Category Archives: general

The Floor is Lava

Story: Me and my siblings used to play this game when we were little called The Floor is Lava. We would put all of the couch cushions on the floor in the living room, and run and jump from them to the couch to the ottoman, to the chair, and keep doing that until someone touched the floor. If you touched the floor you died, and someone would usually be chasing us- either fictionally or my dad would and we would run and sometimes trip into the lava. It was really fun!

Context: The informant told me this over Zoom, and I recorded it so I could write it down later.

Thoughts: Looking back on it, the informant says that it was a great way to bond with their siblings and father, and that some of their favorite times were just leaping in small circles in their living room. They also said that they have heard a lot of other people played that game as well, and are surprised since they don’t believe they learned it from anyone.

Analysis: I think this game is a really great example of a study I reference in another entry, about children and imaginative play. It is a big help with boosting social awareness, empathy, and creativity. It makes sense that a lot of children would develop a similar game since it also utilizes motor skills, and plays heavily into the countless imagination possibilities for a toddler/younger kid.

Athanasios Diakos

Story: My great, great grandfather, George, was born in the village Athanasios Diakos – I have no idea how to spell that, you can look it up later. The village, Athanasios Diakos, was named after a very famous Greek war hero in the war against the Ottoman Empire – who had invaded Greece and had been occ- *coughs* – occupying it for almost 400 years by that time. He fought heroic battles against them with a very small group of freedom fighters, until he got captured captured them them. He was impaled and burnt to death on a spit. When he was captured, he was offered a chance to live and be made an officer in the Ottoman army but he had to denounce his Christianity and converting to Islam! Instead he said: “I was born a Greek, I will die a Greek”!*informant yells and lifts fist* His brutal death is said to have been the rallying point for all Greeks who fought tooth and nail against the Ottoman army and, although vastly outnumbered, ended up driving them out of the country.

Format: The informant told these to me in person, and I recorded them to better transcribe them later.

Context: The informant was told these stories by his father, who was handed down these stories from his father, who was told some of these stories by his father. They are stories about the informant’s great great grandfather, George, and the village he is from. When asked about why this story is significant to them, the informant responded saying that this was told to them ‘hundreds of times’ over the course of their childhood. They would always ask for the story to be told before bed, and it was always a little bit different every time.

Analysis: This legend is super intriguing to me as a writer, because it is both a story about tragedy and victory. It has true roots in history, as Athanasios Diakos was in fact a Greek military commander during the Greek War of Independence. However, there are details in the story, like the manner in which he died, that I have not been able to find online.

The Nail that Sticks Out Shall Be Hammered Down

Original Script: 出る釘は打たれる

Romanization: Delu kugi wa u-ita relu

Transliteration: To be out the nail hit is to be.

Translation: The nail that sticks out shall be hammered down.

Genre: Japanese proverb. 

Context: My maternal grandmother told me this proverb over the phone the summer before I started college, as I had complained to her that I had been bullied throughout high school. This was true– I had grown up in an environment whose values differed significantly from my own, and as such, I always felt ‘persecuted’ in a way, as I did not mesh well with my classmates. This was her way of giving me advice to make college a little bit easier. 

Analysis: At first, I disregarded this as some sort of victim blaming, as my maternal grandmother did have a way of making all calamities the fault of the victim. I realized later on that this was her way of maintaining agency over a dark, cruel world and the thought that misfortune randomly befell undeserving individuals was too much to bear. Regardless, I knew that this was common in Japan, and I just filed it away as a ‘cultural difference’ without realizing how miserable it made me in school. I was already different enough – being Asian, an immigrant, and so forth – that broadly claiming my opinion that I knew would be at odds with those of my peers would understandably result in bullying. I didn’t compromise my values, but I was being unique just for the sake of visibility.. I knew I was right (according to my own belief system), but I was choosing to make a POINT of being right. I was making my own nail stick out as far as possible, and then was wondering why I was hammered down!

The “S”

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: 4/9/22
Primary Language: English

Background: My informant is a 20 year old boy who grew up in California.

G: So the concept is to just draw a cool s with the six lines and the connectors so it kind of looks 3D. This one is pretty common, we all learned it in school from our friends at some point. I think I learned it when I was 8. You can just put it anywhere, it’s funny if you put it on a homework assignment or something to kind of mess with a teacher. You see it in graffiti a lot too.

My Thoughts: I learned this when I was about the same age and going to school in Colorado. I’m not sure how long its been around, but I think it’s something that every kid learns how to do and then doodles it all over their school notes. I think I learned it from older kids, so it felt almost like an initiation.

Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ in Vietnamese Folklore

Main Piece:

AL: The tale of Lạc Long and Âu Cơ:

Lạc Long Quân was born in 2800 BC. He is the sun of a mountain god… and his mother is uh the sea god. His body is a dragon of some sort even though his parents… Was a sea dragon and his father the son of mountain… [He] was like a human-ish figure. His name, Lạc Long Quân, translates to Dragon Lord of Lạc. Lạc is a place in Vietnam…

Âu Cơ is the daughter of the northern chief… And fairy from the mother… Lạc Long Quân, the dragon, decided to take the form of a handsome man because he has that power, and Âu Cơ is a fairy. And so they married, and um *laughs* interestingly enough, Lạc Long Quân married the daughter but killed the father. I know. It’s weird… You would think that you shouldn’t kill the daughter’s father…

Anyway, so they had sex, and uhm she gave birth to a sack of a hundred eggs, and they grew into a hundred boys… Or children, depending on lore, and reestablished Vietnam. Uhm they say that all ancestors descend form these 100 children… Âu Cơ loved the mountain, so she really liked the north side. Lạc Long Quân loved the water because his mother is a water dragon… And so they decided to split the kids in half, or not in half— *laughs* divide the kids in half, fifty-fifty, and take them to either location… Half of them in the mountain and half of them near the sea… It was agreed by both parents that they would help each other in need. Lạc Long taught his children to fish and tattoo. Âu Cơ taught her children to farm and breed animals.

In Saigon, there are two streets who intersect. One is named Lạc Long, and one is named Âu Cơ, and they intersect because they’re married to each other… It’s very cute… Probably intentional… And then Lạc Long is known as the first king of Vietnam…

Context:

Taken from a conversation with my roommate in the Cale & Irani Apartments at USC Village. Him and I are of Vietnamese descent.

Analysis:

Myths are like adult versions of fairy tales. Historically, they have helped societies try to understand elements of the natural world or the scientific phenomena around them. Here, this myth plays into patriotic ideals in the founding of a nation and a unification between the rivalry of North and South Vietnam. These cross-generational stories are kept alive by the communities performing them. These two figures are so deeply incorporated into Vietnamese culture that there’s many pieces of art dedicated to them. In fact, there is a temple dedicated to the Dragon Lord. Furthermore, the intersecting streets are just further proof of how stories like these unify people through their collective imagination, childhoods, and rich cultural histories and beliefs.