Week 6 Lab: TED Talk Videos

Photo of TED Stage Logo with Julie Freeman Altered by Juliana Rotich. Source.

This week I decided to complete the Story Lab: TED Talk option.

The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Source.

When I watched Adichie's TED Talk, I was struck by how she began by introducing herself as a storyteller. Adichie explains how she wrote stories like the ones she read, including cultural differences she did not understand. She only read British and American books, and as a result, she had a single story of what made up a book.

This anecdote made me understand part of why this TED talk was picked out of the hundreds of other TED talks to view for this class.

In this class, we will read stories from all over the world. The exposure to other stories helps dissolve the single-story, which in turn prevents a lot of harm. Adichie mentions that a single-story is not necessarily incorrect, but it is incomplete. It is when we refuse to acknowledge any other story that we alienate other cultural groups as "different and "wrong" rather than noticing our similarities.

This highlight on differences is where I believe the most harm from a single story comes in. As shown in history, when one group meets another, there are cultural differences. Unfortunately, multiple groups have been stripped of their cultural identity and forced to assimilate with European culture (see the 1892 speech made by Capt. Richard H. Pratt's "Kill the Indian, and Save the Man." Source.). Westerners had a single story of what was proper and correct in many things. As a result, they did not try to understand the cultures they eventually repressed and instead simplified them as wrong and Devil-worshipping.

Imaginary friends and real-world consequences by Jennifer Barnes. Source.

I am an avid fan of multiple fictional universes. I buy merchandise, spend hours watching, reading, drawing, etc. to interact with my favorite characters. I've yelled at the TV when someone in the fictional multiverse doesn't go right for a character. When a character I love died, I could cry buckets and buckets or flat out deny canon. I'll well aware of what a parasocial relationship is. Before I watched Barnes' TED talk, I already knew first-hand why we care about fictional characters.

Something that she made me consider though was the blend our subconscious makes between fiction and reality. If we can subconsciously believe fictional universes as real, perceive actual events as fiction? In the case of fictional characters, we know they aren't real, but we still feel close to them. By contrast, we can treat real events as stories and put them away in our minds like a book on a shelf.

Barnes mentioned that we view fictional characters as part of our social circle. And like real friends, fictional characters provide comfort and grief and all the emotions in-between. I want to expand on this idea with real-world events. By treating them as fiction, we protect ourselves from going insane over every horrible thing in the world.

Sometimes this denial is on a subconscious level where we understand it is real without the emotions. However, sometimes would this expand to flat out denying that the horrible event happened? In either case, how would that affect our empathy? I suggest we become more apathetic. To counteract his effect, we must be careful not to ignore what real people go through when we do not experience their suffering ourselves.

Week 6 Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part B

The Pearl Fan by Robert Lewis Reid. Source.

Bibliography: Excerpt from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos. Source.

Story: "Patience Stone and Patience Knife"

A young woman is at home alone when a bird flies to her window and says, "Oh my poor maiden, your kismet [fate] is with a dead person." The young woman freaks out about this. Later in the day, the mother comes home and the young woman tells her what happened. The mother advises her to lock the door and window. The next day, the young woman locks the door and window but the bird comes in and says the same thing. The mother tells her daughter to continue locking the door but hide in the cupboard and work with only candles for light. However, the bird continues getting in. The mother and daughter stay at home and wait for the bird to show up again. A few days later, girls in the neighborhood ask the daughter to come out and play. The mother is reluctant but the neighborhood girls promise to watch out for the daughter. However, on the way back on a fun day out, the neighborhood girls and young woman stop at a spring to get water when a magical wall pops out of the ground between the young woman and the neighborhood girls. The mother hears about this but she and her daughter are separated by the wall. The daughter cries a lot and eventually notices a door in the wall that leads to a palace.

In the palace are rooms made out of gems and the young woman eventually finds a young prince lying on a corpse frame (bier). On the young prince is a document that says anyone who fans him with the pearl fan and prays hor him for forty days will find her fate. The young woman remembers what the bird says and fans the young prince. On the last day, another girl comes by and our heroine asks her to fan the prince while she prepares everything for his awakening. The prince wakes up and the rival makes him believe that she was the one who fanned him for many days while the heroine is a servant. The prince has been comatose this whole time so he goes with the flow.

A Festival approaches and the young prince wants to give everyone a gift. The heroine asks for a patience-stone and patience-knife. The young prince wants to know why the heroine wants it. He watches her carve something with the patience-stone and patience-knife. The heroine recounts what happened and the stone splits by the end of it. The heroine says if a stone can't bear her life story, how can she, so she decides to commit suicide. The prince stops her and they get married.

That blasted bird sometimes visits and says, "O maid! O happy maid! You have found your kismet."

Retelling Ideas:

The heroine is tired of bird making her anxious. If she can't avoid her fate, she will confront it. She decides to catch the bird and make it tell her what he is blabbing on about with her fate. With the bird in a cage, the heroine marches right up to where the wall will appear and sees a young prince in a coma, not a dead person. She fans the prince and visitor girl appears. The prince is tricked into believing the visitor girl is his fate. The heroine tells what happened, and uses the bird as a witness. They all live happily ever after (except for the rival girl who is banished).

Image may be from a painting commissioned for the young woman who fanned him for forty days.

Week 6 Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part A

Image Information: Pomacanthus imperator (Emperor angelfish) juvenile Photo by Nick Hobgood. Source.

Bibliography: Excerpt from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos. Source.

Story: Fear

A young man does not understand what fear is, so he decides to look for it. He finds robbers. The robbers are confused for why the young man is not afraid but they send him to other places, like a graveyard. The boy sees a living corpse hand but just smacks it away from his cake. The young man encounters a gathering to select a new Shah (lord). The pigeons that choose the Shah land on the young man's head. The young man and the Sultana eat food. The young man knows fear when a live bird flies out when one dish is opened. Moral of the story is that you don't look for fear, fear finds you?

Retelling Ideas:

Modern AU with one boy not knowing fear out of all of his friends. His friends try to get the boy to be afraid, using ideas from horror movies? The friends get busy trying to find new scare tactics. The boy is left alone. Maybe the boy's fear is isolation and as long as he has friends and family by him there isn't anything to be scared of?

Story: The Fish Peri

Man catches fish but it is so beautiful he doesn't want to kill it. His house gets tidied out from he is away fishing. The man secretly stays home. The beautiful fish turns into a beautiful woman, and the two get married? Noble wants to marry wife, but through wife's magic and the man following her direction, they live happily ever after.

Why did the two of them need to get married though?

Retelling Ideas: They do not get married. Maybe fish is happy to be alive and helps the man not starve to death (which was his original problem in needing a job).