Week 6 Story Lab: Ted Talks

Sources:

Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley

A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Barry Kaufman

I really found the first one by Nina Paley to be very interesting. At first, the title seems to make no sense. I had never thought of copyright as this terrible thing, but she made some very good points. For example, I never knew that copyrights could be permanently withheld from someone else. I had always assumed that it meant you had to pay royalties to use someone else's intellectual properties, not that they could reject your attempts to use their media, even if you pay. I feel similar to her in that this is a stifling of creativity in a way, and can only hurt the exposure your idea may receive otherwise, as nobody else could use it and bring attention to it. I also found the permission culture comments she made to be an interesting take on the world currently. Because of laws surrounding things such as copyright, we immediately begin to self-censor ourselves in a way, as we know we are unable to use certain ideas or forms of media due to their protections. She mentioned early on that she has comics from earlier in her career that not only are not producing additional money due to their copyrights, but it also prevents them from gaining the exposure that could boost her career as a comic artist. These types of things I had never thought about before.

The other Ted Talk by Scott Barry Kaufman intrigued me. The opening story of Blaine, a child who was diagnosed with many disorders, such as ADHD, General Anxiety Disorder, and more at the age of 8, turning into someone who excelled in school and simply learned in different ways was astonishing. Many times in our educational system, kids who learn a slightly different way or who struggle to grasp the concepts the traditional way are treated as incapable of learning, when they simply have different strengths when it comes to retention strategies. I highly disliked art class as a child, and to this day struggle with creativity because of these types of things in those classes, such as a struggle to focus and constantly needing small breaks to regain my focus and attention. I also found his discussion about IQ tests to be very interesting as well. When he talked about it, I went and looked at some online examples (short attention span, constantly shifting and getting off track, I know), and on some of the questions, such as language, it marks you incorrectly for having a different definition of a word than the one they assign to it, which affects trying to decide what you believe is the best antonym to said word. I can understand where they are coming from with their choices for the correct answers, but some can be subjective based on the interpreter. I was also amazed by Dr. Kaufman's personal story. He was a student who was listed as special education in elementary school, which for many children can be a death sentence, but he was able to get out of the classes with the help of a teacher, went to college, completed a doctorate at Yale, and is not a staff member for UPenn, one of the most prestigious schools in the United States. I absolutely loved his story and his speech, as I can relate to many of the things that he spoke about and found the material to be phenomenal.

Almost everyone has seen these "If you see it, you're a genius" posts on the internet

Source: YouTube

Reading Notes: Arabian Nights, Part B

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H.J. Ford (1898)

Genie from Disney's Aladdin 

Source: Flickr

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Pt. 1
Aladdin, the son of Mustapha, is a carefree boy who spends his days playing in the street, which saddens his father until his death. A magician then comes by claiming to be Aladdin's uncle, and shows care for him, pleasing Aladdin's mother. He then takes Aladdin to a valley, and with the promise of treasure, convinces him to travel through a cave to retrieve a lamp, giving him a ring for the journey. When Aladdin refuses to give him the lamp before they leave the cave, he traps Aladdin in the cave, but forgets to retrieve his ring from Aladdin. Aladdin rubs the ring in the cave, and a genie appears, who is the Slave of the Ring, and will obey Aladdin's commands.

Aladdin Discovering the Lamp

Source: Wikipedia

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Pt. 2
Aladdin returns home with the genie's help, and tells his mother the story before asking for food. She responds that she has none, and although she says she will sell her cotton, Aladdin says he will sell the lamp instead. His mother rubs it to try and clean it, and out pops another genie, which Aladdin asks for and receives food from. His mother later begs him to sell the lamp, but Aladdin refuses to dispose of the lamp or the ring. After selling the plates the food came on, which were made of silver, he and his mother live for many years comfortably. Later, he ventures out to see the Sultan's daughter, and becomes smitten with love for her, and declares he wishes to marry her. His mother eventually asks the Sultan to allow it, and he consents, but that she must wait 3 months so that his vizir may have an opportunity for his son. She agrees, but after 2 months, the vizir's son and the Sultan's daughter are to be married. Angered, Aladdin tells the genie to force the bridegroom to sleep outside in the cold while he sleeps by the bride, scaring her and making her night miserable.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Pt. 3
Terrified, the bride and bridegroom wish to be separated, and this is allowed due to their miserable nights. Aladdin's mother, after the 3 months, returns to remind the Sultan of Aladdin's desire, and he allows it based on a very rich offering. Aladdin wishes for these things, and receives them, sending them to the Sultan. He then asked for an extremely ornate palace for him and his bride, and after the ceremony, took her back home. The Sultan arrives, and asks why one window is incomplete, which Aladdin says is so that he may lay the finishing touch, although he is unable to complete it to the same standard as the rest of the palace. Due to this, Aladdin uses the genie to finish the window, and returns the gems and materials that belong to the Sultan to him, pleasing him.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Pt. 4
The magician hears of Aladdin's success and becomes enraged that he had not perished in the cave. He travels to the city, and hearing that Aladdin's palace is the most magnificent place in the world, gets the princess to trade the old lamp, which is magic, for a new one, as she did not know of its power. He uses the genie from the lamp to transport the palace and the princess to the desert far away, unbeknownst to Aladdin, who is out hunting. When he returns, the Sultan orders him executed, although the people of the city prevent this due to their love of Aladdin. The Sultan grants Aladdin 40 days to find the princess, or else he will be executed. The genie in his ring cannot bring the palace back, but takes him to the palace, where he crashes out of exhaustion.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Pt. 5
The princess is furious with the magician, and he does not stand to stay with her overnight. She is overcome with joy when she discovers Aladdin is still alive, and she tells him that she gave the magician the lamp unknowingly. He comes up with a plan, and has her convince the magician that she has forgotten about Aladdin, and will marry him now. Aladdin gives her a powder to place in his cup, and she does so, and after receiving the wine she requested, she feigns drinking hers while he drinks all of his, causing him to fall back, dead.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Pt. 6
Aladdin returns the palace to China, fulfilling his promise to the Sultan to bring his daughter back, which pleases him and saves Aladdin's life. However, the magician's brother seeks to avenge his death, and disguises himself as Fatima, the holy woman after killing her. He enters the palace and tells the princess that only a Roc's egg can make it even better, and the princess asks Aladdin for this. When he asks the genie, the genie is appalled, and realizes only the magician's brother could have caused them to ask for such a thing. Aladdin feigns illness to draw close to the false Fatima, and kills him, which angers the people of the city until he reveals the ruse. He then lives happily ever after with the princess, eventually taking over the Sultan's position, leading for many years.

Reading Notes: Arabian Nights, Part A

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H.J. Ford (1898)

Scheherazade
The Sultan is very distrustful of women because of his first wife's impropriety. He marries a new woman each day, and has her killed the next by the Grand-Vizir. Eventually, the Grand-Vizir's own daughter volunteers to become the Sultan's wife in an attempt to stop him, and he reluctantly agrees. Her sister joins her, and asks her to tell a story, which the Sultan allows, and she tells The Story of the Merchant and the Genius.

Scheherazade and the Sultan by Sani ol Molk

Source: Wikipedia

The Merchant and the Genius
A merchant is traveling and, after completing his journey and leaving for home, stops under a tree to rest and eat, drinking from the nearby fountain. The genius comes to him in rage claiming the merchant had killed his son, for which the merchant is sorry. He convinces the genius to spare him for a year so that he may see his family, to which he agrees. After making amends at home, the merchant returns, and is met by dogs and old men, who decide to stay and see what happens. When the genius arrives, one of the old men begins to tell the genius The Story of the First Old Man.

The Hind
The old man travels with a hind, which is his wife. His wife disliked the man's son and his son's mother, so when the man went on a journey, she transformed the mother into a cow, and the son into a calf. The man returned, and requested a cow for a feast, which was the mother, who was killed. He then asked for a calf, which was his son, but he could not kill his son due to the emotion it showed. He then finds out it is his son, and has him transformed, but his wife becomes a hind in return. After this story, the second old man begins to tell The Story of the Second Old Man.

The Two Black Dogs
The two black dogs are the second old man's brothers, who grew jealous of him. They both left on voyages only to return a beggar, though he helped them by giving them some money to replace what they lost. They convinced the old man to travel with them, and he reluctantly agreed. He meets a beautiful wife, and the brothers throw them overboard out of jealousy. His wife was a fairy, who curses them to be dogs for 10 years, which are nearly up. Scheherazade then says the third old man's story is even more magnificent, saving the merchant's life, but she does not know it. In its place, she tells  The Story of the Fisherman.

The Fisherman
A fisherman heads out for the day, and his first three casts are unsuccessful. On his fourth and final cast, he happens to capture a lamp with a genius inside. The genius says the fisherman must die for freeing him due to frustration at his length of entrapment. The fisherman asks how such a large genius fit into the lamp, so the genius enters the lamp again, only to be trapped again, and is told The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban.

The Greek King and the Physician Douban
A Greek King is a leper who no doctor has been able to cure. A cunning physician offers to help the king, and does so with a polo club by having the king play a game of polo, then bathing and resting for the night. The King's grand-vizir grows jealous of the physician, and attempts to cause the King to distrust the physician, which he sees right through, and tells the grand-vizir a story of King Sindbad's Grand-Vizir: The Story of the Parrot.

The Parrot and the Ogress
A man loved his wife very much, and bought a parrot that would tell all it saw, and had it placed in the room. The parrot told of the wife's actions, who had the parrot distracted by slaves so it would not tell her actions to her husband, who killed the parrot for these apparent lies caused by the distractions. The Vizir hears the story, and tells of a king's son who enjoyed hunting. The son was separated from his Vizir in excitement for a stag, and finds a woman crying. The woman takes him home in a plan to eat him, and he runs away, gets directions from an ogress, and arrives home, where his father has the Vizir killed for abandoning his son.

The Physician's Revenge
The Vizir convinces the King that the physician is there to kill him, and sets up the execution for after the physician prepares for his death. The physician gives the king a book, which is laced with poison, and after his head is cut off, tells the king to read the book, transferring the deadly toxin to him. Thus the king died due to his choice to kill the physician. We return to the fisherman, who lets the genius out on the promise the genius will make him rich in return.

The Sultan and the Fish
The fisherman is taken to a lake, and has great success catching fish, and is told to sell them to the Sultan for massive wealth. However, he can only throw a net once a day. The Sultan is intrigued by the fish, and orders the fisherman to show him this lake, and the Sultan goes off exploring by himself. He discovers a palace covered in black marble, which appears empty. He enters and stumbles on a sad young man who is made partially of black marble, and is therefore unable to leave this building. He proceeds to tell the Sultan his story.

King of the Black Isles
The young man is King of the Black Isles, and married his cousin, an enchantress, who he loved, but who did not love him back. He punished a slave for terrible crimes, and she cried for him for 2 years, turning against the king. She turned him into half black marble in her anger. She also flooded the kingdom, leaving the fish as the colors of the former citizens of the kingdom. The Sultan kills the slave, who is still barely alive, and takes his place when the enchantress enters, and has her free the young man, who runs away happy to be free. He then gets her to unflood the palace and city of the young man's kingdom, and then kills her, freeing them from her. The Sultan is thanked by the young man, and makes the young man his heir when he returns home. The Sultan then makes the fisherman very wealthy for all he did for him.