Extra Reading Extra Credit Week 14

Big surprise that I wanted to read more Jataka stories! I love the Jataka stories. They are still my favorite out of all the stories I have read in this class.

Forest Fire Story

The Forest Fire

I love this story because I drew the moral of the story to be that if you are strong and confident in what you do and believe in yourself, you can do almost anything. The little bird was born weaker than his brothers and sisters in the nest. So one day when the big forest fire came, he was left in the nest because he was unable to fly away. Instead of being scared, he just faced the fire and told it that it had no business here. The fire then turned away and the little bird was safe and lived happily ever after.

The Noble Horse

I liked this story because I think it teaches an important messaged about perseverance and also mercy. The horse sacrificed himself for the good of the kingdom even though he knew it would result in his ultimate death. That was inspiring to me. Also, when he is dying he tells the king that they should not kill all of the enemy but instead show mercy and allow them to return home promising that they will never return again.

The Noble Horse
Source: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.39000000078449;view=2up;seq=152

Ted Videos - Style, Story Lab

Videos

The power of creative constraint:

I liked this video because I had never thought about constraints as being something positive before. This took something that I used to view as being very negative and put a positive spin on it. Constraints can actually be so beneficial because they force us to expand our knowledge and think of alternative solutions to an issue. If we never faced constraints that we were forced to find ways to overcome, we would never have come up with a lot of our more beneficial ideas that we have today.

What makes a hero:

I liked this video because this is a topic that I have visited in the past. I think it is a very interesting concept that I am always amazed goes so unnoticed. I think that it is interesting because it tells us a lot about human beings. It tells us that we like this cycle that is being told in these stories regardless of who the main character is. We enjoy this plot so much that we can watch it over and over again without getting tired of it. It also says a lot about how creative writers are. The fact that they can take these very similar storylines but somehow keep us on the edge of our seats the whole time proves that they were creative enough with their input to the story that it almost tricked us into believing that we had never heard this story before.

Examples of modern day fictional heroes
Source: Video

The pleasure of poetic pattern:

I liked this video a lot because it started with a physiological reference that really drew me into what it was discussing. It talked about how we are innately intrigued by patterns because we are made up of patterns and reputations. Our heart beat and our breath has pattern. We also see repetition in everything we do from letters in the words we use to the words that we use in our language! So cool to draw from anatomical knowledge and relate it to writing somehow.

Week 14 Reading Notes - Part B Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales.

The Patient Buffalo

I really liked this story because it presented a new moral that I hadn't seen in the other stories. There once was a buffalo and he is standing peacefully in the shade and day after day a monkey comes and  tries to provoke him. It seems like nothing ever works to get a rise out of the buffalo. The monkey tries day in and day out and the buffalo ignores him and remains calm. One day a fairy comes to tell the buffalo about how strong he is and if he wanted to he could teach the monkey a lesson. The buffalo instead replies that why should he? The monkey is weaker than he is and does not have much brains so it wouldn't be fair. I think this tells a very important message about how just because we can do something doesn't mean that we should do something.

Story

The buffalo and the monkey
Source: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales.

Week 14 Reading Notes - Part A Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales.

The Monkey Bridge

 I really liked this story. In this story there is a large group of monkeys who are all living very happily by a large mango tree. This mango tree supplies enough fruit to feed all the monkeys. The king is sure to warn everyone that they shouldn't let any of the fruit fall into the river because if they do, the men down stream will find it and search for the tree that it came from. They do a great job of keeping the fruit out of the river for a long time. Until one day, one gets away from them unnoticed and then men downstream find it. They go searching for the tree and they find it. They decide they should kill all the monkeys so that they can have all the fruit and the tree to themselves. The monkeys are trapped at the top of the tree because if they come down they will die. The king monkey uses himself as a bridge to help the other monkeys escape and they are all safe. The man king sees this and is so amazed by the monkey kings good deed that he decides not to harm any of those monkeys.

Story

Monkeys in the Mango Tree
Source: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales.

Week 13 - Story, the Turtle and the Two Geese

One day long ago there was a little turtle. He wasn't even alive for very long when he became anxious to leave the nest. He was always a very curious little turtle. His exploring led him to another nest, this nest was quite different from his nest however. This nest had a lot of long feathers in it and it made a lot more noise than his did. As he ventured in further he discovered that there were two little beaks bobbing up and down in the nest.

"Well hi there!" he said to his newly discovered friends. He was instantly met with two big smiles of two baby geese not much bigger than he was.

The two geese and the curious turtle grew up together and made the fondest memories. One day, the turtle overheard other people around the pond talking about a much bigger pond that was miles away. It had better weather, less dangerous predators, and more berries and grass to munch on. The turtle was instantly very curious and intrigued by this. He went to his geese friends immediately and told them all about it. They were quite hesitant at first but they had also heard a lot of good things about this place. The turtle finally convinced them and they got ready to set out the next day. However, when the turtle went to climb up on one of the geese backs, he realized that he didn't fit like he used to.

"Oh no! How am I going to go with you guys now?" The turtle sadly asked.

"Wait right there!" One of the geese said.

The geese quickly returned with a very strong stick and explained that the turtle need only hold onto the stick the whole way and they would carry him. The turtle thought this was a great idea and grabbed on.

When they were not far into their journey, a group of children down below started to jeer at the turtle. They said turtles shouldn't be in the sky, they should only be on the ground.

This made the turtle feel said inside but he was smart and knew not to open his mouth. Instead, he let the children jeer at him and continued on his journey.

After another days journey they made it to the beautiful new pond and they lived happily ever after.

Story
Jataka Tales
by  Ellen C. Babbitt

Reading notes - Part B Jakata

The Quarrel of the Quails 

This is another Jakata story with animal characters and a moral. In this story, there is a group of quails. The hunter has learned that if he makes the sound of their leader, they will all gather together and it will be easy to catch them. He continues to do this until the quail leader realizes what is happening. He tells the quails, next time the net is thrown over them, work together to fly to the nearest thorn bush and leave the net there and escape. This works for a while. Until one day, the quails get in a fight and stop working together. When they stop working together they stop communicating and the plan doesn't work anymore. Then they are sold by the man.

Story

Reading Notes Part A - Jataka

As soon as I saw free reading the first thing I wanted to jump to was more of Babbitt's Jakata stories. I think that these have continued to be my favorite stories because they have a lot of animal characters and always have a fun moral attached to the ending. 

The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking

This story is about a turtle who once had two friends that were wild geese. One day the geese were telling the turtle about their beautiful home that was quite a ways away. They told the turtle that they could take him to it if he wanted to come with them. The geese said that he could come with them but only if he keeps his mouth shut the entire way. The geese gave him a stick to hold on to and told him that it is very important for him to not say anything the whole trip. Then some kids from down below tease him for looking ridiculous and he responds back to them. When he responds, he opens his mouth and drops down to the ground below because he wasn't holding onto the stick anymore. 

Story lab blog post - EmpoWord

I really enjoyed reading this manual because I think it was really relevant to this class as well as any future story writing I might engage in the future. I appreciated the definitions throughout the manual because even though I thought I knew about what all of those words meant already, I realized I didn't know as much as I thought I did. There were whole other aspects to these topics and terms that I had never realized were there. Most of these terms I learned about in context instead of looking at definitions first. I also really appreciated where it said that even though descriptions are really important to writing an impactful story, narration can be just as important. I think I forget about that when I am writing my stories. One term that stood out to me that I had never heard of before was scope. This is the boundary created by your story, where it starts and ends. I think setting up a scope prior to writing can be very beneficial to your planning.

Week 11 Story - Three Friends

One day three friends were enjoying each others company by a pond in the forest. They were the deer, the turtle and the woodpecker. They had met long ago when they were each very little. There had been a very large fire in the forest that separated all three from their families, so they became their own little family and grew up together.

"It is such a nice day today." The turtle acknowledged.

"It really is!" The deer replied, "And look, I brought some berries that I picked earlier today."

The friends happily shared the treat and then went back to their homes for the night. But as the deer was walking back to his home, someone was watching him. A hunter who had wondered over to their area of the forest noticed the deer and wanted to catch him. The hunter decided to leave a trap on the path between the deer's home and the pond. The hunter set his trap and then went home for the night.

The next morning the deer rose to another beautiful day and decided he was going down to the pond to see how his friends were doing that morning. Just as he was about to get to the pond though the trap caught him and he was stuck. His friends were close by and heard his cries for help and were there instantly. Woodpecker quickly thought of a plan.

"Turtle, you use your strong teeth to cut through the trap. I will go to the hunters house and distract his for as long as I am able to."

The turtle quickly started to work on the tough leather attached to the tree and the woodpecker set off for the hunters house. Just as soon as the woodpecker had gotten to the hunters house, he noticed him leaving out the front door. He dove down with all of his strength and struck the hunters head. The hunter quickly went back inside and laid down for a while because he hurt so bad. After an hour or so had passed, he decided he would try and go out once more. The woodpecker was ready though and thought to himself, the hunter will probably try to exit out of the backdoor this time to escape me. The woodpecker was right and he caught the hunter just as he was leaving out the backdoor. The hunter went inside once more to lay down. After a couple more hours, the hunter set out. This time the bird flew far ahead to warn his friends that the hunter was on his way. Just as the hunter got close, the turtle chewed through the last piece and the deer pulled away and ran into the woods. The woodpecker flew up into the sky and got away. However, the turtle was so tired from all the hard work that he wasn't able to get away in time. The hunter picked him up and put him into a sack.
The deer was watching from close by and knew that he had to save his friend. The deer ran out in front of the hunter to distract him. The hunter hung the bag up on a tree and ran after the deer with his knife. While the deer was leading the hunter far into the forest, the woodpecker flew to the turtle.

"Are you okay, friend?" The woodpecker asked.

"Yes, I am just scared." The turtle said.

"Don't worry, we'll have you out of there in no time at all."

The woodpecker grabbed the strings of the bag and pulled up away from the tree. The bag was heavy but he didn't stop trying. Eventually he was able to lift it off of the branch and set it in a grassy patch down below. The turtle wiggled out quickly and was so happy to see his friend. Just then, the two of them heard a noise coming closer. The deer burst out of the trees with a smile on his face.

"He is so far away and very lost." The deer said proudly. "Thank you both for taking such good care of me. You are the best family I could have ever asked for."

The three happily went away to enjoy the rest of their long lives together.





Author's Note:

I really loved the original Jataka version of this story because I thought it was very sweet how well all three friends cared for each other. There wasn't much backstory on how the three became friends so I added a little to my story to help explain what brought them together. Also, the woodpecker doesn't do too much to help the turtle when he gets caught, the deer mostly does the saving but this time it was more like a team effort. Everything else in the story was pretty much the same

The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer
Source: Story
By: Ellen C. Babbitt

The Deer
Source: Jataka

Week 11 Reading - Jataka, Part B

How the Monkey Saved his Troop
Source: Story
By: Ellen C. Babbitt

In this story there is a group of monkeys who are led by a chief monkey. They loved to enjoy the mangos from the mango tree. One day the king and his fisherman discover the mango fruit and enjoy it. They stay to enjoy the fruit and when they see the monkeys they get ready to shoot them with their arrows. This way they can eat the monkeys and the mangos. The chief vows to save his troop. He finds a branch that is almost close enough to another tree to get across but he knows that some monkeys might not be able to make it all the way across and will instead fall into the river and drown.
He uses his own back to form a bridge between the trees and save his whole troop. The king sees this sacrifice and vows to protect the monkey chief for the rest of his life.

Source: The Chief Monkey, Jataka

Week 11 Reading - Jataka, Part A

The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer
Source: Story
By: Ellen C. Babbitt

One day there was a hunter in the woods who noticed a deer he wanted to trap. He left a trap for the deer and went home. The deer got trapped in the net but his friends were there to help. The turtle worked to chew through the trap while the woodpecker went to the hunters house to distract him. The hunter came out once through the front door and the woodpecker flew into his face making him go lay down for a little while. Later, the hunter set out through the backdoor and the woodpecker did the same thing to him. The hunter went to lay down once more. This helped save the turtle and deer some time. The deer pulled out of the trap just as the hunter was getting close and got away. The woodpecker was able to fly away but the turtle was so tired that he couldn't get away in time and the hunter caught him. The deer came out of hiding so that he could distract the hunter and save the turtle. The deer led the hunter far into the forest and then ran back to let the turtle free. He found the turtle and saved him and they all lived for many more happy years together.

The Deer
Source: Jataka

Extra Credit Reading, Week 10

PASHU Animal Tales from Hindu Mythology
By: Devdutt Pattanaik

Jaimini

This story takes place during the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas at Kurukshetra. During this war, there is a parrot that flies over the battle. When an arrow from the war flies up and strikes its pregnant belly, four eggs fall from the belly and onto the ground. Thankfully the ground was soft and wet so the eggs do not break and the birds inside are safe. One of the elephants in the war was wearing a bell and as it passes, the bell falls from its neck and drops on top of the eggs. This shields the eggs from any danger. Since the eggs are protected, they eventually hatch and four baby parrots are left. These parrots are found by sages who have come to clear the battlefield. They realized how lucky it was that they survived but also knew all of the vast knowledge they had gained while listening amongst the war. They gave the birds the gift of human speech so that they could go and share their knowledge with the rest of the world. This would eventually be called the Jaimini Mahabharata.

Lab, Week 10, Crash Course Mythology

Crash Course Videos

Video 1:

Myths are complicated for a number of reasons. First, the line between religion and myths can be very blurry. Also, the origin, author, or why it was written is not often known. Even if it is written by someone like Homer for instance, it turns out it was just being translated and it's not the actual origin.

Origin stories are where a happening is explained through the story of a myth. For instance, the story of Persephone. She is kidnapped by Hades and he tricks her or she eats on her own accord 6 pomegranate seeds. Because of this she has to spend 6 months out of the year in the underworld with Hades and the other 6 she is allowed to stay with her parents in Olympus. This is used to explain why we have seasons because when Persephone was home, her mother would make all the crops bloom and the sun would shine and fields would be bountiful. However, when Persephone was gone, her mother would mourn for how much she missed her. She would make it cold and so nothing could grow until Persephone came back.

Video 2:

Euhemerism: "myths as primitive explanations of the natural world or as time distorted accounts of long-past historical accounts."

An example of this is how there is the theory that Zeus was actually a human king. His doings were just so great that as his stories were told over time they were morphed into stories where he was portrayed as a god instead of a human king.

Video 3:

Trends in stories of heroes

1) call to adventure
2) refusal to the call
3) supernatural aid
4) crossing first threshold
5) the belly of the whale
6) the road of trails
7) the meeting with the goddess
8) woman as temptress
9) atonement with the father
10) apotheosis
11) the ultimate boon

Hero Journey - Source: YouTube

Reading Notes: Jatakas, Part B

The Elephant Girly-face
by  Ellen C. Babbitt

There once was a very kind and gentle elephant named girly-face. He never hurt anyone. One night, a band of robbers were outside of where girly-face sleeps and they woke him up talking about all they were going to do. They talked about how they must be cruel and show no mercy and harm others. Girly-face listened to this and thought that he was being taught to be like that. The next morning he killed his keeper and a few other men. Finally a wise man explained that girly-face must have heard someone talking about this kind of behavior and they all realized it was because of the robbers. So to counteract this, they sent a group of good men to sit outside one night and talk while girly-face listened. They talked about how they must never do any harm to others and girly-face learned from what they said and went back to being a good elephant for the rest of time. I think the moral of this story is that it is important to be conscious of those who you surround yourself with. It is easy to become influenced by those around you, in good ways and in bad ways.

Girly-face the elephant, Source:free stock photos

Link to Stories

Reading Notes: Jatakas, Part A

The Monkey and the Crocodile
by  Ellen C. Babbitt

The crocodile really wanted the monkey's heart to take to his mom which is kind of sweet in a sad way. The crocodile tries to trick the monkey by telling him that he will take him to the island with all the ripe fruit on his back. The monkey agrees but then the crocodile tries to drown him. The monkey tricks the crocodile into thinking that his heart is back on land and that he forgot it there. The crocodile believes him and takes him back to shore where the  monkey escapes. In part two, the crocodile is watching the monkey again and devises a plan to trap him on an island in the middle. He sits there, waiting for the monkey and when it's dark the monkey prepares to hop on the island but realizes it is larger than normal and calls out to the rock. He tricks the crocodile by making him believe that he normally talks to the rock so the crocodile responds in lieu of the rock, exposing himself to the monkey who knows exactly who it is. So then the monkey tricks the crocodile into opening up wide so he can jump into his mouth but he actually does that so the crocodile will close his eyes and the monkey can jump on top and over him to get to land.

The Ox Who Won the Forfeit
by  Ellen C. Babbitt

Stories with animals and morals are my FAVORITE. The man knows that his ox is the strongest so he takes the ox to the village so that he can win money on a bet over how strong the ox is. However, when the ox is loaded up with all the carts, the man yells at him and whips him. The ox doesn't respond to this because he isn't used to it and the man loses all the money. When they get back the man is very sad and the ox asks him why he whipped him and called him those mean names. The man apologized and promised never to do that again. The ox says that the man has always been a good owner except for that and they could go back and try again. This time the man treats the ox with respect and the ox is able to pull all the carts and the man wins the money. The moral of the story is that people respond better to respect than they do to harsh words and aggressiveness.

Picture of Ox - Source: Ox

The Sandy Road
by  Ellen C. Babbitt

There was a group of merchants traveling through a very sandy desert. They could only travel at night because the sunshine made the sand too hot to travel on. They do this for many nights until they are only one day travels away from where they need to go. The pilot gets too confident and lets the ox lead on their own while he naps because he is so tired from not sleeping throughout the journey much. The oxen lead them astray and finally when the pilot wakes up they are very off track and now are without resources. The pilot travels until he finds water for everyone and it saves them. Then they get back on track and make it okay.


Link to Stories

Reading Week 9 Part A-B Mahabharata

I really liked this retelling of the Mahabharata. There were a lot of reasons why it was so great but I think a lot of what made them so great was there short length. When I first started them I was a little frustrated with how short each one seemed. However, as we made our way through the videos I realized that I was understanding them a lot faster than I normally do because they are broken up into easier to understand chunks. It also was so beneficial to have the video aspect because the drawings helped me to keep the characters separated better than when I was reading about them. I felt like I got a lot more lost on the characters when I was reading the stories of the Mahabharata vs when I was reading the Ramayana. In this section of videos everything is discussed from Bhishma's birth along with his brothers all the way to Ekalavya's story of how he became the amazing archer he was. His story was that he went to Drona and asked him to be his guru long ago. Drona refused and Ekalavya's determination led him to create a statue of Drona that he practiced in front of from that day forward. He worked very hard and became the best. Drona asked him to cut off his right thumb to lessen his abilities and Ekalavya did it, ending his legendary skills. 

Mahabharata

Depiction of Ekalavya cutting his thumb
Source: Wikipedia https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekalavya

Week 8 Progress

I am mostly okay with my progress so far! I like my grade in the class right now but I feel like I am doing assignments the day they are due consistently. I would rather be about a week ahead just in case I were to run into any situation where I am too busy. This Spring Break I was going to try to get as far ahead as possible so that when the semester starts back up again I'll have some wiggle room or maybe even get to finish a little early.

Inspirational cat because we are at the halfway mark!
Source: Cat

Week 8 Comments and Feedbacks

Overall, I have really appreciated all of the feedback and comments and my work throughout this semester in this class. I feel like the entire class does such a great job of keeping their comments uplifting while preserving the effectiveness of the comment. For myself,  I think that my feedback has progressed a lot throughout the past few weeks. In the beginning, I think I worried more about offending someone by mentioning what I thought could improve their writing. Now since I've been on the other side too I know that I appreciate the honest feedback so much! This has encouraged me to really be honest in my feedback and work to give them something of real substance. Looking at peoples introduction pages has been one of my favorite parts. I love the little snippet I get to see into their lives. Even though its short, everyone chooses what they feel is most important to share with the entire class so you get to see what they are most passionate about and what makes them the happiest and that just kind of gives me second hand happiness! I think I am happy with my comment wall and my introduction!

Picture of a cat. Source: http://growthmindsetmemes.blogspot.com/search/label/Feedback%20Cats

I chose this picture because I think this is something I forget A LOT. Especially since getting to college. I think it is a good reminder that you aren't defined by your failures!

Week 8 Reading and Writing

          Overall, I am very happy with how the reading and writing assignments have been going for me! I think I was a bit confused in the beginning of the semester but now that we have gotten into a rhythm, things are better! I am spending less time trying to figure out assignments and more time on the quality of my writing. I am happy with both my blog and my website. If I had to pick one I like more it would probably be my storybook. I probably like my storybook more just because of the topics that are being covered in those stories. Also it seems a little bit neater than my blog. It isn't necessarily that my blog is messy, it's just a lot more full. My favorite reading so far was the Ramayana, it was a little difficult at first because I was having a hard time keeping up with all the characters. However, once I figured out who everyone was I really enjoyed the storyline. I use my reading notes extensively when I am writing my stories! I think I have finally figured out what information is most important to me during the actual writing process and it makes it that much easier to write notes that are relevant to me.

I chose this photo from when I was writing my notes revisiting the Ramayana through the video Sita Sings the Blues
That was still my favorite assignment and it brought back good memories so that is why I chose this picture.
Source:Blogger

Wikipedia Trail - Rumpelstiltskin to Ghost

https://twitter.com/OnlineMythIndia

I originally found the idea to look up Rumpelstiltskin on the class twitter feed. I had kind of forgotten about this story but I remember finding it really interesting when I was younger. I think I was also a little afraid of Rumpelstiltskin because I think I had a hard time separating fiction from reality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumpelstiltskin

I really liked getting to revisit this story as someone in my 20s now. I think there's kind of always this internal battle in my mind about who I feel bad for in this story because honestly they all kind of got tricked.

Depiction of Rumpelstiltskin
Source: Wikipedia Rumpelstiltskin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poltergeist

I got interested in the word poltergeist because I had definitely never associated it with the story of Rumpelstiltskin before! I love stories about creepy stuff like this although the stories always really freak me out and make me scared. One of my favorite creepy things I like to watch is Buzzfeed Unsolved on YouTube. I really enjoy this show because they investigate creepy places but they're super goofy at the same time so it makes it less scary for me to watch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit

I was intrigued by the term spirit because I was wondering how it differed from the word poltergeist. Spirit is a more general term I feel like and a poltergeist is kind of specific in that it messes with you al little more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost

Finally I was additionally curious about the difference between the term ghost and the term spirit. These were more similar than poltergeist was to either of them. It's a more general term as well.