Styles

Topic: Time Travel
My story topic is about time travel and incorporating the different styles below. Religious and non-religious famous characters will interact with one another changing the world as we know it. The story will start in present day.

Bibliography: All from Un-Textbook

 Bibliography: John The Baptist and Jesus, King James Bible (1611) Mark 1

                         

The Miracles of Jesus, King James Bible (1611) Mark 6

                         

The Teachings of Jesus, King James Bible (1611) Mark 9

                         

The Last Supper, King James Bible (1611) Mark 14

                       

  Escape From Cyclops from The Odyssey by Homer and Translate to English by                            Tony Cline (2004)  

Seeking Grendel's Mother froom Beowulf, by Strafford Riggs (1933)

The Coming of the Holy Graal in King Arthur: Tales of the Roundtable by Andrew Lang (1902) 

Fall of Man from Book of Legends of Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909)

Style 1: My story will be about time travel so I will more than likely use a frametale. Right now, the main gist of the story is that the most prominent religious figures interact with one another through time travel and therefore changing the world as we know it. The story starts in the present and may or may not change the future. I believe my main character will be Adam from the Bible and I'll have him talk in first person throughout. The story will mostly be from his point of view.

Style 2: The second style I am thinking about will be in third person storyteller with the same story line. The really big catch, is that God would be telling the story to angels. As he tells the story, the audience would be transferred to each scene. This would be a fictional story filled with some humor and suspense. However, the circumstances and dialogue would be in a more dramatic tone.  The story also would be in the frametale format. This is because the multiple stories are all connected. Each one will affect the other.

Style 3: The stories for this will be in third person told from a certain character's perspective. The key that will make this style entertaining is that the character telling the story will have been the one who was saved or resolved everything. This would not be shown until the very end though. So, the style of writing and visuals would be used to make the story feel suspenseful by keeping the audience guessing who the mysterious narrator is. These stories will be in the anthology structure. They would each be fictional.

Style 4: These last set of stories will be structured as an anthology. Each story will be told in the first person with each character speaking. These stories would be more satirical since my three above will be more dramatic. I will give these stories a nursery rhyme feel. I would make my own short rhymes to base these on. I did this so that I can leave clues as the audience reads. The clues will be stated and be part of the story. On some stories, the picture in between each paragraph will have an exercise that reveals the clue, but makes the reader participate to figure it out. These also will have less dialogue showing more action of the story with detail.

(Olympian Gods and Goddesses)

Essay: Jesus Hero

(Jesus and the Twelve, Fresco in Cappadocia)

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One of the stories that Mark told that intrigues me is Jesus's baptism. The reason this intrigues me is because of my definition of a hero. I believe a hero has humility and understands that his or her world is about more than themselves. Its about helping others. So, Jesus the perfect Son of God comes to John the Baptist. He asks to be washed clean, but John believes he is not good enough to untie Jesus's sandals even. Jesus essentially replies that he is enough just being. For Jesus created him and knows it. The thing is, I never hear Jesus say in a pompous way that he the King of the earth. 

So, this is the first reason I believe Jesus is a hero. He is humble. When John said he was not worthy to baptize him, Jesus simply replied with an affirming smile. Jesus let his creation provide him a service the he established. I love this in a hero.

The other story that intrigued me about Jesus was the crucifixion. Jesus was taken from his disciples at the last super due to Judas betraying him. Jesus was tortured and whipped. He a had a crown of thorns pushed in on his head. He had to carry a huge cross all by himself. In the process, Peter (a disciple) denied he knew Jesus three times. This is where the hero part comes in. Jesus, even with knowing about the betrayals before they happen and their actualization, died for his most beloved creation. He died because he said he was the Son of God and people became afraid/prideful. People were not ready for Jesus's power, which made them fear him wanting him dead. Secondly, current kings of the time wanted to please the people to keep their power. The kings gave people the decision to either let Jesus or Barabbas go and they chose Barabbas. Again, even after all this, Jesus still chose to love his enemies and put others before himself. He died for humanity's sin. Although it was painful, he fully committed to his cause. As a result, he has led many people today throughout their life journey. That's a major hero that still lives in spirit when he is physically gone.  

Storytelling For Week 3: Jesus Escapes the Prophecy

(6th Century Icon)

John was baptizing people one day and all of a sudden the man he heard about starts walking towards him. He said, "Jesus is that you?" Jesus replied, "Yes, I seek to be baptized." John feeling unworthy steps back. Jesus says all are worthy in my eyes. So, John baptized Jesus. Out of nowhere, the Romans started rushing at them. John and Jesus were surrounded and Jesus looked at John fearing for his life. Jesus looked at him and everything slowed down, "John do not be afraid I am with you." The Romans were within striking distance when Jesus snapped His fingers and all were paralyzed standing up. Jesus said, "Why do you persecute me? Don't you know I am here to help you?" The Romans in disarray are released by Jesus and flee from His site. 

After a little while, Jesus gathered disciples so He could teach them his ways.  Judas and Peter were two of his disciples that struggled the most with His teachings. The teaching Jesus loved was to put others before yourself. The reasoning He has was that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Peter and Judas didn't like this because they were concerned with their needs more.

So, finally the night had come that Jesus foretold for many days. Jesus was to be taken by the Romans and betrayed by one of his disciples. As they sat at their last dinner together Peter and Judas said, "Surely it is not I Lord?" The time passed and Peter nor Judas were seen. The Romans showed up to take Jesus away for his blaspheme. "You are not the son of God and have no authority to claim so," they said. Slowly the Romans walked toward Jesus step by step. Everyone is staring at Jesus wondering what He will do. All you can hear is heavy breathing. One Roman guard took his last step to Jesus and said, "Get up." Jesus looked up at him. Boom! The cloth they were all eating on collapsed thanks to Peter and Judas. They both yelled, "Run!" Everyone got out and headed for the hills. Finally safe, went into the woods by himself. 

Jesus was praying to God saying, "Father what am I to do? The prophecy did not come true." God replied, "Son live and keep living. A new time of my creation has come. Your prophecy has changed and I need you to search for men who can spread your word." Jesus did so and lived until he died from old age. People did not like that He proclaimed He was the son of God. He was tortured, but his legacy lives on. Christianity spread all over the world and Jesus learned that sometimes you get a second chance; no matter how short the time is. 

Author's note: -John The Baptist and Jesus

                        -The Miracles of Jesus

                        -The Teachings of Jesus

                        -The Last Supper

-I chose fiction (considering I believe what happened to Jesus was real) and portions of the actual story were changed. I chose fiction because it allowed me to change this story in a subtle yet huge way. My main goal to the story was to give Jesus a little more power that still stayed true to his character and to change Peter/Judas's outcomes. Jesus really got baptized by John the Baptist, but did not get attacked by Romans. I chose the paralyzing Roman power so that Jesus did not harm anyone and still was accountable to his teachings. Also, Judas actually betrays Jesus and Peter denies he knows Jesus three times in the original story. I changed this because I wanted to create a very subtle difference that showed just how easy the other way this story could have gone. Imagine if they all fought and made it free like they did in this story? What would they have done? Imagine the adventures. 

                        

Bibliography: John The Baptist and Jesus, King James Bible (1611) Mark 1

                       The Miracles of Jesus, King James Bible (1611) Mark 6

                       The Teachings of Jesus, King James Bible (1611) Mark 9

                       The Last Supper, King James Bible (1611) Mark 14

Reading Diary B: Gospel of Mark Unit

(Jesus and Disciples, by Duccio di Buoninsegna)

As I read The Teachings of Jesus, things became more interesting. First he started with lessons like the first shall be last and the last shall be first. He means that those who serve themselves more, but ignore others throughout their day who might need their attention must become more selfless. I absolutely agree and am guilty of being first for sure at times. What really caught my attention, was when Jesus went from explaining stories like that to saying things like it is better to cut off your right hand than let it offend you. Why the change all of a sudden? I think maybe it was to intensify the teachings and really get them through to his people. Also, the way they talked back then was entirely different than how we speak today. I don't think he means to literally cut off your hand. So, this made me take a good note to make sure that anything I write, even though I am sure all vernacular in each time period is understood well, will be easily understood. 

The next couple stories that caught my attention dealt with The Last Supper, The Arrest, and Peter's Denial. The thing that boggles my mind the mot about this story is Judas's betrayal of Jesus. Jesus, the one who loved Judas more than anything, gave Judas everything he needed and it still was not enough. Also, Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times. Peter did in fact deny him three times. What makes these stories captivating is the relationship the disciples have with Jesus before everything tumbles down. The writers of this story, although I'm sure were sad, wrote it very well. They captured the essence of what makes stories entertaining, humans and their struggle to live in peace with one another. I believe this is why we still have these teachings today. These men believed in their cause and many others have also. Now, we have Christianity because of a message passed down. Think about how powerful words are now when you write anything.  

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Reading Diary A: The Gospel of Mark

(John the Baptist, by John Lorenzetti)

I chose The Gospel of Mark unit because the gospels were recorded by more than one person. Now, it was recorded by one person that was not there at the time. So, I decided to read John the Baptist and Jesus as one story to see what similarities and differences their would be. 

Their were not many differences from the original recordings, but this got me thinking. If a number of people have similar accounts of Jesus, does that make them accurate? You see I believe that these things did happen, but a part of me wonders if there was some embellishment for creativity similar to how we write in our assignments. I don't believe if this is so that it would make the stories any less true. Perhaps they just thought they'd grab our attention more using certain visuals. Either way, its helping me  take stories that have already been written (lets call them true stories or originals) and think about how to change them in a positive way that doesn't take away from the original story's purpose. 

Next, I read about Jesus and the miracles he performed. The one that stunned me the most was how He fed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Since it is not explained how this miracle transpired, I reminded myself of my earlier theme of how to change stories in a positive way and keep their theme. Now, maybe we are not supposed to know about how the miracle happened, but I started brainstorming how I could write an explanation for the miracle. I will not reveal what this is since I plan to use it in my next story so you will have to wait and see! The bottom line is that the more I read stories that are believed to be true, the more I start to think how to turn them into fiction. This class has made me think outside the box and take stories people have known their entire lives and make them entirely different yet pleasing. 

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