Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part A

For my part A reading this week, I stuck with my original choice of Twenty-Two Goblins. In this story, there is a wise king, a monk who asks for the king's help, and a goblin (vetala) who is possessing the body of a corpse. I noticed some common themes right off the bat. For instance, there's usually three main characters in the goblin's riddles/stories and the king is made to answer to the best of his ability or else his head will be split open by the goblin's curse. Also, the names of the characters in the stories are either virtuous or named after something elegant (Triple-victory, moon, Virtue-banner, etc.).

Without having read part B of Twenty-Two Goblins, I would venture to guess that the goblin knows of the king's wisdom and uses this to his advantage so that he will not be taken to the monk. However, I also think that the wise king will figure this out and do something in order to keep the goblin from telling his stories in the first place. Since the title of the story is not called Infinite Goblins, I assume that on the Twenty second story, the epic conclusion will take place and we will find out what happens to everyone. I look forward to this because my predictions are riding on it.

As for developing new stories out of this one, I think I will limit the amount of times that the main character has to go back and restart his mission. This would obviously be for the word limit of the story post. Additionally, I'd like to keep the naming method of Twenty-Two Goblins because it allows you to sort of guess what the riddle is going to be about without spelling out the riddle. Another change would be to the setting/environment that the story takes place in. I'm thinking about using a military environment in which the main character has to keep going back in order to retrieve what he really needs.

Finally, if I do decide to go with a military environment/setting, I might change the use of magic to hallucinations caused by chemical agents/warfare or even PTSD. Doing this would allow me to write a story that still uses fantastical elements, while still making the story believable. However, I'm sure i'll have more ideas/direction after reading part B Twenty-Two Goblins.







Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder


Image: The wise king carrying the goblin