A snow delay...
Period 1:
Animal Farm test
Review vocabulary
Period 2:
No class due to snow delay
Keep reading American Born Chinese & working on your memoirs.
Here's the promised link to explore Chinese mythology... I recommend looking at The Chinese Stage, Chinese Takeout, and the Chinese Lion Dance.
Period 3:
Our Town review and assignment of roles for Act I
Working on Act I
Begin Act II
Period 5:
Writing to an assigned prompt
Preparing to "publish or perish" - publishing on Friday
Thought for the day...
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan
5 comments:
Origin of the komodo dragon
Once upon a time, there was a dragon who roamed the forest. His name was Komodo. This dragon was a magnificent creature. He stood as a creature like no other.. He was a huge beast, 20 feet tall. His dark scales shimmered as the light reflected off of them, his wings were large and translucent, and his fiery breath was a magnificent mix of blue and white. Truly, he was among the most beautiful of creatures. And he knew it.
He would walk through the forest, with an air of nobility, smiling through his snow white fangs. When he was young, the other animals of the forest would gaze upon him in envy.
However, this dragon was arrogant and conceded, and as he grew, he became meaner and meaner to those he did not think were worthy of speaking to him. It had gotten so bad, that by age 150 (about 20) he would simply roar at anyone he did not like. It happened that one day a smaller, less appealing dragon happened to cross his path. In walking by, he accidentally bumped into Komodo. This infuriated him.
“How dare you cross my path, you ignorant little lizard!? Do you not know who I am!?” Komodo yelled.
The smaller dragon politely replied, “No, sir, I don’t believe I do. I am new to the area, traveling with my father. I do apologize for bumping into you, and I hope that you’ll forgive me.”
“Forgive you!? Look what you’ve done!” komodo pointed his head in the direction of his left foreleg.
The small dragon looked as hard as he could, straining his eyes to see what he had done. Finally, he found one scale, not shining as brilliantly as all the rest. “But my friend, it is merely a scratched scale. Such things easily grow back.”
“Yes, but until then I’ll be hideously ugly!!” Komodo roared, and he threw the dragon pup against a nearby tree, where it screamed in pain. It’s call summoned a dragon larger even than komodo. With a huge crash the dragon elder landed. He stared at the tiny dragon, his son, and then at komodo.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SON!?” he boomed.
Komodo simply replied., “I was teaching the brat to respect his better.”
“HIS BETTER? WHAT HAS HE DONE TO WRONG YOU?” the large dragon asked.
“He scuffed one of my beautiful scales,” komodo replied.
“AND FOR THAT YOU SMASH MY SON AGAINST A TREE!?”
“the boy needed to be taught a lesson,” komodo retorted.
“SUCH A DISGUSTING ATTITUDE!! LET’S SEE WHAT YOU REALLY LOOK LIKE!!” and with that, the large dragon pinned komodo to a large rock face and continued to put more and more pressure on Komodo’s chest.
“What are you doing!? You’re ruining my shiny coat of scales!”
“AGAIN YOU THINK ONLY OF YOURSELF.” The large dragon shook his head, then crushed komodo’s chest. Out of komodo’s mouth shot a small lizard, about 5 feet long, his scales, dull, his skin wrinkled, his teeth yellow, and his beautiful, beautiful wings gone.
“….What…what have you done to me!?” Komodo, yelled.
“I HAVE REVEALED YOUR TRUE SELF,” the large dragon replied.
“I’m hideous,” Komodo whined.
“YES YOU ARE,” the large dragon laughed. “YOU ARE AS UGLY AS YOUR PERSONALITY. NO BE GONE. I CANNOT BEAR TO LOOK AT YOU ANY LONGER.”
Slowly, komodo turned around and crawled away, no longer beautiful, and no longer happy.
But deep, deep down, he knew he deserved it
The moral of the story is this: It doesn’t matter how beautiful someone is. Soon enough, everyone will see them for who they truly are.
Tim,
Nicely done. The details work especially well in developing this piece. I am looking forward to reading your next fable.
The Chinese folktale/myth that I read was called "Journey to the West" from the Chinese Stage website. I basically read the tale of how the Monkey King came to be and how one day the Monkey King realized that he wasn't going to be around forever. Thus began his quest for eternal life, following the advice of a wise gibbon about how the Buddhas, Immortals and Sages were not subjected to death. The Monkey King searched all over the place for an immortal or sage, until eventually finding one. The Immortal he found was named Master Subodhi, and after the Monkey King could understand secret signs, Subodhi agreed to teach the Monkey King the secrets of immortality.
I enjoyed this myth, partially because I enjoy mythology in general, and partially because it had to do with a monkey. This myth actually relates to the book we are reading because the book opens with a story about the Monkey King.
I decided to read "Wu Song the Tiger Slayer." I thought it sounded like a really good story, and I wasn't let down.
Wu Song seemed to me to be an archetypical hero character. He mentions in the story that he had avenged the murder of someone's brother (I'm not sure if it's his), and how he acted as a vigilante to others.
I didn't see why the tiger would pose such a threat to Wu Song; I am assuming it is because tigers are not really part of American culture, but they are prevalent in Chinese culture. They represent strength and toughness.
I thought it was extremely significant when Wu Song hit the tiger in the eye and he began to bleed. There is a proverb (I am not sure if it is Chinese or not) that says "The eyes are the windows to the soul." By Wu Song hitting the tiger in the eye, it showed that was where his weakness was.
I did like this story because it was similar in nature to Hullabaloo and Persepolis (even though Persepolis has a sequel); we are not sure what actually happens to Wu Song. Word of mouth gets around his village that he is the tiger slayer, but whether or not he actually lives up to this title and keeps killing tigers is unknown.
I think Wu Song killed the tiger out of fear. I didn't think that the tiger posed such a big threat to Wu Song, but then again, I have never been a vigilante, nor have I been eye to eye with a tiger without some sort of glass partition separating me from the animal. I don't think I would have killed the tiger, I would have probably just tried to scare it away or give it some wine and food; however, I've never been in that situation, and I really hope I don't have to be in it any time soon.
Is Wu Song extremely famous in China? He sounds like he would be somewhat of a literary hero to the Chinese, kind of like Batman is a literary and pop culture figure to America.
The only tiger that has been in "American Born Chinese" so far is the one that the monkey king killed on the flower fruit island. Perhaps this shows that the Chinese do not take tigers as a good thing; that they might be a bad omen. I am not particuarly sure, I find them to be beautiful creatures.
This story was interesting, and I can't wait to learn more about the culture.
I read the story of Wu Song the Tiger Slayer in The Chinese Sage. It was a story about a man of bravery and courage who stood up to the fight and beat the most ferocious tiger to its death. The lesson or morale of the story was, you can’t be a coward, you must be brave, especially in times of need. He was not afraid, where the rest the people were, sometimes you need to take challenges. You might just earn something from it. – Josh Englert
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