Week 12 Reading Diary: Sita Sings the Blues

This week I watched the first half of Sita Sings the Blues.

I'm not a huge fan of this movie so far. The intro was pretty confusing. I know that Laksmi and Vishnu were two of the people portrayed. I'm not sure who the others were, especially the guy with six spinning heads. There are three versions of the story you get:  Sita sings about what's happening, three narrators talk about the story, and a modern-day version of the story is shown.

When Sita sings, the style of music doesn't really fit the style of art or the rest of the film well. You don't really think of jazzy blues when you're watching a film highly influenced by Indian art. The art used when Sita sings is also interesting. Sita's waist is itty bitty, while her boobs and butt are huge. This reminds me of something I read in another version of the Ramayana (I think Buck's, but I'm not sure). That author said Sita's waist was so small Rama could wrap one hand all the way around it. Rama is this huge, handsome muscle man, which goes against how I've always envisioned him.

The narrators ramble on about the story in a way that makes you think they have no clue what they're talking about. They even say Ravana did nothing bad except capture Sita. I'm not sure if the creator of this film intended to do this or not.

Then there's the modern-day couple. When they first came on screen I was very confused. As the movie has gone on, I realize it's a retelling of part of Rama and Sita's story.

Week 10 Reading Diary B

Kshatriya is a caste

They formed their troops in the shapes of animals, one animal was chosen by one side and the other side would form an animal that would eat it

Duryodhana told his brother Bhishma to off himself just so Karna would join the fight

I’m still confused as to who’s who

The author’s notes are very helpful, especially since I haven’t done all of the readings

Bhima defended himself with horse legs

Bhima ripped Dussasana’s hand off like it was nothing, then sucked all of the blood out of his body

Duryodhana has the power and desire to hide at the bottom of a lake

Gandari curses Krishna to die alone after all of his kinsmen

Storytelling options on pages 180, 181

“I do not want to be called a Kshatriya if slaughter alone is the rule of life”—Yudhistira page 181

“Religious activities, pleasure, enjoyment, and every fulfilment of life proceed from wealth…. It is from fighting that glory is earned and from glory proceed all the good things of life…. We can never see wealth acquired without some harm or injury to others.”—Arjuna page 182

Arjuna is aware of microorganisms

Week 9 Reading Diary B

“He had no mind of his own, and was in a perpetual conflict with his better instincts.”—about Dhritarashtra, page 60

“I know what Arjuna can accomplish. I know Drupada and his growing might…. They are building up an invincible camp. Many others will be joining them soon…. Krishna by himself will be chief support soon…. Don’t let your past error continue and take you down the path of annihilation.”—Drona to Dhritarashtra, page 61

These names are very hard to keep up with, only made harder by the fact that I didn’t get Reading A done…

Citizens and traders from Hastinapura moved to Indraprastha because of convenience—why was it convenient? Page 63

Brief description of the story of Sunda and Upasunda, brothers who fought over same woman—potential storytelling topic, page 64

Ulupi picked up more wives while in exile, page 64 why didn’t he have to share them, too?

Arjuna’s bow—gift from Agni—potential storytelling post, page 66

Vidura the messenger doesn’t seem too loyal to his king, page 70

What is a “kshatriya”? page 71 why are they required to accept a challenge?

Yudhistira has a gambling problem, page 73

Sakuni never placed a counter-bet, page 73

“It seems to me that men can never survive in this world by merely praising tolerance.”—Draupadi, page 94

Potential storytelling topic page 99

Week 8 Reading Diary

In the instructions, it is suggested that you write three or four paragraphs summing up your thoughts or make a list of bullet points describing a character or situation. I haven’t been doing this. Part of the reason why I haven’t is that when I started, I didn’t know what was noteworthy and what wasn’t. Also, at the beginning, I didn’t find much to comment on. The Reading Guides covered the big things and the little observations I made would be hard to organize into paragraphs. I take notes as I read and include quotes that stand out to me. I then publish these notes. They feel somewhat disorganized as I read over them, but I feel like that would be a little different if I covered the plot in my notes.

When I went to review my Reading Diary posts, I started with week 2 and moved closer to the present. The first thing I noticed was that I took a lot more notes at the beginning than at the end. The second thing I noticed was that many of the things I took note of at the beginning don’t really seem to matter now. Either I took note of something that was completely irrelevant (it had no effect on the story, its meaning, or my perception of the culture) or something that became so obvious and important later in the story that I didn’t need to take not of it (example:  “Rama cared about the people of Ayodhya”). I also wrote down more quotes at the beginning, but I think this is because I like Narayan’s storytelling style better. I also took more notes about foreshadowing in the beginning than I have lately; this may be because of Narayan’s storytelling style, too. The first week I didn’t add any page numbers. I wish I had. Starting week three, I gave page numbers with quotes, but not general notes. I continued to do this in most posts that followed. I wish I had given page numbers for each observation. I remember that when I wrote many of these notes, I would compare them to the Reading Guides and delete any notes that were just explaining plot. I wish I had thrown in a few notes on the plot so that now when I’m looking for specific stories I have the option to find them without going to the Reading Guide first.

I like the average length of posts I’ve made. I feel like it gives me enough information to relive what I was thinking, but not too much to weed through. I do need to start making bullet points or putting a space between notes. Sometimes just glancing over it can be hard to distinguish whether it’s a new note or the continuation of a note.

Sometimes I use my diary posts to write my storytelling post. I don’t really use them for much more. This past week I consulted my diary posts to try to find stories about the vahanas and they did not help me at all (I should probably start noting when I find a vahana story in my reading diaries).

I guess I’ve been doing okay with the reading assignments. I’ve gotten all of them done. Some are harder than others because I’m tired or that section of the book isn’t the most interesting, etc. Like in other classes, I’m really good at getting a gist for what the reading says. I’d retain more information if I listened to someone tell me the story.

Week 7 Reading Diary B

None of the Kosala men wore normal clothes while Rama was away—they dressed as hermits or wore poor colorless clothes; people ate hermit’s food

When Bharata asks Hanuman what all has happened to his family, Hanuman starts with Sita being abducted, then jumped to Ravana’s death

People, animals, and objects could talk to each other while Rama was king

“all is spirit, there is nothing else in existence. War and peace, love and separation are hidden gateways to other worlds and other times”—Sumantra to Sita page 394

“King Janaka the husband of Earth looked on smiling to see land bought and sold by mortal men.”—page 405; that’s disturbing, like he enjoys watching his wife be prostituted

Who is Saunaka? Page 408

Hearing the Ramayana is supposed to bless you with all sorts of things

Janaka asks Rama to step down as king and join his army and offers him decreasing amounts of money to do it, but Rama refuses—what?—it was to make a point about how short life is

Who is Maharaja? Rama?

Rama knows he is Narayana now page 421

Durvasas was impatient, then didn’t even thank Rama for the food

Week 7 Reading Diary A

The people of Lanka think Ravana is being ridiculous; he should join Rama, not fight him

When Ravana began to dance, the wind came in very powerfully, not to help Rama

Ravana is still in denial of the approach of the end of his life, despite numerous warnings

“All loss of love or life is a lie, old age is an illusion, and only bad things perish.”—Ravana page 339, not realizing that he’s bad

“Good Love never dies”—Ravana page 339, does he not remember that he kidnapped hundreds of women and forced himself on them? Then captured someone else’s wife in hopes of making her his own?

Ravana made time vanish by lightly touching him

“I offered you my life and you accepted it.”—Ravana in his letter to Rama page 351, if he was so serious about offering his life, why didn’t he fight sooner? Why did he resist the coming war? This could also be one reason why he kept Sita for so long and didn’t listen when people told him to give her back

Suka was so happy at the news of the letter that he evaporated

No matter how many times Rama is told he is Narayana/Vishnu he doesn’t believe it and acts clueless as to his true self

There’s a vast store of treasures under Lanka page 366

“And giving gifts, giving to the poor and to others, that is always right; or else, what you save is spent to buy a homesite for you in Hell.”—Vibhishana to Hanuman page 368