Let's Talk Mythology and Folklore

So...Twine. Hypertext stories with divergent paths and multiple endings are really fun. I still remember when I had those actual physical books where you could follow different paths and get different endings by simply turning to different pages as instructed. Honestly, they were some of my favorite books from my childhood. I delighted in trying to work out all the possible endings and always had a lot of fun doing so. So with Twine, I felt strangely nostalgic. However, I was also very excited. I love the idea of writing my own story with a complex diverging path that people can spend hours exploring. In fact, I began this assignment at around noon and have been playing around with Twine for about 6 hours now. In that time, I wrote and discarded a lot of ideas and ended settling on a simple little story for now. If you're curious to check it out, I've actually embedded the story into a blog post! Just look for the Twine label on my main page. Give it a play and comment on t...

Pride goeth before the fall and all that... The Farmer and His Sons Oftentimes the best lessons are taught through a little trickery.  To this extent, it is important that the sons engaged in the activity in order to understand the rewards that it gave. The father understood that he would have to trick them to get their willing participation.  The reported moral of the story is that "Industry is itself a treasure." I've heard variations on this story several times. It would be fairly easy to write a new version of it. The Cat and the Birds Be wise and shun the quack. A lesson that I think is really relevant today. It's best to take your advice from those with the proper education and experience. Not from people who looked up the topic on Google.  I'm looking at you anti-vaxxers. "Dressing up" as or pretending to be an authority does not make you one. Interacting with frauds can be dangerous.  The Astrologer Take care of th...

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't listen... The Wolf and the Kid Did the kid know that the Wolf's piping would catch the attention of the Shepherd Dogs? The reported moral is "Do not let anything turn you from your purpose." but there a couple of others. If you're going to go out, may as well go out having fun. (Kind of.) Listen to your elders. Don't be in a hurry to grow up. The Tortoise and the Ducks Kind of a bummer. Punished for curiosity. But also for hubris or vanity. Morals: Know when to keep your mouth shut. Hubris will lead to your downfall. (Literally) Don't piss off the gods? (You should've gone to that wedding sir.) Maybe: Be content with what you have. I'm not a big fan of being punished for curiosity but that moral could be changed more to "Be cautious when adventuring into the unknown." The Monkey and the Dolphin Lies often lead to more lies. Don't speak of things that y...

Short stories require big effort... 140-Character Story: It Bites So difficult. So painful. The snow, the wind, and the cold all bite. But not as bad as those wolves. Run faster and leave the others behind. Wolf and Snow 280-Character Story: See Them Again In the normal course of events, I would've been delighted to see my mother. Always loving and caring. I really miss her. And here she is in front of me. A happy reunion waiting to happen. But it can't happen. She's been gone too long. She's not real. So why can I feel her hug me? Author's Note: I swear I'm not a sad or gloomy person. That last story may have been a little on the depressing or hopeful side depending on how you look at it. Don't worry, my mother is alive and well and will probably stay that way for a long time. But I do know the feeling of wanting to see a loved one again. Hug them one last time. Even if it might be a dream... The first story was really a fun one to writ...