Unit 12: Rewriting Gender

Once there was a wolf, who quite egotistically, referred to himself as “The Big Bad Wolf.” One day this wolf caught the scent of a small family of pigs who each lived a house of their own design. These three pigs, Peter, Paul, and Penny, were perfectly content living in their houses made of straw, sticks, and bricks respectively. The wolf followed his nose to the house of the first pig, Peter, who resided in a lovely house made of straw. The wolf courteously knocked on the door and tried to coax the pig out. Peter the pig refused. Realizing the house was made of a rather frail material, the wolf proclaimed “Come out now or I’ll totally destroy your house!” And totally destroy the house, he did. In the destruction, Peter was able to scurry away to his brother’s house next door. Peter and Paul huddled together and phoned their sister, Penny, who lived next door. “Get over here, Penny!” The brothers urged. “There’s a wolf trying to eat us and he totally destroyed Peter’s house!” Penny explained to her brothers that her house was made of brick, a material that the wolf would be unable to totally destroy. The brothers, as they always had, insisted that they knew better and told her that Paul’s house of sticks was so well built that it was the only safe place. As they said this, the wolf reached the house of sticks and, smelling not one but two delicious pigs inside, decided to forgo his previous attempt to persuade the pigs, and opted to simply and totally destroy the house. This time however, the wolf did not let the pigs slip away and he hungrily gobbled up the portly pig brothers. Penny, seeing the horror that had befallen her brothers, quickly locked the door to her house made of bricks and confidently settled into her chair to read a book. Just as she settled in, she heard a knocking at her door. Knowing full well that it was the Big Bad Wolf, she ignored the knocking. The wolf, persistent as he was, pressed a button beside the door that seemed to be for the doorbell. This button did not sound the doorbell however, and was instead a home defense measure that Penny had installed, despite her brothers’ mocking insistence of its futility. This defense measure, when pressed, fired a .12 gauge shotgun slug from the peephole of the door that all but decimated the head of the Big Bad Wolf. At the sound of the shot, Penny opened to door to find the headless body of the Big Bad Wolf. Satisfied by her wit, yet mournful for her brothers, Penny lived the rest of her days safely and happily in her quaint brick home.

The End. 

                                                                       Penny the Pig

Unit 11: Contemporary Myths

        In the film “O Brother Where Art Thou,” Homer’s the Odyssey is adapted into a modern telling of the epic. Along with aspects and symbols of the Greek myth, the directors also used tales and legends from other times and cultures. One such example can is Sheriff Cooley, who is described as being the devil. When the group meets the blind prophet, Tommy Johnson, he describes the devil is “as white as you folks, with empty eyes and a big hollow voice. He loves to travel around with a mean old hound.” The Sheriff fits this description throughout the movie and in fact, we never actually see the sheriff’s eyes; we only ever see him wearing large reflective glasses, giving them an empty look.

Sheriff Cooley

        Along with his physical description, this character is also representative of the Christian notion of the devil in his actions. The devil is often thought to be always present and always trying to take souls away to Hell. While the Sheriff is not literally always present, he is always on the groups trail and breathing down their necks, so to speak, in an attempt to take them back to prison; also known as hell. 

Unit 10: Magic Realism

     In the story “The Distance of the Moon,” we are told of a magical realism story in which the moon’s far away orbit from Earth is explained. In the story, we learn that the moon was once very close to the Earth; so close, in fact, that people used to travel to and from the two masses. In the end of the story, a woman chose to stay on the moon as it distanced itself from the Earth. She did this out of love for a man who only loved the moon. This idea feels very much like the idea of a creation myth. One that comes to mind is the Navajo legend of the sun and moon.

     In the legend, the world was barren and without light or heat so the inhabitants had two wheels created, one that gave off light and heat, and one that brought rain and lightning. The two wheels were placed upon opposing mountain peaks but were without movement so that there was one bright and warm side and one dark and cold side. Two elders then gave their spirits to the wheels in order to give them movement; thus creating the sun and the moon. 

     While there are obvious differences between the two stories, at their cores, they are very similar. The two stories give an elaborate origin to the moon and explain its position in the sky. Both stories also touch on the idea of a human spirit that gives some greater meaning to the moon. For these reasons, the story “The Distance of the Moon” can be viewed as more than a Magic Realism story and in fact as a pseudo-creation story for the moon. 

Unit 9: The Vampire

     When I think vampires, I think of a beautiful and seductive creature with terrible power. No representation of a vampire fits this description better than Kate Beckinsale’s character, Selene, from the Underworld movie franchise. Selene very much fits the established sexual image of the vampire that was set by literary works such as Carmilla and Dracula, and in cinematic works in the 20^th century. 

     This character is not only stunningly beautiful, but she is also immensely powerful. The films representation of vampire successfully portrays the immortality and the power of the creatures that is sometimes forgotten in cinematic depictions. In the film series we see not only Selene survive and dish out some very serious assaults, but we see what other vampires are capable of as well; making this series a great modern portrayal of the myth of vampires.