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Topic Brainstorm


One topic I think would make a good Storybook topic is Dante's Inferno. I have read it before, but did not get to look at the story in much detail. I like the idea of keeping Dante's structure the same by telling a tale that moves through the circles of Hell. Dante, however, just came up with what each ring represents, so I could do the same and change what each circle of Hell means. I also think it would be interesting to update who the narrator meets along the way. Dante used ancient historical figures, but much time has passed since the "Divine Comedy" was written and there are several more people that the narrator could meet on his or her journey.

I also am drawn to Italian Tales (as I have said in almost every assignment haha). Particularly, I think Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Crane looks promising. This book contains dozens of Italian stories I could draw from. I have read some Italian literature before, but never any folk tales or fairy tales. I know only a couple Italian stories and they are not ones contained in this book, so these stories are all new to me. I would like to learn more about Italian history and culture, which is why I am interested in this topic. Many of the stories in this book are very short and somewhat silly. I think it would be fairly easy to write my own stories that are in a similar style.

The third topic I am interested in is Aquatic Mythological Creatures. The Sea Cryptid page also contains a good list of creatures I could write about. I do not know about many of these creatures besides the "common" ones such as mermaids, Nessie, and water spirits. If I do choose this topic, I think I would prefer to specifically focus on ocean creatures; I have always loved going to the ocean and seeing the creatures there. I think it would be interesting to learn about different tales of what lies under the water. For this topic, I could tell stories from different creatures' points of view or move around the world and focus on different creatures in different oceans.

The last topic I am interested in is Greek Constellations. One of the reasons I decided to take this course was because I was hoping to learn more about Greek mythology. I never thought about how it tied into the names of constellations, but I have always been curious about the stories behind constellations. I have heard a couple stories about major constellations before, but honestly do not really remember any of them. I think it would be really neat to learn the stories about something I see so often. Chadwick's The Storyland of Stars seems like a good resource with stories about several different constellations. For this Storybook, I could retell the story behind the constellation, possibly from a different perspective, or I could tell a story from the point of view of a constellation in a modern setting.
Sky Stars Constellations by Free-Photos. Source: Pixabay
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