Week 10 Extra Credit Storytelling: The Three Fishes

The Three Fishes:

Three Fish Swimming in the Sea, Wikipedia

This is the tragic story of Very-Thoughtful, Thoughtful, and Thoughtless, three fish living in a river in a remote corner of the world. The names and dates have been changed out of respect for the dead.

One day, three sibling fish were swimming and thriving in a remote part of the river that they had called home for the past two fish decades (which is actually 7 months in human years). Very-Thoughtful, the leader of the trio, suggested that they swim down river to see if the algae was greener farther down river, for he had heard tales told by the great birds of the river that down river was very prosperous.

So, they packed up all of their belongings and began the journey down river. This journey took a full fish year (20 minutes) to complete, but they made it safe and sound. Shortly after settling in, they realized that this area was actually very dangerous. Not only were there many predatory birds in the area, but fishermen as well. Very-Thoughtful suggested that they pack up and move back up the river, and so they began to do just that.

But during their rushed packing, Thoughtful sprained his fin on a tangled lump of vegetation, and they knew that they could not continue the journey until he had made a full recovery. While they waited, Thoughtless wandered off to see what potential dangers lied ahead. During his exploration he was captured by a fisherman's net! Very-Thoughtful heard his bubbly cries for help and rushed to the scene to save Thoughtless. But alas, he too was caught in the fisherman's net. As they thrashed and squirmed to free themselves the fisherman drew them to the surface, and they were never seen again. With his two companions gone, Thoughtful had no one to attend to his sprained fin, which as we all know is a life threatening injury for a fish, so he too perished in this foreign part of the river.

And so ends the tale of the three fish.

*Author's note: So, I am not sure its obvious, but my story is much different than the original. In the original the fish journey to a new part of the river, Thoughtful and Thoughtless are caught by a fisherman, Very-Thoughtful saves them by outsmarting the fisherman with some splashing, and then they leave and go back to where they came from. I think that I was able to add a little bit of humor to the story (but you are the judge of that) and I ended the story on a bit of a darker note. Full disclosure, I am not sure if a sprained fin is truly fatal in the fish world or if they measure time differently.

Babbit: More Jataka Tales

Comments

  1. I noticed this post also: there is no extra credit storytelling assignment, so I wasn't sure how you had declared this, but I'll put it in with the story randomizer for next week so that you can get some comments! :-)

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  2. I didn’t get the chance to read the original version of this story so I can’t compare it to that, but as a stand-alone it was enjoyable, if dark haha. It made me think of that part of Disney’s “Sword in the Stone” when Arthur and Merlin turn into fish haha. I too do not know if a sprained fin would be a fatal injury...but I mean the animal kingdom is ruthless so i wouldn’t be surprised.

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  3. Nice to meet you Taylor!
    I just got done reading your week 10 extra credit story tellign, which I am going to assume is your week 11 story as wel. This was a very well written story. I love the darker take on the orginal that you decided to take. I personally have a pretty dark sense of humor so I enjoyed it.

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  4. Hi Taylor! I find it absolutely hilarious the way you quantify fish time into human time! I get a little kick out of every set of parenthesis showing how small their frame of time really is. The names of the fish are also quite funny. Overall, I think you did a great job with this story. The part where you say the names and dates were changed out of respect for the dead? Killed me. Love it.

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  5. Hey again, Taylor! I was just able to read your Week 10 story, The Three Fishes” and it was so interesting! I really like that fish were included in the story because they are so fun and playful! I love that you gave them human-like qualities—it makes it all the more interesting! It is also cool that you changed the story up quite a bit to fit your own style!

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