Storybook Plan: Here Come the Floods
Last week, I talked a lot about the ideas that I want to carry out in my storybook, so here is a link to that: Topic Research Week 3. This post describes the three stories that I plan on writing so far. I am still looking into the myths in further detail, so I have yet to polish the basic premises of the stories.
As for my source material, I have three main stories that I want to use as the primary inspiration for my short stories:
The Buddhist flood myth found in a collection of jatakas. I really want to use this story as inspiration, not only because I find the storyline interesting but also because I am not very familiar with any Buddhist stories. Also, this story follows a slightly different narrative than most flood myths, what with the flood affecting only a single island and the involvement of spirits.
The first story that got me interested in focusing on floods is the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha told by Ovid. This is a tale from Ancient Rome that is rooted in classical Greco-Roman mythology, involving the wrath of Zeus and the savior of the couple by another goddess who took pity upon them.
After exploring my first two sources, I wanted to find a flood myth from a culture that I wasn't familiar with so that I could try something new while writing my storybook. I ended up stumbling across the Matsya story, a Hindu flood myth involving a fish god that pulls the first man to safety.
Additional sources I plan on looking into and using:
The Law of Fishes (Courtesy of Laura Gibbs!)
The Jataka Vol. IV No. 466 (Buddhist flood myth)
A Flood of Myths and Stories (Brief descriptions of several flood myths from across the world and was my primary source in collecting basic information on the stories I took inspiration from)
Ovid's Metamorphoses: Deucalion and Pyrrha
Ideally, all of my stories will be completely separate from each other, with the common theme of floods tying them together. Something I have thought about is possibly having one of the stories almost act as a myth for one of the later stories. A story that I have tentatively title Teach a Man to Fish will likely be the story I would use as a flood myth of my own creation, as I plan to have it surrounded by a more mystical atmosphere. One of the stories earlier on in the storybook may make some reference to this story and then the reader can later see the source material and have that feeling of deja vu.
For all these stories, I want to show a sense of companionship, whether the experience causes two strangers to grow closer or two acquaintances to realize they have yet to truly know the other.
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