Week 12 Planning

This week we read a lot of poetry in my Auden course. Specifically, we read T.S. Elliot's Four Quartets and that is something that really stood out to me because he specifically made Indian Epic references. For my last story and addition to my portfolio, I am planning on doing something in the last and final realm of the Inferno where Patrick will meet the devil himself. I'm not sure what stories or who I will use yet, but there are a lot of great material from the past four authors that I might incorporate all into one big medley of an adventure. I am thinking I will use the image of the devil chewing on three traitors, and have one of them be Faust from Goethe's Faust. Then perhaps for the other two traitors I might include Richard Wagner and Zarathustra? I am not too sure where I want to go with the the whole descending into the last part of the Inferno yet. 

However, for my story for next week, I think I will take to the part where Arjuna fights Karna and Karna forgets the words to summon his ultimate weapon. I think I could really do a medley with that and have God be Krishna who gives advice to one of the characters (maybe T.S. Elliot) as he fights against... somebody. Anyways, there is a lot of great stuff that is coming up and I am really excited to take this last story to finish! Also, I think I will end the adventure with a twist as well from Dante’s ending and instead of having Patrick black out and wake up out of hell, I might just have the devil pick Patrick up and eat him. That would be really interesting and I think would be kind of funny as well!



source The devil eating people

Bibliography:

Dante's Inferno
R.K. Narayan The Mahabharata

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

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

Week 5 Planning: The Battle Between Moby Dick and Ahab

For my next story, I will incorporate Melville’s Moby Dick into The Ramayana or The Mahabharata. This week in my Fate and the Individual course, we are reading Moby Dick and will be done with the book by Thursday. By that time I expect to have enough background information from my lectures and from reading the story itself to form some type of love-obsession battle story behind Ahab and the Whale… I plan to discuss with Dr. McClay about what was happening in America at the time of Melville’s writing and describe all these events in a story where we have Ahab’s obsession with taking down the whale – just as Rama’s obsession with finding Sita, and somehow juxtaposing that to America.

Another thing that I realized would be great to incorporate into my final project is to have Auden guide Patrick through Hell, just as Virgil Guided Dante through Hell. The difference between my blog and the Inferno will be as Patrick is going through hell, he encounters all of the literary characters – both villains and heroes – and he will listen to how they all got sent to hell. The storybook/portfolio will follow Patrick in 4 days going from the top of the earth into the very core of hell where in those 4 days he will encounter characters that represent the 3 main sins – incontinence, violence, and fraud. I have not yet decided who ALL will be in hell.. but I definitely want to include Goethe’s Faust, Melville’s Ahab, and… maybe William Blake?..... I’m not sure yet. Then, at the very center of hell, I will include Albert where he is eating all of the bad guys in Hell. SO Albert will be like a superhero-good guy in hell where all the literary western bad guys will be dying. Anyways, All battle scenes and drama scenes will be taken from The Mahabharata and The Ramayana.


The 9 circles of Hell from Dante's Inferno image from abc.net.au

Bibliography:

­­Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Ramayana by Dharma