I liked how this reading was comprised of a few number of longer stories. My favorite out of the three was "The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die." I liked this story because I think fear of death is something most, if not all, people have experienced at some point. I was not expecting it all to be a dream at the end, but I think I like that ending better than Sentaro being eaten by a shark. Because it was a dream, Sentaro was able to feel like he had lived three hundred years and also feel like he died when he did not want to. Those were both important for him to experience so that Jofuku could tell Sentaro that what he really wanted/needed was to live his normal length live as best as he possibly could.
I like the idea of someone learning what they actually want by dreaming about what they don't want. Maybe that can be what I focus my storytelling on this week. Someone who is convinced they know what they want, but then someone gives them the ability to see just that, and they don't want it anymore. The plot reminds me a little of
A Christmas Carol in that way.
(Lyrics from "Fix You" by Coldplay, graphic made by me)
Bibliography: "The Man Who Did Not Want to Die" from Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki (1908).
I thought that story was cool too! I hadn't read it until I found another person's adaptation of it and decided to read it for myself. I think the dream twist is definitely unexpected, but it definitely helps further the moral so much more than if the man had simply died. It honestly would've totally changed the tone, although maybe that would be an interesting adaptation idea, too.
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