Feedback Focus

Honestly, I don’t think that I’m incredibly likely to use any of these strategies heavily in the future.  I don’t know that any of them helped me to comprehend the story overly much, and they definitely affected my reading in different ways than I expected.

I think that reading out loud is the most likely to be useful to me.  There are two very real disadvantages.  The first is that it’s far more convenient to do alone.  I had to leave the room where I’m studying with friends in order to do it, and that’s not always practical.  The other problem was that sometimes when I read out loud it takes me a while to adjust before I pay attention to the story.  I’m thinking too much about reading well at first.  However, I know that sometimes when I’m having trouble focusing on something, reading it slowly out loud REALLY helps.  This wasn’t great for me this time, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a useful skill in the future.

I think the second most likely to be useful is the one where you focus for ten minutes.  This has the advantage of, you know, keeping you focused and probably forcing you to read it twice.  However, I don’t think I’m likely to use it.  College students seem to be perpetually busy, so the idea of allotting more time to something than it actually takes feels improbable.  Also, I really enjoyed reading the story through the first time, and felt very bored the second time.

I don’t think I’ll ever use the other strategy.  It interrupted the flow of the story too much for my taste, and I think it actually detracted from my understanding of the story.  I hadn’t realized how often I look back at what I’ve already read until I couldn’t anymore.  I would want to check to make sure I was remembering a detail correctly, but the paragraph that it was in would be gone.  It was frustrating.

Personally, I tend to just like reading a story through, slowly.

(Reading Books)

Tech Tip: Google Site Website

Hello, everyone!:)  I've just set up my website for my storybook project.  It can be found here.  Enjoy!

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part A

· I really like this idea: That the boy is looking for fear but cannot find it. Can I tell a story with a different quality substituted? Like, someone is looking for selfishness, or shame, or pride, or weakness? Or, perhaps, I could turn the story on its head, and have someone looking for courage and unable to come across it, no matter the circumstance?

· Ooooh I could tell a similar story, but the youth could end up being afraid of the maidens because they’re so beautiful.

· … He ended up being afraid when a bird in his soup startled him. That was kind of a let down, to be honest. I like my idea better. Or he could have been afraid of the responsibility of being Shah.

· A lot of Middle Eastern stories seem to emphasis the big deal of having children (and especially a son). Could I use this?

· Wow, I’m left super curious about what the dervish wanted to know if the youth knew.

· I don’t really feel like this story was resolved. Maybe I can just write a story where stuff happens and there’s not really a conclusion…

· There seems to be a theme of animals turning into maidens. I could roll with that. Or, maybe, I could tell a story about animals where humans are just kind of milling around, doing their thing, but then a maiden turns into a fish or something, and another fish falls in love with her. Basically, maybe I could flip the story inside out.

· Why do these sons never know their father’s occupations?

· I feel sad for the Peri queen and her little bird L.

· What if the Peri didn’t want to marry the Padishah? I don’t particularly like the Padishah.

· I could definitely use the theme of the jealous friend.

(The Crow-Peri)

Bibliography:  Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales, by Ignacz Kunos

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part B

· One of Hariswami’s first thoughts when he sees that his wife is missing is to wonder if she’s mad at him. If I were to use a story based on this story, I wonder if I could use that in a humorous way. Or play up tensions in a relationship.

· Wow, this dude is really messed up over the fact that his wife is missing (understandable).

· The charitable woman is great. What if I wrote this story and made her into a little girl or something resembling innocence or something?

· Hmm and then she’s falsely accused. That could continue to go with the innocence thing.

· I’d rather do something to make it funny, though.

· But no matter what, if it ends in someone innocent being blamed, it’ll make me sad. So maybe I shouldn’t use this story, because I don’t want to write a sad story two weeks in a row.

· So Pearl really doesn’t want to get married, but a bunch of people want to marry her. Could I turn that into some other sort of not wanting something?

· The king goes to the house of the thief by pretending to be a thief

· Oh, good. Pearl fell in love with the guy.

· Then she was going to kill herself with him, so a god offered her a boon, and she chose to make him live. This is so weird. What if she was a really good dancer, but wouldn’t enter a dance competition with anyone except this guy she liked who got himself banned from the competition, and she got him back in? Or something like that?

· Also, just because she likes him people start calling her his wife. Shouldn’t he get some say?

· Wow! The king was faithful! That makes me so happy.

· Could I write a different story with the moral “if fate opposed, even a virtue that has been painfully acquired does not profit, but rather injures.”

(He Comforted Her)

Bibliography:  Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur Ryder

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part A

· A theme in the first riddle is the difference between the love of a father, the love of a son, and the love of a lover. That could be usable in some sort of modernization or something.

· Also, there’s the theme that “Great-minded people do not waver until they have kept their promises, even at the cost of life.” I like that.

· The three suitors thing happened again (both times based solely on her looks).

· In fact, everyone’s falling in love over looks.

· I love the sentence “She robbed the moon of its beauty and White of his heart.”

· Wow, I’m so annoyed at the husband and brother. It was almost going to be Romeo and Juliette-esque, but then it was just silly instead. Or at least it was stupid of the husband. The brother is slightly more understandable.

· The older brother is trying to push the unpleasant task onto his younger brothers.

· These seem like really arbitrary specialties. I could update it and just have some random skills that they have and are fighting over. I feel like these specialties are actually curses, not blessings.

· The king things the cotton guy is cleverest. That makes no sense! Having sensitive skin is not the same as being clever!

· Huh… Grace would be embarrassed to have to choose a suitor herself, rather than her father marrying her off. That’s interesting. I wonder if I could use it.

· These stories seem to value strength and bravery over other merits.

· I could also update the story of the three delicate wives (although I might change it from wives to daughters). How could they be super sensitive nowadays? And would that be ok, or just super inconvenient?

· Alternatively, I could choose one of the sensitive wives and tell a story from her perspective. Like “A Day in the Life of Someone Who Can’t Breathe Without being Injured.”

(the goblin in the tree)

Bibliography:  Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur Ryder