Week 3 Reading Diary: Jataka Tales, cont.

reading: Part B of Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock (1920)

"The Bull That Demanded Fair Treatment" made me laugh because it reminded me of the movie Herbie Fully Loaded, where Herbie the car refuses to do well in a race because his driver doesn't appreciate him. Reading this story, it seems like the bull is being a bit silly in not working just because he doesn't like what the Brahmin called him, but the deeper intent of the tale -- to show how people should be treated and communicate with each other -- makes the scene make more sense.

Many of the stories in this section of the book had similar themes to this: appreciate what others do for you and try to return the feeling. A counterexample to this is given in "The Mallard That Asked for Too Much," where the mother tries to take advantage of her late husband's generosity and so loses it. I liked these tales more than the ones in the first section, because the generosity shown by the characters seems more human than the overblown self-sacrifice often exhibited by the incarnated Buddha of the stories of Part A.

I also found it interesting that when people make mistakes in these stories, the incarnated Buddha often comes along to save the day. The woman in "Mallard" is the exception in that she loses the opportunity for further wealth, but she is otherwise not negatively affected by her actions. In "The Merchant Who Overcame All Obstacles," the caravan is able to survive after the pilot makes the fatal mistake of throwing away provisions after assuming they'll make it across the desert that night. The focus of the story becomes not the pilot's error, but the Buddha's skill and perseverance in fixing the problem. In several of the other stories as well, the problems are solved by people seeking guidance for what went wrong and being willing to make the necessary steps for fixing it.

painted thangka of Jataka Tales, Bhutan

18th/19th century (Wikimedia Commons)

Storybook Styles Brainstorming

Topic: I want to do my Storybook on festivals and associated stories from India. There's more than half a dozen Hindu festivals listed on Wikipedia that celebrate particular events from the mythic past. I would like to be fairly far-ranging in the four stories I select, if possible, covering more than just the most popular/famous Hindu festivities and tales. One festival I know I'd like to focus on is Rama Navami, which celebrates both the birth of Rama and his marriage with Sita. These stories are told in The Ramayama, and I think I'd like to focus on Sita's perspective on their meeting and marriage. Another that interests me is the festival Onam celebrated in Kerala. This centers on the homecoming of King Mahabali, who was an asura who wisely ruled a utopian kingdom until forced to the underworld. I've found one version of the story in the Bhagavata Purana, and details of it are also in The Ramayana. Gudi Padwa, a celebration of Brahma's creation of the world as recounted in the Brahma Purana, also looks interesting.

 part of Onam celebration

Arunanand T A, 3/29/2009 (Wikipedia)

Bibliography:
"The Wedding," from The Ramayana: A Modern Prose Version of the Great Indian Epic by R.K. Narayan (Penguin Books, 1977).
canto 8 from Bhagavata Purana, compiled by Anand Aadhar Prabhu (Srimad Bhagavatam).
Stories of Creation: From the Brahma Purana by Shalini Srinivasan (Amar Chitra Katha, 2011).

Possible Styles:
1) Characters visiting festivals. I like the idea of the characters from these ancient stories visiting modern celebrations. First of all, this allows the stories to be written as the characters reflecting back on long-ago events from a different perspective. Second, it allows comments on the festivals, so that each story does two things: retell an ancient tale and describe modern celebrations. I really love the idea of blending folklore and anthropology with this Storybook plan. :)

2) Travel blog. The best format I can think of for a project like this is a "blog" format, where someone is traveling to India to see these celebrations and writes up their thoughts in posts. It also makes incorporating images pretty easy, because they fit well into the personal posts format. Video clips, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter updates, and other media are also easy to incorporate and would make the format look more interactive.

3) Diary. Instead of a public blog, the format could be a private diary. Images and some other extra media are still easy to incorporate, but this is probably a longer, more personal format than blog entries, perhaps more appropriate for the style of storytelling in this project if I go with idea #1.

4) Guided tour. I also thought about writing each story as if narrated by a guide, trying to explain the festivals to a foreign group and update the ancient stories at the same time. This would depend mostly on dialogue, which would be an interesting format, as I find dialogue more difficult to write engagingly than action.

Week 3 Storytelling: A Bedtime Tale

“Grandpa, Grandpa, tell us a story!”

“Ohhh, I don’t know if I have any stories. You might have to jog my old memory as to what you mean.”

“Tell us about the time you helped Rama!”

“The time I helped Rama? Well…let’s see…who’s Rama, again? That fellow who lives over in Ayodhya? What’s so special about him?”

“Don’t be silly, Grandpa! You know who Rama is! He’s the bestest hero that ever lived! He’s Vishnu himself! You know who he is!”

“Oh right, that Rama. I’m beginning to remember now. Hmm…I first met Rama in the forest when he was just a young man, searching for his beloved wife, Sita. He did me a huge favor when I was in need…but that’s a story for when you’re older. What he did for me was so great, in return I offered him the assistance of myself and all my people. We monkeys are fantastic warriors, as you well know. I had until the rains ceased that year to gather an army to go with Rama. We were to find where that demon Ravana was holding Sita captive, then go rescue her. Of course, I spent the entire time training as many warriors as I could find. After what Rama had done for me, I owed it to him to be able to give the best assistance – ”

“Oh, you're wrong there! Husband, your memory seems to have some lapses. Here, children, gather around me and I’ll tell you what really happened with Rama. Grandpa here had been stuck wandering the forest for years, and he was so happy to finally be back in Kiskinda that he got, well, a little…distracted. The rains came and the rains passed, and Grandpa hadn’t done anything to prepare for the war. I don’t think he even realized what day of the week it was! Rama and Lakshmana tried to be patient, but of course they had Sita to worry about. Lakshmana finally came to check up on us, not hiding his anger very well – ”

“Neither did you, when you found out what was up.”

“I’ll ignore your mumbling, dear. He had reason to be mad. Why, he and Rama were just sitting out in that forest, exiled, going through who knows what physically and emotionally! Anyway, I tried to barricade the city, scared of what Lakshmana might do in his anger, but he easily knocked down our gates and came in. The men weren’t being much good in this situation. Men. So slow to do what it takes women five seconds to figure out. With Grandpa not being at all helpful, I gathered together the women of the city to go talk to Lakshmana. It embarrassed him, to be surrounded by an army of women who clearly did not approve of his behavior. Bashing down gates, really! I played the old ‘don’t frighten the gentle sex’ card, you know, ‘think of your mothers and sisters being subjected to this type of treatment,’ and he backed right down. Explained to us what was going on, and I was able to defuse the issue, buy us more time. Always remember, talking things out is a much better route than beating it out.”

“Anyway, to return to my side of the story, dear, your excellent negotiation skills bought enough time for me to come to my senses and gather the army I had promised for Rama. But the rest of this tale, my dear grandchildren, shall be saved for another night. It’s off to bed with you!”

Author's Note: I based this story off the chapter of Narayan's Ramayana where Sugreeva has promised aid to Rama but failed to come through by the appointed time because, upon regaining the throne, he has been distracted by the pleasures of Kiskinda. Sugreeva's wife, Tara, takes control for the moment to smooth over an angry Lakshmana. After this, Sugreeva comes out of his daze and takes responsibility, fulfilling his promise. As Tara elaborates in this bedtime story, it is her role in these events that saves the day by placating Lakshmana and giving enough time to Sugreeva, as well as jolting him from his inactivity, and leading to Sugreeva successfully aiding Rama in rescuing Sita.

I liked this story because the women in The Ramayana are often hiding in the background, but at the right moments they come forward to take major roles. I wanted to highlight Tara as a character who can stand out from her husband and take control at a critical time. I thought the frame of the characters looking back on past events (and sometimes trying to idealize them!) through telling a bedtime story was a cute way to offer reflections on episodes from the epic. I also tried to stay true to Tara as a character who can take control from her husband and who isn't afraid to say what's on her mind. Just as she spoke up to Sugreeva and, in an earlier story, to Vali, she raises her voice when Sugreeva tries to give an alternative version of the story to their grandchildren.

Bibliography:

source: R.K. Narayan, The Ramayana: A Modern Prose Version of the Great Indian Epic (Penguin Books, 1977).
image: Tara, Sugreeva, and Hanuman meet with Lakshmana, c.1700 (Wikimedia Commons).

Week 3 Reading Diary, cont.: Narayan's Ramayana

reading: The Ramayana: A Modern Prose Version o the Great Indian Epic by R.K. Narayan

I really enjoyed reading this epic, especially as things developed and wrapped up toward the end. I was surprised at the character exploration. There seems to be an emphasis on the characters, even the demons, having a choice on whether they are good or evil, based on the decisions they've made. There's not the same cut-and-dry, simplistic good vs. evil battle that exists in a lot of fantastical literature. The bad characters are ultimately redeemable in some way, or at least the good characters try hard to redeem them, even though at the same time there's a sense of inevitable fate involved.

I also enjoyed reading the very last bit at the end where Narayan briefly talks about the Indian storytelling tradition itself. It reminded me a lot of the tradition studied by Alfred Lord in The Singer of Tales and how the ability to recount these long, poetic epics, giving some individual variation in style and detail but largely retaining the same elements and form, occurs cross-culturally. It's particularly fascinating because, while there are modern Western storytelling traditions with which most of us in America are familiar, they don't reach the length and performance prestige of these epics from Classical civilizations, ancient India, West Africa, Serbia, etc. Having encountered these oral poets only in recorded and scholarly literature, it's difficult for me to imagine how they're able to spin their craft in such amazingly complex ways without much or any reliance on the written word.

storytellers of the Ramayana, Tamil festival of Sangamam, Chennai

photo by Badri Seshadri, 25 February 2007

source: Wikimedia Commons

Week 3 Reading Diary: Narayan's Ramayana

reading: The Ramayana: A Modern Prose Version o the Great Indian Epic by R.K. Narayan

The format of this section of The Ramayana reminded me how much ancient epics and modern fantasy can be similar to each other in structure. There is this common setup of task-oriented plots, like for the hero to reach the end goal they have to do this, but to do that they must first do this other thing, and so on. The sequence is at least somewhat already determined by fate or divine will or some other higher force that's helping things move along, making the progression of the plot both a test for the characters and inevitable. There's some sense of agency involved in that the hero and their companions must make the correct choices to reach the goal, but of course they always come out alright in the end.

For storytelling, this reminded me of a choose your own adventure frame, where the reader is given a set of choices at various points in the book, each choice sending them to different pages with still more choices; the details of the plot vary based on the choices made. I'm not sure this setup would work for one of the weekly Storytelling blog posts, but it might work on the Storybook webpages, where new pages can be linked.

The portrayal of women in this epic is also interesting. They are typically overshadowed by the male characters, but the women still have important roles, strength, and wisdom. Sita has incredible strength of will and remains a devoted partner to Rama, while Sugreeva and Vali's wife gives accurate warnings to Vali and also raises a group of women to protect the land when Sugreeva is too distracted to do his duty. It's like their roles are half-hidden within the narrative but still able to be recognized by those who look.

Tara tries to dissuade Vali from fighting Sugreeva

illustration c.1628-1649 from copy of The Ramayana

source: Wikimedia Commons

Growth Mindset: Growth Beyond School

I mentioned in my Pinterest post that I occasionally do Scherenschnitte papercutting as a hobby. Traditional cutwork is found in several cultures worldwide, but I'm most familiar with the flowery style of the German/Pennsylvania German tradition that features a lot of hearts as well as stylized birds and flowers. So when someone from a historic site asked me about doing a Scherenschnitte cutout of the site's 18th-century house, I was like "Sure! I can do that!....Wait, that's actually not at all like what I usually do." Also, I typically cut patterns drawn by others; I'm not a designer myself, but I needed to draw a new pattern for this house.

I procrastinated for the next two weeks about getting started, until suddenly it was this last weekend and I was getting ready to head back to campus, after which I probably won't have enough time to do anything besides schoolwork. I really didn't want to start on this project, but I kept thinking about Growth Mindset and how I should push myself instead of staying in comfort zones. So I finally buckled down and got a pattern drawn. It's really more of a silhouette than a Scherenschnitte, but it will do for a first draft. It's probably the most tedious design I've ever tried to draw, with all the windowpanes that have to be lined up, but it's DONE, and it felt great to get it finished. Now I just have to cut it out...

poor shadowy photo by me of pattern draft

the Old Stone House in Granite Quarry, NC

personal photo

Tech Tips: Pinterest Board & Embedded Pinterest

I already had a Pinterest account, so it was easy to add another board here. I've started out with just two images, one that may be useful in a Storybook and one that I liked because it was a ballet version of The Ramayana, but I'll add more as the class progresses -- Pinterest is a great way to keep up with things I happen across while looking at other things but want to come back to eventually. I also embedded the board below.

I'm not super into Pinterest, but I do find it useful for keeping up with some things. I mostly use it to bookmark recipes, clothing I actually like, and historic examples of Scherenschnitte papercutting (I do this at living history events sometimes, but it's difficult to find original 18th/19th century pieces!). I also have secret boards for tracking TV shows and films I want to watch and a couple other random things.

Week 2 Reading Diary: Jataka Tales

reading: Part A of Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock (1920)

First off, I was struck by the similarity between the story "The Hare That Ran Away" and Chicken Little. From what I can tell, they appear identical. Interestingly, when I looked up more information on Wikipedia, the Henny Penny article focused on fairly recent Western textual sources, with a brief mention of the ancient Jataka tale but no bridge between the 2500-year-old Jataka source and the ninteenth-century European texts. The stories are so similar that I would think they have to be linked somehow -- how odd (and intriguing) that there's such a long gap between the source materials!

I also found it interesting to look at the language Shedlock uses. The "by hook or by crook" phrase used by the crocodile in the second story and the thee's and thou's in other tales certainly are not direct translations from the original language(s) of the Jataka tales. It's always fun to see how people opt to translate sayings and dialogue forms, trying to adapt them to a different culture, not just a different language.

And then there is the similarity of the fable structure itself. Most people today are probably most familiar with Aesop's fables, but the tradition of this style of moral storytelling (and often the plots of the stories themselves) seems cross-cultural: La Fontaine's stories in French, components of African storytelling, the myriad collections from India and other Eastern traditions, and more. It raises the question of how such similarities arose. Did a fable tradition start in one place and spread out from there? Did these traditions arise independently in multiple areas? Or is the similarity in part influenced by translation, by translators taking tales from other cultures and tweaking them to our own society as they translate them? What makes these same motifs resonate across diverse cultures to create very similar, long-lived traditions?

the Tortoise and the Scorpion, from the fables of Bidpai

Mirza Rahim, 1847

source: Wikimedia Commons

Possible Storybook Topics

1. Possible topic: Minor characters. I noticed when reading and searching for images this week that some of the Ramayana characters, like Anusuya, have other stories associated with them. These are pretty minor characters in the context of the epic, but it looks like they appear in other canonical tales. What kind of picture would emerge for such a character if all their stories are pieced together in one place?

Research so far: Anusuya was the character who most caught my attention. In The Ramayana, she's identified as the wife of Atri, and the couple offers extremely generous hospitality to Rama and Sita. According to Wikipedia, however, more famous stories about Anusuya involve Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva testing her and, when she passes the tests, being born to her as incarnations. There's several different tales about this.

Anusuya Feeding the Hindu Trinity

 anonymous c1907 wall painting from Krishna-Sudama Temple of Porbandar, India

photograph by William Pearl, 2013 

source: Wikimedia Commons

2. Possible topic: How we met. When reading the chapter on Rama and Sita's marriage, I thought about making my Storytelling for this week a contemporary version of their love story (with Once Upon a Time-esque sense of fate and repeating what's happened before). Given that just the first half of The Ramayana has several couples' stories, I'm anticipating that there will be still more to draw from in future readings.

Research so far: Rama and Sita's love story is given in detail in The Ramayana, of course. Reviewing Wikipedia and Google search results isn't giving me any other versions. With Ahalya and Gautama, however, the Wikipedia article for Ahalya notes different textual sources with different versions of their story. Tales where there are multiple versions of the same story would be more interesting to include in the Storybook, since there are various sets of plotlines and details from which to draw.


3. Possible topic: Festivals. As in most religions, Hinduism has annual holidays and festivities that are often associated with religious events and figures. An interesting approach to a Storybook would be to have the mythological figures associated with each festival attend a modern celebration and branch out from observing the festivities to reflecting back on the events that inspired the holiday. I especially like this idea because it can combine contemporary cultural studies with the ancient texts we're reading in class.

Research so far: According to this Wikipedia article on Hindu festivals, there are several held in honor of mythological events. Thaipusam, a Tamil festival, is about Murugan's defeat of Soorapadman. Holi is about Prahlad's killing of Holika. Rama Navami celebrates Rama's birth and marriage (back to Rama and Sita again!). Gudi Padwa centers on Brahma's creation of the world, and Sitalsasthi celebrates Shiva and Parvati's marriage. There's various stories behind Deepavali, including the return of Rama and Sita from exile. And the list continues.


4. Possible topic: Panchatantra. I'm not familiar with the stories in this collection (yet!), but it looks like a fun read, and a collection of fables is sure to provide plenty of material for a Storybook! This book has been on my to-be-read list for a while, and this class is a good opportunity to finally get around to reading it.

Research so far: Penguin Classics offers an unabridged (!!) translation of the collection. The published version is attributed to Vishnu Sharma but goes back to ancient oral traditions, surprise surprise. The Hitopadesha is a related fable collection. We tend to think of fables as fun little stories now, so I'm a bit surprised that this work falls under the category of the more serious-sounding "treatise on political science and human conduct" (Wikipedia).

Week 2 Storytelling: Updates from Exile

Author's Note: I based this assignment off of the chapters in Narayan's Ramayana about Rama's 14-year exile to the forest, accompanied by his wife, Sita, and brother Lakshmana. Since the reading for this week cut off around where Sita is kidnapped by the demon Ravana after his sister has been rejected by Rama and mutilated by Lakshmana, I ended the account with Sita's kidnapping. I chose the medium of Facebook posts because, with how popular Rama is with his people, I thought they would be interested in keeping up with him during his exile. In the modern world, what better way to send people updates than regular Facebook posts?

Bibliography:
source: R.K. Narayan, The Ramayana: A Modern Prose Version of the Great Indian Epic (Penguin Books, 1977).

images:
Burmese Ramayana dance, by Nguyen Thanh Long, May 2010 (Wikimedia Commons)
Bharata Asks for Rama's Footwear, by Balasaheb Pandit Pant Pratinidhi, 1916 (Wikimedia Commons)
Anasuya Feeding the Hindu Treaty, anonymous c1907 wall painting from Krishna-Sudama Temple of Porbandar, India; photograph by William Pearl, 2013 (Wikimedia Commons)
Rama in exile with Sita and Lakshmana, print from Ravi Varma Press, 1920s (Wikimedia Commons)
Ravana fights Jatayu, from wall of Bhabanipur Chandranath Chatterjee Lane Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal, South Kolkata; photograph by Arnab Dutta, 2011 (Wikimedia Commons)
Rama visits Atri, unknown artist, 1780-1785 (Wikimedia Commons)
Sita with golden deer, by Raja Ravi Varma (Wikimedia Commons)

Facebook posts generated with Simitator

Week 2 Reading Diary, cont.: Narayan's Ramayana

reading: The Ramayana: A Modern Prose Version o the Great Indian Epic by R.K. Narayan

The section of today's reading featuring Ravana's sister read like a soap opera to me. Woman desires man, propositions him as a lover, spreads lies about the woman he does love, and when spurned goes crying to someone else with more lies to entangle others in the drama. I see now why a student in previous semesters did a Storybook based off of "Real Housewives."

 Rama spurns Soorpanaka

Warwick Goble, from Indian Myth and Legend (1913)

source: Wikimedia Commons

I don't understand why Rama didn't just tell Soorpanaka that Sita is his wife, because it's implied that if Soorpanaka thought Sita wasn't just some woman Rama picked up as a lover in the forest, she would have backed off. Actually, Rama's actions throughout this section seem out of character for him; his one flaw appears to be that he cares too much for his wife, ignoring his brother's wise warnings in order to please Sita. The same goes for Sita, who, concerned about Rama, pressures Lakshmana into going against his best judgment to check on him.

For the Storytelling assignment this week, I'm considering two options. One is to go in the soap opera direction, scripting the story as if set in a modern television drama. The other is to create a "Facebook" for Rama (I remember making a "Twitter" for the Tower of Babel story was a lot of fun, because of the multimedia way of linking people/images/locations, etc. that is found in social media). The people back in Ayodhya obviously care very much about Rama and his relatives, and what better way to update them on events during his exile than a social media account?

Week 2 Reading Diary: Narayan's Ramayana

reading: The Ramayana: A Modern Prose Version o the Great Indian Epic by R.K. Narayan

I enjoyed getting into the first epic of the semester. I'm struck by the similarities of heroic stories across cultures -- connections with the gods, divinely-ordained destinies to be fulfilled, exile, unbreakable promises, impossible tasks, romances with princesses, and more! The Ramayana seems to have it all.

 scene from Javanese dance, depicting Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana in exile

photographer: Gunawan Kartapranata

source: Wikimedia Commons

I'm thinking about both the weekly storytelling assignment and possible Storybook topics as I begin reading. Several things stood out to me that could somehow be developed into either of these two assignments:

Waste Land theme. This was covered in a poetry course I took last semester, relating specifically to the Grail myth of Arthurian legend. But Rama and his companions also travel across a wasteland (in this case, specifically a desert) created from a once-fertile land for nefarious magical reasons.

Reincarnation. I was vaguely aware that Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu, but I'd never connected together the full story before. It reminds me of the TV show Once Upon a Time, with characters in our world having backstories they've forgotten in the fairy tale world, and I'm thinking for this week my storytelling post could be setting Rama and Sita's romance in a modern setting. The wedding chapter was my favorite of the ones I read for today, even if Sita's lovesickness seemed just a tad too much.

Frame tale. The first chapter of The Ramayana intersperses other stories throughout Rama's travels. A possible Storybook idea might be to pick out my favorite substories from these epics and have them retold within the frame of travelers, like Chaucer did with The Canterbury Tales.

Tech Tip: Blogger Profile

I updated my profile for this blog with a picture and brief "About Me" section. Having read a lot of personal blogs over the past several years, I always find it interesting to see what people actually look like, where they're from, and other personal details. Since this is for class, I put only the basics (primary major, career goal, location), but in general I don't mind sharing things online. Because I referenced in my Introduction post that my Blogger display name is SusieBookworm, I opted to keep it that instead of signing with my real name, though I put my first name in my profile. (Edit: changed it to my actual first name on 2/5/16, since most people in the class have their actual names displayed.)

I've been on the standard social media sites since high school and at one point ran a book blog, and from the beginning I've generally limited what I post to things that I wouldn't be too embarrassed for anyone -- anyone -- that I know to run across. I'm fine with posting personal details, but typically just ones that are fairly common knowledge for my friends and family. Now that I'm in college and looking at graduate schools and careers, I'm even more careful about what exactly I post, aware that they can find it. I recently deleted my scarcely-used Twitter account, since it was mostly old book blog stuff and complaints about writing papers. But for things like these class assignments, I'm fine with anyone I know running across what I've posted and anything personal I've revealed.

Learning Challenges: H.E.A.R.T.

Of the H.E.A.R.T. topics, I'm most interested in Attention and Time. I feel like I used to do pretty well with time management, but the longer I'm in school and the more I do, the shorter my attention span becomes. Last spring in particular I had issues with procrastinating and not being able to focus on my schoolwork, which in turn made the semester even more anxiety-inducing than it already was. It wasn't bad enough to have negative consequences for my grades, but I'd really rather not repeat the tiredness and constant stress of that spring. Anyway, re-discovering my attention span and time management skills would be welcome this semester as well as help my mental health.

I tend to get wrapped up in school and completely forget about the things that I once enjoyed. I liked this image posted on Learning by HEART, because it reminded me that by doing what I enjoy (like reading) along with school, I'll probably help myself deal with some of the stress and bad moods I have each semester.

Growth Mindset: Introduction

I had not heard of Carol Dweck or growth mindset before, but I think her ideas make sense. I'm still trying to place myself on the mindset spectrum. School is something that's always come easily to me; I know that up until college, I was rarely challenged in my regular classes. The focus has always been on making good grades and being top of the class, though with the larger student body of college, I've been able to start shifting my focus from competition with others to my own learning (but grades still matter, probably too much).

I've always enjoyed learning, though, and haven't shrunk from challenging classes, whether physics, calculus, and AP courses in high school or some of the more intensive courses offered in my major. With school, I think the issue I run into is tiredness rather than fear of challenge, even though challenges can often cause me great anxiety. I'm still too focused on what others think of my work and what grade it will get.

I think I have much more of a fixed mindset when it comes to work. In my mind, jobs/careers are a whole other ballpark from school; it's okay to mess up in school, but with work more perfection is expected. I'm more afraid to accept challenges at a job, because I'm terrified of making a mistake. I'd rather stick with the easy stuff I know well. I'm worried this will affect what kind of jobs I think I can handle and will apply for when I finish school, because I'll underrate my abilities and not want to take jobs I'm probably qualified for. I have a lot of work to do to develop a growth mindset in this area!

How I feel sometimes - a little person with a big task.

source: Growth Mindset Memes

Storybook Favorites: Past Indian Epics

I'm familiar with the Storybook project from the Folklore & Mythology class, but some of the more recent Indian Epics Storybooks are amazing in creativity, writing, and polishedness! Maybe I don't have much memory of the Storybooks from my class several semesters ago, but the Indian Epics ones I just looked over were even more impressive than what I remembered.

The first one that caught my eye was Shreemati News. The format of the webpage mimics that of an actual newspaper, down to the introduction being what one would expect from a business and having links (that don't actually work) to other "features." I found it interesting that each story took a different format - a "Breaking News" page, a developed interview, and an advice column. The content was really well-written and the layout innovative for a Storybook.

 screenshot example of the Shreemati News newspaper format

The next one I liked was CSI: Indian Epics. Of course the CSI title is what caught my eye. I thought the design and layout of the website was rudimentary, but the frame set-up of a crime scene investigator's case files was cool. The introduction in particular was nicely done to set up a typical find-an-old-journal frame for the stories that follow. The images also tied in well with the stories and frame.

Finally, I enjoyed looking at Real Housewives of Ramayana. I think this is a Storybook idea that's been used several times, but it's still fun. Mythology is full of soap opera drama presented as truth! I thought the author did a great job translating the stories into modern speech and actions, accurately mimicking the feel of the reality shows that are so popular right now. I liked how much dialogue the author was able to create, as I think writing engaging dialogue is more difficult than writing about actions.

Class Overview

I will be reading the Narayan version of The Ramayana. I prefer reading physical books over digital, and I've found with other ancient translated works that modern translations often read better than older ones. I also already obtained my own copies of both the Narayan books, because I am a book hoarder prefer to read my own copies.

I'm looking forward to reading the original epics and also to the weeks later in the semester when we can branch out to other topics. I appreciate having the option to look at other legends and folktales, not just the main two epics. I'm most interested in original tales as well as modern fiction (short story or full novel) versions of them. I'm particularly looking forward to working in Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana, which I noticed Bizzell has, as I enjoy both speculative fiction and retellings.

I've taken courses on religion, epics (Classical Mythology and Arthurian Lit), and folklore before, but, with the exception of a couple West African epics, most of the class reading has focused on North American or European topics. I have only a very basic understanding of Indian and other Asian religions and cultures, so most of this class will be new material for me. I typically enjoy epics because of how close they often come to my favorite literary form of novels, and I'm looking forward to reading more this semester!

Krishna Splits the Double Arjuna Tree

anonymous, Gujarat, India (c.1720)

source: Wikimedia / Indian Epics: Images and PDE Epics

I picked the image above because the style of the repetitive, one-dimensional background of trees, leaves, and fruits (or flowers?) reminded me of Pennsylvania German folk art I've been looking through lately. Actually, looking through the other images on the Indian epics image blog, I was surprised by how many seem similar (at least to me) to various Western high and folk art styles, just with Indian people and gods.

Introduction to a Bookworm

My name on this blog shows up originally showed up (I finally figured out how to change it) as SusieBookworm, which has been my online nickname since middle school. Obviously I really enjoy books and reading, though after almost four years of college, I've been sadly neglecting reading-for-fun for reading-for-school. When I do get to read for fun, my favorites are classic novels, science fiction (like H.G. Wells and Aldous Huxley stuff), and retellings of old stories. I'm fascinated by utopian communities and off-beat religious groups. The last book I finished was The Map of the Sky by Felix J. Palma, the second of his spectacular romps through H.G. Wells's novels that humorously mimics the style of Victorian speculative fiction and adventure novels.

I'm graduating this May with majors in anthropology, history, and English lit, and a minor in religious studies (FYI, I also came to OU from high school with a ton of transfer credit). I'm hoping to be able to start in an M.A. program next fall in folklore and historic preservation. My goal is to work at a museum or historic site; currently I'm an undergrad assistant in the Archaeology Department at Sam Noble. The most interesting thing I did this summer was a month-long field school at the Berry Site in western North Carolina, which had both a 16th-century Native American town and a 1560s Spanish fort. It's still a little bizarre to me to imagine Spanish conquistadors walking around the North Carolina mountains, but there's chain mail and pottery at the site to prove it!

Speaking of North Carolina, that's where I grew up. I'm looking forward to returning to the Southeast, and especially to proximity near the Appalachians (that's App-a-LA-chan, not App-a-LAY-shan) after graduating. Probably the least interesting thing I did this summer was move with my family to New London, with a population of exactly 600. I have to drive a ways to do anything besides sit in my house, but otherwise I like the quietness of the town and the close-knit community.

But the best part of moving was finding this silly goose, otherwise known as Genny, underneath the deck of the new house. (personal photo)

As anyone who's known me for like more than 15 minutes is aware, I love contra dancing (and similar forms of community folk dance). Here's a great video demonstrating what contra is, with a fantastic band.

Week 1 Storytelling: Three Men in a Bowl

Foreword

In the town of Gotham were once three men, good friends who were all wise in their knowledge of philosophy and natural science. All the townspeople looked up to them, consulting them in matters as far-ranging as astrology, the best land to farm, spiritual questions, and remedies for colds. Chester, Prester, and Nestor were their names. For years, the trio contented themselves with reading their myriad books of arcane knowledge and discussing them together. They appreciated how the simple townspeople acknowledged their intellectual superiority by seeking out their help, even if it was only for such mundane matters as doctoring a milk cow or interpreting their tea leaves. It gave Chester, Prester, and Nestor something practical to do during the day.

But eventually, the three men grew tired of the same routines. “Really, what we do is so easy that anyone who can string his ABCs into words can figure it out!” Chester complained. “These people are imbecilic, always coming to us for the simplest matters instead of doing things themselves!” Prester added. “What good is all of our knowledge if we don’t do anything impressive?” asked Nestor. “It’s time we did something dramatic, unprecedented, inconceivable to their simple minds – something that reaches the world, not just our small village!”

So the trio hatched an epic plan. Travelers frequently published accounts of the trips they took through the sea on the shores of which stood Gotham. These tales were popular, but how much could they actually differ from one another? The men wanted to find something they could do in this same vein, but with one big difference that would shock all those who heard of their trip. Chester (or was it Prester?) came up with the idea that they would do the impossible – make the sea journey not by boat, but by bowl! The men made the mathematical calculations, figured out the physics required, and together built a giant bowl not only large enough to carry all three with their provisions, but also steerable and of the correct design and buoyancy to float with its considerable weight on the sea.

Chapter One

The three “wise men” of Gotham, having purchased all their necessary provisions and outfitted their bowl-boat, set sail on the great sea on a bright, cheerful morning in April. They were delighted to find that their bowl did indeed float once loaded and placed in the water. In fact, all their scientific calculations seemed to have been quite accurate, and their voyage promised to be a fantastic success, the results of which they would publish in this book to widespread fascination and acclaim. They congratulated each other on a job well done, thanks to their superior intellectual knowledge and prowess.

They spoke too soon, however. As the bowl left the calm harbor for the open sea, they realized there was one thing for which they had not accounted: the pressure placed on the oversized bowl as it was buffeted by waves. The walls of such a large ceramic piece had to be thin for it to remain buoyant, which at the same time made the piece extremely fragile. It soon broke apart in the sea, and the three men desperately swam back to shore, now mortified that for all their planning, they had failed to take into consideration such an obvious problem of practicality. Thus ends this brief account of three men in a bowl.

 the Wise Men of Gotham in their bowl

Author's Note: This story is based on a nursery rhyme collected by Andrew Lang:

Three wise men of Gotham

Went to sea in a bowl:

And if the bowl had been stronger,

My song would have been longer.

For more on the Wise Men of Gotham figures (and how they may relate to Batman), see this Wikipedia article as well as this blog post. My idea was to provide a backstory for the tale told in the nursery rhyme, then give a sudden, humorous ending as in the original. I thought of the nursery rhyme as telling an ironic fable about the strength of wisdom. People may think they are wise, and may actually have great learning, but they can still fall prey to folly and try to do things that turn out disastrously embarrassing for them. Indeed, this seems a common theme for other tales regarding the "wise men" of Gotham.

The title of this post and the concluding line, as well as the idea of common accounts of boat voyages and of structuring the story with a foreword and chapter as in a regular book, are a nod to Jerome K. Jerome's novel Three Men in a Boat (1889), though there is no dog in this version.

Bibliography

story: "Three wise men of Gotham," in The Nursery Rhyme Book, ed. Andrew Lang (1897)

image: from The Editorial Board of the University Society Boys and Girls Bookshelf (New York, NY: The University Society, 1920); found on Dawn of the Unread