Week 6 Reading Diary: The Vanishing Wife

I chose to read the Congo unit from R.E. Dennett this week. From the first part of the reading I found that I was most intrigued by the first story of the vanishing wife. I also really enjoyed the story of how the gazelle married, but I think I would rather write a story about the vanishing wife. I think it would be more fun to play around with, and find what does and doesn’t work. I would like to maybe make the story somewhat more modern. Instead of the house and all of Buite’s riches disappearing at the end, I would change the story and instead tell it from his perspective. He would have gone back to his brother’s place after losing everything, and would be telling him the story. After he had told him the story Buite would ask his brother to come looking for his wife with him, but his brother would deny all of his requests. He would then have him committed to the psych ward. After all, no one tells tales like these unless they are certifiably insane! If he were to tell everyone else in town, they would gossip and talk. This would make Swarmi nervous since he was very well liked, and would not want to lose this position with the people he hung out with everyday. 

(harvesting from the palm tree;

photograph in Dennett's book)