The Right Time to Tell Stories

Story-telling is incredibly important to cultures all around the world. I don't mean movies, but word-of-mouth tales. Some cultures have rules about when they tell stories. For example, many American Indians will only tell mythology during winter. Other tales can only be told to men, maybe. And some stories weren't told to outsiders simply because outsiders wouldn't understand them. That person would have to get to know the people before they understood what some of the story referred to. 

The San people of Africa wouldn't tell a newcomer any of their stories until they'd danced with them. And not just any dance, but a special dance after a successful eland hunt. I want to know more about that. Is there something about eland and stories? 

When Memory Beats the Actual Experience

My cousin told me something fascinating. 

He loved spirited Away as a kid. But when he saw it again many years later, it was just a little bit less great than he remembered it. 

He had watched Ponyo many years ago, and really liked it. Now he didn't want to watch it again, because he didn't want to lose the way it made him feel. He remembered the scene where Ponyo and Sosuke wake up and the house is surrounded by ocean, so they go out on their boat. He said that scene made him feel like he was being surrounded in peace. 

(It's amazing that Miyazaki can make something like a flood feel peaceful, and fun. Though it is a metaphorical flood - cleansing the earth). 

I commented on that scene, laughing about little details like an octopus climbing into the house. After our conversation, he said, "Screw it. I'm gonna watch it again." 

And somehow, I was almost sad that he had decided to watch Ponyo again. 

Movies I shouldn't like, but I do: Part 2

Last year, I wrote a post about a movie I should have liked, but didn't. And a movie I shouldn't like but do. I thought of another. 

Field of Dreams. There was a summer camp I went to as a kid, and the lady who ran it loved this movie. We watched it a few times, and I've liked it ever since. 

I have absolutely no interest in watching sports. They can be fun to play, but that's it. So why do I like a movie about baseball? I'm not really sure. I do like its quiet magic. Unlike the flashy magic in many of the movies I like. 

I think I mostly like some of the characters. Annie is great. But Terence, the author, steals the show. He's awesome. Apparently one of his speeches left all the cast and crew entranced. But my favorite moment is when one guy says that Terence is lying about who he is, and he's just laughing. I mean, he probably finds it refreshing that there aren't fans swarming him. 

You can actually go visit the field! It's cool that the farm kept it. 

I forget what I originally meant...

When people read a book or watch a movie, they'll often find meaning throughout it. We had to learn a lot of that kind of thing in high school English. "The distant green light represents money!" And so on.

Some of these meanings weren't intended by the author. The audience will find their own meanings. Which is just part of the creative process. 

The problem is, sometimes I forget what I intended for some themes. Maybe a broken unicorn horn represents a broken sense of innocence, which heals and becomes something new. Or maybe I didn't intend anything when I first thought of it. If anyone ever does ask me about the intended meanings and themes, how many will I have forgotten by then? 

With my head full of straw

Willow is Underrated

Willow doesn't get enough attention. Sure the cg is old, but there are some really fascinating things about the storytelling. 

First of all, you never see parents going out on big fantasy quests. How could they? They have a family and a job. They can't go galavanting off across the country. And that's exactly the problem Willow faces. He has to leave his wife and kids behind, and risk losing his farm. But if he doesn't go, his entire village is at risk. As well as baby Elora. 

And a follow-up to that is that you never see a grand quest where there's a baby along for the ride. Because babies take a lot of caring for! Having to go on an adventure with a baby is hard. And it's hard for Willow! Elora needs food, and she gets sick, and she cries. Heck, she even cries when they're trying to hide from the bad guys. It's only Raziel's quick thinking that disguises the sound. 

And speaking of Raziel, her story is so tragic! It's mentioned so quietly that some people don't even notice it. The evil queen turned her onto a possum. Raziel thinks that she'll be a beautiful young woman when Willow transforms her. But when she's finally a human again, she's an old woman. "Has it been so long?" She whispers, as she sees the wrinkles on her hands. She never knew that she spent most of her life trapped on an island, as a possum. 

Then there's the love potion. No, not the one from Strange Magic. George Lucas clearly likes love potions. The love potion in Willow came first. And it always struck me as rather silly. The evil queen's daughter gets swept off her feet when Madmartigan is under the potion's influence, and starts "spouting poetry" to her. But this last time I watched the movie, I saw that scene in a different way. Sorsha has never experienced love before! She sure never got any from her mother. Madmartigan's love may not be intentional, but it was love. Sorsha can't stop watching him after that. You can just see her thinking, "wow, this guy's a great fighter. And he doesn't fight to destroy. He fights to protect." So I suddenly felt much better about that love potion part. And it worked out pretty well. Better than the love potion in Strange Magic, anyway (although that did kind of help the Bog King open up some). 

(I have not yet seen the sequel series to Willow. I will eventually, but I'm always a little afraid of sequels...) 

The Ever-Present Naming Woes

Ugh, I just spent a few days and a several hours trying to come up with a better name for one of my main characters (the "beast" in my version of Beauty and the Beast). I've had a tentative name for him for quite a while. But I'm trying to come up with something better. I wanted his name to come from a certain group of cultures, and I wanted it to have a certain meaning. I did tons of digging and made a list of interesting names. I could keep digging, but I think I've gone about as far in this direction as I need. Right now, I'm almost numb to it. I no longer feel anything from looking at the names. I'll have to come back tomorrow. 

But I'm concerned, because the original name still looks the most appealing... 

Chocolate!

I just made chocolate!

I like to try cooking all kinds of strange, new things. I never really mention it here, but it's been fun experimenting. One part of that is looking up native plants, and common garden plants, and making syrup and jelly and stuff out of them. My cousin just visited this afternoon. He knows a lot about plants. But as we walked through our garden, he was stunned that I could go around picking all these common flowers and stuffing them in my mouth. 

"I've been around fuchsias my whole life and never knew you could eat them!" 

"How is alyssum not in salads?" 

The lilly pilly tree had berries, and he loved those too. None of these were planted as food. But I've been getting all kinds of interesting edible plants since I've been learning about them. I've even dug up some weeds to bring home, like dock, purslane, plantain, and mallow (I can't wait to make marshmallow!). 

I've been trying plenty of normal recipes too. Including foods from around the world. 

I never thought I'd get to make my own chocolate. I'd never seen a cocoa pod outside of pictures. The closest I'd gotten was when there was a bowl of raw beans at some informational table. They let me taste a crumb, and it was like strong dark chocolate. I once even found dried cocoa fruit at Trade Joes, but it wasn't that great. 

Then last week, we spotted whole cocoa pods at an Asian market. They were expensive. About $20 for a single pod. But I had to try. Some of them looked a bit moldy, but I picked one that looked okay. It was huge and brown. Apparently there are many types. I actually saw some wild cocoa trees in Peru, which was awesome (see the flowers growing right out of the trunk). 

I had to open the pod within a couple days, because some fine mold was growing on the outside. Luckily the inside is what counts. I cut it open, and there was a cluster of white juicy fruits clustered together. Mom and I chewed off all the fruit to reveal the dark seeds inside. 

I did some minor internet digging. It said to leave the beans to ferment for a week. But after a couple days, some were getting mold on them. I pulled out the moldy ones, and found a simple recipe that worked fine for my purposes. I roasted the beans last night. Today I ground them up with a bit of sugar, and some avocado oil (because I didn't have cocoa oil). I didn't have many beans, so it wasn't enough to fill my small blender. I couldn't get to a creamy texture because of that. I ended up with something that looked like a damp clump of coffee grounds. And it was really good. Like a crumbled chocolate bar that was crispy. 

I'm going to see if I can sprout the moldy beans. Attempt to grow my own!