Burke Blog for Epics of India

Following up on last weeks happiness jar, I found that keeping a running tally of happiest moment made me really appreciate the moments as they occurred, rather than just reflecting about my happiest moments at the end of the day.  Several highlights of happiness included: completing my research project ahead of schedule, finally getting the capstone plane signed off of by the professor in charge, and getting to go on a date to Das Boot with my girlfriend.  This exercise made me realize just how many times throughout my day I am happy, which is many more times than I expected.  Positivity, from  Pursuit of Happiness

The first article I read this week was  Criticizing praise  by Alfie Kohn.  I found it interesting because of how it talks about how not to use praise as just a feedback reward for some task, but actually appropriately use praise.  I found this article to explain a lot of my own way of giving feedback, which tends to not be overly praise filled, but not heavily criticizing either, mostly just observations on patterns and trends.  Potentially, this article is telling me I should praise just slightly more, provided it does not go over into "effort praise."  The second article was  How to craft constructive feedback  by Jenn Gibbs.  This article talked heavily about being a neutral and balanced observer, pointing things out with really criticizing, offering the author a chance to explain their mistakes, as well as offering your own advice on what a potential fix could be.  This helps them get out of a potential jam they might be in by not...

Looking this week at a topic I would be interested in writing, I was particularly struck by my reading about Rama and his exploits.  I feel that his story would mesh well into a D&D type campaign narrative like I told in week 1, especially by emphasizing the magical weapons glanced over in the tales.  Many of the thoughts I had in the week 2 reading A and B assignment apply here, because while I went in a different direction for my storytelling from those initial notes, I feel that this project is the perfect place to bring those ideas back to the forefront.  The three stories I am currently thinking of using are all from Indian Myth and Legend , from Donald Mackenzie Source .  The three stories I did the most background research into were Rama battling the Rakshasas, going into Exile, and fighting Indrajit with an army of monkeys.  These just felt like legendary exploits that could be expounded on, especially highlighting both the forces that Rama have cont...

There once was a woman named Shurpanakha, that despite being the sister of a highly successful tech CEO, Ravana, could not find a man due to being horrendously ugly.  However, one day, out at a local coffee shop, she saw the most handsome man she had ever seen, and for her it was love at first site.  She waited for the barista to call out the man's name, and learned he was Rama.  Shurpanakha did not approach him, however, due to her own horrendous visage. Later that day, Ravana came across his sister crying, and asked her what was wrong.  She explained her encounter with Rama, and pleaded with her brother for anything in his tech company which might help her.  Ravana told her there was one product in the prototype stage, that took a person's ideal image of themselves and modified their face to what was desired, intended as a tool to assist plastic surgeons.  Shurpanakha begged her brother to let her be a test for this prototype, and he repeatedly told her...

For Part B of the reading, I once again focused on finding a narrative I would want to tell, leading me to the stories of Shurpanakha and Rama, and Lakshmana.  The few characters in these stories, along with the clearly defined relationships, provide a rigid framework, something to give solid bounds to my own story, while allowing me limitless personalization within this framework.  I think the clear motivations of each character particularly attracted me, due to being able to now write a story to provide more insight into what their motivations were, rather than trying to create my own motivation.  Rama spurns Shurpanakha, from  Wikimedia This image I found the most striking of the ones I have seen, just because the pure expression of rage on Shurpanakha's face could be a whole short story in and of itself.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and so I believe this picture is the best way to demonstrate what I am thinking for my story....

For me, the biggest takeaway from all my reading was the reconciliation of all the different authors of the different stories from the public domain Ramayana.  Looking at the slight changes in style and storytelling showed me the variety of ways I can treat my own storytelling assignment. The stories I spent the most time on this week because they held a similar antagonist to my week 2 story were Vishvamitra and Thataka.  The rakshasas as the antagonist will put me in familiar writing territory, as well as the descriptions of heroic and magical battles.  Another thing that drew my attention was the mention of celestial weapons, this I believe a small detail that I can expand upon in my own storytelling assignment this week. The fire weapon, particularly with Rama traditionally being seen as wielding a bow, led me to this sort of concept for what his weapon should be Angel with fire bow, from  QueenAnneBoleyn The ethereal, not quite completely physical natu...