Spring 2021

This part of the Jatakas has been so fun to read. Both parts A and B from this week my very well be my one of my most favorite so far. All these stories remind me of my childhood and have been able to show me the reasons for which I fell in love with reading as a child. I want my writing to emulate these characteristics and make people see their childlike love of reading stories. The use of descriptive words contained throughout these little tales would be useful to give some good ideas for writing almost any type of story. The way in which the story Spend a Pound to Win a Penny used this type of language helped me to see the whole scene. Descriptive language has the ability to paint the writer into the scene so it is almost as if they are seeing it up close and personal. This story in particular was one I truly enjoyed due to the underlying theme it carried with it. From the onset of the story, a reader may assume it is just going to be a silly tall tale about a monkey; however, by th...

 For this weeks reading I chose the Jatakas of The Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India. Once again, these stories immediately stuck out to me for the use of animal characters. I feel like any story is more approachable and relatable for people when the characters are unsuspecting animals. However, with animals, I feel like there is so much room to create a new persona and character qualities without people having as many preconceived biases like they do for typical story characters. These animal based stories also have the ability to reach a large demographic audience spanning all the way from little kids up to adults. The underlying message of most these stories is one that many people can relate to and ultimately learn good moral lessons from. The story of the Giant Crab was not my overall favorite story in terms of plot; however, the writing style it contained was very interesting and something that I think would be good to try out. In my own writing I often feel as if som...

 The second Part of the Jatakas was just as fun to read as the first. I really enjoyed the almost childlike stories that were told all while having a deeper rooted meaning. Many of these stories carry different little twists or turns that I am not expecting. I always seem to catch myself trying to figure out how a story is going to end and concocting in my mind what I think should happen. In most of these stories I found myself on the right track but not piecing together the whole puzzle. My favorite story in this Part of the Jatakas was The Crab and the Crane. In this story, the crane is shifty and figures a way to trick the fish into allowing him to carry them to a new pond full of water when in reality he is just taking them away to eat them one by one. I saw that twist from the very beginning. However, after the crane has eaten all of the fish and the reader suspects the story is over, the author introduces a new character, the crab. I like how the crab is smart and outwits the...

 I loved reading the Jatakas this week because they reminded me of tales that I read as a child. I also am very fond of stories that contain animals due to the way they are whimsical and fun to read. My favorite story in this Part A was How the Turtle Saved His Own Life. This story contains all the elements of a classic children's story. It starts out with excited children who turn out to be quite naive and think that the turtle is a demon. Then, the adults must be naive as well because they do not know what a turtle is either and begin to plot ways to destroy the "demon". And, lastly, after the men plot many horrid deaths, one idea is given to throw the turtle into the lake. When the turtle hears this he acts as if it is the worst idea of all while he knows that this is his perfect plan of escape and they will take him right back to his home in the river.  Turtle from Wikimedia Commons My second favorite story was The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking. I don't kno...

 This weeks story on the Mahabharata was very interesting and unique. I enjoyed reading from the author Kincaid and found him to be different from some of the other authors I have encountered in this course. My favorite story in this section of reading was The Adventures of Prince Arjuna. Prince Arjuna is boy who embodies all the characteristics of what you would imagine a young prideful prince to have. The following sentence structure is one that I think would be good to come back to and use as it is different than my usual writing. "But Prince Arjuna, in the pride of his youth and courage, laughed at their warning, and, stripping off his garments, he plunged into the cool waters of the river." This sentence makes good use of commas, which is something that I am not always great at, and it also does a good job of painting a picture in the readers mind. Kincaid continued on using great imagery in the way that he depicts Prince Arjuna's dreams and visions. I think in addin...

 For Part D of the Mahabharata Notes I actually switched up which version I was reading. The public domain version ended up being much easier for me to read as I realized the other was more of a condensed overview and was why I was so lost. Most of the stories contained in part D gave me visions of Africa, particularly Egypt. Particularly, the story The Mongoose made me think of Bible times in Egypt when there was a great famine. I think this story is one that could be changed into a love story where the god in this story could be a king or princess. When after the whole family has given up their small portion of food and the feeble daughter gladly gives her portion over to their guest, that is when the family realizes it was their ruler. The ruler is so grateful for his kind servants that he takes the daughter as his wife and brings the whole family into the palace where they have all the food their hearts desire. One thing that would need to change is that the young girl be the ...

 The Mahabharata Part C was once again very interesting to read. These stories are unlike any I have ever read before and I am amazed at the different things I am learning each and every week. Once again I am captivated by just how many different characters are contained within each part of this whole story. I have never been much good at writing a story with more than three or so main characters and just a few supporting characters. Throughout this one section there are more than twenty characters who play a role in the story in some way. I want to be able to better incorporate this into my own Story book with the Looney Tunes characters. However, I am having trouble keeping all their different personalities and characteristics straight and correct throughout the entirety of my project. Some of the individual little stories contained within the Mahabharata are also somewhat more violent and dark than what I am use from the perspective of the Looney Tunes. I think this would defini...

 I found part B of the Mahabharata to be just as interesting and enjoyable to read as I did part A. However, for me it was somewhat difficult to follow along with all of the different characters. On the other hand I feel like it might be due to how much time I spend trying to pronounce the names correctly and not knowing if I am right or wrong. On the other hand, I think because I am using the Looney Tunes as the basis of my Project, that these stories may carry with them lot of ideas on how to incorporate a plethora of characters all at once. Throughout this Part B, I realized how the characters names are recited over and over again in order to help make them familiar in the reader's mind. It also helps to try and keep things right in the reader's mind by not using many pronouns such as he, she, his and her and instead used the individuals names. On pg. 55 and pg. 66 the first game of dice and the second are both ones that I could see using the Looney Tunes in place of the ori...

 I really enjoyed reading Mahabharata Part A. This is a new and unique reading style and I thought it was very interesting. The way in which the story continues on fluently is different. I feel like it is different that most things I have read because it almost used characters as if they were disposable. The story flows on without much of a specific character staying present. While at the same time, the characters are all linked and connected in one way or another. I found the part about the way in which children were born with difficulties based off of what their parents had done to be a unique twist. I think that this would be an interesting twist that I can use for my own storybook. Obviously, the Looney Tunes are not having kids but the characters could do something that comes back and punishes them. Mahabharata from Picryl

 The last part of the reading notes of Ramayana did not disappoint. I really have enjoyed the mini little stories. I tried to focus on what I could do to keep the feel of the small little stories together while at the same time making them longer to be used in my Story book project.  This section, I really focused on the different ways in which dialogue could be introduced and used in my own stories. I feel like sometimes I am just repeating the same things over and over again when I say, he said or she said in my sentences. One story that was able to give me some extra ideas from was 159. Rama Battles Taranisen. This story used emotions throughout their dialogue that I think could be very helpful in making sure the reader is able to understand what the characters are feeling. Adding in feeling is also helpful in being able to hear the characters tone of voice easier. I also was able to recognize sections of stories where there would be around 3-5 little micro stories but they...

 This week I focused on finding more stories that I could use to go along with what I have been brainstorming as my topic for a storybook. There were many different stories that already contained animal characters and were able to give me a better feel for how I could use the animal characters in Looney Tunes for these specific stories. #113. Who Will Jump to Lanka? was a story that stuck out because it dealt with a challenge. In this particular tail, many different monkeys are arguing over who can jump over the ocean. I could see this being used with Looney Tunes characters who are bickering over who can accomplish a task better than the rest.  The next to proceeding stories elaborate on the previous. #114 Jambavan Inspires Hanuman and #115 Hanuman Leaps are both set out in a way that I think would be easy to transform into a longer story for my Storybook.  Throughout this section of reading, I saw different individual sets of stories that could make individual longer st...

 Many stories contained in the Ramayana Part A are very interesting and unique and unlike many that I have ever read. Through reading these I see many different ways in which I could change up characters, settings or outcomes to put my own twist on a story. One particular story that stuck out to me was 32. Rama Faces Tataka. In this story,  Vishvamitra takes Rama to the forest to teach him to harness supernatural powers. Then when Tataka arrives, Vishvamitra tells Rama to kill her, but he protests because she is a woman. When Vishvamitra responds with, "The enemy has no gender," I was surprised because in my mind this was set in such a time where women would have been looked down on greatly. Seeing this, I could imagine myself using this story in a modern everyday setting. The stories of Sita were also interesting to me and ones that could be fun to write about. A whole storybook could be created around Sita as she is doing many different things from cooking, to surprising he...

 The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart This story was my overall favorite from Jatakas the Indian Epics Anthology. Stories that carry with them different animals as characters have been the ones that have always stuck out to me from a very early age. I enjoyed the way in which this story used the crocodile couple and gave them a funny persona. The crocodiles had a sneaky character just as what you would think a mean old crocodile would have. Then for the monkey. He was silly, mischievous and witty. Using his wits he was able to out smart the mean old crocodile and convince him to help carry the monkey safely to the other side. The use of a trick by the crocodiles and their scheme along with the plan that the monkey concocted to get out of it are both great ideas that could easily be incorporated into many different stories. In rewriting this story I think it would be interesting to try and find different animals to try and fit the mold of the crocodile or monkey. One other interesti...

 I am choosing to read the Tiny Tales from the Ramayana for many reasons. While taking Indian Epics last semester I fell in love with the tiny tales we were reading and writing because they had a sense of carefree, fun to them. I think these stories will be inspiring and exciting to read. Ramayana (from Drabbles ) Having different comic books and videos to watch is a great way to help build and maintain interest. For the first comic book I want to read is Stories of Courage . This book makes use of animal characters who then take on different identities, personalities and characteristics that are extremely interesting to me. The second comic book I am choosing is Shiva Parvati . This story is labeled as one of divine love and I am a sucker for all things love stories. As for the videos, I am very interested in 'Fascinating Women from Mythology' and 'Indian and Greek mythologies paralleled', both of these videos I believe will be able to give me a better understanding of...