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Week 13 Storytelling: To My Women

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The gods smiled. Again and again they smiled. The gods smiled down on a million men and gave them big strong muscles to string bows and lift mountains and so they did all of these spectacular things while the gods smiled all the wider. Their teeth are stars. When the great and wonderful whoever performed such great and magical feats of whatever the stories were written so the heroes could be lauded remembered revered mimicked by all of the ordinary people that the gods just acknowledge. But the women. That's it. That's every damn story. But the women. But they did this or that, don't forget that . But they weren't enough this or that, you're getting it now. Long ago it seems every single woman needed some sort of test or trial to prove that they were worthy but the measure of a woman's strength is not how much abuse she can bear because even women without the world's trauma are strong. A young woman read about histori

Week 14 Reading Notes: Sacred Tales of India Part B

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Personal Photo of Artemisia Gentileschi and Pippy Longstocking, June 2016 They gon' raise a bull Shiny people in the woods Ceremony: labor of love He is king Girl marries Yama, king of the dead He says don't go south Guess what she does Her mother is suffering torment for refusing to feed a Brahman She asks Yama what can be done He says if her brother will part with some of his reward, then their mother can be freed Her brother doesn't wanna do that Yama says there's a Brahman woman suffering child birth who could They work out  deal where the woman lives instead of going straight to heaven, the girls mum goes straight to heaven, and the girl is happy next story Poor sad wife and goddess who eats elephants son with no father Cut him to pieces next story Enormous snake next story Daughter of the Destroyer is gonna mess you up Also more snakes JK he worships her now Source:  D. N. Neogi, "Sacred Tales of India." 1916

Week 14 Reading Notes: Sacred Tales of India Part A

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Personal photo of Pippy Longstocking, January 2017 snake boys adopt girl who feeds them girl is taken to snake boys' mom's place but messes up feeding all the other snakes girl is gracious with only half the jewels given the rest and king is tricked into adopting girl as a daughter next one the one with the girl who loves the hermit so much that its impossible for him to die next one a brahman who lives upon charity is a greedy asshole and won't share cakes with his wiffe and two daughters even though his wife is the one who made the cakes wife can't refuse her daughters and gives them cakes, father is resolved to abandon them father takes them into the woods, fakes his death while they nap, then leaves them to die tree opens up and saves them they find ladies worship and the lake dries up because they weren't sincere enough and they apologize with a ring of hay, and the god asks their wish and they wish to live happily and for their father to be

Week 12 Storytelling: Space Between Us

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The stardust was thick as the King chased the Comet deer, stone wrought into long legs and a twist of antlers, through the cosmos. He urged his charioteer faster, ever faster, as they sped after their prize. They were almost upon it when they heard a voice. The glowing emptiness of the king's eye sockets hunted the voice now, the deer momentarily forgotten. "That song must be the hermits." Two cascading forms, dark swirling purple ether tumbling into and over itself, drew closer. The king, hulking light and shining gold, rose to meet them. "King, please leave the deer be. It deserves to live, no?" "Of course," rumbled the king. The hermits tumbled into the shape of a bow, then led the king away to the grove of their hermitage, tucked in the tendrils of a supernova. The kings strayed from the hermits who lead him when he spotted a swirl of fair maidens, luminescent green ether, delicate and bright. He watched them, quickly falling in love w

Reading Notes: Kalidasa's Shakuntala Part 2

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Turmoil He doesn't remember marrying her? The gem is found in the mouth of a fish and the police think the fish man stole it but it smells like its been in a fish She pretty and he imagines her pretty Disbelieving reunion yay happy Personal Photo, July 2016 Source:  Kalidasa. Shakuntala and Other Works

Reading: Kalidasa's Shakuntala Part A

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An elegant deer chase in a chariot King visits a hermitage, sees a fair maiden, watches her creepily Lots of bees, very good Clown wants to not hunt Goes to guard the hermitage instead of feed his mother when she breaks four day fast Sweet words in the trees interrupted by a mother A guest scorned, curses the marriage but after the girl's friends' kindness he says when the king sees a gem he has given her. Her friends adorn her. Personal Photo, August 2016 Source: Kalidasa. Shakuntala and Other Works

Week 11 Storytelling: Rain

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It had been 20 generations since it rained. Around The Mountain, next to a mountain stream, the last of humanity clung to life. They grew their food and kept their records and moved along one day at a time. Many of them were barren, and so children were surrounded by great celebration. There was one couple who were blessed with a great many children: eight, to be exact. However, most of their children died. Only two of their boys survived to reach adolescence. Their eighth son, Krishnu, was very respected in their community. When he was young, all the women fawned over him. As he grew and proved himself an excellent farmer and explorer, the men lauded him. He led expeditions further and further into the forgotten world, exploring caves and palaces, looking for remnants of the past, trying to find something their careful historical records may have missed. On one journey, they came across a temple full of scrolls. The men handled them tenderly, looking through to see if there