Week 15 Story: Children of a Feather

"Timmy!!!"

The Daycare attendant had yelled this name far too often for her liking.

"Timmy, come over here!"

The menace that was little Timmy strolled over to the long suffering Ms. Susan with an air of innocence that only the most guilty could have.

"Timmy, what did I tell you about tackling the other kids?"

A silence followed.

"I told you that it wasn't nice. Just because you are stronger doesn't mean you have to show it off. Now off to the corner for you, to think about what you've done."

Timmy didn't like this one bit.

"You have to catch me first!" The little devil replied before charging in between Ms. Susan's legs knocking her (and anything else in his path) flat down.

Oh what am I ever going to do? Pondered Ms. Susan, wondering if 27 was early enough to retire.

Suddenly a crash, quickly followed by a loud whining of pain.

As Ms. Susan rounded the corner of the room to see what the fuss was all about she frustratedly said, "Now what have you done this time, Timmy?"

But it was not Timmy. It was a new kid, one of the other attendants must have checked him in.

"Haha!" The young boy exclaimed over his still crying victim. He too ran off with all the grace of a tornado.

Ms. Susan was done for surely. She knew she'd have to quit now. She was far too young for all that white hair.

As she rounded the corner again, fully expecting to see a new disaster brewing with the two children, she was caught by surprise.

There was no fighting, no bickering. Timmy and the new kid were locked in what appeared to be a staring contest.

Ms. Susan stood there motionless until finally the boys seemed to come to an agreement and shook hands in a sign of peace.

"Huh, birds of a feather I guess..."



Author's notes:
Today's story is based of the Jataka tale, "Birds of a Feather" that I read a while back. The original story is about two wild horses and there is a bit of a intrigue plot with a wicked king and some peasants, but I personally enjoyed the horses part of the story best. While reading it, it really reminded me of children on a playground and so I hoped to capture some of that feeling in my retelling.

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Reading Notes: Francis and Thomas. Jataka Tales Part B

Back fro one final week of Jataka tales. Kinda emotional, mainly because of lack of sleep from other projects in other classes, but still...
Last time I tried to be very positive in my assessment and subsequent comments and T think that was a change for the better. Now however, I think I may have gone too far in that direction. For this week I will try to mix a more negative and positive approach to get a nice balanced set of thoughts on a story.

The Pigeon and the Crow:
This story is dark, especially for a children's tale. I get that it is warning of greed and lying and whatnot, but as a cautionary tale it is implying that if you steal even a bit of meat you will be skinned alive and killed! Maybe that was true, but a story for children is usually expected to have a bit of a softer edge to it. Maybe that is just my culture speaking though, a lot of Jataka tales end with the foolish animal's death....
That all being said, I did quite enjoy the imagery, and the choice of making them birds flying about being sorta friends was a fun visual in my mind while I read it. Overall although I was a bit concerned about the tone, I quite liked it.

The value of a Brother:
This story is... confusing to say the least. I comment on it because it is so simple, yet the meaning and explanations seem to allude me. The one thing I know for sure is that it is a story teaching young girls of the time that they must be married. Besides for that there is the part about a brother being more important than your husband of son, but I'm not entirely sure that's what it meant...
The story itself has an interesting premise, thios woman cleverly getting these three men out of a scrape they are in. Where it goes wrong is with the logic, which I hesitate to complain about in a children's book except that the logic is part way important to the meaning and I just can't seem to sniff that out.

Reading Source
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Reading notes: Francis and Thomas. Jataka Tales Part A

You thought I was done with Jataka Tales? Of course not! I am having a blast reading these for one reason or another and you can bet I'll continue for most all of the remaining readings! One thing will be different for these notes though. I will still take more thorough notes on two or three of the tales that I have something to say, but I am going to try to be much more positive than I have been in the past. I have been rather critical of these stories thus far and no more!

The Little Gildmaster:
What a great story to start talking positively about! This little tale is wonderfully reminiscent of a kind of Tom Sawyer type of childhood bliss where you can make it through the world on wit alone. It was very entertaining to read as I grew up reading Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and I can only image it was a favorite of children everywhere.
One thing I really liked about the way the story was told is that it made an effort to be clever. I could easily see some tellings of this children's story passing up on the cleverness because of the intended audience. It did a very good job of making the audience feel as if they were in on the clever ruse at the right times and on the outside for the wrong times.

The Guilty Dogs:
This story is wonderful. I think the set up may be one of a my favorites so far. The "bad guy" is so clearly established, because who wouldn't hate a dog killer. Especially as a child, those being told this story knew who to hate. That being said the "villain" is redeemed by the end of the story. It teaches children forgiveness and to not blindly pass judgement. This is a great tale.
I've noticed with the stories in this book, unlike the previous Jataka tale book I read, there is less of a reverent tone towards the King or the rich. Both the stories I am writing about do this where the poor man is lifted upon them. This makes me think these stories were written by and for a poorer class than the other ones. I have no proof of this, but it seems like a reasonable assumption.

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Reading: The Giant crab and Other Tales Part 2

Note time! I was actually kind of happy to have an excuse to come back to this book. I quite enjoyed the first part. It really felt like reading bedtime stories albeit a bit stranger than the ones I was told. But maybe my own would look weird if I heard them outside my memory again. Once again I'll write about my thoughts on a few of the stories I read.

Birds of a Feather:
I have never heard the term skinflint before today, but I think I love it. Overall this story is pretty straight foreword. That is one of the reasons I decided to choose this one to write about. Generally, the stories I read in the previous chapters all had some bizarre and twisted message that was somewhat lost in the mix of strange metaphors and somewhat backwards sensibilities. This story however seems to translate quite well over to modern society. It appears a wonderful explanation of the birds of a feather expression and furthermore it tries to have a little bit of a message. That being said the moral of the story is a tiny bit clouded by the fact that the horse owner is expected to just kinda live with the kings evil doings, but that is definitely to be expected from the times and might even be seen more subtly in modern stories.

Spend a pound to win a penny:
Normally I would spread the writing about readings a bit more evenly, but the story directly after the previous one caught my attention so much I couldn't help but write about it. I will assume whoever reads this (if anyone besides for me really) they will have read the story.
This story has such a clear and simple moral message that I am shocked at how specific the story was. It could have been about just about anything, but they decided to choose a monkey stealing some peas. Now I bring this up because not only does it feel like a bizarre choice for the story, but it also feels a bit cheap. The story feels a bit forced in that the monkey spills all his peas to get the one? I understand that's the point of it, but my question is why is this somewhat stretch of an event the one the writer chose. I guess maybe telling this to toddler age children might help, I could see one of them doing something like that, and I get that a monkey is a cuter tale than someone with a gambling addiction, but I feel like there could be better alternatives. Maybe I'm just a jerk, I don't know.
A somewhat similar decision of a strange nature can be seen later on in the story Lacknose. The lie the boys tell about his nose growing doesn't make any sense, not only is it a lie, but even if it was the truth it doesn't feel much like flattery. Any lie could have done, but this one feels weird to me. I will admit this one could very well be a cultural difference though.


I criticize some of these stories for their logic, but honestly, part of their appeal to me is that they don't always make the most sense. I quite enjoy reading them partially because of how nonsesical they are and I wonder if that is part of the reason they are so beloved by kids. The stories are often fun and whimsical to the end.

A link to the reading!
And the image source!

Week 12 Story: His Eyes

Drip... Drip... Drip...

The faucet hadn't stopped dripping since Gahndar turned the water off. The old rusty sink refused to obey her commands no matter how hard she turned the knob.

But there wasn't time to think about this. She had no idea how much time she had before they came for her and her soon to be husband. He awaited her just outside the bathroom, patiently. He was always patient. He was the sunshine in a dark world.

Drip... Drip... Drip...

He loved her and she loved him. Why couldn't it be that simple.

The government agents would be here before long, if she hadn't finished by then they would take her lover away. They would take her sweet Dedrash away from her.

They had nothing in common. That was the real problem.

Drip...

He had gorgeous dark hair. She was a messy red head.

Drip...

He had a talent for mathematics. She leaned towards painting.

Drip...

He was blind. She was not.

...

The dripping had finally stopped. They wouldn't care how much Gahndar cared about him, or how much she was interested in his talents and passions. They had nothing in common and the government deemed them incompatible. That was about to change.

When she left the bathroom his eyes would light up like they always do despite his condition. They were one way mirrors into his soul and how she loved to stare deeply into them. They held no hate, no prejudice, no fear. His eyes were pure.

The knife in her hand trembled under her uncertain gaze. There was no time to falter now. They would be here soon with their rules and their laws an their guns. What was love compared to those?

Drip...

It was back. The metronome of the water echoed in her head as she made her decision.

Drip...

He was blind. She was not.

That was about to change.

Drip... Drip... Drip...


Source: "The Blind Bride"
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Author's note: So I did a planning post on this story, so most of the information on where the ideas for this story came from can be found there. The way I told my story is very similar to how the movie The Lobster ends. I did however, take advantage of the medium of print to focus the story more internally in the main character's struggle in her decision. I respected both of the source materials for the strong character's they had, but the Indian epic character was far more decisive in the storytelling. I decided to keep the movie's indecision instead.

Reading notes: The Giant Crab and Other tales from Old India Part A

Well starting out with the Titular giant crab story...

I'm not entirely sure what the moral of this story is besides for "Don't eat people." I suppose there is probably a cautionary tale of greed somewhere within the story, but it is honestly lost among the rest of the strange story. It does teach teamwork for sure, teamwork in murder... Oh well, I'm sure I won't understand all of these stories.

Up next, the Hypocritical Cat. I actually used this story for my storybook this last weekend, so I am very familiar with this one. I still am not entirely sure if there is supposed to be a moral. I'm starting to think maybe these stories are just about people overcoming adversity. Then again this story does warn against lying about how pious you are and that murder murder is great if you're a mouse but bad if you're a cat.

The next one I read and really have any comments on is the Goblin and the Sneeze. This story legitimately made me laugh because of (unlike the previous two I commented on) the lesson being taught is so blatant and obvious. Basically the story is just, "Always say bless you, unless you want to get eaten by a goblin." It calls back to similar stories that parents tell you to keep you in your bed late at night and what not.

There is so much to say about "The jackal went a wooing" that I don't even know where to begin. The first off is seriously, what are they trying to teach their children with this story. Two of the brothers die and the lioness still gets to live happily ever after (albeit with a slight twinge of loneliness). The jackal just dies, he didn't do anything bad. That is of course unless you consider hitting out of your monetary class a sin...

The stories and picture source

Reading notes: Epified Krishna Part a

Epified Krishna

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Do the gods ever expect people to not try and kill their prophesied killers. This seems to usually just result in revenge plots that bring about the prophecy that they tried to prevent. I guess in this way, the gods could just choose who they wanted to kill by giving them a prophesy...

i wonder if the story of the teleporting baby was just some ladies excuse for being pregnant outside of wedlock? It's interesting to think how the story tellers came up with these stories.

The gods definitely cheated with the whole, letting her eighth child be a god thing. They really wanted the king dead.

The story of how he escapes with his god son reminds me a lot of the christian story of how Paul escaped from his prison later in the new testament.

He keeps his poor cousin in prison even after she had given birth? that sucks.

I like how baby Krishna just steals all of the demon ladies powers by breast milk. It is kinda absurd but also kinda makes sense?

It is hilarious how they decided to make Krishna  rowdy child. like he knows the world's rules didn't apply to him.

She just saw everything in his mouth? This is bizarre, but also kinda great...

So Krishna scared a snake demon away with his music?!? This story keeps getting better.

And He choked a tornado? I joke, but seriously these stories have elements that seem insane and how in the world did someone make them up, but it all kinda works together.

Week 9 Story Planning: An Eye for an Eye, but Cuter

It is somewhat important to note that this story planning will spoil a major part of the film Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos 2016).

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So next week I will be retelling the story of "The Blind Bride". The story goes as follows: Dedrash, Pandu's brother, has been born blind due to the situation of his birth. When he marries, his wife decides to support him by covering her eyes, never to see again.

When I read this story, it reminded me of an indie film that was released a year or so ago to much critical acclaim. It's story is far more complicated, but basically, love has been institutionalized to the point were if you do not get married, you will be turned into an animal of your choice. The cathc is that in order to marry someone, you must share a significant personal feature, such as both being excellent swimmers. The idea is that you two will "match" better.

Anyway cutting to the end of the film, the main character couple wants to marry each other. Previously they had shared a love for reading, but The female had been forcibly blinded by the villain of the story in order to prevent her from marrying the guy. In order to fix things, the guys blinds himself with a sharp knife so that they can marry.

There is a clear similarity here, and I want to mesh the two stories into one.

My plan is to use the strange world of Lobster and the stand alone narrative of the chapter of the Mahabharata to create a new unique tale.

Reading notes: Epified Mahabharata part B

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The Epified Mahabharata:
Time for the second set of episodes!

I can not emphasize enough how useful these "Catch up" intros are.

So Gunti can call god's down to ...make her with child... Seems a bit overpowered, wow.

I completely missed the origin of the Pandavas in the original reading. It is a lot easier to understand the complicated story in video form.

She DROPPED HER BABY! Hold up, that is insane. I know he turned out fine since he is the sin of a god, but seriously...

Where in the world did this story of 100 vat born children get thought up, it is bizarre to think about how someone thought of this.

So they had 100 ugly children. The way they treat this in the story is kind of hilarious.

The attempted betrayal of the Pandavas is even more grizzly seeing visually that they are all just young kids.

Some of these stories, like the snake story, seemed to have changed a bit in the animated version. i wonder if this has anything to do with different tellings, or if the creators of the animated version just wanted something more visually interesting.

I really like this version of the story where the reeds form a rope!

A fairly average young adult novel could be written about the Pandavas training days I think.

The peasant archer story is still sad, even as a cartoon.

Week 9 Story: The Eight Porcelain Turtles

In front of Shane sat 8 porcelain turtles. Their perfectly hand sculpted shape, repeated precisely on each shell.

These turtles were a legend. He had hardly believed his partner River when she told him that they were more than myth. One could only imagine his reaction when she told him that they could be stolen.

Each turtle was priceless on it's own, but the whole set could fetch enough to make Shane and River two of the richest people this side of the Mississippi. Shane's hands shook with excitement, the previous two hours of laborious lock picking and deft cutting of wires was behind him and now they were safely away from the crime scene.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?"

The twinge of bitterness in her voice surprised Shane. Shouldn't this be their moment of triumph? What is wrong?

River continued, "Remember, I told you that if you wanted to be a part of this heist then you would have to trust me unconditionally?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

Shane's voice betrayed doubt. This isn't like her.

"You need to trust me now, Shane. Do you trust me?"

Shane turned to River. He didn't like to make promises without eye contact. They felt less sincere.

"Of course I trust you, now what is it?"

"We need to crack open these turtles."

There was a ring to the end of the word. the room echoed her like it understood the weight her words implied. Shane would have none of this.

"Are you insane? These are worth a fortune. It'd be like burning a billion dollars!"

"Shane..."

"Why in the world would we destroy them?"

"I can't tell you Shane."

Shane stepped back in shock. River must have lost her mind.

She continued, "If you won't then I have to myself and you can walk out that door."

"Who's to say I'd leave without my share?"

River pulls up her hand. Shane can see a gun that was previously concealed. Keeping a sharp eye on Shane, River reaches over and grabs the first turtle.

"You should have just trusted me."

River slams it on the table's corner. It cracks. The pieces fall to the ground, echoing a finality.

River's eyes never leave Shane as he says, "River, let's talk this out."

Crack.

River's eyes squint as she breaks a third turtle.

And a fourth.

And a fifth.

And a sixth.

Shane is powerless, there is nothing he can do as he watches his dreams of wealth crash before his eyes.

And a seventh.

River pauses with the last turtle in hand. She looks to Shane and says, "I do not take kindly to those who can't obey orders."

The last turtle cracks. Instead of shards of porcelain falling to the ground however, a shimmering streak can be seen beneath the surface of the porcelain.

"Is that..." Shane can't finish the sentence. he is awestruck at the gem that has been revealed.

"Yes it is. In my hand I hold the most valuable diamond in the world. It is worth more than most of the countries on this planet. It's a shame, you could have had a piece of this but you doubted me and now you get a different kind of reward."

The trigger on her gun cocks.

Bang.



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Author's notes: I based this story loosely on the story of King Shantanu and his wife Ganga. More info can be found in my story plan from a couple weeks back, but the parallels are rather obvious. I decided to change the relationship between the characters and the premise because I wanted to take the concept of trust inherent in the original and put into a new story.

Reading notes: Epified Mahabharata part A

The Epified Mahabharata:
I can already tell it's going to be easier to keep track of characters because of the images.


I also really like the narrator's voice. Both the girl and guy have a very clear reading voice. I also like how there is explanation beyond just the story telling.

The way they told the story of Shantanu and Ganga plays out much better not knowing why Ganga is killing the children first.

The entire story literaly kicks off because King Shantanu couldn't get over a girl he met. A lot of people die because of this... Rewatching the story i have a much clearer view of this.

The whole choosing his moment of death thing doesn't really come full circle very well.

He who was formerly known as Deravrat still seems a bit overly obsessed with his father in this version too, but that may just be a cultural thing.

The story so far section is going to be a life saver for me.

Amba really does deserve the revenger she will eventually exact, I kinds forgot about that.

Some of these stories such as Satyavati's son growing up instantly don't get any less ridiculous in this form.

Vyasa couldn't have... I don't know, taken a shower?

There are far fewer stories in these video playlists, so it's harder to take alot of notes. I do really like these compared to the reading, it is still hard to keep all the characters in mind, but between the images and the "last time on"s it makes it a lot easier.

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Reading Notes: Mahabharata part D

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The Mahabharata part D:

The character of Amba brings this up specifically, but i love how often these epics will bring back a character we saw earlier on and then just sorta forgot about. It makes the world of the story feel so much more real and lived in to me. This works really well for storytelling in print form also because of the ease at which someone can look back to recall who that character is.

"Shit hits the fan" would be a good way to describe the events that are now unfolding. i know they have been building up for many chapters now, but it is still shocking to see characters dying so rapidly.

The story really is hammering in how the enemy should be rooted against. Their trickery is clearly seen as a bad thing.

I will however admit that the "the elephant" technicality on the man who can not lie is kinda hilarious.

I am actually having a bit of trouble remembering which character is on which side to be honest. I should have made a little check sheet or something, definitely will during my next version of this reading.

This set of chapters is sad...

I get that Brishma gets to choose his own death date, but I didn't consider that he could be... incapacitated in other ways so that he couldn't battle. I kinda assumed he'd be fighting right up until he decided to die.

As shown by the horse rituals I appreciate how some parts of these stories are meant to teach the young children their cultural rituals and what not in a way that is more engaging to them.

Week 8 progress

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Well... Let's just be honest here, i have fallen behind a bit in this class work wise. I have skipped a fair amount of assignments and even this one I am doing on the grace period Friday morning. Given it isn't like I'm skipping these assignments to mess around, in fact I'm just skipping these assignments to work on others. That isn't really how it should work though. I feel like this is definitely a common problem for online classes in that it is hard for me to consider it into my schedule with the rest of my work.

I have also been working on fixing this, I've been doing a bit of extra credit the last few weekends and in a few more I should be all caught up. The problem here is that my semester itself is just becoming more and more busy as it continues. it will just take a concerted effort to do the work in this class to make it possible.

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I chose this image because I loved the cat pictured in it. Source

Overall the feedback I've gotten in this class is exactly what I'd expect it to be from fellow students. I get a solid mix of good criticism
/ praises for what I'm doing, and then other posts that just blindly compliment aspects of my original post.

Now I can not say I am not innocent of this exact problem. Especially for the 60 word comments it is so much easier to just pick one little thing from the person's writing and spend the words talking about how amazing it is.

I do think it is important to do this though, even if most of the feedback people give can be meaningless mumbling. I think it is important to get people used to reading a variety of styles and be able to find something unique that they liked from it. By doing this I've found it a bit easier to pinpoint stylistic differences in stories that are otherwise the same.

Week 8 reading and Writing

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I like this class so far. the reading are all very interesting and it's hard to say that they don't have a lot going on in them. My only real complaint with the reading is that I often feel like I lack the proper cultural context to properly appreciate them beyond just a strange story. It is hard for me to place these with a culture in mind when I've hardly encountered or studied that culture at all. I'm not really saying that is something that could be fixed in this class, if anything it should be on me to do the research separately if I really wanted to know. But as is, it isn't something I could possible fit into my schedule.

Besides for that I have definitely run into the problem of forgetting i have work due in this class. That is just poor time- management on my part and no amount of articles on the subject will help.

I like the writing assignments, they really allow me to go in depth and really understand a story that I had previously just read over to get to the next one. It is a good way of making a student slow down and pay attention.

Reading Notes: Mahabharata part C

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PDE Version of the story

I wonder if these similarities to Rama are on purpose or just a cultural trope used in story telling, or if it is a cultural trope in story telling because of Rama.

"It is not easy to confine the waters once the damn hath burst" So true... so true...

I'm noticing a very heavy story telling importance on weapons of the heroes. This isn't really unusual, but other religious texts don't normally do that as much as comic books do.

I wonder if they were always called the Himalayas or if the author of these PDE versions of the stories decided to change it to the modern day name.

A cross over from Hanuman, how could this story get any better!?!

Why does he discourse on the duties of the different casts though? It almost feels like the writer just wanted to add a sentence, "And he was a very classist person" But thought better of it at the last moment.

Duryodhana honestly has plenty of reasons to dislike the Pandavas considering how often he is humiliated in front of them. Although in this case, being saved by the Pandavas is a tiny bit better than being a prisoner for forever.

It is interesting how easily Duryodhana was willing to deny his vow, even if it was one of suicide. Rama sure as hell would have found some technicality around it rather than just disobeying it, truly Duryodhana is the villain.

This invincible dart is not at all worth Karna's armor. Especially since it can only be used in a time of true peril.

Rest in piece poor impatient Nakula. 

Well I had no chance to solve most of those riddles, they were a bit culturally specific...

I like how most all of the Pandavas just straight up die here, but they are resurrected by the end of the chapter.

Poor Draupadi. She really has a rough time of it.

Krishna is trying his best to make peace, too bad that would be  far less interesting epic.

Week 6 Story planning: Combining Sherlock and the Mahabharata

An image of Sherlock Holmes. Source

I was reading the story of King Shantanu and Ganga (by Donald A. Mackenzie) and I was really interested in the basis of the story. When all the extraneous elements are stripped away from it it is the story of a person not understanding why someone they trust is doing something seemingly awful. The character of course later learns that his partner had a very good motivation for doing this.

The story from the Mahabharata we read had a wife throwing her babies into the river despite her husband's confusion. As this is an Indian epic we as an audience know from the beginning the reason, but the king husband does not.

I like the base concept so I was trying to think of a new way to present the story, while still havig the same core backbone of a trust issue breaking two people apart. While I was thinking somehow a Sherlock Holmes short story came to mind, The adventure of the six napoleons.

Basically in this story, a thief has hid his jewel in one of six busts of napoleon before he was locked up. He got out and now must find the jewel. He doesn't know which napoleon bust it is in and he must find the bust's new owners. Meanwhile Sherlock has no idea why people's busts are being broken and neither does the audience.

I want to combine the stories by taking the trust element from King Shantanu and the jewel hiding in pottery element from the Sherlock story in order to create a fairly interesting original story. One major element I will change is to have the audience not find out about the twist until the main character does, to add more suspense.

This is the kind of story I could adapt into one of my short films, hence why I wanted to take another week to plan it out.

Reading notes: Mahabharata part B

Well the first story already has a problematic reading that it is perfectly OK to burn up some lower caste people as long as they aren't the princes...

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It's interesting some of the structural similarities between this story and the previous book we read. Just as Rama had to exile himself to the forests so to do the pandavas.

Huh, so apparently Rakshasi can be not all that bad. Today I learned. I'll definitely use this in one of my stories.

So Brihma just appears whenever he is needed? That's actually quite cool.

The concept of a sacrificial ritual having to be performed to bring about the birth of a child is very poetic in nature.

I don't fully understand why the Pandava must hide if they are more powerful than their enemies.

I think its kinda hilarious that they are switching up the gender numbers in the Pandavas somewhat mistaken marriage.

How did any of them think that this marriage was going to work!

I like the second telling of Arjuna and CHita better because it is a bit more humorous.

I kinda thought they were going to find a way out of the whole five husbands one wife thing but I guess that's just here to stay, huh?

This story is so much more political than the previous tale. i wonder if that has something to do with it supposedly being originally told by a monarch.

Hold on a second while I look up what Parcheesi is....

Reading notes: Mahabharata

Link to reading

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The first story already is promising that this new reading is going to be even more out there than the last one and that I'd saying something!

I'm not going to lie, I just got comfortable with the names from the previous reading and now... There are even more.

The part about Satyavati becoming a virgin again is by far one if the strangest things I've read in a while.

Brishma's vow is strange and apparently motivated only out of live for his father, but I don't see how it is terrible.

Brishma is pretty much just a servant to his family at this point.

Amba is going to reincarnate as a dude just to kill Brishma? This story grows in wildness.

Ambika's blind child and how she got it is kinda hilarious.

I feel like panda giving up everything but his wives is the exact opposite thing that he needs to do to overcome his curse.

So snake poison is a cure for poisoning. Huh...

What is the moral of the story of the bril archer? It seems like a not good one.

I find it strange that a teacher can demand anything of his pupils.

Week 5 Story: The mighty and the flea

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Backstory is just as important, if not more so, as fore-story. It is important to understand where one is before one might understand where they must go. Moving blind through life is a recipe for disaster and strife, but onto our story at hand.

There once was a man, so strong and so powerful that none dared face his might. He could slay monsters and demons with a single arrow from his epic bow. His wife was considered the most beautiful in the land. Her beauty could make a saint repent or a monk speak tongues.

Well this man, despite his infinite charm and in-spite of his power bred many a jealous enemy. But there was one rival that could light a candle to the strength of the man. He envied the strength of the man, he envied his beautiful wife, he envied the respect that he was awarded world wide.

And so, one day this rival hatched a plan, and indeed he executed his evil will. The rival stole the wife away. He took her to the most safe guarded of castles, a fortress impenetrable to even the man himself.The fortress was built of bricks so tightly that no arrow could possibly penetrate their exterior. And so, the man was without his Wife.

The man was in sorrow, for he knew not if his wife was alive or dead. Soon, news of his tragedy spread far and wide. Creatures great and small heard the tears shed by the mightiest of men.

Many came to the aid of the man. But alas, one by one they all tried and failed to penetrate the walls of the fortress.

Finally after many months the man gave up hope. But in this moment of utter defeat a hero emerged. It was not a lion, with a roar to shatter bones. It was not a bear, with arms to do much the same. It was a flea, a simple, small flea.

This flea though was able to do what no one else could. He was tiny enough to slip through the brick and mortar and make his way into the fortress, there he saw that indeed the wife was still alive, and fighting fiercely to stay away from the rival.

The man's vigor was renewed.

Now that is the end of this story. But stories never really end, just as they never truly begin.

Author's notes: I based this story off of the tale where Hanuman is able to sneak into the castle to see if Sita is alive. I changed the story to focus on the mighty Rama having one weakness, one that he could not get past without the help of his friend Hanuman.

Reading notes: Animated Ramayana movie part 1

Source

Sita Sings the Blues

I am perplexed by the animation style that the creators chose to use, but its definitely unique at the very least. Either way it is a bit grating how it is constantly switching up. It's actually quite interesting that here I find it quite useful that Rama has Blue skin. No matter the art style, Rama is very easy to find among the other characters. I wonder somewhat if this is why he was given blue skin in the original legends, to make him easily stand out in a variety of paintings done by various artists. it is an interesting bit of character design that I at least hadn't thought about until just now.

The story telling style is also a bit interesting. i feel somewhat that the interludes by "narrators" are just there to hold audience attention while the story dulls down a bit, but to me they distracted from the overall story too much. I also didn't fully understand the framing device the story was using. i couldn't tell what was narrative and what was meta-narrative.

I find it really interesting that the animated story decided to cut right to the chase and have Rama almost immediately expelled from the city and then further cut right to Sita's kidnapping, it makes for a more cohesive narrative I think. Cutting out the brother entirely though I feel may have been a decision that ends up hurting the impact of the narrative in the long run though. The music is also cool. It allows for a romance that was missing in the writings to appear.

Still though it is a charming portrayal of the Ramayana and I can;t wait to see the second half this weekend.

Reading notes: Ramayana D

Source

PDE Ramayana:
I'm a little late on this one, but it has been a busy week.

I like how Rama found a very... obvious loophole to the "unfordable " river. It feels like someone else might have thought of this.

Ravana did not do a very good job of tricking Sita. He kinda gave up really early.

I'm not going to lie, I kinda forgot Rama was leading an army of monkeys. Rally makes this super serious battle have a bit of a humorous tone in my mind.

Kumbhakarna is kinda humorous, especially since he required food before he could fight.

I don't know why, but I really like Hanuman, maybe its just his name. That might be a stupid reason but it makes me think about the importance of character names.

This battle with Ravana is definitely the most epic battle of the entire epic so far and I'm definitely curious to see how it ends.

Even the demons believe it is evil to kill women. That is actually shocking.

Lakshmana I think should have died here as far as storytelling goes, it shows that Rama had to lose something in order to regain Sita, but as is, it doesn't look like that will be the case.

The gods high key cheat by sending Rama help. They can't just force their prophecies to come true, can they?

I like how Agastya comes back, if only for a little bit. It's nice to have some repeating characters.

So Rama completed his destiny. I wonder what is left for him.

Rama not taking back Sita is not a good ending to this story, maybe culturaly, yes. But I'm salty.

Nevermind, he takes her back.. sorta, all is well.

Comment Wall

Reading notes: Ramayana C

Source.

Public Domain Ramayana, link to the reading online.

I missed the reading yesterday, so I'll be doing part D as extra credit this weekend. But, here is part C.

I think it's kinda funny that Rama and his brother are apparently striking fear into all the animals in the forest while they're walking about.

Time for a side quest to save the monkey's wife I guess. I feel like the whole getting Sita back thing is only difficult because They don't know her exact location. No one really poses Rama a threat.

To be fair to Vali, a year in this world is a non important amount of time to most of these god like people, so his brothers abandonment must have hurt a lot.

I honestly don't see why Rama felt the need to hide and ambush Vali. Maybe I'm just underestimating Vali though.

I also find it strange that Vali had to die considering it was all just a misunderstanding in the long run.

I hadn't realized Rama's terms of exile made it so he couldn't enter ANY city. I must not have read close enough. That is very harsh.

The rainy season doesn't really do anything to effect the plot. It allows for a bit of contemplation, but it then just leaves. I find this a strange touch.

So do the monkeys rule over the bears? I have to assume so since the monkey king was able to send the bear king to go search for Sita. Kinda makes me think about the animal hierarchy.

I like how some characters, like Sampati tell us their long backstory the first time we meet them.

Hanuman can change size!?! That's kinda awesome.

It's convenient that Hanuman stumbles upon proof of Sita's faithfulness.

The whole monkey's tail on fire and burns the city thing must have been based on a very unfortunate true story.

Well at least one person was smart enough not to go on a suicide mission to kill Rama.

Topic Research

So for my project I have considered the options I presented last week and decided on the main topic of my stories. That topic will be on the monster's of Indian epics. As such I will actually be drawing from many of the sources I listed last week as all of them contain interesting stories that could work well for me.

An example of a Rakshasa. Source

Here are some examples:

Goblin City:
This story is one I saw retold this week and as such it kept it fresh on my mind. I really like the idea of creatures that morph into beautiful women to lure their prey. I think it too could be morphed into almost any story I could imagine.

The Golden Deer:
On a similar note, as most Rakshasa use their ability to transform against our heroes it is just a matter of in what way. This story, rather than looking at people seduced by beauty, has the hero seduced by a more worldly physical possession. In this case it is a golden deer, but it could easily be a golden trophy or something.

Thataka:
This story introduces a new power of Rakshasas. They are able to turn invisible. This is a power that can immediately become frightening if used correctly. I also like the idea presented in this story, that some people may have qualms killing all of the Rakshasas.

Feedback Strategies

Source

Presence, Not Praise:

I found this article's argument very interesting because at first glance it goes against all logic. It doesn't seem to make sense that praising children for their accomplishments would decrease their motivation in the future. But, upon reading the article, the idea that the effort and work put into getting to an accomplishment should be encouraged more makes sense, After all, it is so common to be rewarded for showing your work on math problems, but very often this doesn't get expanded to other fields.

Be a Mirror:

This article has an underlying belief that I wouldn't be surprised to find out comes directly from the study listed in the previous article I read. The idea is once again that it is important in education to praise effort rather than result. I think this article does a great job of taking this belief and expanding upon it, not just for the specific topic (reading), but also as a general strategy. The article mentions specifically how it is important to focus the praise in relation to the subject rather than the critic. In this way the subject (student) is more encouraged to do these thing because of his own wants rather than just trying to please a teacher who won't always be with him.

Week 3 Story: Frogs have epics too

There is a secret that few people know, a piece of knowledge whispered down alleyways at night by strange men going nowhere in particular. It is a fragment of the truth told for generations but never made known, until now.

The ideas of heroes and villains, gods and demons, these are not unique to the human race. There is one other creature whose members have found themselves worthy of epic. These are the frogs.

Since time itself began they have kept to themselves, fearing the pride of human arrogance. But sometimes paths converge and this is one such story.

This tale is about the legendary frog, Raba. Long ago, before even autumn knew how to paint the trees, a frog whose tale was so great that all of the world, frogkind and mankind knew of his exploits. He was loved by most, but not by all. Among the humans there was one in particular whose hatred knew no bounds. This man was called Jababa.

He was small for a human, only watching the stature of 3 grown frogs.His envy for frogkind was wicked and coursed through his veins and he hated Raba most of all.

One day he happened upon a frog princess, one so beautiful that lilies grew from the water wherever she swam; she was Siba. Seeing her charm and undeniable power to control the hearts of frogs everywhere, Jababa kidnapped her.

Hoping to shame frogs everywhere, he issued a challenge. Out of a large stick, almost as high as he, Jababa fashioned a sturdy bow but left it unstrung. He said that the frog that could string the bow and wield it against him may win the hand of Siba.

Frog after frog jumped at the opportunity, but all failed. It was a dark time for the species of frogs.

But all was not lost. Raba, seeing the beauty of Siba endeavored to win her love. Approaching Jababa, Raba held the unstrung bow gracefully and with the care of a mother strung the bow. Jababa could not believe his eyes, indeed he could hardly move as an arrow flew from the great bow and deftly pierced his chest.

Raba and Siba had many more adventures, but this is the end for this one.



Image source
"Rama Wins Sita" Public Domain Ramayana, Link to the reading online.

Author's footnotes: The story here is based loosely on the story of how the Indian prince, Rama, won the beautiful Sita. I embellished on it a bit to make it a more standalone story. The choice to make it about frogs is not very meaningful. I just thought of the image of a bow wielding frog and laughed to myself.

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part B

Public Domain Ramayana, link to the reading online.
Once again, notes as they occur:

I think it is very interesting how unquestioning even Bharata follows Rama. In any western story the brother would leap at the opportunity that he doesn't even need to feel guilty over.


Dasharatha really screwed himself over with this whole thing, even Bharata doesn't get it.

Jabali's speech about family loyalty is interesting  and so is Rama's response and no doubt has been used as a guide by many in the Indian culture.

I wonder if the story of Viradha had any real life inspiration such as a bear near a village or something. That's always something that I keep in the back of my mind.

I find it interesting that besides for Shurpanakha actually being ugly, she also takes a beautiful form. this seems to be the first time that outward beauty might not be a sign of the inner personality.

"The rocks answered back her awesome cries" may be the best way of describing an echo I've ever heard.

Of course Rama must fight the demon army alone. I suppose it was nice to not have to worry about his wife though.

I appreciate that Lakshmata is a bit cocky in battle, kinda like modern action characters.

Image source: Ravana and Maricha.

The art of Ravana is very... interesting

So Sita falls for the trick so easily. But I guess that's alright since it's all part of a very convoluted plot by Brahma.

I feel bad from the vulture character. He saw the right thing to do and he did it, but he died as a result. I feel like the whole "trap" scenario is a bit.... convoluted and given how powerful Rama has been shown to be it seems kinda sudden that he failed to protect Sita.

Reading notes: Ramayana part A

Shiva Catches Ganga Falling to Earth.

(Source)

Public Domain Ramayana, link to the reading online.

So I'm gonna just dot down things that strike me, I'll mention the speciifc story if need be.

Starting from the first couple sentences on the first story I can already tell the names are going to make this challenging for me. I already have trouble with character names that I am familiar with, but this is an extra added level of difficulty.

A phrase strikes me. "the impulses of modesty" are said to withhold the maidens from their lovers. It just is interesting because usually the impulses are what the modesty is meant to avoid.

It seems a common practice for gods of all religion to promise people sons. An interesting cross cultural remnant of a slightly more sexist time.

Another thing I find interesting is the idea of a hierarchy of gods. This isn't something I was raised hearing due to my Christian upbringing, but you see it in almost all mythologies.

Interesting also is the description of the rakshasa. She is described as hideous and misformed. Unlike Rama who is described as beautiful. Mythological good guys almost always seem to be attractive. This might be an element I have to tip toe around in retellings.

They live for thousands of years in these stories?!? Not bad, just a surprise.

I'm reading the PDE edition and come 7. Alhalya there is sudden poetry. The next one isn't a poem, but I find myself reading it as such.

It's interesting that Princess Sita is first seen in a flower garden, almost as if she is one.

Of course it will be a competition for the hand of Sita. the title of the next piece (Ramu wins Sita) might possibly spoil it a bit though.

The "Heir apparent" seems to mark the end of a story arc. I like this kind of structure.

It really does feel at times like Rama has cast a spell on the rest of the characters, but I guess he is really just that.

Feedback Thoughts

Source

14 Signs your Perfectionism has gotten Out of Control:
Wow did this one hit home. I've always known how much of a perfectionist I am (hence why I choose this article), but it's scary how accurate some of these points are. Take the 3rd point: You are a procrastinator. I had never considered how my procrastination was related to my drive to make sure everything is perfect, but I realize it one hundred percent is. The points brought up make for a very self reflexive couple of minutes. I definitely need to work on these things. Especially in my field of study, film, where each step allows for new mistakes to be made and thus more procrastination.

The Psychology of Comparison and How to Stop:
Being someone who is at very near the beginning of every important step of his career the last part of this article is really poignant. Don't compare you're beginning with someone else's middle. That's something that too often I am able to excuse away as just "Aiming high" and this article helped me realize that it may in fact be a somewhat poisonous behavior to have. Recently I've been working on starting a Facebook page to post my film stuff on, and I keep having the overwhelming feeling, I'll never make a page that will be as popular as the ones I've seen. The truth of the matter is though, it'll just take time and effort. I can't sit down at the starting line. I have to see things through.

Topic Brainstorm

An example of the Rakshasa. Source

Jataka Tales:
The main aspect of this topic that draws me to it is the variety of the stories contained within its huge body of works. With somewhere around 550 poems worth of stories, there will be no shortage of subject matter to adapt. One of the main things I will be trying to do in my stories is to create a little community with the repeating characters and I feel as if having this kind of variety of tales will work well for that kind of slice of life story telling.

Supernatural Characters of the Ramayana:

On a similar vein to the last story telling method, if I used this topic I'd also have a kind of slice of life story about a small community. The main difference here, is that this topic lends itself beautifully to the genre of horror. Take for example these. I could very easily see a story being told about how a town is continuously attacked by various mythological monsters from India. The main issue with these, is it might portray certain aspects of the mythology a bit one sided. I do believe that is something that can be overcome in the storytelling though.

Nagas:

Once again, looking at the previous topic structure, I'd be using this topic for horror stories. The main difference here is that rather than slice of life, these would be a lot more focused. Leaning more heavily on the Mahabharata interpretation of these creatures, they would be the main villains of the story that our protagonists fight against. In these stories the supernatural elements might be slightly downplayed to add an element of wonder and semi-realism to the storytelling.

Sages and Gurus:

Switching things up a little bit away from the horror genre. I like the idea of a guru or a sage coming to town and helping out various characters with their problems. Obviously the stories would be lifted and transcribed from the stories of the specific guru/sage. One of the harder parts of this topic would be narrowing down to a specific sage. It would be possible to combine multiple people's stories into one "conglomerate" sage, but either way my lack of background knowledge would not help here.

Week 2 Story: Nukes

Picture source

"Holy cow!" said Rob as his eyes hungrily read the digital article in front of him, "Donald Trump nukes Russia!"

He couldn't believe his eyes. His mind raced over what this meant. Did Trump really just plunge the world into chaos. Rob's nervous hand runs through locks of hair as he considers how his life would be affected. He had to tell someone.

"Trump nuked Russia!"

Rob was standing fanatically in the door way of his best friend Jeff's house.

"What?" Jeff said half-heartedly, head buried in his phone screen. His fingers typed away busily, he was always plugged in.

"Trump nuked Rus..." Rob is interrupted by a soft ding from his pocket. As he pulls his phone out he begins talking, "You tagged me in a post?"

Rob eyes the post, a ten paragraph rant on the American situation concluded by the terrifying News of Russia's demise.

"You wrote that quick."

Jeff replies with a half shrug, still not looking up.

The doorbell rings, Rob quickly opens the door.

"Is it true?"

The gossip of the town, Sarah Tupper, stood at the door, notebook ready for an answer.

"Of course!" Rob was insulted at the doubt.

"O. M. G." Sarah walked away, content that she had the new scoop to share with her friends.

The next hour was a blur. Worry and fear permeated Rob's small town, news travels fast after all.

Rob takes his phone out. He had to read the article again. As he opened the article he sees something he missed the first time.

A little above the provocative title was the name of the website, unseen before, but painfully obvious now.

The article had been written by the onion.




Author's note: the original story of this was the timid Rabbit, the story of a rabbit who freaks out over nothing and subsequently freaks out his entire community. The moral of that story was to not let yourself be scared at every little fright, with an undercurrent of "check your sources". My version of the story leans far more heavily on the secondary message.

Jataka Takes by Ellen C Babbitt. Digital sourceDigital Source.

Reading Notes: Jataka Anthology

Young Hare, a watercolour, 1502, by Albrecht Dürer. Source

The foolish, Timid Rabbit: thoughts

As the first story I read this helps me get a feeling of how the rest of them will be. They remind me a lot of parables like in the Jewish and Christian faith.

This particular story is a great example of a parable. It is a story that works to convey a moral message to the audience. In this stories case that message appears to be, don't freak out over something you don't understand. You are supposed to see this from the main character, the rabbit. I feel like there is a stronger message to be gained from the rest of the characters however. I feel like there is an undercurrent of "check your sources" or "don't rely on blind faith". I wish the story had focused on a different character to get these stronger messages across better.

That being said I did enjoy it, it is a story that got me thinking about my own life and that really is its goal.

The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart: Thoughts

This story like the last is a parable. Almost a retelling at times of "The grass is always greener on the other side", the story definitely ventures to say that you should be satisfied with what you have.

The story telling in this one and the last one both strike me in that the audience is privy to all knowledge of the "evil". The dangers are always known in the stories and what we are left to find out is how the "good" will overcome them. As a device this gives the audience a feeling of omniscience in the world and makes the good seem far more clever for overcoming the bad.

Reading Options

Wow...
It actually blows my mind how many forms these stories have taken over the years. it shouldn't be a surprise given India's population, but still, I had no idea.

Personally I'm very interested in the modern day style telling of the stories available on the kindles. I'll be at the library most days I'm working on this homework anyway, so it'll work out perfectly.

As far as the "second pass through weeks", I don't quite know what I'll do yet, i'm leaning towards the comics or animation because it would be such a different style and really help me get a grasp on these stories.

Some of the options for the second half of semester that particularly interested me are:

          The music: I am always listening to music in my free time, so I feel like this will be one of the more accessible ways for me to learn the stories.

         The comic books (like this one): I used to love comic books as a kid, and I have a feeling I will be able to visualize the fantastical stories told in this form better.

         The art (like this one): As some one who studies art as his career, it interests me to see how other cultures art appears to the western eye. The image below intrigues me a lot beyond just artistic merit, its subject matter at first appears bizarre and mystical.

Source. Parvati and Baby Ganesha

Time Strategies

Source

Time Management has always been.... an issue for me. I definitely have the mindset of "never do now what you can do later" more often than I would care to admit. Largely this doesn't come back to bite me (hence the habits continuation) but every once and a while my sleep schedule takes a serious blow that temporarily makes me regret my poor decisions. I usually come back to my procrastination though.

The Psychology of Checklists:
This article was cool. I mean that in the basest sense of the word, I thought that it was very interesting all the different psychological aspects to the simple use of breaking down a task into simpler easier pieces. In a kinda meta way it's the same way that breaking articles into sections make them more approachable at first glance than one large section and even more focused, how paragraphs make large blocks of texts more approachable.

Four Questions to Help You Overcome Procrastination:

This article was.... Almost exactly what I was expecting. teachers and parents and generally a lot of people will talk to you about procrastination and the first three questions addressed were the typical 'how can I make this easier' tips that sort of help but don't really. The fourth question however was something that I hadn't heard before and I really think it's a good suggestion. Think of the consequences of  procrastinating right now, will it hurt you. See procrastination gets a bad rep in my opinion. I see no good reason why the very first moment you can do something is any better than somewhere in the middle. 

There are plenty of good reasons to put something off for a day or so. I may just be perpetuating my own bad habits, but that's the insidious thing about bad habits, they encourage themselves.