Famous Last Words for Week 4

Well last week for this post I wrote about how I hoped the Patriots would win the Superbowl, and that came true!!!!!!!!  So maybe every week in this post I should write about something I hope will happen and if I'm lucky maybe it will.  So for this next week I hope the OU men's basketball team can beat Iowa State tomorrow night.  

I have OU basketball on my mind because I went to their game this past week where they beat West Virginia and it was one of the most fun games I have ever attended.  I am proud that OU is getting a very energetic student section to attend basketball games now, we need to be more of a basketball school!! 

I drove to my hometown for the weekend and went with my mother to my high school's performance of "The Addams Family Musical".  I was in the theatre program when I was in high school, l so when I get the chance I try to come and support their shows.  I am familiar with the Addams Family but never saw the musical when it was on Broadway, even though I heard great things about it!! Honestly, the musical is amazing.  It was so much fun watching classic characters that you already have an affection for in a completely new environment and story.  I recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to see it!  

The semester is really starting to get busy.  A lot of my friends had their first round of tests and I have a ten page paper due in a couple of weeks.  I was too busy to even write a storytelling post this week, so I decided to just concentrate on my Storybook.  I hope all of this craziness dies down around my birthday, which is coming up in just a couple of weeks!  It probably won't, but hey I can hope.  

(Personal photo of the playbill and ticket from The Addams Family Musical performance.)  

Week 4 Reading Diary B:

This is a Reading Diary that details my thoughts from pages 58-104 of the Ramayana retold by William Buck.  

• The story of Rama's exile is pretty much the same.  Except Kooni changed to Manthara???
• Oh I hate when the townspeople raise a river and it blocks my path.  Happens all the time.  The only other time I can think of this happening is when the water created a path instead of blocking one.  (Moses)
• So Kaikeyi didn't use one of her wishes on learning the language of animals?  What a waste.  
• It's crazy how diction and description can completely retell these stories.  
• This section was fairly similar to the other version of Rama that we read.  
• It's weird reading "Perfect Rama" over again, he really loses himself towards the end of his life.  
• The priests they meet while in exile do not have much barring on the rest of the epic…

(Painting of Dasartha promising to banish Rama from Wikipedia.)

Week 4 Reading Diary A: Rama in Reverse

This is a Reading Diary that details my thoughts from pages 1-58 of the Ramayana retold by William Buck.  

• This story begins where the other story ended.  
• Valmiki becomes the first poet ever because of his outrage when a hunter kills a bird.  
• Buck tells the story of Rama in a very unique way.  The other story cut out the ending where Rama exiles Sita because the author wanted to leave it on a happier ending.  However in Buck's retelling he opens with the sad ending and uses the lost sons to sing Rama's origin.  
• There is an awful lot of description over how abnormal all of Dasharatha's sons look. 
• Many parts that were not touched on in Narayan's Ramayana  are being told here.  For instance, Ravana destroying parts of heaven and the gods discovering they need a human to destroy Ravana.  It also gives more details on the birth of Ravana. 
• This version really sets up Ravana as the villain instead of him just coming out of nowhere at the end and stealing Sita.  
• Why does Buck go into SO much more detail but decides to cut out Thataka? 
• Honestly now that I know what is going to happen, I just feel bad for Sita.  She basically HAS to marry him, then go into exile with him, be kidnapped because of him, be rejected by him and then be re-exiled again.  Her life sucks.  

("Hermitage of Valmiki" from Wikipedia.)