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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

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"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