Week 11 Reading Diary B: The Pandavas Leave Hastinapura

I really enjoy the story of the Pandavas escaping Duryodhana’s fire through a tunnel. What a victory! They live as brahmanas for a while, but they still find opportunities to do amazing things, like Bhima defeating the demon and Arjuna stringing the bow to win over Draupadi. Their cousins are always putting them at a severe disadvantage, but they just keep on winning.

I liked the story about Arjuna and Krishna helping Agni. Those two took on a whole host of gods and won, but it seemed like an epic battle. I definitely enjoyed Buck’s description of it, and I think many of the characters in it are very likeable.

(Agni Meets Krishna and Arjuna)

One thing I like better about the Mahabharata than the Ramayana is that we have more characters to cheer for. With the Ramayana, we had Rama and friends, but there was really only one hero. It’s cool that there are five Pandavas that each have their own incredible strengths and talents. It’s kind of like reading a comic book about one superhero versus reading a comic book about a team of superheroes. 

Week 11 Reading Diary A: Starting Buck’s Mahabharata

When I read Narayan’s version of the Ramayana and Buck’s, I found them to be pretty comparable as far as how easy they were to follow. With the Mahabharata, however, I am noticing a very significant difference in how well I am able to keep up with Buck’s version. It is straightforward, and he frequently restates the relationships between characters, which I find super helpful. Since my comprehension is so much better, I am finding Buck’s Mahabharata a lot more enjoyable than Narayan’s.

One of the stories I wrote in my storybook was about Kurma the turtle, an incarnation of Vishnu that helped the gods hold up Mount Mandara when they were trying to churn the ocean of milk. I thought it was super interesting that this story was included in the Mahabharata, but Kurma was left out of it. There were also some notable differences from the Kurma story I read. For example, I originally read that the reason the gods needed the nectar of immortality was because Indra had gotten them cursed and they all had become mortal. I’m sure there are a lot of variations to the story, so it’s neat to read the different ways it’s told.

(The Churning of the Ocean of Milk)

Week 9 Reading Diary A: Starting the Mahabharata

I like the Mahabharata a lot so far, but it is for sure a little less straightforward than the Ramayana. There are so many characters to keep track of! I definitely needed to refer to the Reading Guide a number of times to remember who was who and who did what.

The birth stories are really interesting. I like the rivalry between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The competitiveness and conflict between them is fun to read about, and I find myself always cheering for the Pandavas. I think I’m supposed to feel that way. But I have a superstar sibling, so I can feel sympathetic to the Kauravas, too.

My favorite part of the first reading was when Vidura warned them that the house they were staying at in Varanavata was going to be burned down, so they built a long tunnel right in the middle of it! The code part was cool, and I bet that was a neat engineering feat, as well.

(Draupadi and Pandavas)

Commenting Review Week

I really enjoy the commenting part of the class. I've never taken an online class before, so I didn't imagine it would have so much classmate interaction. But I'm really glad it does. I enjoy hearing from other people about the stories I write. I didn't know if I would, but everyone says such nice and helpful things in their comments that I actually get excited when I receive notifications that there are new comments on my blog.

It used to take me a long time to write comments for other people, but I'm getting much more comfortable with it, and now I'm able to just kind of say what I think. I try to always start with really positive things to say about someone's story or project, usually my favorite thing about it. I like to do that because it makes me feel really good about my own work when other people do that in their comments on my things.

Starting comments is easy. I just say hi and then dive in. Ending comments is weird. I typically don't know what to say for that. Looking back, I've noticed that I ended many, many comments with some variation of "Great job!" Which I guess is alright.

I have read some really, really great stories. There are some amazingly talented writers in this class, so it's a pleasure to do the project and blog commenting assignments.


I made this image using the meme generator. I struggle with commas.

memecrunch.com

Meme Generator Tech Tip

Here's the meme I made for this Tech Tip:

 

memecrunch.com

Writing Review Week

I love the Storytelling assignments! At the beginning of the semester, I felt really hesitant about them because I have never really done creative writing. So I didn't think I would have any of the right skills to write an entertaining story. I suppose the jury's still out on that, but I'm definitely having a lot of fun trying.

The funny thing, to me, about the assignments, though, is the way inspiration happens. When I try to write stiffer things for my English classes, essays and reports, I can just sit down and chip away at it. It's pretty methodical. But with storytelling, I've noticed that I really have to kind of wait until a cool idea comes to me. And once it does, I can type it out really quickly. I don't think as much while I'm writing it. It flows better, for me, than other kinds of writing --- when I think I have a good idea, that is. I feel a little bit frustrated until I get there, but it has been worth it because I have fortunately been able to get that point in all of the first seven weeks. The last three stories, in particular, were really fun to write, and I think that's because I branched out a little bit more in terms of creativity.

My goal for the rest of the semester is to keep up with that and to try not to succumb to writer's block. I like writing, but writer's block is something I tend to struggle with quite a lot. I think it helps when I come up with a topic that I myself find really interesting, so I have to remember to keep doing that.

Below is a picture from my Week 6 story, Mountain Wings. That is one of my favorite ones I've written, but I also think the picture that goes with it is just so cool!

(Mountains in Clouds)

The feedback I have gotten has been really helpful. Everyone always says something nice, which is good for my confidence :)  And there are some things in my writing that are a little confusing or unclear, which is hard for me to see since it's coming from my own head. So it's good when people can point that out to me. That's super helpful for revision and for moving forward with new stories.

Writing for my storybook is a bit more difficult than the weekly storytelling just because it all has to work together. When I write a story each week, it exists on its own, and then I move on to something else. But with the storybook, each story has to connect to the one before it and then to the one coming up. That's a different sort of challenge, but I think I have a fun theme for it, and it has been a really enjoyable process.

Reading Review Week

Looking back at my Reading Diaries, I can see that I am a big fan of Hanuman. I write about him a lot. At one point, I called him a "rockstar." He is, for sure, a very likeable character -- definitely my favorite to read about.

I noticed that two of my Reading Diary images were of Pushpaka chariot. For some reason, that is one of my favorite elements of the Ramayana. The idea of a flying vehicle that can expand to hold any number of people and navigate itself is just really, really cool! I have re-posted my Pushpaka images here.

(Ravana's Pushpaka chariot)

(The Celestial Chariot)

I think the Reading Diaries have served as invaluable help for the Storytelling assignments. As I looked through my diaries, I realized that before I even wrote most of my stories, I talked about them in the Reading Diary. A lot of times, I even said something along the lines of, "... was such an interesting story, and I think I'd like to explore that further in this week's Storytelling assignment." I remember, too, that I frequently looked back at the things I said in my diaries while I was in the process of writing my stories. It was helpful for finding page numbers and things. This is something I would recommend for future students, using the Reading Diaries for brainstorming weekly Storytelling topics.

The Reading Diaries have also been super helpful for remembering the differences I noticed between Buck's and Narayan's versions of the Ramayana. Since they're the same story, I find that they run together pretty easily in my mind, so it's really nice to be able to look back at my Reading Diary and remember what exactly happened in which version. I'm sure this will be true for the Mahabharata, as well.