Storytelling Week 2

Some time ago, there was a king named Dasharatha. He was king of a city called Ayodhay. One day while ruling over his kingdom, he realized how lonely he was. He thought and thought, it took him a long time, but he finally realized the root of his loneliness. Dasharatha's problem was that he had no children. After a long while, he began to ask the gods, even beg them to give him children. Ultimately, they refused. They told Dasharatha that their refusal was due to a problem they had which was of greater importance. After asking what was needed, the gods told Dasharatha that they needed a Demon named Ravana to be defeated. They informed him that Ravana possessed ten heads, which would make it an extremely difficult task. The gods also informed Dasharatha that the only being that can defeat Ravana is that of a normal human being and if he could deliver they would award him with children of his own. A few days passed, however, after much consideration Dasharatha decided to take the gods up on their offer. Dasharatha spent weeks doing research. After compiling all of his data, he was prepared for the epic battle that would pursue. He found that the demon, Ravana, is easily susceptible to and easily distracted by fire. To make the most of this, he gathered many torches and hand made many spears with which he could light the spear tips and throw in order to further distract some of the heads of the demon. His research also showed that the necks of each head of the demon were extremely weak to steel material. In order to make the most of this, he crafted many throwing blades and arrows for his bow crafted from the purest steel that he had access to. Once all of his supplies and materials were gathered and his pack was full of the weaponry that he decided on, Dasharatha set out on his journey. Before leaving, the gods blessed him. With the blessings of the gods, Dasharatha now had a heightened sense of touch, smell, and feel, while also having increased agility and strength. Upon arriving at the cave within which Ravana resided, Ravana came outside. The demon laughed allowed at Dasharatha telling him that he had heard the tales of some mortal coming to attempt to defeat him, but he told Dasharatha that he never imagined it being someone so puny. Ravana did not realize how much preparation Dasharatha had taken and the battle only lasted an hour. Dasharatha had won. Upon arrival back to Ayodhay, the gods were waiting. They thanked him and for his completion of the quest by rewarding him the children that they said they would. Years went by and Dasharatha was never again lonely.

Author's note: While keeping the basis of the story pretty much the same, I did change the fact that Dasharatha defeated the demon on his own and that he was rewarded with children for this by the gods. I just started typing and the story basically came out on its own, hope you enjoy.

(Ravana, Source)

Bibliography: Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana

Week 2 Reading Diary B

As I mentioned in my last post, I am still getting used to the way these stories work and how the plot will unfold, so this post will also be a bit brief until later tomorrow when I can reread these two sections a couple of more times. I was a bit shocked when Rama went into exile, especially because that is my favorite character as of yet and I was not expecting it. At this point I am not entirely sure on what exactly is happening, but I will be spending plenty of time tomorrow and during the rest of the week grasping and understanding this story.

(Rama in the forest, Source)

Week 2 Reading Diary A

This post, along with the next, are going to be kind of short at first, then once I begin to make more sense of the book tomorrow, I will edit them. As for the first reading section, I am enjoying the change of scenery as far as book type and subject is concerned. So far my favorite character would have to be Rama. I think this is because Rama is actually someone else so its kind of a bit "stealthy" if you will.

(Rama, Source)

Overiew

This whole blogging/pinterest thing is all new to me, so I am not entirely sure what all to say about it. It will definitely take me some time to get used to it, but it will be interesting to see how smoothly this transition period goes. As far as the actual content of the class is concerned, I had never heard of these books in my life. A friend of mine recommended this class to me and it sounded interesting so I am curious to see what all these books have to offer.

(Shiva and Ganga, Source)

Storybook Favorites

To begin, the first storybook that I chose was called Lions of Aesop. I chose this storybook for two reasons, the first being the subject matter that is covered and the second be the illustration of the lion that goes along with it. As far as the information covered, I believe that all the subjects covered (wisdom, strength, righteousness, and love) are a big part of life and so I enjoyed reading about them. The second storybook that I chose was called The Voyages of Sigurd the Volsung. This storybook was first chosen solely based on the graphic that was provided. As I was scrolling through the storybooks, the picture of the man and the beast caught my eye and led me to clicking on it. Upon further inspection I read the introduction and found that I will probably end up reading this in my free time, the adventurous story seem like something I could really get into. Plus, I am kind of into stories that have to do with sea voyage type scenarios; I find that they usually make for a pretty enjoyable read. My third choice was also solely based on visual appeal. The name of this storybook was Tale of the Traveling Cat. For whatever reason the picture of the cat wearing the sunglasses cracked me up. Upon reading the introduction, I found that the storybook took place in Austin, Texas. Being from Texas and also enjoying visiting Austin from time to time, this sparked my interest into making me think about trying to read it on and off when I have some free time just like the previous storybook. I typically am not a fan of reading, but during my time spent browsing the list of storybooks on Pinterest, I may very well find myself doing quite a bit of reading sometime here in the very near future.

(Grandfather Lion, openclipart)

Introduction

Hey, my name is Dylan McNamara. I do not really know how to go about this, so I guess I will just randomly ramble about myself. I am from Dallas, however, I was originally born in Amarillo. I have two dogs named Zeus and Samson, both are Doberman and they are brothers (from the same liter). I graduated high school from Plano West Senior High in 2012. During my time in high school, I wrestled and played baseball. When I decided that I was going to come to The University of Oklahoma for college, my original plan was to graduate with a degree in Petroleum Engineering. It took two years for me to realize that this is not what I wanted to do. While I was interested in the oil and gas field and still wanted to pursue a career in it, I was growing bored and uninterested in the classes needed for Petroleum Engineering. After some thought and consideration, I decided to switch my degree to Petroleum Geology. That is where I am now. In hindsight, I am extremely glad that I made the switch. I now find myself interested in the curriculum and actually learning instead of just going through the motions necessary to earn a good grade. I am currently enrolled in mineralogy, calculus four, epics of India, physics two, and oceanography. Due to the workload of some of the classes which I am enrolled in for this semester, it is going to be a difficult task to achieve the grades that I want, but with enough work and effort, I should be able to get it done. I am ready to get into this class especially, it seems like it will be very interesting and I am excited to see what the books that we read have in store.

(Personal Image: Me when I was 2)

Week 1 Storytelling: The Stork With A Downfall

There once was a stork, his name was Henley. Henley the stork was an honest being, one that followed the rules, however, he had a very big downfall. This downfall of his was one caused by the good inside. This downfall of his was trying to find the good in everyone.

One day a flock of cranes came along with intent to get him in trouble. The cranes came along and began talking to Henley and they had a plan. Henley was wary of the cranes saying, “You are no good,” and “I know that you cranes do nothing but cause trouble.” Henley had no intentions of doing their bidding, but the cranes were smooth. They used their words and manipulation to target Henley; they knew exactly what they were doing. It did not take long before Henley’s downfall starting playing its role. As the cranes kneading away at him with their smooth words, Henley began to falter. He began asking them questions, the questions they knew exactly how to answer. It was a trick of their trade; the cranes knew how to talk to get Henley to fall. After minutes of conversation Henley began to think that maybe the cranes were not all that bad, maybe people had been far too harsh about them. Henley was about to find out how wrong he was.

Upon the end of the conversation the cranes asked Henley if he would come along with them. Although he was hesitant, he decided to go. The party of birds went to visit a newly planted field. Upon arrival, Henley saw that he was very wrong. The cranes began to steal and plunder everything that they could. When Henley decided that he could not be a part of this, it was too late.

As he tried to fly away he realized he was stuck in the farmer’s net. He begged and pleaded with the farmer pointing out that he was a stork, which he was honest and of good character and that he did not realize what the plan of the cranes was. Though the farmer knew, he told Henley this, “You are a good bird, but your company is not. Though you are a good bird, people believe you to be what you surround yourself with. Because of this, you must suffer the consequences all the same and hopefully next time you will think twice.”

(The Stork With A Downfall)

Author's Note. This story comes from a fable titled "The Farmer and The Stork" which can be found in the book The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897). The fable is about a stork who learns that you are perceived to be the same as who and what you surround yourself with. However, in order to make the story my own, I included parts that were not in the original such as background information between the cranes and the stork.