Topic Brainstorm

A marble statue called "Mattei Athena" of the Greek Goddess, Athena, that is currently on isplay at the Louvre. (Source: Wikipedia Commons, Taken by Jastrow in 2006)
I think that I am going to choose to do a portfolio rather than a storybook because doing a storybook might feel a little restrictive to me in terms of the stories that I compile and writing the stories this week made me realize that I will inevitably spend more time than I should on my weekly stories and I want that time and effort to have carry more weight in the grand scheme of this course. With that being said, I do want the stories in the portfolio to fall under one broad theme. Here are some ideas that I have:
Water:
I study water scarcity so I am always drawn to stories about water and Laura even suggested that this could be something that I wanted to focus on if I wanted to! Bodies of water often act as the lifeline of many civilizations so I think that the way I would do this would be to write a story about major bodies of water of different civilizations or regions. I could do a story about the Ganges River, the Nile River, the Amazon River, the Tigris River and whatever important bodies of water I come upon in my search of stories. As a sinophile, I would probably also include a story about water in China like this one called The Jeweled Sea or a story about one of the rivers that stems in Tibet.
Environmental Change:
My academic and professional career is focused on adapting to environmental change due to human activity. Although this might lead to a slightly more depressing compilation of stories, I might write stories that focus on environmental degradation or challenges that humans will come across due to climate change, rising temperatures, sea levels, water scarcity, etc. I would definitely include a version of the story I wrote for this first week about a coal fire wanting to be alternative sources of energy. Because carbon-based environmental degradation is a more "modern" phenomenon, obviously there will not be stories directly pertaining to the topic, but I think it would be feasible to change the plot of stories to focus on a change in the natural resources and environmental landscapes involved.
China:
For those who might have read some of my other posts, I am an international studies major and my area of focus is China. I think that reading stories particular to China will help me break cultural barriers for when I interact with people from China or people interested in Chinese history and culture. I want to find stories that relate to values that are strongly engrained in Chinese culture or in the country's governance. This would mean writing about stories about Buddha or Confucius and his teachings. I explored Chinese fairy tales this week and I have actually had a lot of fun reading them so focusing on that topic alone is an option.
Women:
I am a feminist so I love stories with a strong female lead. If I were to do a portfolio of stories about women, I could choose to include stories of women that are royalty, focusing on stories about princesses and queens, but given that I find stories of women that are seen as "lower-class" or underdogs, I would prefer to focus on a set of stories about them, like the story of Cinderella. I could also choose stories where women are the protagonist heroines of the story, referring to this list of women warriors in folklore from Wikipedia. To narrow down my subject, I would pick stories of women from one era or region, such as women Saints or women in the Bible. If I were to do this topic, I think I would be the most driven to focus my stories on Greek goddesses, as this is a topic that has always interested me since my childhood, probably searching for stories about some of the Greek goddesses from this list of goddesses.
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