Reading Notes: The Great Sacrifice

The Great Elephant

The story take place at an oasis in the desert
The elephant that lives in this oasis is describes as a hermit.  He lives alone and is beautiful.
Even though he was alone, he was happy.
He ate fruit from trees and drank water from a stream.
He loved to dance.  If only he had someone to dance with.
The elephant was dancing one day when he heard the sound of men.  The seemed unhappy.
These men where not in the oasis, but in the desert.
The elephant went go see them and he found them all "huddled together at death's door."  I am not sure if this is literal or not.  They are either almost dead or there is a literal death's door.
This was the first time the elephant experienced sadness. He cried.
The elephant asked the men if he could help them.
The men were oh so happy to see him that they fell on their knees.  They even addressed him as "beautiful one."
These men where exiled from their home by their king.
They were wandering in the desert for days with no food and water.
The men said that they used to be a thousand strong, now there is only a few of them.
The elephant looked upon them.  They were in desperate need of water and nutrients.
He told the men to run to the hill he was pointing to.  There they were to find a large elephant that well provide them with food and point them to a stream of water.
Then the elephant booked it in the direction of the hill he pointed to.  He went quickly but did not go the way he came.
The men were confused.
The elephant climbed to the top of the hill and jumped off the fell with a crash.
The men went to the landing spot of the elephant to find their new friend.
There they found him dead.  He had sacrificed himself so that the men could eat him.
The debated among themselves whether they should eat him or not.  They did not want to eat the elephant that was so good to them, but they also did not want to waste the sacrifice.
The men ate the meat with tears in their eyes.
The had no more troubles after that day.

Bibliography

The Great Elephant from Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat

Image Information: The Elephant's Sacrifice: Wikimedia Commons

Week 4 Lab: Read More than One Story

The Danger of the Single Story

This TED Talk was one of the more powerful TED talks I have ever listened to.  It highlights how as humans, we often use one story to define a person, people group, or place.  When we do this, we fail to see the truth about people.  The reality is that every single person has multiple stories and experiences that make them who they are.  A couple examples Adichie uses are her college  roommate's view of Africans and her view of Mexicans.  When Adichie came to America from Nigeria, her college roommate was surprised and almost a little disappointed that Adichie had many things in common with her.  When Adichie visited Mexico, she realized that Mexican people were all that American media made them out to be.  I also find myself believing in the single story.  This talk opened my eyes a bit.  Storytellers often write stories that are related to what they are reading.  When a story is started also makes a huge difference.  If you do not start at the beginning, you miss out on so many important details.  One of the the most powerful lines spoke in this talk was "The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but they are incomplete."  No one can be summed up in one story.  Every individual is unique.

In my upcoming stories, I want to make sure I look at all the story possibilities.  I could give the backstory to a villain or the position of a main character.  There are many stories out there, but infinite stories yet to be written.

Do you actually know who you are following? pxhere

Imaginary friends and real-world consequences: parasocial relationships

A parasocial relationship is a relationship we make with someone we do not really know through media.  We take the characters we read about, celebrities we research, or people we view on social media and form parasocial relationship with them.  We feel like we really know these people, when we really do not and they do not know us.  The questions is why do we do this? Research has shown that we can draw social and emotional support out of parasocial relationships, especially when one is combating a feeling of loss or social rejection.  Jennifer Barnes and one of her graduate students did a study that showed that on average, a student would be more sad if their favorite character died than if a real person that they see often but to not actually know died.  This is quite alarming as the real person has real aspirations, real relationships, and real lives while the fictional character does not even exist.  We really need to be careful about what is happening to our minds and emotions when we create these parasocial relationships.


Bibliography

The Danger of the Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Imaginary friends and real-world consequences: parasocial relationships by Jennifer Barnes

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part C

Rama Shoots Vali as Sugriva and Vali Fight: Wikipedia 

Sugriva's Story

Sugriva's older brother Vali was fighting a demon when he went down into a hole in the Earth.
When Vali went down there, he told Sugriva to wait at the opening until he returned.
Sugriva was faithful for a whole year.  He stood by the hole for a year and Vali never came out.
Thinking that his brother was dead Sugriva, he placed a mountain over the hole and left for Kishkindha.
Vali was not actually dead.  When he killed the demon, he came back to the hole to find it covered by a mountain.
It took him a while to get out.
Vali thought that his brother turned against him by trying to trap him so that he could take his throne.
He came at Sugriva with anger and Sugriva tried to explain what he was really thinking.
Vali did not listen and took Sugriva's wife.
Sugriva reached out to Rama to come help him get his wife back.  Rama also knew what it was like to lose his wife.  He knew the pain and was glad to help.
I could definitely use the elements of revenge from this story in my own story as well as the unbelief of Vali in Sugriva's truth.

Sugriva and Vali

Vali's wife Tara hears that Sugriva has teamed up with Rama.
She knows that Rama is powerful yet good.
She begs her husband to not fight.
She asks him to bring Sugriva back into the family
This story was written in the form of a poem.  The line that stuck out to me was

"Make thy peace with young Sugriva, nearest and thy dearest kin;
Brother's love is truest safety, brother's hate is deadliest sin!

Brothers are supposed to be there for each other.  Brothers are made to protect and strengthen each other.
Vali is stubborn and does not listen to his wife.

Vali's Death

Pride leads to the fall.
The brothers fought relentlessly as enemies.
This fight was brutal.  Midway through, Sugriva was losing.
Rama, who was hiding in the shadows, felt bad for his new yet close friend.
Rama shot an arrow fast and low while hidden.
The arrow struck Vali with a fatal blow.
This story, like the last one was written as poetry.  This might be a style I try this week.  It is definitely a more difficult style of writing.  If it goes poorly, I can write normally.

Bibliography

Sugriva's Story from Rama and the Monkeys by Geraldine Hodgson
Sugriva and Vali and Vali's Death from Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India by Romesh Dutt

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana D

Hanuman and the Mountain

Indrajit promises his father, Ravana, that he will kill Rama and Lakshmana.

He sacrificed a goat to the Fire-God.

The Fire-God who had a flickering tongue gave him a weapon called the Brahma-Weapon.

With this weapon, Indrajit killed many of the monkeys in the army.

Many of the monkey cheifs, including Sugriva, Angada, Jambavan, and Nila went into hiding.

Somehow, during this mass killing, Indrajit was invisible.

Rama did not know what to do because he could not attack someone he could not see.

Indrajit went back to Lanka with a battle won.

Lakshmana and Vibhishana walked around the field when the battle was over.

It was a horrid sight as their were slain monkeys everywhere.

They found Jambavan, the king of bears, barely holding on to life.

Jambavan was also overjoyed to see that Lakshmana was alive and well after the gruesome battle.

Jambavan speaks to the Wind-God's son and asks him to protect the bears and monkeys because only he could.  He asks him to visit the Himalaya, king of the mountains, to find herbs for healing.

Hanuman goes and finds Himalaya and looked for herbs but could not find any.

He rooted the mountain and was able to acquire the medicine.

He brought it back to Lanka, and the monkey army rose to full health.

Then Hanuman brought the mountain back to its original position

Pushpaka

Rama is taking Sita to Ayodhya on a Pushpaka cart.

He recaps their entire journey together.

He talks about all the people he met.

He talks about the friends he acquired.

He talks about all the monsters he's slain.

He talks about all the places they've been

I think it would be cool to write a story blending these two together.  I would focus on the Brahma-Weapon.  I would talk about where the materials for it were gathered, how it was crafted, and all the times it was used.  It seems like a crazy powerful weapon that needs a backstory.  A little like the ring or variety of one of a kind weapons in Lord of the Rings.

Bibliography

Hanuman and the Mountain from Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nevidita

Pushpaka from Ramayana, Epic of Rama, Prince of India by Romesh Dutt

Image Source: Rama and Sita on the Pushpaka Cart: Wikimedia Commons