The Chronicles of Cupid
An inside look at Cupid's thoughts while he writes about his adventures with the beautiful Psyche.
Stay Gold
This is a story about a woman that had a lot to learn about greed and a goose with a heart of gold.
Two Lessons
Alex's father teaches him two of the most important lessons in life.
Showing posts with label Portfolio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portfolio. Show all posts
Monday, October 12, 2015
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Week 7 Storytelling: The Two Lessons
Lesson number one: Don't trust entrust any girl you date with all of your secrets until you are married.
Lesson number two: Never choose a friend with light eyes. The inner corner of the eye has to be red, the sclera has to that the inner corner of the eye is red and that the white of the eye is pure white and not brownish or yellow, and the colored part has to be black.
~~
Alex woke up abruptly from his dream. It had been a long time since he last dreamt of his father, but it was always the same dream. Perhaps his father was trying to tell him something all the way from the afterlife?
He rolled over in bed and saw that the other side was empty. His girlfriend, Jane, wasn't there, which was a first. She was always the one that would sleep in as late as possible. He hoisted himself off the bed and got ready for work.
As he made his way down the stairs, he heard some rustling. He stopped at the foot of the stairs to see his girlfriend going through his safe. What was she doing going through his safe? He hadn't told her the passcode. No one knew his passcode. He thought back to his dream and felt his palms become a little sweaty. He couldn't just ignore what he found her doing today, but he couldn't just let it go. He slowly and quietly walked back up the stairs and tried to make his way back down as loudly as possible.
He came down to find her casually lounging on the couch and asked her what she was doing up so early, and she responded "I just wanted to get in some morning exercise!" But he knew that wasn't what she was doing.
He dropped by his friend's apartment to tell them about what his girlfriend was doing this morning, but just as he was about to tell them, he realized something. Jason had green eyes. Mark had yellow eyes. Adam had brown eyes. And Josh... he had black eyes. His revelation stopped him mid-sentence and he suddenly got up to leave, to the bewilderment of his friends.
On his way to work, he heard that a bank was robbed just last night and he concocted a plan to test the integrity of his friends and girlfriend. After he got off work, he went to the store to buy a ski mask and some suspicious looking black clothing.
Once he came home, he tried to act nervous and shaken up. Jane ask him what was wrong and he told her that he had robbed a bank across town that morning and that the people who helped him do it were after him because he took all of the money. He saw her expression change quickly--almost indiscernibly--from concern to something that looked oddly like... contempt... and then back to concern. She smiled sweetly at him and told him not to worry and that she would help him. They decided to sleep at a hotel that night. The next morning, he found himself waking to the sound of "POLICE. OPEN THE DOOR."
The police arrested him and said they had witnesses testifying that he was the robber of the bank the other day. He found out that the witnesses were Jane, Jason, Mark, and Adam. Josh was the only one who barged into the police station adamantly claiming he would do no such thing. At that point, Alex knew it was time to reveal the truth. He told the police officers that he had proof he wasn't the robber. In fact, it was his girlfriend and his three traitorous friends who were the robbers. Jane had made the mistake of using his car as the escape vehicle and it turned out that he had a surveillance system installed. He had a recording of their faces and their plan on a flash drive in his pocket. The police saw the evidence and immediately put the four traitors in jail.
From then on, Alex always thought twice about who would be his friends and who he would trust with his secret.
Rainbow iris.
Source: HudsonAlpha.
Author's Note: For this week, I retold the story of The Man with Five Friends from the Tibetan Folk Tales Unit. I felt like I could write a good story from it and make it slightly dramatic, so I did! I like that there were two lessons that I could go off of.
In the original story, there was a man whose father told him before he died that there were two things he should always remember. "The two things were these: first, when you are married never trust your wife with your secrets until you have ten children; second: choose your friends by their eyes. "Never choose for a friend a man with a light colored eye," he said; "see that the inner corner of the eye is red and that the white of the eye is pure white and not brownish or yellow, and that the colored part is black." He grew up and ended up having friends with eyes that were the colors that his father told him avoid. He wanted to test his wife and his friends by buying a hog and killing it and pretending as if he killed a man. It turns out his wife reported him to the authorities and he was put in prison. The only friend who came and tried to help him was the friend with black irises. After that revelation, he told the truth and got out of jail.
My story differs in that the first lesson was to not trust your girlfriend because I felt like having ten children in this day and age is kind of ridiculous. I also changed the eye colors of his friends and gave them a name. I changed his "crime" to robbery instead of murder as well. Overall, I wanted to give this story a modern touch.
Bibliography:
"The Man with Five Friends" by by A.L. Shelton from Tibetan Folk Tales (1925). Web Source: UN-Textbook.
Bibliography:
"The Man with Five Friends" by by A.L. Shelton from Tibetan Folk Tales (1925). Web Source: UN-Textbook.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Week 4 Storytelling: Stay Gold
Why isn't he here yet?
It's half past three already. He's half an hour late.
He's usually never this late... Oh no, what if something happened?
~~
Moments later, a soft knock on the front door broke Marie's reverie. The Goose finally came. A tad late, but he came nonetheless. Marie let out a sigh of relief.
She stood up from her seat at the kitchen table and strode quickly to the door to let the Goose in. He waddled in and set himself down in the living room. Compared to other geese, he was about twice as big. Because of his size, the first time Marie saw him, she actually wanted to catch him to make some delicious goose soup. That was before he started talking.
She thought back to the days when her daughters had to beg near the crossroads each day and she had to work long night shifts just to make ends meet. It was awful and she wondered how they managed to keep going. The thought of the disgusting, cockroach-ridden, old apartment they used to live in near the cemetery sent her reeling. They were lucky to not have caught anything nasty while living there.
Thanks to the Goose, however, her family eventually moved into a posh neighborhood far from all those bad memories of the past. His monthly "gifts" have provided them with more than enough wealth to live on for the rest of their lives. What was the monthly gift you ask? It was a beautiful golden feather.
Marie remembered that day two years ago when the Goose gave her the first feather. She was running at him with a butcher's knife when he suddenly yelled, "Wait!!! I'm no ordinary goose. You can't kill me!!!" She dropped the knife and just stared at him in confusion. Once the threat of imminent death was gone, he continued, "Look, I have this... power... to think and talk like a human. You probably think you're dreaming at this point. Well go ahead, you can pinch yourself if you don't believe me. I also have an ability to create golden feathers that you can sell for lots of money in exchange for my life. I have seen your daughters while I was flying over the outside market. It's them with the dirty clothes and the matted, ratty hair, right?"
She didn't know what to think of this stalker-ish, fat Goose, but she was certainly interested in that golden feather. She then told him, "Show me the feather and prove to me that it's actually valuable. If this proves wrong,we'll be having roasted goose tonight." He used his beak to pluck a single feather from under his wing and handed it to her. It was beautiful and polished. It felt real, but she couldn't be too sure since she wasn't an expert. She took the feather and the Goose to a jeweler nearby to see how much it would get. She thought it wouldn't be worth more than ten dollars, but to her surprise, the shop owner offered her ten thousand dollars. What the heck, right? It turned out, the feather was made of 100% gold, which was impossible to obtain, even by using the most complex refining process. However, she wasn't too caught up about the details; all she cared about in that moment was the huge lump of cash that she was about to deposit into her bank account.
While plopped on the couch, the Goose began to talk, pulling Marie away from her thoughts. "So I've been thinking about leaving the country. Maybe to Canada or something because you know the moment Donald Trump is able to do well in the presidential polls, you need to skedaddle pronto. Plus, it looks like your family is financially stable now, so you don't need me anymore," he said. Marie froze and panic settled over her. "No, but we do need you. The girls haven't gone to college yet and I don't even have a job right now," she said, trying to throw out any excuse she could. The Goose stared at her blankly and said, "Well, now you have the ability to get a good job and work for your own money."
Her? Work? What a joke. She hadn't worked in the last two years and thinking about the myriad of toilet bowls she had to clean before disgusted her.
The Goose got up and pulled out a golden feather, handed it to her, and said, "Here's the last one. Maybe you should keep it as a souvenir of our friendship and not sell it." She couldn't believe he was serious. Then Marie really panicked, and not knowing what else to do, she grabbed the Goose and plucked a handful of feathers. The problem was... none of them came out gold. No... no... NOOOO!! She couldn't stop herself and ended up pulling all of his white feathers out.
The Goose ran from her. Looking at her, the Goose said in a solemn voice, "Did you know my feathers only become gold if I want them to because they take away part of my lifespan each time I pull them out? I only did so because I cared for your family... It looks like my kindness over the past two years wasn't enough for your greed." He turned and spread his wings to fly away, leaving Marie for the last time.
Author's note: For this week, I chose to retell the story of "The Golden Goose" from the Jakata Tales Unit. In the original story, there was a goose with gold feathers and a poor mother with two daughters. The goose met the family and out of the kindness of its own heart, it gave one of its feathers to them to sell so they would live in comfort. The goose would continually give the family his feathers, but the mother didn’t trust the goose. She planned to steal all of this feathers the next time he came by. Her plan backfired because when she did that, all of the feathers were white and grew back white because they only become gold if they are plucked against his wish. As a result, the goose flew away and never came back again.
I kept the main plot of the story the same and I added in some dialogue to bring more 'reality' into the story. I also wrote the story with parts of the mother's/Marie's thoughts (in italics) instead of just an omniscient point of view since I wanted to depict her thoughts about why she tried to steal all of the goose’s feathers. I also added in a reason as to why the goose’s feathers didn’t turn gold when they were plucked against his will. I think this story has very good lessons to teach. One is that greed can and will ultimately cause you to lose everything. The other one is that you have to be grateful for the people that help you or they will leave you in the end. If anyone watches 'Once Upon a Time' on TV, I think this would be a good story to make into an episode! :)
Bibliography:
"The Golden Goose" by Ellen C. Babbitt, 1922. Website: UN-Textbook.
She stood up from her seat at the kitchen table and strode quickly to the door to let the Goose in. He waddled in and set himself down in the living room. Compared to other geese, he was about twice as big. Because of his size, the first time Marie saw him, she actually wanted to catch him to make some delicious goose soup. That was before he started talking.
She thought back to the days when her daughters had to beg near the crossroads each day and she had to work long night shifts just to make ends meet. It was awful and she wondered how they managed to keep going. The thought of the disgusting, cockroach-ridden, old apartment they used to live in near the cemetery sent her reeling. They were lucky to not have caught anything nasty while living there.
Thanks to the Goose, however, her family eventually moved into a posh neighborhood far from all those bad memories of the past. His monthly "gifts" have provided them with more than enough wealth to live on for the rest of their lives. What was the monthly gift you ask? It was a beautiful golden feather.
Marie remembered that day two years ago when the Goose gave her the first feather. She was running at him with a butcher's knife when he suddenly yelled, "Wait!!! I'm no ordinary goose. You can't kill me!!!" She dropped the knife and just stared at him in confusion. Once the threat of imminent death was gone, he continued, "Look, I have this... power... to think and talk like a human. You probably think you're dreaming at this point. Well go ahead, you can pinch yourself if you don't believe me. I also have an ability to create golden feathers that you can sell for lots of money in exchange for my life. I have seen your daughters while I was flying over the outside market. It's them with the dirty clothes and the matted, ratty hair, right?"
She didn't know what to think of this stalker-ish, fat Goose, but she was certainly interested in that golden feather. She then told him, "Show me the feather and prove to me that it's actually valuable. If this proves wrong,we'll be having roasted goose tonight." He used his beak to pluck a single feather from under his wing and handed it to her. It was beautiful and polished. It felt real, but she couldn't be too sure since she wasn't an expert. She took the feather and the Goose to a jeweler nearby to see how much it would get. She thought it wouldn't be worth more than ten dollars, but to her surprise, the shop owner offered her ten thousand dollars. What the heck, right? It turned out, the feather was made of 100% gold, which was impossible to obtain, even by using the most complex refining process. However, she wasn't too caught up about the details; all she cared about in that moment was the huge lump of cash that she was about to deposit into her bank account.
While plopped on the couch, the Goose began to talk, pulling Marie away from her thoughts. "So I've been thinking about leaving the country. Maybe to Canada or something because you know the moment Donald Trump is able to do well in the presidential polls, you need to skedaddle pronto. Plus, it looks like your family is financially stable now, so you don't need me anymore," he said. Marie froze and panic settled over her. "No, but we do need you. The girls haven't gone to college yet and I don't even have a job right now," she said, trying to throw out any excuse she could. The Goose stared at her blankly and said, "Well, now you have the ability to get a good job and work for your own money."
Her? Work? What a joke. She hadn't worked in the last two years and thinking about the myriad of toilet bowls she had to clean before disgusted her.
The Goose got up and pulled out a golden feather, handed it to her, and said, "Here's the last one. Maybe you should keep it as a souvenir of our friendship and not sell it." She couldn't believe he was serious. Then Marie really panicked, and not knowing what else to do, she grabbed the Goose and plucked a handful of feathers. The problem was... none of them came out gold. No... no... NOOOO!! She couldn't stop herself and ended up pulling all of his white feathers out.
The Goose ran from her. Looking at her, the Goose said in a solemn voice, "Did you know my feathers only become gold if I want them to because they take away part of my lifespan each time I pull them out? I only did so because I cared for your family... It looks like my kindness over the past two years wasn't enough for your greed." He turned and spread his wings to fly away, leaving Marie for the last time.
~~
Golden feather by Soraya Leathers. Source: Pinterest.
Author's note: For this week, I chose to retell the story of "The Golden Goose" from the Jakata Tales Unit. In the original story, there was a goose with gold feathers and a poor mother with two daughters. The goose met the family and out of the kindness of its own heart, it gave one of its feathers to them to sell so they would live in comfort. The goose would continually give the family his feathers, but the mother didn’t trust the goose. She planned to steal all of this feathers the next time he came by. Her plan backfired because when she did that, all of the feathers were white and grew back white because they only become gold if they are plucked against his wish. As a result, the goose flew away and never came back again.
I kept the main plot of the story the same and I added in some dialogue to bring more 'reality' into the story. I also wrote the story with parts of the mother's/Marie's thoughts (in italics) instead of just an omniscient point of view since I wanted to depict her thoughts about why she tried to steal all of the goose’s feathers. I also added in a reason as to why the goose’s feathers didn’t turn gold when they were plucked against his will. I think this story has very good lessons to teach. One is that greed can and will ultimately cause you to lose everything. The other one is that you have to be grateful for the people that help you or they will leave you in the end. If anyone watches 'Once Upon a Time' on TV, I think this would be a good story to make into an episode! :)
Bibliography:
"The Golden Goose" by Ellen C. Babbitt, 1922. Website: UN-Textbook.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Storytelling Week 2: The Chronicles of Cupid
To my most beautiful self,
I have much to tell you, me, for I have met the most beautiful mortal that has walked this earth. You want to know don't you? Of course you do! Her name is Psyche and her image brings pleasure to the eyes of any man, be he a god or a mortal. She's quite exquisite. Her beauty rivals even Mother's, which is probably why Mother sent me to strike her with an arrow that would cause her to fall in love with a man that Fortune has denied any sort of health or happiness. But really, she's oh so beautiful.
To be quite honest, when I had my first glimpse of her, she did not look that impressive. Just mere flesh and bones. Nothing compared to me and my godly self! But now, I can't breathe without her. It's all because I fell off of that tree while I was about to shoot her with my arrow and ended up piercing myself instead. The first person I saw was her and I fell madly in love. She's wonderful. Thereafter, I married her and I gave her everything she could have needed. She never saw my face because my mother's wrath would be ignited if she were to know, but I knew she loved me regardless. I just knew. We even conceived a child! Who would have thought that I, the elusive Cupid, would wed and become a father! However, one day she insisted that I let her sisters visit. I was sure it was going to be a terrible idea because of their wretched nature, but I couldn't resist her seductive whispers... I just couldn't. Curse my own power!
Her sisters came and brought with themselves a raging storm of jealousy and contempt masked by sweet words of familiarity towards Psyche. Those vixens persuaded my sweet Psyche to try to kill me by persecuting me with crimes that I did not commit! My poor Psyche cultivated the seed of doubt that those two women planted, and she planned to kill me, even when I warned her of what they would do. The poor lamb didn't know any better and came at me with a blade only to discover my godly body. Once she laid her eyes on me, she ended up falling in love with me even more, of course. I was unaware of her actions at that moment, but I woke as soon as she spilled wax on my perfect skin. I still have the burn scar from it... In a moment of anger and disappointment, I left her. It broke my heart to leave, but I needed to tend to my skin. A god must look his best. Duh.
Little did I know that my mother found out about our elopement. She sought out Psyche, tortured her, and gave her tasks to punish her even more. Mother locked me in my room, but I contacted my friends to make sure Psyche would finish the tasks smoothly. She did great until the very last task. I had a feeling she would be tempted by the jar of beauty (I mean who wouldn't after days of torture from Mother?); therefore, as soon as Mother let me free, I flew to my queen and removed the sleeping spell and embraced my love. I let her go to complete her mission, for I had a mission as well. I went to Jupiter and used my charms to persuade him to make our marriage official. To my utmost delight, he agreed and now, I am off to name our baby! Hmmm... let's see, how about... Pleasure?
~ Cupid
Author's Note: I
am retelling the story of Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche. In the original
story, Psyche was a human and Cupid was a god, the son of Venus. Psyche was
very beautiful and the people thought that Psyche was the embodiment of Venus
herself, which resulted in some of them worshipping Psyche instead of Venus.
This incurred Venus’s wrath. Venus told Cupid to strike her with one of his
love arrows so that Psyche would fall in love with the vilest and unhealthiest
man in the world. Psyche was the daughter of a king and had two other sisters
who were not as beautiful as she, but she was the only daughter who had not
married. After consulting the Oracle of Apollo, her family was told that her
fate was to marry a monster. To their dismay, her family sent her off to
marriage with the “monster,” but it turned out to be Cupid. Cupid accidentally
pricked himself with one of his own arrows while trying to hit Psyche with one
and fell in love with her. While trying to prevent his mother from finding out,
he arranged for his marriage with Psyche and brought her to a beautiful home
and took care of her—all without her seeing his face. Over time, chaos ensued
once her sisters convinced Psyche to find out who her husband was and this
caused Cupid to leave Psyche. Psyche, in her love-ridden state, sought out
Cupid and encountered Venus who made her complete tasks. In the end, Cupid and
Psyche were granted everlasting love and immortality.
I did not change the plot of the story nor the characters. I chose to write it in the style of Cupid's diary entry because I thought it would be funny to portray it in Cupid's point of view because we don't really get to hear much of Cupid in the story other than when the couple just got married or after Psyche finished her tasks. My main goal was to retell the story in its entirety, just through Cupid's point of view as well as his personality. I wanted to also exaggerate the effect of Cupid's "magic arrow" by making him exaggerate his love for her and her beauty.
Bibliography:
"Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche" translated by Tony Kline. Website: UN-Textbook.
I have much to tell you, me, for I have met the most beautiful mortal that has walked this earth. You want to know don't you? Of course you do! Her name is Psyche and her image brings pleasure to the eyes of any man, be he a god or a mortal. She's quite exquisite. Her beauty rivals even Mother's, which is probably why Mother sent me to strike her with an arrow that would cause her to fall in love with a man that Fortune has denied any sort of health or happiness. But really, she's oh so beautiful.
To be quite honest, when I had my first glimpse of her, she did not look that impressive. Just mere flesh and bones. Nothing compared to me and my godly self! But now, I can't breathe without her. It's all because I fell off of that tree while I was about to shoot her with my arrow and ended up piercing myself instead. The first person I saw was her and I fell madly in love. She's wonderful. Thereafter, I married her and I gave her everything she could have needed. She never saw my face because my mother's wrath would be ignited if she were to know, but I knew she loved me regardless. I just knew. We even conceived a child! Who would have thought that I, the elusive Cupid, would wed and become a father! However, one day she insisted that I let her sisters visit. I was sure it was going to be a terrible idea because of their wretched nature, but I couldn't resist her seductive whispers... I just couldn't. Curse my own power!
Her sisters came and brought with themselves a raging storm of jealousy and contempt masked by sweet words of familiarity towards Psyche. Those vixens persuaded my sweet Psyche to try to kill me by persecuting me with crimes that I did not commit! My poor Psyche cultivated the seed of doubt that those two women planted, and she planned to kill me, even when I warned her of what they would do. The poor lamb didn't know any better and came at me with a blade only to discover my godly body. Once she laid her eyes on me, she ended up falling in love with me even more, of course. I was unaware of her actions at that moment, but I woke as soon as she spilled wax on my perfect skin. I still have the burn scar from it... In a moment of anger and disappointment, I left her. It broke my heart to leave, but I needed to tend to my skin. A god must look his best. Duh.
Little did I know that my mother found out about our elopement. She sought out Psyche, tortured her, and gave her tasks to punish her even more. Mother locked me in my room, but I contacted my friends to make sure Psyche would finish the tasks smoothly. She did great until the very last task. I had a feeling she would be tempted by the jar of beauty (I mean who wouldn't after days of torture from Mother?); therefore, as soon as Mother let me free, I flew to my queen and removed the sleeping spell and embraced my love. I let her go to complete her mission, for I had a mission as well. I went to Jupiter and used my charms to persuade him to make our marriage official. To my utmost delight, he agreed and now, I am off to name our baby! Hmmm... let's see, how about... Pleasure?
~ Cupid
Painting of Cupid and Psyche.
"Le Ravissement de Psyché - Bouguereau" by Gisele Prado Pimentel, 1895. Source: Flickr.
I did not change the plot of the story nor the characters. I chose to write it in the style of Cupid's diary entry because I thought it would be funny to portray it in Cupid's point of view because we don't really get to hear much of Cupid in the story other than when the couple just got married or after Psyche finished her tasks. My main goal was to retell the story in its entirety, just through Cupid's point of view as well as his personality. I wanted to also exaggerate the effect of Cupid's "magic arrow" by making him exaggerate his love for her and her beauty.
Bibliography:
"Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche" translated by Tony Kline. Website: UN-Textbook.
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