Friday, February 5, 2021

Comment Wall: Trickster Tales from Africa

 You can find the website here:

Trickster Tales from Africa

(I changed the coverpage now that I have several pages done!)





5 comments:

  1. Hi Laura! This compilation of 100-word trickster stories about the Hare was so entertaining to read! I was very impressed by your ability to condense these stories into such a short space while still keeping the all the necessary details for me to understand the plot of the stories. One thing I’m curious about is how you chose the order for the Hare stories? The first three stories are obviously, as you state in your introductory paragraph, a set that builds off each other, and it appears that the last three stories also need to go in order. What was your reasoning for putting the stand-alone story “Hare and Lion” in the middle? Would the Hare’s narrative change if you moved it to the end? (I suppose you couldn’t put it at the beginning, because the Lion needs to be alive for the first three stories!) One suggestion that I might have for future stories is to keep this building narrative going. Maybe the Tortoise could have a grudge against the Hare in his set of stories because of these events. It would be fun to read the additional stories later in the semester and see how they are all interconnected! Overall, great job with these stories—I had trouble thinking of suggestions!

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  2. Hi Laura!
    I read your story about the Hare and I find them interesting and impressive. I don't see anyone else following the 100-word style of storytelling so it is truly unique. I find that your use of realistic images of the animals in your short stories made it easy to visualize the settings and what happen in my mind. I wondered why the leopard would eat the wolf and not chase after the rabbit. You said that the elephant sent many animals to kill the rabbit. What made you choose the leopard to write your story about instead of the other animals? Overall, your storytelling is amazing so I can't really add much suggestions. However, maybe adding two extra 100-word stories in the story about Hare and Lion. That would make all three separate stories each having three 100-words stories, perfecting the "Rule of 3s." Can't wait to see what you can come up with for the Spider.

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  3. Hi Laura,
    I love the style of having 100-word stories, and how some of the stories lead into each other while some are more stand-alone. I also liked recognizing similarities in the African myths with what I have seen in Cherokee myths. Both of them have Hare/Rabbit and Tortoise/Terrapin as tricksters. It makes me wonder if their myths evolved from a shared cultural interaction at some point. I wonder, is there a myth similar to the tortoise and the hare? I once heard a version told to me by my Cherokee teacher where tortoise tricks the hare by having his family stand at different points in the race while he stood a few feet from the finish, crossing the finish line the moment he saw hare approach. That way it would look like he was running much faster than hare. If there was a version of that myth in African folklore it would make for a neat edition and add to the idea of hare and tortoise being sort of competing tricksters.

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  4. I really enjoy how you've broken up the stories into relevant chunks. It helps the reader to draw into the key aspects of the story you're trying to portray. Along with the brief, meaningful sentences, the chunks allow the story to be told in a fantastic way that leaves the reader energized.

    The hare seems to be very similar to the coyote in Native American mythology. Some of the best myths I know are of the tricksters. Coyote also played tricks on the animals and was also likely to frame another animal for something it had done. It's interesting to see the trickster myths of another culture. Maybe it's the speed of the two animals that makes them the tricksters?

    I found it most surprising that the hare was an omnivore. For some reason, I had thought hares were herbivores, but it turns out that hares do sometimes eat fish and other meats. The more you know!

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  5. Hey Laura,
    So cool that you’re doing a storybook with us! I was immediately drawn to the clean and consistent look of your home page, very nice. As I navigate the site I like that there are also multiple points from which readers can access the stories. Double thumbs up to the HD closeups of each of your tricksters on the home page, as well as the other great pics throughout the site.
    The 100 word stories really kept me engaged, as you get that little dopamine hit and a good chuckle every 100 words! Hare by far got the biggest chuckle, but the craftiness displayed by Spider or the lessons learned by Mantis were also great stories. I also really enjoyed the history and map in the tortoise story. I appreciate that you preface each page with a little bit of history about the trickster animal, the story origins, how/where the stories have traveled, etc. I tried looking for something I could inject with some constructive criticism but I couldn’t find anything! Is there any story/page you feel could use some work?

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