Alex's Epics of India Blog

Portfolio location:  https://sites.google.com/view/crayonandonand/the-giant-student?authuser=0 Once upon a time, there was a giant student at OU who happened to be really smart, too. She would walk up and down the South Oval with long, lumbering strides, quietly minding her own business, careful not to step on any normal-sized passerby. Every day, the giant student attended class and sat in the back, taking copious, detailed notes and listening attentive to each of her professors. For a long time she lived this serene existence, being large and smart and unobtrusive despite the size of her body and intellect. One day, a small, hairy student tried to sit in the back of the room, where the giant student always sat. Tiny, as he was called, plopped into the chair in the back despite the warnings of his classmates--he would be squashed! The giant student would never notice him! But the giant student ducked through the doorway into class, saw Tiny in her chair, and calmly sat in ...

I really liked reading Inayat's retellings of Jataka tales, and my three favorites from Part A of the reading assignment were "The Patient Buffalo," "The Goblin Town," and "The Quarrelsome Quails." First, "The Patient Buffalo" is a really cool commentary on power dynamics in ancient society. Though the monkey pesters the buffalo relentlessly, the powerful buffalo does not harm it. Though the fairy comes and tempts the buffalo to abuse its power, the buffalo sagely remarks that the monkey is weak both mentally and physically, and that it would not be right for a smarter and stronger animal, a superior being, to harm the monkey. This is a reflection of the intelligent and powerful, that they should not abuse their power on those people without their privilege or natural gifts. Second, "The Goblin Town" sounded like such a fun read, and it is! I liked the magical flying horse at the end, it was a cool cross-cultural connection ...

I really liked reading Inayat's retellings of Jataka tales, and my two favorites from Part A of the reading assignment were "The Empty Lake" and "The Master's Test." First, "The Empty Lake" is really interesting because the king fish is described as a star in a really cool way, that he is the star for the fish, their guiding light. Despite the tragedy of the lake drying up and fish getting eaten, the king remains calm and prays to the gods of rain and thunder, who oblige to send water down to fill the lake. The king fish prays a second time, and the gods come down to commend the king fish for his love for them and his devotion to prayer. This is interesting as a moral ending, which shows that the teller of the tale underscored the importance of prayer and devotion to the gods in the face of adversity. Second, "The Master's Test" is the most interesting story among the Part A readings. It reminded me a lot of a story in the Bib...

"Why Writers Should Know About Monsters Before They Write a Word" was a really interesting article. It was interesting to see the relation to Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's source material, showing that most of his ideas of monsters were derived from Scandinavian myth. This is a really universal example - everyone knows about Lord of the Rings - so it worked really well to prove the author's point, that when creating something grotesque like a monster, there should be source material with which the reader has a passing familiarity, so that the reader will not be so thrown off by the monstrousness of the writer's creation. Also, the specific distinctions between devils and demons was really interesting. I had no idea that the two could be confused, and that there are specific attributed which separate one type of hell-spawn from another. Their specific attributes - especially the specificity that the devils carry that demons don't - intrigued me. T...

PORTFOLIO LOCATION --  https://sites.google.com/view/crayonandonand/the-bowling-showdown Onc e upon a time, there were five brothers, all alike in stature and skill —skill at bowling. These five brothers were renown for their strikes, but no bowler was as accurate as Arjuna, who could thread the ball into the one-three pocket and guarantee a strike whenever he stepped up to the lane. Arjuna was so good that, after a while, his fame spread so that everyone in the land thought he was unbeatable. One day, when the five brothers were displaying their skill on the lanes against their cousins —all 100 of them —a mystery challenger approached, claiming that his skill throwing and spinning a bowling ball exceeded that of Arjuna. This man's name was Karna, and upon his challenge, Arjuna agreed to go frame for frame against this mystery man. The two bowlers battled furiously, each of their bowling balls hooking into strike after strike. While Arjuna threw to hit the normal strike...

I liked the way that Wilson wrapped up the narrative here. There are a few things that stuck out to me, though. First was that Karna was a much less sympathetic character in the second half of the story than he was in the first half. Also, the continued emphasis on Arjuna being the greatest warrior among the Pandavas was interesting, as in the Mahabharata , I did not get a sense that he was clearly more skilled than his brothers. Also, in the Mahabharata (or at least Narayan's version) Yudhishthira was much more of a focal character than Arjuna, and this makes me wonder which brother commanded more space in the original epic. Other parts of the second half of this story that stuck out to me were the mentions of the prince who was born a princess -- this took me out of the realist mode of storytelling, more than the gandarvas in the first half of the story did. However, otherwise the battle scenes were enacted well and in accordance with what I have read before, just withou...

I really liked this succinct retelling of the events of the Mahabharata . I think my favorite part is that the events of the Mahabharata have been de-mythologized in Wilson's version, and everything that happens is plausible. Arjuna's skill with the bow and arrow still seems unlikely, and Krishna's decapitation of the one king who dissented when Krishna was named the wisest (also, not really fair to kill the guy? Just my thought) seemed pretty unrealistic, but plausible nonetheless, I suppose. The biggest change to the Mahabharata's narrative, that Draupadi was won by Arjuna and given only to Yudhishthira, was a good touch, in my opinion. For a story to be more realistic, as it seems to be Wilson's goal, to have a more conventional marital situation than the traditional Mahabharata marriage of Draupadi to all five Pandavas works in Wilson's favor. Lastly, I really liked how Wilson shortened certain scenes and not others while still evoking the essence...

I am happy with my progress so far, though ironically, I forgot to do yesterday's reflection assignment. Overall, I have a good routine during the week and usually do a good job keeping up with my assignments. I really enjoy the readings, and I need to do some extra credit to make sure I'm on track. The blog and website are going well as of now! Second half, I want to do more extra credit and be better about nor letting myself get behind on assignments. I would like to try to write a story that is both funny and serious. I don't have anything I want to change about my blog or website right now. Not exactly motivational, but definitely a mood. Source .

I am enjoying the reading and writing assignments. I loved reading Narayan's Ramayana and Mahabharata , and I think that the opportunity to be creative in the writing assignments in this class is a really fun way to engage with the texts. I'm happy with how my blog and project website have come together. I'm trying to keep them both simple and user-friendly. I think that the writing for my project is going well, and I think that the revisions have really helped my writing become more precise and targeted, more able to communicate clearly that which I want to get across to the reader. I think that my story posts are going well too, and they are providing me with a great jumping-off point for my later project writing. I think the story "Lo and Behold" is my biggest writing accomplishment in this class. My favorite reading was probably the Ramayana , followed closely by the Mahabharata . The Ramayana edges the Mahabharata only because the Mahabh...

"Can I ask you something,  Yudhistira?" "Of course, Sadaheva. You are my youngest brother, and therefore you need my guidance." "Well, that's not necessarily true." "Yes it is." "Why?" "I said so." "But who put you in charge?" "Whoever wrote the Mahabharata ." "Fine. Anyways, can I ask you a question and get a serious answer?" "Of course, little brother. Why would I not be serious?" "Because you'd give me a you're-young-and-do-not-know-the-ways-of-the-world answer." "That is a serious answer. I am older than you and thus wiser." "How much older than me are you, anyway?" "I have no idea. I'm not sure anyone does." "Wise, older brother. Absolutely sage." "Are you going to ask me the question?" "Yeah, fine. What was going through you mind when you saw all o...

In this final section of the Mahabharata , a few scenes stood out to me. First, that the Pandavas continued and continued to try to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict with Duryodhana and his brothers surprised me. Their concession to only fie villages, one for each of them, seemed to me something easy to grant and not lose so many lives or much honor/dignity in doing so for Duryodhana. This seemed, to me, to underscore the importance of avoiding conflict and death in ancient Indian society, despite the focus of much of the Mahabharata being on battle. Karna, for most of the epic, was a simply detestable character who was like an anti-Moses, considering their similar origins. However, toward the end of the Mahabharata , Karna has the conversation with Krishna about his lineage as a Pandava and how he should defect to the Pandava's side in the upcoming war. Karna's introspection and rigid maintenance of an honorable stance with Duryodhana surprised me, and it even ...

In this section, I liked the political maneuverings after the Pandava's exile has ended. Duryodhana's inability to concede anything against an insurmountable enemy reminds me of Circe's power-hungry blindness in Game of Thrones . (Spoiler alert!) As it led to Circe's downfall at the hands of Daenerys' attack on King's Landing with her dragon (also motivated by a sort of blindness--madness), the powerhungriness of Duryodhana will lead to his downfall to a superior foe who has the power to level his city--the Pandavas who, like Daenerys, view the kingdom as their birthright. The Pandavas' Khaleesi:  Yudhishthira of the House of Pandu, First of His Name, Protector of the Realm, yadda yadda yadda... Source . Also, I was sad to see that Draupadi was raped and could not be protected by any of her husbands. Death by hug for her rapist Kichaka is darkly poetic. The roles of the brothers intrigued me, as they took servant roles to the King instead of s...