Monday, August 11, 2014

Week 1: Indian Epics- Initial Thoughts

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

While watching this video, I found myself enjoying the unstructured, discussion style of the video and thought the collage-style animation was interesting as well. I like the video because it is humorous, relaxed, and easy to understand. It gives a simple, introduction to the main character family and the way their relationships work. I watched for 20 minutes before deciding to finish the video another time. I enjoyed the singing, because I have always liked old jazz and old big-band music.

My Curiosities 
  • How will this course affect how I interpret other religions?
  • Will the epics be difficult to read or understand?
  • Why is Rama blue?
  • These questions and more as I journey into the Ramayana and Mahabharata 
Haha, seriously though: I enjoy learning about other cultures. I like reading and have always liked writing. I am truly excited about this class. I know these poems play important roles in Indian culture and religion. They even affect traditional dances! In fact, I first heard of the Mahabharata not in my Intro to Religious Studies class, but in my Intro to Non-western Dance class! I adore dance! I love learning about different types, where they came from, what they mean, how do to them, etc. That class, and the dances I learned about sparked my interest and when I saw this class, I jumped at the chance to get needed credit while learning about something that genuinely interests me. 

Closing Thoughts

I am determined to make this year positive. I'm looking forward to a great semester.

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1 comment:

  1. Laura GibbsAugust 12, 2014 at 9:51 AM

    Wow, Bria, what a great post! This was a new totally open-ended assignment for this semester, and I am really glad it worked; I enjoyed reading your post and I am glad that Nina's film was a way to get some questions going for you. And YES, the idea is exactly that people can watch the film later... in fact, I am guessing you will enjoy it even more when you have read the Ramayana and can see all the ingenious ways that she is picking up on traditional details (you'll recognize all the gods and goddesses for example), while telling the story in a very modern way.
    DANCE: it is an incredibly important part of the Indian cultural tradition. You can tell how important it must be because Shiva is the Nataraja, the lord of the dance, the cosmic dancer! So keep an eye on Shiva; he is a great way to connect up the epics to what you already know about Indian dance! Since it is so easy to include YouTube videos in blog posts and webpages, I'm hoping people will want to include Indian dance and music in what they write for class! :-)

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