Christian's Epic Blog

I really enjoyed the story about the Syamantaka jewel.  It was neat to see a treasure like that passed around, either cursing or blessing whoever owns it.  It reminded me of Harry Potter--how everyone coveted the elder wand, and whomever had it was generally killed before too long.  This is one of the first and maybe only stories that I can remember where people were suspicious of Krishna and he was suspected of being a murderer.  It would be interesting to write a version of this story where Krishna did kill Satrajit.  I wonder how that story could have played out? It's really just pretty hard to see Krishna in a negative light, though.  One of my favorite stories from this part of the reading was Naraka and Bana.  I always love getting to see heroes fight, and Krishna is the best of the best.  A favorite scene of mine is where Krishna dries up the moat of Muru with his fiery discus, revealing that Muru was under the water.  Krishna is able ...

The story of Krishna's youth made me think about some stories from the bible that I remember.  King Kansa reminded me of the king who tried to kill all of the Hebrew baby boys in the story of Moses.  He also reminded me of King Herod when he attempted to kill the baby boys after finding out a new king was born.  When I was researching on what topic I wanted to write about for my topic, I remember doing some research on Krishna.  I found the story about Krishna sucking the life out of the demon Putana's breast, so it was really neat to hear that story again though this time with some context.  I like the idea of King Kansa as a villain--it would be interesting to write a story about a king that feels threatened enough to kill babies.  This particular story, using King Kansa, Putana and Krishna,  is one that I feel I could put a twist on and write about.  It must have been super intimidating for King Kansa to receive the news that his demoness had d...

The chatty Mr. Turtle flew on a stick between two birds.  His inability to keep his mouth shut would be his downfall.   The turtle talked, fell, and perished.  Author's Note: The original story I drew inspiration from is called The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking. In this story, a turtle befriends two wild geese.  The geese offer to take the turtle with them to their home, however it would be a long journey and in order to accompany the geese the turtle would have to bite a stick that the geese were holding the whole way.  The turtle agrees, and bites the stick to fly with the geese.  In the middle of the journey, the turtle tries to talk to a group of village children and then falls to his demise.  I liked the blunt nature of this story.  I tried a story lab this week, and I wanted to write a version of this story that was much shorter.  I decided to write a two-sentence micro-fiction.  I enjoyed being able to condense a Jat...

   The Wise and the Foolish Merchant tale seemed different from the other Jataka stories I've read--it was very thorough.  I like that the smart merchant was able to see past the trick of the demon unlike his foolish counterpart.  The clever characters in all of these stories always find a way to intellectually maneuver around their opposition.  In this case, the smart merchant was able to tell that the traveler he saw was a demon because he had no shadow.  I think this concept would be fun to carry over into one of my own stories.  The next tale that stuck out to me was The Princes and the Water Sprite.  The story sounded familiar to me at first, and I realized it reminded me of the Ramayana.  In the story, the queen wanted her youngest son to take the thrown over his older siblings.  She had been rewarded a boon and her wish was for her son, the Sun Prince, to be king.  The king didn't respond the same as the king from the Ramayan...

     The Merchant of Seri was one of my favorite tales from part A of this reading.  For some reason, it reminded me of the turtle and the hare story.  One of the characters is cocky, and talented in the case of the hare.  The other character is hardworking and more honest.  The greed of the greedy merchant was clearly incomprehensible! He could have gotten a surge of wealth from doing a simple trade for the bowl but instead wanted it for free.  In the end, hiding his true intentions cost the greedy merchant a great deal.  The other merchant had a good show of character, being honest about the true value of the bowl even when the grandmother didn't know its worth all these years.  I like this story because it has two very different characters, in the same job, juxtaposed to one another.  It turned out to be a happy ending for the honest character, and I appreciated that as well.  I can definitely see myself writing a story base...

King Mango was confident as he saw an entourage of people, with one man at the front of the group, approach his castle.  The leader at the front was none other than King Hungrybeast.  King Hungrybeast was once viewed as the least respected king in all of the 7 kingdoms, though this was no longer the case.  Over the past three years, Hungrybeast had been conquering more and more territory.  The pain and anguish that he had experienced from the ridicule of being the most disrespected king had taken a toll, and created a powerful king.  King Hungrybeast had been viewed as the most powerful king for some time now, being feared by all who had seen his game-play.  For in the 7 kingdoms, the pride of a king was their ability to compete at the game Super Smash Brothers Melee for the Nintendo Gamecube.  Kings and knights would play each other 1 v 1 with prize pools or even territory and kingdoms on the line.  Hungrybeast exclusively played the character Ji...

One thing that stood out to me in this part of the story was a scene from Chapter XV: The Great Battle.  Yudhisthira had just received the news that his uncle would not give him and his brothers five villages so that they could live at peace and not have war, though King Dhritarashtra, under the influence of his son, tells them that they cannot have five villages or even one village.  The dialogue that ensues from the Pandavas stuck out to me.  Yudhisthira seemed thoughtful and perplexed, while Arjuna was very fired up.  He claimed he would not stay in exile, and would take out his uncle's entire army with his bow.  Bhima was on the same page, claiming that he had to fulfill the promises and threats he had made against those that had wronged him and his family.  On this note, Yudhisthira decided that they will go to war.  He sent heralds to all the Indian kings in attempt to gain their allegiance.  He was able to acquire the soldiers from King Vir...

It was cool reading this story after already having a good idea of the characters and plots within the Mahabharata.  This story seemed much more face-paced, to the point where I thought that some things may have been in a different order than in the PDE of the Mahabharata. For instance, I didn't remember the Pandavas helping their teacher Drona get vengeance on his old friend Drupada so soon in the story and in their training.  The boys in this story start off as prodigies.  Also, Duryodhan attempts to murder them so quickly! After reading the first few pages it was clear that this was a very condensed version.  I had a good refresher on Vidura as a character and his role in ultimately looking after his nephews.  The man eating demon in this story is called Hidimva.  The fight between Bhima and Hidimva is pretty much how I imagined it.  In this story, Arjuna teases Bhima about being tired thus prompting Bhima to end the fight and kill Hidimva.  I ...

I am definitely happy with my progress so far! It was very easy for me to get into the groove of this class after the first couple of weeks.  I love the structure of this course--you always know what you need to do to get your work done in a timely manner.  It's been easy for me to establish a weekly routine for the assignments.  I am happy with how I have kept up with it so far! I'm still the most proud of my Hanuman story--it was so fun to write! Stories allow me to be more creative than I can be in my other courses, so for that reason stories are probably my favorite assignments.  The only extra credit option I have used so far is the Story Lab.  I'm looking forward to using more extra credit options in the near future.  I have always felt good about the state of my blog, and I love how my website is coming together.  I feel as though the more I add, the more both of these sites show my personality.  Looking forward, I'm definitely going to kee...

     Reading the comments left by my peers on my stories was daunting at first--even though I knew that they weren't going to be rude, you feel vulnerable reading about the criticisms that others may have for work you have created.  After reading through the comment wall and other comments left on my stories, I was pleasantly surprised! People have left me detailed comments which talk about different aspects from the stories' presentations to the plots.  Most of the comments have had very kind things to say.  None of them have been criticizing, more so the comments leave nice and thoughtful advice about things that might enhance the story.  It is nice to read these comments from the reader's perspective as opposed to thinking about my story from my own perspective.  I have enjoyed getting to read different strategies employed by the different people commenting, especially the "Let's Pretend" strategy.  It makes me smiling reading those commen...

     The reading and writing assignments have been working great for me.  I love how consistent the schedule of this class is compared to my other courses.  I always know what to expect for my weekly work, and it makes it easier to plan this work around my other classes or finish it early.  I'm happy with both my blog and my project! They are easy to navigate and simple, which is exactly what I'm looking for.  I'm satisfied and surprised by how the stories have gone thus far.  I haven't written stories in such a long time, probably since high school.  They have gotten easier as I have written more.  I enjoy having a creative outlet such as writing stories--I haven't had a creative outlet such as this that I can remember.  It's pretty satisfying to start and finish stories.  One of my favorite accomplishments from this course is being able to write stories that I am truly proud of.  One story in particular, Hanuman is Flexi...