Reading Diary A: Turkish Fairy Tales

For my reading diary, I read the Turkish Fairy Tales unit and my favorite story by a mile was The Crow-Peri.  Maybe because I’ve always been partial to crows in mythology and folktales.  And while they normally get the short end of the stick by being portrayed as wicked or harbingers of death – I like that this story shows the crow-peri as a helper to the hero.  And when it’s revealed that the crow was making up for a past crime – I loved her even more.  Of course, it’s always nice when there’s a happy ending – she gets married to the bird catcher after proving herself changed to the fairy queen.

One of my favorite movies is The Crow, starring Brandon Lee – the son of Bruce Lee.  Lee’s character, Eric Draven, is brought back to life by a crow a year after he and his fiancé were brutally murdered on Devil’s Night.  The crow is a source of power for Eric, making him impervious to injury until he has gotten his revenge. 

After killing someone who was responsible for his and his fiancé's murder, Eric would leave behind a crow. [x]

Unfortunately, Brandon Lee was killed on set while filming a scene in which his character is shot with a .44 magnum.  The weapon had been used a few days prior with a dummy round that had a projectile and primer, but no gun powder – after a test fire the projectile stayed inside the barrel of the gun.  Later, the weapon was loaded with blanks – bullets that have primer and gunpowder, but no projectile – and when the gun was fired, the projectile was pushed out of the barrel as if it were a normal bullet. [x]