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This reading option that jumped out to me because I love animals, so the cover instantly drew me in. This story is about a group of monkeys that are living in a mango grove and what happens to them when others learn about the mangoes. The summary says that there is also a crocodile in this story so I will keep this one on my radar.
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Sita Sings the Blues
This option caught my eye because it is an animated movie. I played the first couple minutes of it and it seems like something I will enjoy. It is an animated version of the Ramayana and also includes tidbits about the creator's life. There is also a minute by minute description by Professor Gibbs to help understand the material.
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This is a story about five brothers who have a very eventful life. They live in the woods with their mother and then move to where their cousins are living. The cousins do not like them, so there is a lot of family drama. This story sounds interesting and I want to keep it in the running for reading options this semester.
Aha, you found your way to the comic books. Super! Those Monkey Stories are "jataka tales," which is the first kind of reading you will be doing for class. The jatakas are one of the oldest folktale collections in the world, and they come from around the same time as the epics.
ReplyDeleteThe Pandavas are the heroes of the Mahabharata, the second epic you will be reading in class. The brother on the cover there is Bhima, the super-strong one of the five brothers who uses a mace as his preferred weapon.
And that Sita Sings the Blues film is AMAZING. The idea is that you will read one version of the Ramayana in Weeks 3 and 4, and then that film makes a perfect counterpoint to the traditional versions; you can watch it in Week 5 or later in the semester. The creator of that film, Nina Paley, is a real hero to me; you can find out more about her work at her blog: Nina Paley (she just made all those dancing goddess gifs for a new film she is working on)
Thanks for sharing Nina Paley's blog, those goddess gifs are really neat! I wish I had a better grasp on design software and could create gifs are well done as those!
DeleteOne of the great things about following Nina's work over these many years is seeing how she keeps growing as an artist. She worked on Sita Sings the Blues for many years and documented all of that by sharing at her blog, and she has now been working on her new film for quite a few years. I am so excited to see what it will be like when it comes out, as she has been sharing these tantalizing bits and pieces at her blog! :-)
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