Reading Notes Week 9: Epified Krishna Part B

So I’ve continued on with the story of Krishna as done by Epified. It’s a really interesting series and not one that I probably would have found without this class to lead me to it. I first tried the Epified series with the Epified version of the Mahabharata and though at first, I said that the material doesn’t really go into enough depth, I think I’ve come to a more complete conclusion on that. So even though these are very short and don’t give a ton of detail, you can’t really judge them on that scale because they’re not setting out to do that in the first place. They set out to give a cursory overview of the material they’re working with and they do that very well. In some ways, I find the story of Krishna far more interesting just because it’s not as varied and it doesn’t bounce around as much. Personally I felt that the Mahabharta in both the written form and in the Epified version really just bounces around far too much and it makes it very hard to really follow the narrative arcs because there’s constantly new characters and new people being talked about. Now with this story, the narrative is much more focused and targeted around one person and I think this works much better for the Epified format. Instead of telling a bunch of one to three minute stories that only have small connections between them at times, all these stories are very strongly connected. It also feels like the stakes feel higher. From the very beginning of the piece, things have been extremely intense and tumultuous. It really holds the viewer in very well. Finally, I appreciate that the narrators actually have Indian accents because it adds a certain strong cultural tone it that really works well for the piece.

Bibliography: Epified Krishna, link

(Krishna Statue, wikimedia commons)

Reading notes Week 9: Epified Krishna Part A

I chose to go with the Epified version of Krishna. I made this decision because I really enjoyed the Epified version of the Mahabharta and though I still feel that they don’t give you a ton of information to work with, they do a pretty good job of giving you a basic overview of the material you’re working with. It’s not ideal but it works for the format they’ve chosen. I really do appreciate this kind of format and it makes we wish I had some more artistic skills so that I could pull something off like this. The white board animation is really interesting and it’s even more interesting when you consider that they’re making sure the timeline of the narrations fits the drawn components and I wonder if they speed up or slow down certain drawings in order to fit the narration constraints rather than vice-versa. It certainly seems like that would be the easier of the two options. I guess the other option would just be creating the narration after you’ve done the drawing – so for example, you know it takes three minutes to play the video of the drawing and so you just constrain the narration you write into that three minute block. Either way, it’s an extremely effective and interesting way of presenting material. Even though it’s not the most in-depth, it’s a great way to give outsiders a brief glimpse into the material without being too intensive. I do sometimes struggle to hear all the names they say and this is one area where the written version of the stories really win out. It’s hard to tell who is being described at times unless you’re familiar with many of the names already. Due to my cultural difference, it’s taken a bit longer to catch onto the various names and places.

Bibliography: Epified Krishna, link

(Krishna statue, wikimedia commons)

Week 8 Growth Mindset

Though I haven't been directly trying to maintain the growth mindset as it's been set forth, I think I've done a good job of sticking to the basic ideas of it. I've tried to always do my best this semester and though it's been tough to be motivated as this is my senior year and I'm spending a lot of time working of job apps that I wish I could use to study. I still think I've been doing a pretty good job of trying to go above and beyond with my material when I have the time to do so. I hope that with the rest of the semester I can try maybe a little bit harder and improve my performance in my classes. I'm of the mindset that if I do my best and it's still not good enough, I can accept that I did everything I could to do well with something. It's not ideal but with time constraints, this semester has forced me to be very rigorous in how I schedule and do my work.

(Growth Mindset brain, Pixabay)

Week 8 Reflections

For the most part, I've enjoyed most of the reading this semester. The Ramayana was definitely was favorite reading thus far and that's probably because it felt more like it was a continuous narrative whereas the Mahabharata was more disjointed and oftentimes felt like it was many separate stories even when it did have a continuous story going on. That's not to say it was unpleasant. It was still fun to read, just not as good as the Ramayana in my opinion. I really did like the few times we had riddles though and so I'm considering reading a collection of riddles that was shown to me by Laura for the next reading assignment. I think I've been doing a pretty good job on reading notes so that I haven't really had any problems writing a story post each week.

The writing has been fun in this class. I often am not really sure what I'm going to write about until Wednesday hits and I need to think of something, but it's worked out so far. The two pieces in my portfolio so far are a bit absurd, so I may try to keep that theme going as we move forward in the semester.

I've really enjoyed reading everyone else's different stories this semester quite a bit. It's been a lot of fun to get to see so many different ideas and opinions from my fellow classmates. I've tried to give pretty good feedback that I myself would want - the kind that seeks to not only praise but also to improve the piece being discussed. Overall, I think this has been a fun class and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

(The golden abode of King Ravana India, wikimedia commons)

Story: Yes, Mother

Yes, Mother

The Pandava brothers had walked into their mother’s room excited to tell their her their good news but when they found her, she was tired and absentminded and as they told her that they had obtained something fantastic, she simply told them “Well make sure you share it between all of you so I don’t have to hear you complain when one of you tries to hog it for himsefl.” The brothers looked at one another nervously, no one brother wanting to be the one to tell their mother what she had just told them to do. Finally, after several seconds had passed the brothers simply slunk away without saying anything else. Their mother paid them no mind, thinking them as just being strange as usual.

And so they sat in the courtyard discussing what was to be done. “We can’t all marry the same woman. We’re not Mormons, here,” One brother joked and they all laughed. Yet still none of them really knew what to do. They all knew their mother was prone to anger and they had known that if they had laughed at her, she would have been very angry at them and so they instead sat around thinking about how to tell their mother. It seemed like it should be a simple thing but they made it something greater amongst themselves and kept arguing. At first, it had been planned that only one of them, the eldest was to go on a date with this girl. They had all met at a county fair where one brother, Drupada, had caught her attention by winning several games of darts in a row. She had sat with all the brothers and they had all vied for her, and they had returned home each planning to find a way of making her his own.

“I was the one who caught her attention and so I really deserve to be the one dating her,” Drupada said. But his brothers all disagreed for various reasons and tried to make their own points about why each of them was the actually deserving one. This went on for several hours with no progress being made.

“Look, we’re getting nowhere,” Drupada said. “We need to start suggesting solutions instead of just stating why each of us is the best for her. It’s not going to get us any further than this. Why don’t we have a competition of sorts?”

“Riddles,” one brother said.

“No way. Arm-wrestling is the only fair way,” another argued.

“That’s not fair. You’ll win. It has to be fair for everyone or else it isn’t worth doing,” yet another argued.

“Why don’t we let her decide?” Drupada said. The others asked him to explain himself. “Well you see, we can invite her out to something with all of us and then we will simply observe who she ends up choosing by the end of the night.” And thus it was agreed that they would all go on a group date in order to decide how they should proceed from there. But there were still more surprises to come.

Authors note: I wanted to do a modernized re-write of this tale but I was worried that if I used the stories names too much, it would make things seem out of place or out of time. In the end, the lack of names probably gets a bit confusing so I may end up re-writing it again and just modernizing the names. I tried to leave it open ended in case I decide to write a follow-up to it.

Bibliography: Wife of the Five Pandavas, Public Domain Mahabharata, link

(Draupadi and Pandavas, wikimedia commons)

Reading Notes: Epified Mahabharata Part B

Again, I just want to reiterate what a creative method of presentation this is. I haven’t seen that many white-board animated videos before but just seeing this series has intrigued me to go and try to seek out others. It’s a unique style that I really hadn’t seen until now and I’ve really enjoyed it. The story itself develops as the drawing develops. It would take some careful timing and writing to put together and it might be easier to just do the drawing and then put the voice parts on top. I imagine it’d be hard to time out the drawing itself but now that I think about it, you could probably control it by just changing the speed at which the drawing is played back. It’d be a subtle change for the viewer but make very significant changes for the animators and writers who are trying to fit the narrative story to the images being presented.

The story itself is still very barebones. Even though I read the public domain edition, I still feel that went far more in depth than these pieces do. I’d be interested in perhaps seeing them make a longer piece or perhaps a podcast version that you can just listen to. That way you can get the material and their creative flair but also get more depth with the material instead of just an overview. As a glimpse into the Mahabharata, it’s okay. It could be better but it’s good introduction or review for whoever finds it. It’s not going to give you all the little details, but it has enough entertainment value to keep you watching videos about a subject that you might not otherwise watch. I know I was surprised by how much I enjoy the format. It’s really a unique and creative presenation style for this epic.

Biblography: Karmic Revoltion, Epified

(Wajang kulit pop voorstellende Yudhistira, wikimedia commons)

Reading Notes: Epified Mahabharata part A

So I chose to watch the white-board animated option for this week’s reading and though I wasn’t expecting much, I was really impressed with it. This video series is done by Epified and it doesn’t look like they’ve completely finished everything yet as they’re doing one video a week but from just watching this part A collection, I’ve been very impressed. It’s an entirely unique and creative way of presenting this narrative epic in an extremely simplistic but still easy to follow yet significant manner. It’s very well done. The artist(s) are very good at what they do and the narrators do an excellent job of explaining what is going on. It does sometimes feel a little more like summary though and I occasionally wish it would go just a bit deeper with the material. As a review, it’s great. I do find myself struggling with the names often because I guess I pronounced them differently in my head when reading them than what they’re actually supposed to be and that results in this kind of disconnect where I don’t know who is being talked about currently at times but usually I can get back in to the material as soon as they give some information about what the person is doing and then I remember.

Ultimately, I wish I could do something like this. I can’t draw and I can’t animate so I’m kind of out of luck on that front but it’s something I think I’d really enjoy. I like writing and though I’m not the best at it, it’s still a fun hobby of mine that I like to practice whenever I can. Seeing things like this tempts to me to grab some animation software so I can make my own animated stuff but I guess I know I’ll never end up doing it.

Biblography: Karmic Revolution, Epified, link

(General Bhimasen, wikimedia commons)