Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Section A

photo credits

For this week's reading, I watched Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley. It is an animated movie that tells the story through the eyes of Sita and it also tells a bit about the creator, Nina Paley, and her failed relationship.

As far as note taking goes, I wanted to focus on the things that I either missed or did not think much about during my first encounter with the Ramayana. I am actually glad that we are reading it/watching videos about it again this week because I realized there was a lot of stuff I didn't pick up on the first time around. It was kind of like watching a movie twice and seeing clues and nuances that you didn't notice before.

One thing that wasn't really important in Paley's version of the story was Rama's brother, Lakshmana. It barely mentioned him and how he accompanied Rama into the forest. It also did not say how he cut off Ravana's sister's nose, leading her to tell Ravana about the two brothers.

I was able to pay more attention to the story of the golden deer, Maricha, this time. The first time around, I didn't pay much attention to that part, but it really caught my attention this time. It also reminded me of the Jataka story we read about the alligator who wanted to catch the monkey so he could feed the monkey's heart to his wife. Rama watched to catch the deer for Sita.

Another part that I seemed to has missed the first time around was the monkey army that goes to Lanka to help rescue Sita from Ravana. For some reason I had just thought it was Hanuman originally!

Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley