Sunday, February 8, 2009

Fairy Tale Generator

Based on Propp's Morphology of the Folk Tale. Here's what I got after randomly ticking 'complicity,' 'beginning counteraction,' 'receipt of a magical agent,' 'pursuit,' 'difficult task,' and 'transfiguration':

All of the people's voices came prying into me, digging through the hairs of my scalp to find answers to their questions. They sifted through my body like water sifts through rice. I felt their presence probing through the deep recesses of my head until they discovered what they longed to know. I told them how I was searching for my father. I told them that his shoes brought me here. I told them about his satchel and the magic that was inside. That magic would take me back home whenever I needed to leave.
"Let me go then," I said.
When I placed the needle I had taken on my palm, it moved in the direction where I needed to go. The bones taken from the ground shielded me from any harm.
With each step I took, the people of soil tried to clench my feet harder and began to pull me down.
"And who are you boy?" Mother asked me. Her weak eyes did not recognize my much-changed face and form. I told her I was her son but she did not believe me. "If you are the son that left so many days ago, and if you are the one who brought back this jade figure of father, then you are the one who will be able to restore him to his normal shape." She flicked her wrist and flung the jade piece at me.
Mother licked her fingers and placed them to my face, wiping the thick layer of dirt away. Then I truly began to look like my father's son, in form, face, and color.
Jade figure of the father? Ostentatious.

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