Trinity Thompson: Stories, Sweets, & Blancanieves

My name is Trinity and I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii (although my family did spend four years in Florida which we hated- no offense, Floridians). Something very important about me is that I love food, especially sweets. I know 'love' is a strong word but once you get to know me, you'll know why I use it. In fact, I sometimes wonder if 'love' is strong enough?

After craving pancakes for weeks, I had this in Dublin. It feels amazing to finally get something you've wanted for a long time. As my current laptop background, this pic reminds me of that feeling (and pancakes).

More related to this class: I also love stories. After taking the Fiction Writing Arts Intensive with Shimon Tanaka, I scrambled my whole schedule around to begin a major in English during junior year so I could study them more. Now, I'm a senior finishing a double major in English with a creative writing emphasis and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. It's been a busy yet rewarding two years.

As far as new stories go, I agree with Zander and Chaz. Although stories may have similar themes or plots to ones that preceded them, I think all of them are new. It is the small differences and new twists on past tales that make them worth reading and exploring. The different experience of the authors who write these stories almost always ensure they will be new. For example, even though we have more than 30 students in our class,  if we were all given an assignment to write a story with the same major plot points and theme (ie the "same story"), no two stories would be the same. And undoubtedly there would be elements in my classmates' stories that surprised me, confused me, and challenged me- even though we theoretically wrote the "same story."

This is what I love about stories, and why I think it is worth reading, writing, and studying them. If I thought all stories were old, I probably would not bother with them because there'd be nothing to enjoy or discover. This week I came across a Spanish film from 2012 called Blancanieves (Snow White). Most people probably think of Snow White as an old story, but this fim is anything but old. The filmmaker has made changes to the tale that make it fresh, new, and incredibly interesting. You all should check it out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HanTDiiZLpg)! It's a great example of why all stories, even familiar ones, can be new.