Week 6 Story Lab: TV Tropes

This week, instead of doing a storytelling (and since I was only able to do one reading this week), I did one of the Story Labs. More specifically, I did the TV Tropes rabbithole (which is a trope). Despite the “TV” in the name, TV tropes are found in any form of storytelling, whether it’s on page, on a screen, or even told orally. Not all TV tropes are bad, and indeed it’s not bad to use them, although doing so abundantly isn’t the best thing to do.

Some tropes aren’t super obvious, such as the Ensemble Dark Horse, which refers to characters that unexpectedly become popular within the fanbase, resulting in demands of the creators to expand upon the character. Examples include Minions from the Despicable Me movies, or Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. These are minor characters, relatively speaking, but for whatever reason, the fan base latches onto the character and demands for more of them from the creators. Usually (ironically) they also get upset when this happens, as the character will do something that the fan base feels is out of character (but we’re not going to get into the issue of fan bases feeling they own a character).

I refuse to post a picture of a minion on my blog (Source)

Then there’s the “Everyone Calls Him ‘Barkeep’” trope, which is where the character is referred to by their job title or a descriptive word. It can also be a nickname that is used so commonly that for all intents and purposes, it is the character’s name. Examples include Beast from Beauty and the Beast (in the original movie his real name is never given, although in the musical they reveal his name to be Adam), or the title character from the book The Giver. Often the character’s real name is mentioned once somewhere in the media form, but it’s only done once and rarely brought up again. They’re just referred to as their nickname.

Beast, as portrayed in the original movie (Source)

Speaking of Beauty and the Beast, there’s also the trope of the Grand Staircase Entrance. Most likely populated by the Disney’s Cinderella, this is the trope where the (usually) female character makes a grand entrance by appearing at the top of a grand staircase, dressed to the nines and looking much better/fancier than she usually does. Plenty of time is given for the audience to admire the change from the character’s typical appearance, and to see what fancy outfit she has on. 

Hermione gets her own staircase entrance in the movie Goblet of Fire (Source)

So, to conclude, it can be really fun to go looking through TV tropes. The website is great about pulling examples from all kinds of media to show examples, and even some real life ones sometimes. Plus there’s often a slight amount of snark in the articles, which is hilarious.

Reading Notes: Khasi Folktales, Part A

Stories that tell the origin of something are always pretty interesting to me, so naturally I was drawn to the Khasi Folktale about How the Dog Came to Live with Man, from K. U. Rafy's collection. This is something that a lot of cultures visit a lot, but I like this take on it. It implies that the dog is crafty, which is usually not the case in other stories.

Reading Notes

• The most important fair of all has arrived, and according with degree, each animal must bring something of some sort of value that can be sold.
• Man was an enemy of the animals, so he wasn't invited.
• The dog, being ironically lazy, didn't want to make something himself like the others, but instead decided to wander the countryside all day looking for something he could pass off as his own.
• At the end of the day, he chanced upon a house where a family was eating fermented Khasi beans.
• Being nice, the wife invited the dog to eat with them, which he gladly did.
• Afterwards, realizing he could take the Khasi beans to the fair, the dog bargained with the family and ended up leaving with a clay pot of beans strapped to his back.
• On the way to the fair, he bragged so much about his jar that the other animals were all very curious to see what he had.
• Unfortunately, when the dog finally uncovered the jar, a bad smell came out; all the other animals made fun of the dog, and eventually destroyed the pot and trampled the food into the ground.
• The dog tried to get the governor of the fair, the tiger, to intervene, but was just told off.
• The dog eventually lost his temper, cursed all the animals, and ran away, where Man consoled him and offered the dog a place in his home.
• The curse worked, because the stench of the food clung to the other animals, and so the Dog was able to track them for Man when out hunting.
• Later, when Man had tamed Pig, he noticed Pig and Dog being lazy and decided to put them to work, sowing furrows in the field.
• The Pig did a lot of the work, while Dog lazied around and jumped all over the furrows the pig had made.
• Eventually the pig got tired of this, and complained to Man, who was loath to believe that Dog would be so lazy.
• When Man inspected the work that had been done, he found the tracks of Dog all over, while only a few tracks of Pig's
• Man decided that Pig had lied, and to punish him, made him sleep in a small separate shack and eat slop while Dog got to stay in Man's house and eat a normal dinner.

Ktung rymbai, also called tungrymbai; it's made from fermented soybeans (Source)

Reading Notes: Folk-Tales of Bengal, Part B

Today’s story is called The Bald Wife, and is also from the Folk-Tales of Bengal, by the Rev. Lal Behari Day. This story is meant to remind, like many other stories, that being a good person can get you everything, while being a bad person will get you nothing.

Reading Notes

• A man had two wives, and favored the younger one (who had two tufts of hair) more than the older one (who had only one tuft of hair).
• As such, the younger wife abused her sister-wife regularly, since the man would go out of town to do business.
• One day, the younger wife demanded the older wife search her head for lice; while the older wife was doing this, one of the younger wife’s tufts of hair came out by chance.
• The younger wife, very angry, pulled out the older wife’s one tuft of hair and drove her away.
• Now totally bald, the older wife decided to walk into the forest and either be eaten by an animal or die of starvation.
• As she walked, she walked by a cotton plant, a plantain tree, a bull in a shed, and a tulasi plant. 
• Each time, she swept the area around them clean with a broom she made from sticks, and was blessed in return.
• Eventually she came upon a hut where a muni (a holy person) was meditating. 
• Upon being questioned by the muni, the older wife told him everything that had happened to her.
• The muni told her to go to a tank of water and bath herself in it only once.
• The older wife did as she was instructed, and emerged from the water with floor length black hair and looking young and beautiful. 
• She went back and gave her thanks to the muni, who told her to go into the hut and take one of the wicker baskets in there; the older wife did, and selected a plain one.
• The muni told her to open the basket, and in it were many precious stones of various types; the muni told her the basket would refill itself with more stones every time it emptied, and sent her on her way.
• As she walked back home, she passed each of the creatures she had previously cleansed and shown respect to.
• Each one, as she passed by, gave her a gift:
• The tulasi plant blessed her with her husband’s love, the bull blessed her with shells that would help her obtain whatever ornament she wanted, the plantain tree blessed her with a leaf that would help her get food, and the cotton plant blessed her with a branch that would produce all kinds of fabric.
• Upon her return, the younger wife was shocked to see that the old bald hag had turned into a beautiful young woman.
• Although the older wife treated the younger wife with great kindness, the younger wife was bitter of her sister-wife’s looks.
• When she learned that the older wife’s looks came from the muni, the younger wife set off immediately to find his hut.
• She followed the same path as the older wife, but passed by the cotton plant, the plantain tree, the bull, and the tulasi plant without any kind of acknowledgement.
• The younger wife came to the muni’s hut, and he told her the same thing he had told the older wife.
• The younger wife bathed herself once, and was beautiful with a full head of hair, but she decided a second bath would make herself even more beautiful.
• Instead, she emerged looking exactly as she had before bathing herself.
• When she went crying to the muni, he drove her away, chastising her for her greed.
• She went back to the house; when their husband came home, he paid attention only to his beautiful older wife and all her wealth and resources, while the younger wife was kept as a maid.

The elder wife bathing and becoming beautiful (Souce)

Reading Notes: The Folk-Tales of Bengal, Part A

This week I ended up reading The Boy Whom Seven Mothers Suckled, which is from the Folk-Tales of Bengal, by the Rev. Lal Behari Day. In this story, a king with multiple wives ends up marrying a mythological creature that threatens the other wives.

Reading Notes

• As I previously stated, the king had seven wives, and he was sad that all of them were barren. 
• A holy man recommended to him that if he go to a mango tree and pluck the seven mangos growing on one branch, then give his wives one mango each, they’d become pregnant.
• The king did this, and soon all of his wives were pregnant.
• But one day the king was out hunting, saw a beautiful woman, and fell in love with her.
• He brought her back and married her, but he didn’t realize that she was a Rakshasi, a mythological creature.
• She challenged the king one day, and said that if he really loved her, he would blind his other wives and then have them killed.
• So for whatever reason, the king ordered all of his pregnant wives to have their eyes removed, and he ordered his minister to kill them.
• But his minister hid the wives in a cave in a hill, rather than have them killed.
• The eldest queen eventually gave birth, but she said that since they were all blind and starving, she would kill the child and they could each have a piece to eat.
• So that’s what they all did, except the youngest queen, who just kept the piece. 
• Each of the queens gave birth in order of age, and each of them killed their child and cut it into pieces to share with the others, except for the youngest queen.
• When the youngest queen gave birth to her son, she decided to keep him alive rather than kill him.
• The other queens demanded their portion, and she gave them the pieces she’d save from their children.
• But since the meat was dry, the other queens knew this wasn’t fresh meat.
• When confronted, the youngest queen admitted that she wanted to keep her son alive; the other queens admired her for this, and they all agreed to nurse the son.
• So the son grew big and strong thanks to all the queens working together.
• Meanwhile, the Rakshasi was causing trouble in the king’s palace.
• She would go out at night and eat all the animals and people she could find, and the king had no one left to help him. 

One of the representations of a Rakshasi (Source)

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