Aub's Storytelling

[Juan E. Sandoval]

Hello there,
I have a few short stories that I wanted to post here, to add to The Picky Princess and The End of the West. Hope you guys enjoy!

The Gold Plated Kingdom

The Gold Plated Kingdom

The Fisherman's Sons

The Fisherman's Sons

The Faceless Prince

The Faceless Prince

(already featured in the Alin thread)

[Keso]

Aub, this is wonderful!
Those storytellings are so creative. Love them.

[Rua]

Thank you for sharing these little gems, they exemplify a form of storytelling that has grown mostly out of fashion in today's prose marketplace, and they were part of the inspiration I required to begin the work on my current project.
To add something in a similar vein, here is a collection of beautiful Chinese fairy tales (with editorial work done by the inimitable Richard Wilhelm) that your works reminded me of:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29939/29939-h/29939-h.htm#XVI
 
 

[Juan E. Sandoval]

Thanks Keso!
Rondo, those Chinese fairy tales are quite the same style indeed. Read a couple and really like them so far. I'm gathering my own inspiration largely from the old/original Grimm's Fairy Tales. I find this style so succinct, elegantly simple and innocent. It gives permission to go into non-technical places, fantastical places, and tell a story without any necessary commitment to its conventional believably. It's non-verbose, minimal in explanations or justifications, non-metacognitive, and abundant in matter of fact events. Indeed, quite different than my typical style.
Oh, what's your current project? (:

[Animal]

Beautiful. The faceless Prince is my favorite... I think I know a few of those. :,)

[Rua]

Auburn - Yes I figured you were sourcing primarily from an older version of Grimm's Fairy Tales, good to know my intuitions in that regard are still alive and well XD. "Succinct, elegantly simple and innocent" is a very good way of putting it, and that's the style I used to write and set up the framework for the project I'm working on, which is quite similar to that found in One Thousand and One Nights, but rather than collecting fairy stories, the only requirement I set for the tales included in my storybook is that they must showcase human vulnerability in some form or fashion. The introduction covers the fantastical groundwork in short order, and from there I imagine most of the stories included will be of a more contemporary style involving ordinary people in an ordinary world. Fantastical elements will likely be treated almost exclusively psychologically, but will have no need of formal explanation. I don't plan to title any of the tales within the book, but I do have working titles in my head, the first of which is "Cigarettes for dinner", to give a basic idea of the bleakness I imagine will permeate more than a few of the tales. Essentially, I needed a really solid and time-tested conceit as the foundational scaffolding to give myself as much breathing room as possible to include stories and lessons that have so far been fragmented across a myriad of different text docs.

[Bera]

Wonderful stories !
The last one has the biggest impact, I think, but I prefer the first one. It seems to have a happy ending, which I like. Also, it's pretty similar to some of my experiences. Being pushed aside by authority figures and making the best out of the situation. I think the only difference from the story is that I would directly think of the advantages of being in the forest with the cripples, not just enjoy the view despite the conditions. I'd see it as an opportunity - a smaller circle, less competition, no authority, a lot of space and resources. It is a much better position than just being a boy in the city. You need to organize a bit but it's a good place to start.

@rondo, I didn't get to read any of the Chinese fairy tales but I will as soon as I have some time.
Also, great idea to write fairy tales in a contemporary style. The bleakness reminds me of The Wolf Among Us - a video game about fairy tale characters caught in the real world. The main character, Bigby, loves to smoke.
I think we should make a separate thread about fairy tales and how they remind us of different functions/types/quadras etc.
But I have a Japanese fairy tale in mind that you guys might like. It has some similar themes to the ones in Auburn's first fairy tale, so I will share it. I have never read it though, I just listened to it being told on this Podcast :
https://www.mythpodcast.com/?powerpress_pinw=409-podcast
There are 2 Japanese fairy tales here, but the one that I was thinking about is the second -The Boy who Drew Cats. It starts at 16:31 and ends at 28:37.
The other one is interesting too, but it gives me more Pi vibes. The Boy who Drew Cats is pretty Pe heavy and although it has a totally different style, the major themes are connected to seeing beauty in unexpected places and expressing it, being an outcast, looking for a new place to start and having a flaw turn into a strength. 🙂

[Author]

Posts