Week 3: Storybook Styles

Believe me. Choosing a topic was a hard thing to do. I loved all of the ideas that I came up with last week. The winner is: CSI Epics! However, I think I may put a special twist on it, just as Laura Gibbs gave me the idea of.  After reading some of the recommended sources, I have come up with a few that I would like to use in my storybook. As Laura stated, it may be interesting to tie in my idea of a Karma storybook into this CSI idea. I really appreciated her idea on humanizing a detective character that would act as Karma. I think that some of the readings I will use from the Ramayana will include:

Bibliography:

1) "Vali's Death" Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India, condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt (1899).

2) "Ravana's Death" Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

3) "Death of Drona" Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914).

4) "Death of Krishna" Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

I also may include a CSI of the deer dying in:

"Pandu and His Wives" Mahabharata translated by K. M. Ganguli (1883).

I think that the idea of a CSI storybook would be the easiest to read if it came from a narrative style. In this case, I would simply lay out the facts of what we know and how the investigation went. I would probably style this writing in a “what we know, what we found in the investigation, and what we have concluded” way.

Some other ideas that come to mind. One is to use a style in which it seems like you are reading the papers filled out by the detective or crime scene investigators. For this, I think it would be really interesting to see the report on each character after the murder was already solved (or maybe in some cases it is unsolvable?). One difficult thing about this style would be connecting to the reader. If they are reading a report rather than a story will they still be interested? I know that some people love stuff like this and like to randomly look at things such as a prisoner’s last dinner before being executed (unless I’m the only one that clicks on those random articles on Facebook).

(Image Information: Possible layout of a CSI storybook. Source: Scholastic)

Another idea is to have it laid out in a murder dinner manner. In this case, I would present the storyline before the murder and lay out the characters that are possible suspects. I think this would be really fun because perhaps the investigator could carry out the murder! You never know. I almost feel that in this style, I would not answer who was the murderer, but rather let the reader make their own conclusion (unless they have read the piece or continued reading and found out who it was in my “Author’s note”.

As far as the characters go, I think the only ones I am going to connect from story-to-story will be the actual crime scene investigators. I will have to do more research to see if it will be possible to logically connect the deaths I will be writing about in any way. I guess it shouldn’t be too hard once I get some more readings under my belt. I mean, I do feel like a big idea in Indian culture is that every event has a cause and effect!

Storytelling Week 3: A Cinderella Story... continued

(Image Information: Rama returns to Ayodhya. Source: Giriraj Swami)

Last time on "Rama, A Cinderella Story"... Rama was exiled from Ayodhya and Bharata came to try to get him to return and become king. Rama refused and Bharata decided to place an item of his brother's, his glass slippers, on the throne to represent his rule while he was away in exile.

Sita had requested Rama to go into the forest to fetch her the most beautiful animal he could find. Being deeply in love with his lady, Rama set out to do such. However, while Rama was gone, an elderly man wandered into their cottage and asked Sita if she could spare some food. Since she was such a gentle spirit, she would never refuse to help someone if it was possible. While Sita had her back turned, the elderly man took off his disguise and showed himself as the evil King of Lanka, Ravana. Sita tried to scream for Rama, but before she could Ravana stuffed her in a bag and put her in the back of his carriage and sped off to his palace.

Rama returned to find that Sita was gone. He knew something was wrong, however, because he saw food spread across the kitchen. He stepped outside to call for her, but while doing so he heard a "CRUNCH!" He had stepped on a Dorito, Sita's favorite food. He noticed there were Doritos leading out from the house. He began to follow the Doritos and they took him all the way to Ravana's palace. Infuriated about Sita being kidnaped, Rama let out a great sound. Suddenly, thousands of monkey responded to his call and began to stampede towards him.

Ravana heard the sound of the monkey swarming the city, and he ran outside to confront Rama. When he finally got outside, he saw the army of monkeys burning down his city. Ravana was furious and shouted, "WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THE MONKEYS FIRE? DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU LET THEM JUMP ON THE BED?!" Before Rama could answer, he grabbed his bow and arrows and shot Ravana directly in the head. Ravana fell to the ground and Sita ran outside to meet her hero.

In the background, Lanka was burning in flames and its King lay slain on the ground. Rama took Sita in his arms and began to walk off towards his home of Ayodhya. Once they arrived, Rama walked up to his brother who was sitting on the steps leading up to the thrown. Rama noticed that Bharata was taking a Snapchat with the glass slippers in the background. The snap was entitled "lol waiting for the bro to come back". Rama put his head in the photo's background and he saw his brother's eyes light up on the phone's screen. The King had finally arrived.



Author's note: So, I decided to keep up with my promise last week and finish my fairytale story. I decided to right this in a little bit different fashion. Since the rest of the Ramayana did not exactly make a connection in my head to any childhood story that I knew of, I decided to make my own ending to the story. I pretty much kept up with the story of the Ramayana, but added some more modern symbols in the piece. By doing so, I hope to reach out to my audience (considering it’s mostly full of college students). I actually added some of my favorite things to thing story: Doritos, snapchat, childhood rhymes. Yes, I do love all those things, Cool Ranch Doritos, especially. I decided to also speed up some aspects of the story and completely leave out other parts in order to make the story seem more fairytale like. I left out a lot of the fighting that took place in Lanka, although I did not take it out completely because being a hero is a huge theme in princess stories. I also left out the part about Rama forcing Sita to leave because the town did not trust her loyalty. Something about that just did not scream “fairytale” to me.



References: "Rama and Bharata", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)
"Ravana's Death", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)
"The Chase", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)
"The Burning of Lanka", Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914)

Reading Diary B: Public Domain Ramayana

I was kind of thrown off by the story "Kumbhakarna". I felt as if I was reading the stories of Ramayana, and I get to this piece where Ravana wakes up his brother and all of the sudden in a paragraph later, Rama has killed him. I guess I was looking for more of a storyline in this piece rather than a sudden death. Perhaps that can be something I write about in my storytelling assignment?

I also thought the story "Sita Departs" was kinda of strange also. After Sita had been brought back to Rama after Ravana's death, he doubted her purity while in the possession of Ravana. She was willing to walk through large flames in order to prove herself to him. After that, the returned to their home and Rama was crowned the King. However, people of the city doubted her purity that she had already been tested for. Rama gave in to the wishes of the people and exiled Sita even though he spent so much time trying to get her back. Finally, after learning she was the mother of his children, Rama brings Sita back to tell the citizens of the city about her purity to Rama. After doing so, she was embraced by the Earth and Rama once again was without his love.

(Image Information: Sita being taken into the Earth. Source: KidsGen)

Reading Diary A: Public Domain Ramayana

I have to say I really love the strength shown by Sita in "Sita and Ravana" even though she had her life threatened. I love this story because Sita was powerful enough in her love for Rama and her love for her own wishes that she is able to refuse Ravana. Even with the offering of power and wealth and anything else that she could wish for, she knew that she would not yield to Ravana.

My favorite story of all the readings in block "A" had to be "The Burning of Lanka". I found this piece to be hilarious. Not only were Ravana and his followers not able to torture Hanuman with the fire, but they also caused their own demise by treating Hanuman in such a way. I could just imagine this wonderful monkey realizing that the Gods had protected him from the wrath of the fire and taking advantage of the moment to destroy the evil and greed that surrounded him. After doing so, he was able to escape to organize his monkey army and gather the support of others to march on the city and destroy Ravana, including Rama. I absolutely loved this reading and I have a feeling it may be included in my storytelling project.

(Image information: Hanuman burning Lanka. Source: Shree Hanuman Blog)