I have a great story to tell you.
This is the story of how evil was created. Many years ago, there lay a small village by the name of Innocentia, meaning innocence in latin. Since the beginning of time, not a word of evil had been spoken amongst the elders of Innocentia and consequently, neither had any of the other villagers. In Innocentia, the idea of evil was unfathomable and unspoken. For better explanation, it simply did not exist. Words spoken in regards of friends and family were nothing but of the most heartfelt intention, speaking openly and proudly in tones of kindness. There was nothing that one villager would not do for any of the next.
In this pleasant village, there was one heart that shone brighter than any other. Actually, there were two. Emma Lou could uplift any soul she encountered with the help from her little pony friend; Penelope. Emma Lou and Penelope were never seen apart and were never seen without a smile in reach. This pair visited every young member of the village every morning to start their day on a good note. Although Innocentia had never been visited by evil and did not know of such a thing, the villagers had felt heartbreak as well as love and loss, and some days were better than others. If there was ever a day where one villager began to lose their beloved faith or trail off their innocent path, Emma Lou and Penelope’s presence would change that in a heartbeat.
One morning, just as the sun rose across the barley fields, Emma Lou woke up particularly early. She had an intuition that someone needed the help of her heart, but not without Penelope by her side. She tip-toed past her sleeping family and crept outside her stone home but when she peered around the rose bush smile at Penelope, Penelope’s post was empty. Nobody ever saw Penelope again and therefore, Emma Lou was never the same. She could no longer bring joy to the village as she was no longer truly joyful herself. The day that Penelope disappeared was the day that Innocentia understood evil. There was no other world to describe the cruelty that took away joy. The story of Penelope and Emma Lou was told for the rest of time, village to village. Once this story was told, it could never be taken back.
Reflection:
I genuinely enjoyed this assignment as it was very unfamiliar to me and challenging, in a fun way. I was entertained by the creativity that it required. When I told my story of how evil came into the world to my sister, mother, and father (all separately), I noticed that I altered it each time. I added intricate and essential details and found ways to make it further resonate with not only myself but my listeners as well. I can relate this process to how tales or more modernly, rumours are spread and told and how they snowball into different stories than they were originally told as. Sometimes stories become so different that they are not recognizable to the original storyteller. This Ted Talk by Elaine Lui touches on this topic.
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Peterbough:Anansi Press. 2003. Print.
Lui, Elaine. The Sociology of Gossip. youtube.com/watch?v=oFDWOXV6iEM
Hi Alex!
I really enjoyed reading your short story. I felt like you kept the main elements the same as King did in the first chapter, but you really made the story your own. I like how you reflected at the end that your story was different depending on when you were telling it, and who you were telling it to. To be honest, I also felt the same way. I was telling the story to my little sister who is 8 years old and I definitely changed some of the words, and had to appeal to her to be able to captivate her attention. The more I told mine, the easier it got. I like your relation if this storytelling experience to rumours, and how mass consumption and humans spread rumours. In my cultural psychology class, we are learning about how humans are ultra social species, and we learn by talking to others and that is why humans are more evolved than other primates (i.e. chimpanzees). However, modern day communication and rumours are very different than they used to be – communication is no longer used to speak of only the truth, and people alter the stories and information they gather. Once you tell a story, you can’t take it back. What do you think? Do you believe that there is a downside to the mass consumption and rapid process that information spreads, since it can’t always be verified? Or do you believe that this is the way the world is changing?
Thanks!
Maya 🙂
HI! As I’m reading through the different stories that my classmates have posted I found the way that they’ve characterized evil to be different. What I gain from your story is that, your characterization of evil is one that is the result of sadness, loss, unhappiness and cruelty. Though it’s really interesting how it’s sadness that leads to evil. That’s mainly what I got out of the reaction our protagonist had when her pony disappeared and therefore leads to the lack of joy in her town. And I do love that as a concept, that a lack of joy and love leads one to evil, but what seemed incomplete to me was the fact that she never questions or goes to search for the pony. The way the pony was gone with no explanation and her lack of interests in what did happen seems like a loose string. I think it would be interesting to see sadness grow or naivety ruined, or at least expressed. This is mainly from the prospective of the story telling format. The story itself is great on its own, but it might be interesting to present another line in regards to her reaction a little more. I also want to add that your reflect was interesting as well, I felt the same. When stories are repeated there always seems to be a change in the story, no matter how slight. And spoken fables as well, unlike short quotes or sayings that are simply repeated as such, the length and context of the story telling environment seems to shift our stories.
Hi Alexandra,
The story of Innocentia was very beautiful! It seems as though Emma Lou and Penelope served as the only essence and fabric that kept the village together. Once broken, it would never be the same.
If you look at it from a high level point of view, the message of the story never changed as you told it to your family. As you told the story to different folks, you could have substituted Emma Lou, Penelope, even the elements affecting other villagers. But as long as you portrayed them to be the only thing shielding the village from the eventual permeation of evil, the story would be very much the same!
This was a very interesting assignment!
Hi Alexandra! First of all, I wanted to say great story! I felt a sense of mystery in Penelope’s disappearance and would love to get your take on it. Is the reason/thing responsible for her disappearance meant to be up to the imagination of the reader? Or perhaps, is her disappearance a result of the force of evil itself, in any form? Any way, I do really enjoy that the evil has no face, because in a lot of ways there is no clear face of evil. When I think of evil I often think of a villain or a villainous person. My instinct is to equate evil with the intention to cause harm. How would you describe evil? Either the evil as described in your story, or evil in general.