Reading Notes Part 2 Week 12

Vasudev Meets Yamuna by Epified TV (India)

Ill start of by saying how much I enjoy listening to these stories in video form. I think presenting these stories with a video and a narrator is such a good idea. For me personally it is very difficult to follow along with these stories when just reading them. This is because there are so many words I don’t know and can not pronounce that it takes me a long time to read the whole story. It is also very difficult to follow all of the new characters and their names without having a face to put with the name. These are problems that are solved when a video is used to tell the story. Also Epified did a great job in this aspect because they also give the viewer something to watch that is not distracting from the story so it is easy to watch and listen. I think having one epic being read and the other in video format would be a good idea for this course, instead of having both of them as novels.

As for the story, this was a very interesting story to listen to. The father and mother continuously have their children killed by the king, the child’s uncle. The king keeps killing the babies after birth because the legend says the 8^th baby will be the downfall of the king. The day came and the 8^th child was born, a boy and a god. The father noticed that after the child was born the door to their cell was open and the guards were asleep. The father slips out and goes to a village where another baby had just been born. The father switches the babies and returns with a girl to their cell.

This is an awful concept portrayed in this story. I can understand why the father switched the babies but that is not justified. The father stole someone’s baby to save his own. He was fully aware that the king would kill this baby girl that he stole. I think that the father of the baby is just as evil as the king who kills the newborns.  

     

(Krishna: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Extra Credit Reading

                                            (Buffalo: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

The Patient Buffalo by Noor Inayat (Khan)

This story follows a few of the common themes I mentioned in the last set of reading notes about the guilty dogs. It involves a lot of nature as part of the scene and the story. It also includes one superior human and one superior animal. Some new themes were introduced that are seen in some western stories that everyone is familiar with. The first being that wisdom and being polity is rewarded. It is funny/ironic that this is a theme here and I mentioned it as being western since our western ideals and actions do not match the theme in the present day. Another theme here is that the fairy asks the buffalo why he did not hurt the monkey with his great strength. Here the fairy is analyzing strength as only being a physical attribute. However, in this case the buffalo has even more mental strength then physical strength for dealing with the monkey and his bad behavior. It is common for people to react poorly and angerly when they are displeased and angry. This theme conflicts with a lot of western society today because mental strength is not focused on and is not rewarded. In this story there is a monkey that is pestering a buffalo. After all of the constant pestering the buffalo does not give into the monkey and does not get angry. I think this is a good lesson for the children who are reading and learning from the story. This is a good lesson to teach siblings, as much as your brother or sister will drive you insane you need to ignore it because if you do not you will end up with a bad relationship. I say this from experience because it took my bother and I a long time to build up or relationship again after having a not great relationship when we were kinds. 

Reading Notes Jataka The Guilty Dogs

                                            (Dog Nose: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

 The Guilty Dogs by Noor Inayat (Khan)

There seems to be a very common couple of themes in all of the Jataka stories. The first being that human and other animals are always included, nature in some aspect is usually included as well. The next theme is that there is always a king of the humans and always a leader of the animals. The next theme is that the animals are always avoiding death from the humans for either sport, resources, or false accusations. The last theme I have noticed in the couple of stories I have read is that the animal king always confronts the human king and amazes him. The human king always stops harming the animals and gives them good treatment after that.

This is exactly what happened in this story. The palace dogs destroyed something valuable to the king. This king finds outs and orders that all dogs in the city, except the palace dogs be killed. The dog chief then encounters the human king before the killing starts and asks him to reconsider. The dog chief explains that the city dogs were not involved in destroying his chariot and should not be killed. The king unsurprisingly does not believe him and asks for proof. The dog chief also unsurprisingly proves the king to be wrong and himself correct. The human king then feels so bad that he not only tells the dog chief that him and his followers will not be killed but will be treated like royalty. The story does not mention if the palace dogs will be punished.

This story is better then some of the others in teaching kids, the targeted audience, life lessons. It shows them good leadership on the dogs’ behalf and it shows courage. However, it also shows that leaders may respond with violence even before they know the whole story. It also shows that someone can act poorly and get away with it.     

Reading Notes Jataka Banyan

                                         (Golden Deer: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Banyan by Noor Inayat (Khan)

In this story there are three kings, one human king and two deer kings. The two deer king reside in the forest, and they are a beautiful golden color that stands out from the others. The deer encounter a problem, the human king is to have a feast and has sent his soldiers out to kill the animals of the forest to bring back as food for his feast. However, the king as warned the soldiers that they must not king any of the golden deer and so the soldiers listened and followed orders and they never shot at one of the golden deer. The deer were being very badly injured and shot hundred of times before they would die and be taken from the soldiers. The two deer king could not stand to see their followers being so brutally injured and killed. They came up with a compromise, they would send one deer a day to the king to be sacrificed and they would alternate the days from which kingdom this deer would come from. One day it was the turn of a mother deer, her doe was very young and would not be able to survive alone. The mother went to her king to ask if she could go later when her baby was grown, the king denied her and told her she must go today. The mother was desperate so she went to the other king and asked if she could go later, the king told her yes and to raise her child and she could go when he was older. The mother was so happy and thankful, but the king thought someone must go today in her place, he thought it should he him. So, he went to the human king to be killed but the human king refused. The human king was so touched that he spared every animal in the forest and vowed not to kill another animal.

I think this story is a little unrealistic and not the best for children. There are some valuable lessons about nonviolence and compassion but not many about strength and courage. Yes, the king was willing to risk his life for his followers but why did they not fight back. Why did the deer and the other creatures living in the forest fight back? This story also does not show good leadership until later, the deer king willingly sacrifices their followers to keep the human king happy.      

Story Lab Week 10

Notes over Chapter 2: Telling a Story in Empoword.

This chapter focuses of techniques in writing.

 The first technique it mentions is the plot, it is important to have a plot because it is the basis of your story. The plot encompasses many other techniques because it is so broad.

The second technique is scope. The scope is the boundaries of the plot. The scope defines the outline of the story. The scope answers the questions When, Where, Who, and What but not Why. It is important for the story that the scope be defined and not too long. If you don’t focus in and cut things from your story the readers will get lost. It is hard to find a balance between enough detail but not to lengthy.

The third technique is sequence and pacing. In this chapter they describe this with Freytag’s pyramid. This is a pyramid that consists of most of the story building up to the climax and ending quickly after the climax. This occurs in 5 steps: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

The fourth technique is point of view. This is the way in which you tell and write your story. The way in which you tell your story and which point of view you use shapes the readers perspective on the plot.

Lastly, they mention finding a medium. Stories can be told though all sorts of medium, it doesn’t have to be a written story on a piece of paper in a book. Stories are told everyday through books, movies, TV, social media, in the newspaper/journal, having a conversation, plays, blogs, etc. Anything can become a story, your life is a story and it is your job to tell the readers what you want them to know about you and your journey.           

                                            (Book: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Extra Credit Reading The Monkey Bridge

The Monkey Bridge by Noor Inayat
I really enjoyed reading this story. The writing of it was beautiful and very easy to read, it flowed like a story should. I like the idea of this story better then the last two, especially if it is being targeted for children. In this story a worried king tells his followers to not let the beautiful fruit from their tree fall into the water of the river. If a piece falls it will travel down the mountain and into the village with the humans. The humans will then want to find the tree and steal all of the fruit. Not only did this exact thing happen but when the humans found the tree and saw the monkeys living in it, they waited around until daylight to kill all of them. They wanted to kill the monkeys for meat and then take the beautiful ripe fruit with them. The king of the monkeys saw the fear of his followers and new action had to be taken. All the other trees were to far to get to so all of the monkeys were stuck. The king leaped as far as he could and made it to another tree where he tied a rope to his foot. He then jumped back across to the tree with his followers but the rope was a little short. The king had to stretch his body to make the rope long enough and his followers ran across his back, onto the rope, and into the forest. The strength of his back gave out and eventually broke after the last monkey crossed safely. The human king at the bottom of the tree saw the generosity of the monkey king and treated him as kindly before he died. The monkey king with his last couple breaths explained to the human king that he was willing to die for his followers and that he should learn from him. He also explained he should lead by love, as if all of the followers were his children. I think this story teaches a lot about what being a leader is about, some notes others can take from this story. 

                                 (Golden Gate Bridge: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Reading Notes Crab and Crane

The Crab and the Crane by Ellen C. Babbit

               This story, I also think, is meant to be a children’s book. Although, I don’t think it is a very nice read for children and I do not agree with its message. In the story there is a pond with very little water because of lack of rain and over consumption from other animals. In that pond lived many fish that were beginning to struggle because there was no water in their pond. The crane showed compassion to the fish, or at least that’s what they thought, and offered to take the fish to a new pond that had lots of water. At first the fish were hesitant because they thought the fish would just eat them all but the crane took one of the fishes to check out the new pond and when they came back the fish told the others that the pond was great and full of water. So, all the fish trusted the crane to take them to the pond one by one but instead he took them to a different place and ate them one by one. Eventually all the fish were gone and the crane became hungry again. He saw a crab by the pond where the fish once lived and he decided to play his game again. He told the crab there was a pond in a different place he could take him to with more water and food. The crab agreed to go and check it out, but the only way the crab could travel was to hold onto the cranes neck very tightly with is sharp claw. The crane took the crab to the place where he ate the fish instead of the pond where he promised. The crane said he was going to eat the crab and leave his shell with the fish bones but the crab still had a hold of his neck. The crab then killed the crane to avoid being eaten. I think this lesson teaches kids that even though you are smart and ask the right questions you still can trust people which I don’t think this should be taught to the young, no matter how true it is. I also don’t think that teaching the lesson that you should kill the problem instead of fixing it should be taught to the young.       

                                              (Crab: Image from Wikimedia Commons)