Week 10 Story Planning

For my next story, I am thinking about doing a twist of Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde story with plots from the Mahabharata. I want to compare Tristan and Isolde's unfulfilled longing with something from the Mahabharata... I am not sure what that is... yet! I plan to take the story of how Arjuna shot bhisma down with so many arrows that he ended up lying on a bed of arrows that prevented him from touching the floor and use that in Wagner's version of the ending of his opera where Tristan takes off his bandages and approaches Isolde. I think there could be something really powerfully there about the death of Tristan and the death of Isolde on top of Tristan while Marke comes and weeps over the tragedy that happened. I might end up twisting the scene a little bit and have Tristan lying in Isolde's arms as he is dying, but do to sheer will power, he chooses to stay alive. As he is dying, Isolde and Tristan exchange some last words before King Marke shows up. I could incorporate some dialogue along the same tone of the Mahabharata. Also, I might end up putting Richard Wager in hell instead of Tristan and Isolde. I'm not sure yet!


source Tristan and Isolde's death

Bibliography:

R.K. Narayan - the Mahabharata
Richard Wagner - Tristan and Isolde

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Part B

Today, the story of Bhima and his encounter with Hanuman was awesome to read! I think I totally missed that part when I was reading through R.K. Narayan's version and I had no idea that Hanuman told Bhima the story about Rama. In that connection of the Ramayana to the Mahabharata, the epics are really connected and I appreciate that. One thing that stands out to me in Dharma's version is that Hanuman is grown in size and he seems so much stronger than he did in the Ramayana. In comparison to Bhima, it seems that Hanuman could easily take down any other god and that is really cool. The descriptions of how he gathered the lotuses were really neat too!


source hanuman and bhima in their encounter

Bibliography:

Krishna Dharma - The Mahabharata

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Part A

This week, we read about the Pandava's exile into the forest. Once again Krishna Dharma's version of the epic is a lot more eloquent and detailed than R.K. Narayan's version. One thing that makes Dharma's version so great is that there seems to be a lot more detailed of dialogue. For example, the cries of the villagers when Yudhistera left was quite dramatic and I think it relates great to what has happened with the events that were going on. Also, the detail that it was the Sun God who gave the copper plate to Yudhistera is really neat as well.
Furthermore, the anger and anxiety that Dhasaratha felt and his accusation of VIdura's bias with the Pandavas is very well portrayed. The epic almost reads a lot more like a novel and it makes it really interesting to read and experience.

an image of the Pandavas in their exile. source

Bibliography:
Krishna Dharma's The Mahabharata 

The Mahabharata

Week 9 Story: Brothers Karamazov and Pandava Brothers

Once recalling how Fyodor would capture Patrick and make him his slave, Dmitri finally got to fight one-on-one with his father. Fyodor slapped his thigh in mockery of Patrick's beauty. 

"He is just a tease. I can easily buy him with my 3000 crabby patties, Patrick is nothing but a fat whore for food." said Fyodor as he proceeded to laugh and slapped his thigh.

"I will make you eat your words you sensual old man. I will kill you and beat that very thigh you slapped!" replied Dmitri

After a few months, Patrick has run off and neither Dmitri nor Fyodor seem to know where he is. Smeardykov, the sickly old servant runs and shares news with Dmitri. 

"I just learned from your brother, Ivan that all is permitted. Fyodor has shared with me a secret knock that only Patrick knows. If you knock twice slowly, and three times quickly, that is a sure sign that he is here." 

"Why do you tell me this, Smeardykov?" questioned Dmitri.

"I have no agenda. All I know is if all is permitted then secrets are permitted to be told."

"Thank you Smeardykov. Now get out of my face you scoundrel!" yelled Dmitri as Smeardykov limped away.

Dmitri runs up to his father's house and does the secret knock. Fyodor rushes out to great Patrick, only to find that Patrick is not there. As he runs around looking, for him, Smeardykov shows up and trips him with a brass pestle. As Fyodor falls to the ground, in horror, Smeardykov proceeds to pounce Fyodor in thigh. 

"ALL IS PERMITTED. ALL IS PERMITTED." yelled Smeardykov as he beat Fyodor's thigh to a pulp. 

“What are you DOING?” cried Dmitri as he sees his father’s blood streaming on the snow.

“All is permitted.” replied Smeardykov as breaks out into a non-stop seizure and dies.

Dmitri takes the crabby patties and runs to find Patrick.

source here is an image of patrick being a Crabby Patty whore

Authors Notes:

This week we finished reading Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I really like how in the book, Smeardykov ends up beating Fydor to a pulp and thought that it would tie in really well with the Mahabharata. I took the scene where Duradhana slaps his thigh in contempt as the Pandavas were being exiled, and Bhima promised to come back and beat the very thigh that he slapped. Since I found Fyodor to be an equally sensual and unlikable character as Duradhana, I had him get beat on the thigh to death just as Smeardykov beat him.

The theme that "all is permitted" is something that Ivan, one of the Karamazov brothers, shared with Smeardykov. Smeardykov is a sickly and illegitimate child of Fyodor and I used Ivan ideas to transition his justification for killing.

Lastly, I replaced Grushenka with Patrick and turned the 3000 roubles that Fyodor had to crabby patties. I thought this would apply a great shock affect to the readers.

Reading The Mahabharata Part B

This time i chose to read the beginning of the Mahabharata and I really enjoyed learning about the birth of Vidura, Dhasaratha, and Bhisma. All of those characters were particularly different in the Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan, but in Dharma's rendition of the story he once again really seems to bring the characters to life. Vidura and Dhasaratha all seem to have specific qualities and personalities that hark at my emotions when I think about how they all ended up toward the end of the novel. Also, the description of Bhisma and his greatness really brought to life the material and makes it seem exciting.

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here is an image of Vidura giving advice to Dhasaratha. I think it really portrays the qualities of the wise Vidura and the strong Dhasaratha.

Bibliography:

Krishna Dharma - The Mahabharata

http://www.vedabase.com/en/mbk/1/1

Week 9 Reading Part A

This week, I read Krishna Dharma's version of the Mahabharata. Once again, unlike Narayan, Dharma's version of the indian epics seem very emotional and character driven. All of the characters seem to have a personality and the novel seems a lot more rich in detail. One aspect of Dharma's storytelling that I appreciate is how relateable every single character is to even a western audience. For example, when Yudihistera bows at Vidura's feet before the dice game, the reader can feel exactly the dread that is wearing down Yudihistera's heart. Such emotion to specific characters I feel bring the novels to life and make it a lot more enjoyable to read despite it being a bit longer to read.


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Here is an image of the dice game that was played. The image captures how it feels to be tricked.

Bibliography:
Krishna Dharma - the Mahabharata

Week 8 Progress

Looking back at my past few posts, I am very satisfied with my progress and happy that I currently have an A in the class. My favorite thing is the comment wall and I love hearing people's opinions on my portfolio. Most people think it is really funny and I very much appreciate that. I have not been taking advantage of much of the extra credits and have only been doing one or two every other week. Mostly the extra credits I do are the blog commenting and the famous last words. Looking forward I am going to do more extra credits on Fridays after class when my mind is still fresh.

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I chose this image of water because it looks refreshing and that is exactly how I feel after taking my Latin quiz. I am looking forward to to the weekend~

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

The feedback I have been receiving in the past few weeks have been very useful. The feedback from students allow me to gauge how popular my blog is and how engaged people are with my writing. One thing I appreciate about what people are saying about is how descriptive my author's notes is and that is very useful for allowing readers who are not familiar with the western works to engage with why I chose my story line. Overall all of the comments are very much appreciated and I feel great when somebody else other than the professor appreciates my writing. Looking forward, I will spend more time on my author's notes and talk a little bit more about how themes from a certain story relate to the themes in the Indian epics and how that relates to my life in the west.

For my image I chose this picture because I like how the light helps the cat sees the way ahead just as other people's feedback allows me to gauge my writing and my progress.


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Week 8 Reading and Writing

So far my reading and my project is absolutely awesome! I love the project that I am doing and I think it is very funny. It also gives me a chance to learn more about the material I am reading for my other classes and forces me to relate what commonalities exist between eastern and western epics. One thing that I will do looking forward is to revise my stories ahead of time as I publish my works so that I can have more clear stories. My favorite reading has been the Mhabharata. I'm going to look back through the Inferno and find some interesting punishments that I'd like to put the character through and think about what characters in the novels I've read would deserve that punishment in hell. Overall I am very excited for my next story and the revisions have been absolutely phenomenal and useful!


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Week 7: Story Planning Faust and death

Last week I wrote a story on Moby Dick and took a scene from the Ramayana where Rama talked with Bharata. I am continuing my fusion of western and eastern literature this week and am going to focus on Goethe's Faust and The Mahabharata. I plan to take the plot of the Mahbharata where Yudihistera answered the the god of death.
In Faust, the main character, Faust, is disatissfied with life and wants thinks about ending his life. The plot will be Faust's contemplation of killing himself. Faust creates a vial of poison that he wants to drink from and end his life. However, his friend Wagner approaches Faust at the last minute, and in an attempt to derail Faust's suicide, ends up asking lots of philosophical questions about the meaning of life and why it is worth living. Faust ends up answering all of Wagner's questions and in the end, Wagner leaves the decision to Faust on whether he wants to end his life or not. Realizing now the error in his judgement, but also realizing the void that is his own existence, Faust chooses to pursue another course of destruction and summons Mephistopheles, the devil incarnate.
Having summoned Mephistopheles, Faust asks if life is still worth living. The devil answers that faust has already experienced all the maximum pleasures of his current existence and that if there is nothing else to do, life itself is meaningless. Having realized the further nihilism of this, Faust chooses to drink the poison and thus end his life. Mephistopheles is quite happy and brings Faust's soul to hell.

Author's Notes:

The story telling will be a twist from what happens in the Mahabharata and instead of ending in a happy story where all the Pandavas live again, Faust instead will die and go to hell thus sealing his fate with the devil. I want to highlight that there is no hope for Faust as he has already made up his mind that life is not worth living. I'm not sure where else I want to go but I want to continue making the theme of my stories darker and more serious. This story will be more dark and realistic as I want to depict the human suffering that people must face in their decisions, just as Yudihistera must bear the weight of his leadership and all its repercussions.

Yudihistera and Yaksha disguised as a crane source

Bibliography:

The Mahabharata by R.K. Narayana
Faust by Goethe