Reading Notes: Folklore of Laos Part B

Many of the Laos folklore is centered around the idea that if you behave well in life and make the right decisions, you will be greatly rewarded. Often times, the character of a story will be presented with a treasure or with the option to return something of value. If they are satisfied with the initial gift or choose to return the item, they receive even greater rewards than if they tried to be greedy or had taken the item.

After looking at my work so far this semester, I've found that I need to work on finding opportunities to add more detail to my stories. I will be looking for interesting descriptions and details in this week's reading. Many of the tales in this unit were short so it was difficult to find much descriptive language but I feel like even though the examples I found were few, they provided helpful examples and ideas.

One Woman

• "..but take and sell me as a slave to the captain of the ship lying at the mouth of the river."
• the addition of the specified area of the river makes the sentence much more interesting. The author could have just said the captain's boat was on the river, but instead chose to place it at the "mouth of the river" to give the readers more visual.

A Boy of the City Streets

• "...bade the boy to go to a brook..."
• referring to a creek from which to obtain drinking water. Too often I think I forget to use more specific words when referring to a body of water and typically just say "river" or "lake" instead of a word like "pool" which may have more mystical connotations.

To Aid a Beast

• using the venom of a snake to cure eyesight
• using unconventional items to solve problems
• not a detail but interesting story development

The Words of Untold Value

• "...two fine hairs..."
• instead of just calling them hairs, describe it simply
• "...placed the two hairs in a package with his clothing, and sealed the package with wax..."
• instead of simply saying the boy packed all of his stuff, add more visual elements to the sentence like this.

Accurate representation of me, searching for the details. Wikimedia.

Bibliography

Laos Folklore Unit

Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Fleeson