Brett's Blog

Image from Mindset Blog The two articles I read were " Be a Mirror " by Gravity Goldberg and " How to Give Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk " by Adam Grant. Like the authors of these articles, I believe that it's very important to be sincere in your feedback, and not worry so much about if the person receiving your feedback is going to like what they're about to hear. Both authors write about being clear about the fact that the feedback is designed to help the person receiving it grow, which is instrumental in being good at giving feedback. The biggest thing that I've learned about giving feedback over the years is that the person receiving it has to actually want it. Growing up, I would never really hold back when it came to telling friends and family what I thought. My stance on things was always clear and I was the king of giving unsolicited advice any time my friends had a problem. Of course, I would then be furious and confused as my fri...

Sasquatch: Image I have decided to focus my storybook project on the topic of American folkloric monsters, and there is arguably no monster more famous or recognizable across the country than Bigfoot himself. The "primal, hairy ape-man" monster archetype is nothing new, and is prevalent in countries all over the world ( Yeti , Yowie , Barmanou , Hibagon , Chuchuna , etc.) and the creature even has many different names across North America, such as  Sasquatch , Skunk Ape , Skookum , Momo , Grassman , the Fouke Monster , the Dewey Lake Monster and the Mogollon Monster , just to name a few. Much like the creature's many different titles, its proposed behavior also differs wildly depending on the regional spin-off that is being described. Some are benevolent or benign, while others are outright hostile. The versatility of this monster will allow for greater freedom when writing about it in my storybook project. The Mothman of West Virginia, statue by Bob ...

Perseus and Andromeda, by Frederic Leighton Dan had been the Dungeon Master for his friends' Dungeons and Dragons group for a while now, and he always looked forward to their sessions on Wednesday nights. Everyone had a good time, and they had created stories that would last a lifetime, one of which was the unfortunate story of Percy. Percy was an acquaintance who was also an avid D&D player. When his group disbanded for unknown reasons, Percy asked Dan if he could join his group. Dan allowed it, welcoming Percy to the group. Percy was insistent that he should be able to keep the same character that he had played in his former campaign. Dan, not knowing what he was agreeing to, let him keep his character. When Wednesday came and everyone sat down to play, Dan began to realize his mistake.  "Alright everyone," Dan began. "When we last left off, you all had made your way to the fields of the giant monster known as Atlas. A mountain looms in the dista...

Perseus with the Head of Medusa, by  Benvenuto Cellini Pyramus and Thisbe Wow, Shakespeare basically just stole this entire story for the plot of Romeo & Juliet . So far in the Metamorphoses, the stories seem to be separated distinctly into "lesson" stories and "how" stories, with some overlap (such as Phaethon). This tale definitely falls into the "how" category, though it admittedly seems to be a very dramatic explanation as to why berries are dark (but you could make the same claim towards many classical "how" stories). Not really sure how I could retell this one, as it seems to have already been done (see Romeo & Juliet ). Mars and Venus I've read this story before and it always makes me so sad for Vulcan. Not only is he a very ugly god because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother Juno (because throwing your baby off of a cliff is apparently top tier parenting by Greek god standards), but he also basicall...

The Fall of Phaethon, Johann Michael Franz: Image Deucalion & Pyrrha I find the prevalence of "big flood" myths across different cultures to be very interesting. Whether these stories are mere imitations of one another or actual evidence for an event like this actually happening remains to be seen, though it is fun to see the slight differences among the different tales. Recreating the human race by throwing rocks is definitely an interesting development that I'd never heard before. Io This story is a prime example of how Greek/Roman gods simply view mortals as playthings. Io and Argus have done absolutely nothing wrong and they are raped and murdered respectively regardless. In classical culture, the gods were used as explanations for natural occurrences, and perhaps this is simply a showing of how nature doesn't make sense sometimes. Or, maybe stories like these of Zeus/Jupiter's many affairs (and there are a LOT of them) act as Greek reality ...