Reading Notes: Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art, Part B

Narayan's Secret

This week for my extra credit reading I watched part B of the Seven Secrets from the Hindu Calendar Art video series. One thing that I liked about the story telling style of this video was the clarification segments. There would be moments to clarify what one was thinking or what one's name meant or so in which it went into detail exactly what was supposed to be seen. While I agree there is a time and place for interpretation, I think that in some of my stories I may be too open ended. I should maybe try to add a section of clarification to make sure my reader knows exactly what I want to be transferred through. I think that one of the ways I should do this is in a dialogue manner such as this video did with the Krisha Arjuna section. However, I do think that there can be too much clarification if one is trying to make short stories, like the one's I'm writing. I think that the way I should do this is to either describe what I want learned in a message style story, or to describe the looks of something or someone. In terms of ideas for a story I could take I really didn't come with much from this video. I did like the portion of the video where it talks about serpents and hawks. I was thinking since I'm writing about dogs in my stories that I could possibly use one if not both as enemies of a dog. I could potentially show the strengths and weaknesses of each of the creatures somehow but I'm not sure what exactly I would lead this towards. Overall this video was informative but I don't think it helped me as much as Part A necessarily did.

This is an image of a Hawk with a snake in its mouth. I found it on Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography:

Narayan's Secret from Devdutt Pattanaik's Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art.

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Part B

Sita Sings the Blues

Kind of like the last blog post about how I'm unsure to take notes over a video, I will be doing the same for part B of this video. I will say that the start of the video is extremely strange with the burning of Sita (to represent the break up).However, one thing I could see myself trying to represent is Dobi beating his wife through a master beating his dog. Unfortunately I wouldn't enjoy writing this story unless I was able to make it have a happy ending, but as I was watching this, the idea did pop into my head with trying to cover this in some manner. I could also do the blaming it on one's own-self for this too, kind of like how Sita says it must have been in a past life where she messed up to deserve this treatment.

This is an image of a dog looking sad that I found on Pixabay.

I'll be honest I lost a lot of interest in the video for the second part because it is mainly depressing and Sita singing the blues. However, as I'm watching and writing these notes they do keep me slightly on my toes with the randomness. I think maybe this is the point of the random blurbs from these narrators and for instance the kids singing songs of praise about Rama. I think it is in order to keep the audience still concerned, which is something I need to take away. I'm going to call it the art of distraction. While all of it does pertain to the story, it is in order to move along in events yet doesn't necessarily have to build on the grand idea of the story. I think that I could do some of this action with my dialogue in stories. As dialogue can be crucial for stories, it can also be a good way to have a filler in your writing as well.

I think the first half of this video did a better job for me about giving me ideas about my writing to be honest.

Bibliography:
Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Part A

Sita Sings the Blues

As I'm not 100% how to write my reading notes on this video without focusing on the video too much, I will attempt to write about how I feel this video can make me a better writer. One thing that I liked was the change of person conveying the stories. In this I mean I like how it is two main American characters but then it switches to the narrators arguing in a sense that conveys their viewpoints of the story, and then going to Rama and Sita. They are all wrapped in together however but it was kind of nice to have the narrators arguing about things like dropping jewelry before switching to a part of the story. The narrators being more of a common style of telling the story also is something I think that I could use. By them reflecting and conversing between each other it makes the reader feel more inclined to pay attention if you ask me. Another thing that I enjoyed was the slight humor used in the story. It wasn't overbearing humor but just things that made me smile. I think that this is a good way to keep an audience entertained if there is a message that needs to be told but the author knows it isn't a very exciting aspect, by adding humor you can make the audience remember it at least.

A picture of Sita dropping jewelry which I found on Flickr.

In terms of using a story that I can see myself using, I like the idea of using the part where Lanka is getting upset with Sita for not wanting to be his wife. I was thinking that maybe I could have a random family rescue a stray dog but the dog really just ran away from its original family and got lost. In this sense I could show how he doesn't want to be with a new family just as Sita doesn't either.

Just an idea but it was the best I could come up with. Overall, I like this video so far due to the randomness and humor. I also find the songs pretty relaxing.

Bibliography:

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley.

Reading Notes: Jatakas, Extra Credit

The Hawk and the Osprey

When reading this I really enjoyed the flow of the story. When I say that I mean I enjoyed how a conflict would rise and then the solution followed simultaneously. The pattern allowed for the final sequence to be expected for the outcome, yet one might think it would be different to end the story. However, the author does a good job as to sticking to the moral of the story. I think that in my stories that I sometimes try to over complicate it and change up the flow of the stories in order to make them more interesting. This isn't a problem always, but I think that sometimes I should just accept the fact that the reason of telling the story is more important than the dramatic effect. In thinking about how I could apply this to a story of my own, I was thinking about possibly having kids on a play ground who were each good at something. This could be a sport or just social skills but they would have to defend against a bully of some nature. This is just an idea to make it relatable but I think it could make for a good story. I could also possibly just change up the animals in to making them more domestic because I feel the animals do a great job of adding imagery. One thing I liked about this story was how quickly the idea of friendship was made important. I think that by highlighting a message early on in a story it allows the reader to focus on what the author wants them to through out the story. Overall, I thought this was a well written story and that I could possibly use it for a story I might write on my own.

This is an image of an Osprey as described in the story. I got the image from Wikipedia.