Feedback Thoughts: Week 2

The articles I read for this assignment were:

• Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head
• Overcoming the Fear of Feedback

I choose the first article to read because I feel like I often do have critical voices in my head when I am writing, and often hampers my ability to because I am constantly wondering if what I am writing is good enough for others to read, or even myself.

It was interesting to read about how Rajeev, even though he was wildly successful, was only able to focus on the small criticisms, and how that overwhelmed him. Sometimes I feel like Rajeev, where even though I know those criticisms are small in comparison to the successes I've had, I can't help but to focus on and languish over the small mistakes.

The things I can take away from this article are to focus more on the positives, and how I can keep doing them, instead of the negatives, and how to prevent them. Because I believe that if I can focus on the positives, I can make them outweigh the negatives, at least in my mind.

For the article about the fear of feedback, I chose it because while I personally have no qualms giving feedback (and I even think I'm pretty good at it), I still find myself sometimes angry at the feedback given to me by others. Sometimes, I think the feedback isn't very good because "if only they could see the behind-the-scenes" or " they just don't understand what I'm trying to say!" And while maybe sometimes these concerns are valid, the truth is probably that either I didn't explain something well enough, or something was unclear.

 Overall, I think I am better at giving valuable feedback than receiving it, so I think I need to focus more on looking at feedback from others more objectively, and seeing the point of view from the person giving the feedback.

My reaction(sometimes)

                                                                      Image Link

Week 2 (3 actually) Topic Brainstorm

Some possible topics I could use for my storybook project:

Weapons of the Gods:

This topic stood out to me because ever since I was young, I was intrigued by the weapons used in combat throughout history. I remember being maybe 9 or 10, and receiving a book of every tank that had ever been made, and loving it. Since this brainstorm is really my first one, I will for now use the wiki list of all the weapons just to be able to browse and narrow down what I want to use. List of Weapons. The weapon that immediately stood out to me is the Arrow of Brahma, which was used by Rama to kill Ravana. I like this weapon because I had just written a story abut Ravana, and could see myself exploring that arc more.

Creation Stories:

This topic interested me because I was raised Lutheran Christian and was in Sunday school so of course I knew the most famous western creation story. I would like to know more about Indian creation stories, so this topic could satisfy that curiosity. To start researching this, I first looked at the wiki articles for Hindu cosmology and Hindu evolution. If I decide to go more in depth with this topic, I will continue to read more stories (the one of the first man sounds interesting, as does the one about Brahma). I am especially intrigued by Hindu evolution, because the concept is very unique and mind-blowing to me.

The Avatars of Vishnu:

What stood out to me about this topic was just the concept of a god using a mortal body as an avatar. Coming from a christian background, the idea is familiar to me, but I really like the way it was implemented in Ramayana (from what I have read so far). I'm sure once I do more and more of the readings, it will help me understand more about how the avatars work and how they are supposed to fit into the overall epic. I read the wiki article on Dashvatara, the Ten Avatars of Visnhu. If i decide to go more in depth with this topic, I think I'll read the comic books about the avatars. Also it makes me think of James Cameron's Avatar. (Also they are blue like Rama is usually pictured!)

Ravana:

Lastly, this topic grabbed my interest because of my past storytelling blog where Ravana was the main character. After reading some about Ravana in reading A and B of Ramayana, I really like his character because he isn't decidedly evil or good; just powerful and looking out for his family. I read the wiki article on Ravana to star my research brainstorming, and if I decide to go more in depth with this topic, I will be sure to read more about his people, the Rakshasas and his family members,

Week 2 Story: The Cunning Crane and the Slipper Eel

     This story is a remake of "The Cunning Crane and the Crab" taken from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse.

The slippery eel watched from his little hole carved out among the wall of the small pond, once filled with many fish. Day after day, for the past few weeks, he watched as the cunning crane took fish after fish from the pond to somewhere far away. He had heard them whispering about some big lake paradise, full of fat insects but no fish to eat them. He doubted that the crane actually took them there, because he knew exactly what the hunger was like. But he was powerless to stop the crane, so as he watched the last few fish fall into the Crane's trap, he knew that something had to be done, or else he would starve.

Finally, the day came where there was no life in the pond besides his own and his old friend the Crab. The crab knew something was up too, and assured him that if the crane was to try to take him to the lake, he would not let him get the upper-hand. Hours pass, and lo and behold the crane sticks its slender beak into the pond, and asks if the crab would like to join the rest of the fish in the lake. The crab says yes, but he slyly added that he was too heavy for the crane to carry like the fish, so he would have to allow the crab to grab on with his claws. The crane didn't like this, and looked around for any other more suitable menu item that could be transported with less risk. Spotting the eel, he questioned, "Would you like to go to my big lake, eel? There are plenty of fish there now, more than you can eat, and much more space to move around then this derelict pond." The eel had been waiting for this opportunity, and conceded, only warning the crane not to drop him because he was a bit slippery.

The trip was going smoothly, and the crane couldn't help but smirk. Soon enough he will be feasting on the eel, and a meal that would last him for weeks. But once the eel could see the bones of his old pond mates littering the base of a tree, he knew what the crane intended. As the flew in above the lake, the eel knew what had to be done. The crane had underestimated his strength, and he squirmed his body intensely to get the crane to loosen his grip, and plunged toward the water. But the crane had to be taught a lesson, and the eel always wanted to know what crane tasted like. The eel wrapped the end of his long body around the crane's wing, and crushed it, dragging him into the depth of the lake, never to resurface again. The eel also found that this lake was perfectly suitable, it had plenty of fish; they were just too big for the crane to catch.

It goes to show, no matter how cunning or smart you are, don't get too confident. For there is always someone more cunning or smart then you.

This is a picture of an eel like I like.(Link)

Author's Note:

I remade "The Cunning Crane and the Crab" story because I felt like there were a lot of different ways I could make it different. I decided to change up the story by making the Crane reluctant to carry the crab in this remake, and instead opt for choosing a slippery eel he thinks he can overpower. I also tried to alter the takeaway platitude that was ingrained in the original story.

Bibliography

The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse.(Link)

Reading Notes: The Cunning Crane and The Crab

The story of the Cunning Crane and The Crab (Link) really caught my attention because I used to love the trickster type stories when I was young.

Just several lines in to the story, I notice how the author puts a lot of personification in the animals in the story, which I really enjoy, because it gives the story personality and shows the deeper intentions of the animals. I also like how cunning the crane is at first, by only taking the one fish to the big lake to vouch for him on how great it is.

Now finished with the story, I really enjoyed it because of how smart the crab was to trick the crane, and because they added the common platitude of how deceivers often get whats coming to them. Overall I think I could defintely use this story in the story telling assignments because there is a lot of directions I could go (either adding new characters or changing the ending, the crab got away pretty easy...).

For the image, I really liked the one that went with the story because of how dangerous it makes the crane look to the fish. (Link)

Reading A: Reading Options

The first link that caught my eye was the link for the Ramayana collaboration of authors and stories (http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/search/label/PDE%20Ramayana).

I like the idea of multiple authors because I think it can give me a deeper understanding of the characters and how different authors interpreted them.

For the second link, I like the first Mahabharata option.(https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00HB5LXHQ/bestiarialati-20)

I'd rather do the book for this reading just to change it up from the public domain works that I will most likely choose for Ramayana.

Lastly, I love how you did the Amar Chitra Katha comics webpage, so that you can refresh it and get a random one! (http://ackguide.blogspot.com/).

I definitely plan on checking out some of the comics, the artwork really grabbed my eye. I especially liked this one for the snake and realism:

(http://mythfolklore.net/scripts/images/ack/762.jpg)