Stories with Pop
Within this section you will find stories I have adapted from pop culture sources. I love pop culture. I breathe pop culture. I love to talk about pop culture. It was only natural for me to adapt some of my favorite pop sources, articles, stories, and people into tales I can tell.
Story
Source Summary Cultural Origins Audience Adaptation Ideas |
For My Girls
Fey, Tina. Bossypants. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2011. Popular funny girl, Tina Fey, wrote a prayer for her daughter in her New York Times bestselling book Bossypants. In the short chapter of her book, entitled “The Mother’s Prayer for Its Daughter,” Fey prays for her daughter to never succumb to tattoos, stick with beer instead of crystal meth, and to play the drums (instead of sleeping with drummers). However funny some of her sentiments may be, they are steeped in love and care, and the first time I read the chapter I cried. For, Fey also wants her daughter to be kept and protected from everything from a Ferris Wheel to crossing the street, wants her to endure a rough patch in life that leaves her stronger, and wants her to one day experience the love for a child of her own that Fey feels for her. Fey creates her story from a white, westernized, privileged viewpoint, but her upbringing was humble, even though now she is a wealthy, popular comedienne of the small screen and the big screen…and now the printing press as well. She is a dynamic woman, not afraid to speak her mind and use comedy as a tool to make you laugh, make you think, and make you feel. I want her feminine strength to come through in the story, as well as her tender love she has for her daughter. The audience for this would be parents with young children—either already here or on the way—or for those who appreciate young children. I can imagine delivering this at a gathering of friends, so a rather informal setting. (I do have friends who love to just gather and tell stories, and I’m envisioning sharing this story in a setting like that.) The story should be delivered with a comfortable, humorous tone, so I would like the setting and audience of the story to be like this as well. The more comfortable the setting and audience, I believe the more natural and loving the delivery of this story will be. This story is a simple story of love. A mother’s love for her daughter is powerful, and I don’t want the audience to be distracted by things while listening. I would want to wear something simple, so the audience isn’t liking or disliking my fashion choice, but to be totally tuned in to my story about the hopes and dreams I have for my beautiful daughters. I would tell this story in first person, and I would add prayers for my daughters that couple with Fey’s hopes and prayers. I love the humor in this story (the daughter turning on her mother in front of Hollister, and the mother yanking her away from her friends), because there is so much humor to be found in the everyday nuances of life. I would, however, add a few more “precious” or “sentimental” prayers for my daughters. Fey only has one truly sentimental prayer at the end of her chapter, and I would want to end with a couple more, so the audience knows that my love for my daughters is true, deep, and all-consuming, not just a punchline. |
Story
Source Summary Cultural Origins Audience Adaptation Ideas |
They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore
Lynn, Loretta and George Vecsey. Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner’s Daughter. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1976. Loretta Lynn is one of the most influential and best-selling artists in country music history. She grew up in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, the oldest of eight children. Loretta’s father was the most important and influential person in her life, up until the age of 14, when she married her husband, Doolittle. Her father was her protector and instilled confidence in her. You see, Loretta knew she was a somebody (before she became a “somebody”), because her Daddy loved her. This story will focus on the love Loretta had for her Daddy and the love he had for her and the rest of her siblings. He suffered crippling migraines, but he always made it to work to make sure he had money for them. The hardest thing Loretta ever did was moving west with her husband and leaving her Daddy behind. There is still a hole in Loretta’s heart today, because she did not get to see her Daddy before he died. Their love for each other was deep and true and neverending. The Webb family grew up in tight quarters in Butcher Holler, which was an impoverished coal mining community. They never had much, but Loretta’s Daddy always managed to provide for them. He worked all day in the coal mines, and they would get pigs slaughtered if needed to make ends meet. She grew up extremely poor, and the family knew that they had to rely on each other to get through hard times. They were an extremely close-knit bunch. Because they were so close and loved each other so much, I would tell this in a very low-key, quiet fashion. I think this would draw the audience in to me, make them lean forward to hear me, and they would feel and appreciate the love Loretta had for her Daddy and the love he had for her. My cousin and I are very much like Loretta: we worship our dads. When my cousin’s dad, my uncle, died several years ago, it ripped me apart almost as much as it ripped her apart, and she has a constant hole in her heart, like Loretta, because of her father’s passing. I would love to share this story with her one day and a group of our close friends. Our friends know how much we love our dads, too, and they appreciate the love we have for our fathers and respect them. I think a small, intimate gathering would be best for this story. I would like to start this story with an introduction about my father and how much he has meant to me. At the end of my storytelling, I would draw parallels between Loretta’s dad and my own to show that true fatherly love still exists today. I would drive home the point that my father’s love has instilled confidence and self worth in me, just as it did for Loretta. My tone would be quiet, and I would want my audience to feel cared for and enveloped in love, just like Loretta did every time she jumped into her Daddy’s lap by the fireplace to listen to him talk to her about how important she is in the world. |
Story
Source Summary Cultural Origins Audience Adaptation Ideas |
Blink
“Blink.” Wri. Steven Moffat. Prod. Russell T Davies. Dir. Hettie MacDonald. Doctor Who. BBC, Wales. 9 June 2007. An adventurous young girl named Sally Sparrow finds herself in an abandoned, old house one dark, windy night. She is taking pictures of this spooky old house, when something catches her eye. It’s a bit of writing behind some torn wallpaper. Sally, being ever curious, goes to rip off the wallpaper and reveal what writing is behind it. In large letters, it says, “BEWARE THE WEEPING ANGEL, SALLY SPARROW. LOVE FROM THE DOCTOR (1969).” This message sends Sally on an adventure of a lifetime, when she gets to experience the complicated nature of time, which is very wibbly wobbly. She also encounters one of the most dangerous creatures of all time, the Weeping Angel, who can suck you out of your present, use up all of your potential energy, and then fling you wherever it wants in time and space. They can end your life in a BLINK of an eye, for if you blink when looking at them, they will steal you away. Will Sally survive the Weeping Angels and figure out what doctor sent her the message behind the wallpaper??? The audience will have to listen to find out. This story was created for the wildly popular British television show Doctor Who. Even though it has its origins in the UK, there aren’t any overtly British references made. In recent years, the show has appealed to a wider audience, because it includes excellent storytelling. Steven Moffat, who wrote this episode, has penned some of the best Who story arcs, because he is a master storyteller. Because there is such a wonderful story at Blink’s core, there aren’t any cultural references that will stand in the way of enjoying it. This is a story I would love to share within a middle or high school library around Halloween. I think the students in middle and high school will appreciate the sci-fi aspects (time travel, statue demons), Sally’s determined, adventurous nature, and hopefully the inherently spooky notion of stone statues will travel with them wherever they go after hearing the story. This story is hands down my favorite 45 minutes of television ever created. I will have to carefully craft my story to get the most important parts into a 5-10 minute telling time. I think if the story is carefully crafted and adapted, it can make a smooth, enjoyable transition into an oral story. I would, of course, want the lights off, the only light filtering in through the library windows. I would create a slideshow/powerpoint of stone stautes before telling the story and have that projected beside me throughout my telling. I would tell the story in an ominous tone, and the last thing, or warning, I would tell would be the same as the Doctor’s last lines in the episode: “Don't blink! Blink and you're dead! Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink! Good luck!” |
Story
Source Summary Cultural Origins Audience Adaptation Ideas |
Sometimes Reality Just Doesn’t Matter
“Being Zack Morris.” Klosterman, Chuck. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. New York: Scribner, 2003. Pop culture aficionado Chuck Klosterman ruminates on the reality of classic NBC Saturday Morning sitcom Saved by the Bell in his 2003 collection of essays. The question at the heart of this story?...What is it about Saved by the Bell? Klosterman figured that at one point in his life he was watching at least 20 episodes of SBTB per week. This was when he was in college and after the show had been cancelled from its Saturday morning spot and before the spin offs Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Klosterman figures that to people born before 1970 and after 1977, SBTB is nothing but senseless drivel, but SBTB is something much more than that to the children born between those years. SBTB reflected stock characters seen in every high school student’s life in the 1980s, it lampooned high school principals who really wanted to be pals, and it always wrapped up every problem in less than 30 minutes. SBTB is also a reflection of what high school can be like: a fleeting time in your life, during which you’ll encounter so many people and experiences that you won’t even remember them when you’re in your 30s, and it is full of stupid, senseless acts that you will remember. Though other shows, like My So-Called Life, depicted high school in a much more realistic tone, SBTB had fun painting a picture of what high school should be like. A middle-class white guy who loves popular culture and makes his living from reflecting on this popular culture wrote this essay. I feel like this essay/story would be very different if written by an African-American male who grew up on the southside of Chicago. However ethnocentric Klosterman’s thoughts might be, they have the universal appeal of trying to make sense out of loving something that you really shouldn’t. I would like to share this story with an audience of my age group. Even though I was born two years after the magic 1970-1977 age marker Klosterman mentions, I have still felt myself watching SBTB early in the mornings wondering, “Why am I sitting here watching this again for the 100th time?” I think others my age can relate to this, and it would be great to share this at some sort of pop culture festival/event/gathering. I would craft Klosterman’s essay into a first person narrative. As mentioned, I have watched countless hours of SBTB trying to figure out why I’m still watching it, and Klosterman sheds light on the reason: sometimes it's more comfortable to live in unreality than in your own reality. I would also add in a comparison to The Brady Bunch, the squeaky clean, utterly predictable family sitcom that ran from 1969-1974. I have watched that show for countless hours, too, often wondering what the appeal is. Comparisons will be made between the dated fashions of both shows, the comforting endings, and the “big lesson” shows, such as Jessie Spano’s near drug OD vs. Greg’s desire to be become someone new (Johnny Bravo) to win praise and a record deal. These shows definitely didn’t give real depiction of American teenage life, but sometimes we need dreams to help shape our own reality. |