Epics of India

Figure 1:  Feedback  Blue Diamond Gallery The most important factors in feedback are accuracy and precision; all feedback must be constrained within these two parameters. Once feedback is accurate and precise within a reasonable degree, it is important to have a diversity of perspectives, and to be able to learn from this diverse, but constrained feedback. False feedback is unbelievably harmful. False internal negative feedback leads to things like suicide, anorexia, and depression. False internal positive feedback will run you into a brick wall. False external feedback will lead to either the results labelled above, a serious miscalibration, or, in my case, a serious mistrust of external feedback. I should mention that as a child, I was feed a saccharine diet of praise and naive optimism, and as I realized that I was lied to, I came to distrust almost all positive feedback in general. I think that's one of the most damaging phenomenon in my life. As such, it is nece...

Figure 1:  Hanuman  Wikipedia Figure 2:  Sun Wukong  Wikimedia Ganesha, The Elephant Headed God  - I was originally interested in Ganesha for one reason. I love the story about how he "walked around his world" and got married; however, I can't seem to find the version that my Indian friends told me. I'm curious to learn other versions of this myth, and if I were to tell a story, it would be a mess of conflicting accounts regarding his marriage from different points of view where nobody remembers anything accurately. Hanuman - When I was younger, my favorite picture book was one about the monkey king. I think that examining one of his main inspirations would be useful. I'm curious to learn more about the literary similarities between them. I also wonder how their abilities and characterization vary, especially in regards to the monkey king's more mischievous traits. I would probably place him in stories where he interacts with the monkey king...

Updated Version Figure 1:  Statue of Man Killing a Snake  Pixabay Far away, by a remote village, there was a dark forest, and in that forest lived a terrible serpent. Beside this forest was a small cottage, and in that cottage sat a young boy, slurping soup, relaxing in a blanket, and pretending that the serpent didn't exist. That whole town pretended that there was no serpent; they lived in fear of it, and the slightest mention threatened to send the town into a panic. The animals in the forest feared the serpent, constantly worrying that it would devour them. A giant lion passed through the town. As he did, he noticed the small boy. Perhaps at another time he would simply have eaten the child, but the boy's cowardice dismayed him such that he could not even muster the will to devour him. Incensed by the child's inaction, the lion leaped through an open window and into the boy's room. There he spoke to the child. "Rawr" "But that...

Figure 1:  Typical Depiction of The Buddha  Wikimedia The Foolish, Timid Rabbi t by Ellen C. Babbitt Until relatively recently I was rather dismissive of these moralizing stories. This story is about a mass hysteria caused by an initial overreaction to some stimulus. The overreaction is halted by the lion, who while monstrous and predatory is also brave and unafraid. Inspecting the initial issue it is found that there was no real issue to begin with. these stories seem obvious now, but I suspect that at the time of this stories' writing it was the most efficient way to state that not overreacting and confronting one's fears was an optimal course of action. It also states something that the modern incarnation of this saying does not: to confront that which you have overestimated requires the fiercer part of your mind or a fierce external individual. I think I'll keep the lion around. Two Turtle Jatakas  by Ellen C. Babbitt The first story is a relatively...

Figure 1:  General Illustration of the Ramayana  Wikipedia I intend to read the " Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition ". as an anthology with many contributing authors, I suspect that the diversely written nature of the work will be more representative of diverse Indian culture in general. I also suspect that an anthology reading will be less risky to read than a novel, as I may dislike the manner in which the novel is written, but the probability that I will dislike every anthology is lower, given that they are all written differently. The two comic books that I intend to read are " Tales of Durga " and " Tales of Balarama ". " Tales of Durga " involves a series of battles, which always excites me. The fact that its women beating up all the demons is also something that I find appealing. " Tales of Balarama " interests me because I often find the secondary players in a narrative be interesting. Being the brother of an incar...