Burke Blog for Epics of India

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...

For this week, my favorite video was the introduction to the Norse pantheon, due to the fact I have taken several mythology and literature classes about Norse mythology, and particularly love Wagner's Operas on the subject.  I thought the video offered a good introduction, especially for those with very little background of the subject material.  Thor and the Modgard Serpent, seen on  Blogspot This was my favorite image of the week, because it shows off the classic Nordic art style, as well as being the cover of one of the books I have read for my other class, Myths of the Pagan North: the Gods , by Christoper Abram.  I would suggest anyone interested in learning about the Norse gods to read it, it is an entertaining introduction to the gods of Norse Mythology.  

This week, the work I was most proud of was my story writing for this class.  When I started this class, I did not expect to be able to bring such informal writing experience as I have with a Dungeons and Dragons to this class, so that definitely was a surprise.  It was a major step up, however, converting the sparse note keeping and plot branches I am used to writing into a singular, cohesive story.  Instead of having to prepare for the vagaries of other humans, the characters in the usual campaign story, I was able to make them do exactly what I wanted in the story, making everything much simpler to handle and write about.  Outside of this class, the other main event of the week was completing more of my masters research project.  My team and I were able to complete the design and construction of a prototype of an arm extension mechanism.  The purpose of this mechanism is to allow two arms of a drone to extend and rotate, allowing flight in the "horizon...

This week I am starting the Happiness Jar Challenge in the Learning by Heart challenge list.  For this assignment,  I created a "Happiness Jar" assistant for my phone and laptop, so I can just add the happiest moment of a day into it as it happens, and keep a constantly updating list as to what was my happiest moment of that day.  Next week I will report on the results and give a few examples of the happiness moments in my life Happiness Jar from user MartaZ on  Flickr