiful illustrations, of course.

Japanese Fairy Tales

My favorite is Momotaro, the Little Peach Boy. His mother desperately wanted a child, so she wished for one. And what do you know, one day she found a peach floating in the river and inside it was a little boy.

When he felt he was smart enough and strong enough he went to fight the devils on Devil's Island. On the way he ran into a dog, a monkey and a pheasant who helped him defeat the devil in a great act of bravery.

You'll have to read the tale to find out how it ends. Does he get married, or rich, powerful, or become a prince?

Test Your Fairy Tale Knowledge

I was doing some research and I found this fun little site,
It has trivia questions from the Brother's Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales and I thought it might be a fun way to brush up on our fairy tales to review for the final. So here it is, good luck!

http://www.brownielocks.com/fairytaletrivia.html