Topic Research: Dante's Inferno

(Divine Comedy Illustrated by Sandro Botticelli: Wikipedia)

Story Option #1: A Modern Retelling: Instead of having Dante meet with the characters in the original story I could have him meet people from recent history who would most likely be in Hell today. I could have him meet Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, or even Jeffrey Dahmer. This would help give the story a modern feel and the readers most likely wouldn't have to look up the people he meets since they are so notorious in modern day history. Overall, I would be keeping the structure of the original story, but changing most of the characters. 

Story Option #2: A Different Kind of Hell: Instead of Dante traveling through Hell, he could be traveling through his own personal Hell. For example, it could be the education system and instead of circles of Hell it will be grades in school. This retelling would be more of a comedy and much lighter than the original. The people he meets throughout the story could be former teachers or classmates. 

Story Option #3: Retelling in the Form of Video Game or Action Movie: Instead of Dante being led through Hell, he could be trying to escape and win his soul back. Virgil could still be the one guiding him, but Dante would have to fight his way through the circles of Hell as each circle gets progressively more difficult to get through. Lucifer would be the final boss in this story. It would be a classic video game in the sense that Dante can die several times, but has a limited amount of tries until he has to permanently stay in Hell. Update: There was a video game like this made in 2010, but the plot is different. Dante's Inferno Video Game

Links:

Wikipedia

The World of Dante

9 Circles of Hell

Feedback Strategies

Presence, Not Praise: How To Cultivate a Healthy Relationship with Achievement: I found this article to be interesting because it is straight to the point when calling out the culture of praise our society has created. I agree with the idea that praise can basically make people complacent because if you do something and get praised for it then there really isn't a point in trying to do a better job since you already got results. I found this to be true with myself in high school and in my first years in college. If I wrote a paper and got a good grade on it with a comment saying "Good job!" or something like that I would just try to get the exact same quality on the next paper even if it wasn't the best quality. I also agree that being present is much more effective. When I played football in high school, our coaches would be present when giving feedback especially when we watched film. It allowed all of us to learn and grow as players instead of getting big egos from getting constant praise.

The Difference Between Praise and Feedback: I feel that this article shares the same theme as the previous one I talked about above. It is basically saying that we need to be present instead of praising which can have negative consequences. I found it interesting how Deci disagreed with Dweck and her methods, but I think Dweck defended her position on the subject well. I also agree that parents will always praise their kids no matter what. I don't have any kids right now, but if I do I feel like it will be hard to not praise them if they do something I am proud of them for. However, being present instead of praising is something I want to start working on.

(Sticky Note - Good Job: NOGRAN s.r.o, Flickr)

Week 3 Story: You Never Had Me

Updated Story: https://sites.google.com/view/davidrportfolio/you-never-had-me

(The Fast and the Furious, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker: BagoGames, Flickr)

Ancient Los Angeles, 2013, near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

As Rick Yune stands next to his Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle, he contemplates if it was the right move for him to destroy Vin Diesel’s green Toyota Supra considering Paul Walker, who now owes Vin Diesel a five second car, is coming after him. Paul Walker zooms in driving Vin Diesel’s dad’s 1970 Dodge Charger with one thing on his mind: REVENGE. He gets out of the car, removes his sunglasses, and looks Rick Yune right in the eyes. Rick Yune realizes his grave mistake, hops on his motorcycle, and pops a wheelie as he speeds away. Paul Walker, unconcerned, gets back into his car and spins his tires as he enters hot pursuit. The chase continues, but Rick Yune’s motorcycle runs out of fuel. By the grace of god, his crew rolls up and give him one of their street bikes. After a seemingly endless amount of laps around the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Rick Yune becomes delirious from exhaustion and thinks his crew has come back to support him. He stops the motorcycle and faces Paul Walker.

“Paul, can’t we work this out? You're a reasonable man right? I’ll give the pink slips to all my motorcycles and we can call it even” Rick Yune says to Paul Walker trying to negotiate his way out of certain death.

Paul, unwavering in his thirst for vengeance says nothing but pulls out his Colt .45 and aims it at Rick Yune's face, “Any last words?” Paul Walker says.

“The treasure is buried…” but before Rick Yune can finish his sentence, Paul Walker unloads a round of the most powerful handgun known to Californians right between his eyes. Paul Walker blows the smoke from the barrel of his gun, walks towards Rick Yune’s body, and says, “Almost had me?” (Thompson, Bergquist, and Ayer)

Bibliography: Homer's Iliad: The Slaying of Hector (Retold by A. J. Church); The Fast and the Furious written by Gary Scott Thompson, Eric Bergquist, and David Ayer. Dirty Harry 

Author's Note: Homer's Iliad: The Slaying of Hector tells the story of how the Greek demi-god Achilles avenges the death of his friend Patroclus by killing Hector the prince of Troy during the Trojan War. Hector is basically regretting facing Achilles and when Achilles shows up Hector runs away. Achilles chases Hector around Troy and the god Apollo helps Hector while the goddess Athene ultimately cause Hector to stop because she favors Achilles. Hector tries to plead with Achilles and offers him everything Troy has to offer, but Achilles does not accept. They battle and Achilles comes out victorious. Achilles then takes Hector's body, ties it to his chariot, and drags him away. My retelling changes the characters and setting of the story. I incorporated characters from "The Fast and the Furious" but kept the actors' real names. I also changed the setting to Los Angeles instead of Troy. Furthermore, instead of a chase on foot, they do their chase in vehicles. Ultimately, I made these decisions because I was inspired by a YouTube video of two guys trying to get a Paul Walker memorial statue in their city. I gave the story a much cheesier and funny feel to it as opposed to the original story which was tense and dramatic. The line "the most powerful handgun know to Californians..." was accidentally inspired by the movie "Dirty Harry". 

Reading Notes: Homer"s Iliad, Part B

(King Priam at the feet of Achilles: Wikimedia Commons)

I found it interesting how Hector defended his actions of running away from Ajax by basically saying he fears Zeus and the fate he has in store for him if he challenges another strong warrior to a battle. Yet, he puts on Achilles armor which makes Zeus really mad at him.

The scene with the horses crying over Patroclus is touching will be a great part to retell and show the intelligence and emotions the horses have.

Achilles has one of the best scenes in the story because he is able to make a whole army back down by just showing his presence and yelling at them. Even the horses feared them and I could add a lot more drama when retelling this part of the story.

The part where Apollo tricks Achilles could be retold in a more comical way. It could be comic relief in a time of the story that it extremely tense. I could also make Achilles find the humor in this situation as well instead of getting angry at Apollo.

The chase scene between Achilles and Hector could also be retold to be more comical. I picture them just running around the city as everyone watches them while having their own conversations of what is going to happen. It would also be funny to have Achilles yelling at Hector while he’s chasing him and Hector just looking back with a scared look on his face.

Once again, the movie “Troy” differs from the actual story because at first Paris has to fight Achilles and then he backs down. Then, Hectors steps in to protect his brother. I do not like how they portrayed Hector as a coward in this version of the story. So retelling it I will probably make Hector seem more brave even though he knows he is about to die.

I think I could make the part where Priam goes to see Achilles more intense by not letting him have protection from the gods. I could retell it as him being extremely sneaky and having some close encounters of being caught.

It was interesting to see that Achilles actually showed compassion when King Priam came to see him. What surprised me the most was that Priam ate and drank with the man who had just killed his favorite son. In my retelling I think I would have Priam immediately leave after Achilles accepts the ransom. 

Bibliography: Homer's Iliad (Retold by A. J. Church) 

Reading Notes: Homer's Iliad, Part A

(Achilles Statue, Hyde Park: Wikimedia Commons)

I think it is amazing that Achilles was classified as the bravest and strongest man in Greece because I’m sure there was a lot of competition for that title.

It seems that Agamemnon is feared by nearly everyone except for Achilles. Which makes sense since he knows he can kill anyone he wanted to in a battle.

It’s crazy how one prayer caused Apollo to come down and start killing things off.

It’s interesting to see how Achilles tried to negotiate with Agamemnon and it seemed like he was trying to console him. Then, he just gets enraged and it shows how fast Achille’s emotions can change.

The goddess Athene appearing and calming Achilles down is a great aspect to this story because it shows Achille’s favor with some of the goddesses and shows that he respects them.

The part where Achilles tells Agamemnon he will kill if he touches anything he owns is a really powerful and dramatic scene in my opinion.

Achilles is an extremely complex character because he goes from being completely enraged to voluntarily giving Agamemnon’s heralds Briseis and then he cries for his mother.

The part where Thetis asks Zeus to help is intriguing to me because she goes to him humbly, but the words she says to him when asking for the favor seem like she’s manipulating him and she knows that he will have to say yes to her request.

When Hera’s son talks to her about how he couldn’t help her if Zeus were to attack her and then proceeded to talk about when Zeus physically threw him out of Heaven can be retold in a much more comical way.

Helen seems calm and laid back with everything happening around her. This is interesting to me since she is basically the main reason there’s even a war going on right now.

The conversation between Hector and Andromache is one of the saddest ones in this whole story because Hector is so confident in his abilities and want to protect her and their child. However, deep down Andromache knows that he will die soon and that she will be a widow because of his pride.

I find Odysseus to one of my favorite characters when he takes over and tries to convince Achilles to come back to battle. He knows exactly what to say and he knows that Achilles loves and respects him.

Achille’s reply to Odysseus is surprising because you would think he might consider going back to battle, but he actually shows growth as a character by saying he cares about his life more than fame which is a complete change from earlier.

The movie “Troy”, which I have referenced before, tell this part of Patroclus differently. First, he takes Achilles armor without asking. Second, he is not cocky or arrogant as he is in the story. Lastly, Hector, not Apollo, kills him by slitting his throat thinking he is Achilles. I think I prefer the movie’s rendition of that part of the story so I will retell it like that.  

Overall, I think I would like to retell the story with characters of a different era. The character I replace Achilles with needs to be a great warrior with a complex psyche.

Bibliography: Homer's Iliad (Retold by A. J. Church)

Feedback Thoughts

6 Bad Mental Habits That Sabotage Your Success: This article was extremely relatable to me and my previous experiences. In the past, I have had the bad habit of thinking of what-if scenarios and thinking of the worst that could happen. This is still somewhat true when I think of ideas for potential business ventures, I think of everything that could go wrong which deters me from actually pursuing ideas that could end up working out. However, my entrepreneurship courses here at OU have helped me stop thinking of all the negative things that could happen. The mindset I have acquired is being prepared for every situation, but not worrying about all those things because that is counter-intuitive.  

Why rejection hurts so much — and what to do about it: This article is also relatable to me and can help me in the future with my businesses. I usually tend to let rejection get the best of me which leads to bad decisions moving forward. I also tend to criticize myself too harshly especially when I'm doing bad in a video game. However, I know that I will be rejected plenty of times in the future especially since I want to start a business and not everyone is going to want to be a customer of my business. Letting that rejection get to me will surely hurt me and will ultimately lead to many failures. Being able to handle rejection and not let it get in my head will be a vital key to succeeding.  

I think feedback as a whole is tremendously helpful for anyone pursuing basically anything. Feedback lets you know how you can improve and evolve as a person. Not being able to take feedback only causes a person to not grow and potentially continue on a path that will lead to failure. When I was younger, I didn't like getting feedback because I felt it was a personal attack sometimes. However, going through football in high school helped me realize how good feedback can help me achieve my goals. I have also received important feedback here at OU that I needed in order to be where I am today.

(Get Feedback, Use Feedback: Aaron Goodwin, Flickr)

Topic Brainstorm

Ghost Stories: Horror is one of my favorite genres for film, television, and literature. In my opinion, ghosts and paranormal entities are the most iconic figures for this genre. Although I am not familiar with a lot of classic ghost stories, I am familiar with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Woman in Black. I actually re-watched the movie version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow the other day and it just had such a classic ghost story vibe the whole time. I would like to read other classic ghost stories and also research their origins because seeing the origin of those stories can be great reads as well. I think I would like to retell stories that have sinister entities in them because those are the ones that scare me the most. I would retell them like how remakes of horror movies these days do it and give it modern twists that make it more realistic for readers today. http://www.castleofspirits.com/classic.html

Urban Legends: This topic caught my eye because of my fascination with these types of stories. My previous knowledge of urban legends range from Slenderman to Bloody Mary. I have also watched the movie Urban Legend a long time ago which is a horror movie where the characters get killed in urban legend like ways, but it is actually just a serial killer that is making their deaths look like that. I would definitely like to read about more urban legends from the US and from different countries because I have seen some foreign ones before and those can be terrifying. I would like to retell some of the scarier urban legends because those are the ones that are most memorable to me. I think it would interesting to change the setting of these stories to make it more personal and ultimately more frightening for the reader. http://urbanlegendsonline.com/

Dante’s Inferno: I read Dante's Inferno when I was a senior in high school so I am very familiar with this topic. As I have said in previous posts, this story is one of my favorites due to how vivid it is and how it sticks with you. However, it has been some time since I last read it so some of the details are hazy. I would like to go back into more detail and especially research some of the people that were mentioned since it only gave small descriptions of the people in the version I had. I would ideally want to make this story more modern by incorporating historical figures that came after the original publishing since it is a very old story. I feel that having more recognizable individuals in the layers of Hell could make the story slightly more enjoyable for readers who might have not liked the original. http://www.worldofdante.org/inferno1.html 

The Greek Titans: Honestly, this topic grabbed my attention mostly due to the fact that I do not know much about it and it has a cool name. The only name I recognize from the titans is Cronus. However, I think I would enjoy learning more about them and what role they played in Greek mythology. I think researching how they were overthrown would also be fun to learn about since I am familiar with the gods who did it like Zeus. The stories I would want to retell would most likely be related to the war of titans and how that all went down. Possibly creating a story of the Olympians and their dialogue and "behind the scenes" moves they made to overthrow the titans would be something that would be enjoyable in my opinion. https://www.greek-gods.org/titans.php

(Oceanus at Trevi: Wikimedia Commons)