Storybook Topic Brainstorm

 First Topic Idea

This is the idea I came up with as soon as I realized the final project would be a retelling of a folk story. I have always sympathized with the opossum in the Cherokee legend of Why the Opossum's Tail is Bare, so for the story idea I would like to retell that from the perspective of Opossum. I also would like to incorporate other myths while exploring what happens after the story. Since the legends are meant as lessons, they never really explore Opossum having to adjust to life without fur on his tail (besides telling us that opossum is so ashamed of it that he faints at the notion of anyone seeing his tail). I'd like to include a character from another legend as someone for Opossum to talk to. I was thinking of having him talk to one of the Ani'tsutsa from The Pleiades and the Pine, since they were not involved in the trick pulled on Opossum and would therefore be a relatively neutral party. Of course I would also like to include a nod to Opossum's only other appearance in the legends, How the Turtle's Back was Cracked (I know that's not the title in the Untextbook but that is how we had to refer to it when I competed in the Cherokee language and challenge bowls).

(Opossum Illustration: Pixy)

Second Topic Idea

Cinderella was always a story I loved as a child and I have no idea why. Perhaps because I have prosopagnosia, and related to the prince being unable to recognize Cinderella outside of her dress. I remember one day in elementary school, my music teacher told us the Grimm version of the fairytale. Later in the cafeteria, they had sliced strawberries for dessert and I could not eat them because I imagined that was what a dismembered heel might look like - all red and syrupy. Of course, I don't think I would change too much in a retelling of it, maybe a few small details but nothing major. I might add more moments with the prince, maybe state that he has trouble with faces. I would probably draw inspiration from both the Crane version and the Jacobs version with my retelling.

Third Topic Idea

Tale as old as time, and it shows. Beauty and the Beast has always had a power imbalance that I just could not get over. I love the music and the visuals in the Disney version, but I feel the story could be improved upon, from a romance standpoint. The Beauty does not have to be a prisoner, she could just go to the castle out of curiosity, and then stay because of the Beast's company. That would be a nice story, and a nice romance I think. It would put them on more equal standing, and demonstrate the heroine's compassion (which is usually shown when she takes her father's place as the Beast's prisoner).

Fourth Topic Idea

During my freshman year, I spent weeks analyzing and writing a paper about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. After it was finished, I loudly proclaimed that I never wanted to so much as look at that book again. However, while brainstorming for my fourth topic idea, I started to notice a familiarity in the story of Pygmalion. His Galatea, designed to be the perfect form, felt a lot like what everyone's favorite college dropout Victor Frankenstein attempted to create in his Creature. It got me thinking, if a marble statue came to life, would it not illicit the same terror as seeing the Creature reanimate? Would not the features intended for beauty, look horrific when given movement? Statues are not meant to move, and surely Pygmalion did not give Galatea perfectly human proportions. I imagine she would look just a little off-putting, in a way similar to the stories of fair folk disguised as humans - just a few details slightly wrong. It would be uncanny, and I think that would be fun to write about.

-A.