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

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.