Here is the link to my Storybook project.
I look forward to reading your comments and feedback! Thanks for checking out my project!
Here is a picture of a cool Javanese puppet of Ghatotkacha!
Here is the link to my Storybook project.
I look forward to reading your comments and feedback! Thanks for checking out my project!
Here is a picture of a cool Javanese puppet of Ghatotkacha!
Hi, I really enjoyed reading your introduction and it definitely makes me excited to read about how this demons looks are deceiving.. It will be interesting to read the story as Krishna would narrate it as he would know any and all of the good and the bad that Ghatotkacha does throughout his lifetime. I am looking forward to learning about where his noble-ness stems from as he is born a demon, because they do get such a bad rep. What was the first good thing he ever did for someone else in his life? Did this make him feel good and provoke further good behavior? Did he resent that he was a demon because he has such good moral and intentions when interacting with others? Did he learn these good morals from his rakshasa mother or is he considered a diamond in the rough? It's very interesting that you stated that there are just as many good demons as good people and vice versa. I will try my best to keep an open mind as your storybook progresses but this is definitely creating dissonance with my prior beliefs. I'm so excited to follow along in the rest of your storybook!
ReplyDeleteHi Anusha! I think it is very cool how you decided to flip the narratives on demons and focus on a "good demon". Also I think having Krishna a narrate brings such a unique perspective. One thing I would add to your intro is perhaps some notes about the stories you will tell about Ghatotkacha. Perhaps you could have Krishna say you are going to talk about some particular story, so that the reader can have in their mind what to expect. It is somewhat confusing to see a demon be called as "good", so including some small detail of why Krishna says Ghatotkacha is "good" could help the reader have a better grasp of the storybook! I also think another interesting aspect would be to have Krishna involved in some of the stories. That would fit in perfectly with his narrator role as he would be able to draw from his experiences and encounters with Ghatotkacha to help express why he is not a normal demon. Although there was no story available for me to read, I am quite intrigued by your storybook idea and introduction, and I look forward to reading your stories as they come in!
ReplyDeleteHey, Anusha!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you were able to break apart the dichotomy of "humans are good, demons are evil". These typecasting sort of thoughts are all-too-common in writing and storytelling. At best, they cloud our judgement. At worst, they help perpetuate some nasty stereotypes. I also really enjoyed your POV narration from Krishna's perspective; talk about an great narrator! From a linear storytelling point, it seems that you have everything planned out from birth to death, and it all looks good so far!
I wonder how you'll tie Krishna's narrative into all of these stories? It might be interesting to see some details coming firsthand from Krishna vs. some details coming secondhand from Krishna? An example I'm thinking of could be "I saw this event happen, now this happened while I was away but I was filled in by _______". This may not work with your artistic concept of an omniscient narrator, but it may be something to try.
Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing how you spin these stories.
Cheers,
Chris
Yo Anusha! I think that out of all the projects I have seen thus far, you have the greatest harmony of organization and eye catching style I have seen yet! The concept to make your project an attempt to convince the audience that not all demons are bad is brilliant, and the fact that you will be portraying that using one particular demon's story is so exciting! The decision to make Krishna the narrator makes you introduction super engaging and got me to feel immersed in the feel of your tale. I also like how you emphasized your final sentence with the font edit, it makes your statement there really resonate. I would say no major flaws, as long as you keep on this track your complete project should be amazing. Good work!
ReplyDeleteAnusha,
ReplyDeleteI want to say that your layout for your project was probably one of the best that I have seen. I feel like the pictures really put a lot of perspective when it comes to the project. The green layer that specifically says "Humans are good, and demons are Evil... right?" stands out in a good way. I felt like your topic was pretty unique and while most of the the demons in the epics are evil, there are some good ones as well. I'm looking forward to seeing how you can connect the demons in the story with your own narrative. I hope you write about Ghatotkacha in one of your stories. In my opinion, Ghatotkacha is one of the demons that stand out the most compared to the other ones. I'll for sure be looking forward to all of your stories. Your blog is one of the most interesting ones that I have seen posted so far.
Hey Anusha, great job and love the style on your website. Ghatotkacha is one of my favorite characters from the Mahabharata and the story of his birth is fascinating. You did a great job organising everything and loved the images you incorporated too. I would also be interested in looking into Javanese culture and it's description of Ghatotkacha and other characters from the Mahabharata.
ReplyDeleteHi Anusha! I really enjoyed reading your story about Ghatotkacha's birth, how his parents met, and how he was raised by his mother Hidimbi.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you emphasized the importance of Ghatotkacha and Hidimbi learning from their mistakes regarding human sacrifice. It makes sense that they might not have the instinctive aversion to the practice that we might have since they are both Rakshasas and were taught to eat humans, but in the end they still turned out to be "good guys" because they were taught to value all lives. This assessment employs a very rational and empathetic approach to morality, which I think is really helpful to your argument and is something we can probably stand to learn from in real life.
I also really liked the formatting of your website and the way you used big, eye-catching words across the page to direct readers' attention to certain questions.
Hey, Anusha!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to comment on your clear and mapped out plan for this storybook and commend you for making such a clear timeline. Everything from Intro, Birth, Mayabazaar, and Death seems to be super well-established, and I think that that will only do you good in the future as you write these stories.
Now, for your Birth story... I really enjoyed how you presented the qualities of both Bhima and Hidimbi. Obviously she is well-intentioned by alerting Bhima and giving him and his family plenty of notice, but Bhima's inherent distrust of her makes for a great agitator. As you wrote, she even begins to wish that she wasn't born a demon and that maybe she would be more trustworthy as a human. I think that this was a great example of a humanizing quality.
I really enjoy your writing style and I can't really think of anything that needs improvement. Well done, excellent work!
Cheers,
Chris
Hi Anusha,
ReplyDeleteI really like your introduction and I particularly like how you use the green banners to highlight the point that your stories are making or will make. I also really like it because I can relate it to the Halo universe, the theme of my portfolio, as one of the character John/ Master Chief has the nickname of Demon, but he is just trying to ensure that his people, human, survive against many advanced threats. I was also a nice surprise to see that the introduction is told by Krishna. The birth story is also very interesting to me. I can not imagine battling one's own father or son for hours, especially when they were trying to kill each other since they did not realize who the other was. I like the happy ending, but I wonder if they stayed together as a family after that or if Bhima had left again.
HI Anusha!
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading your introduction to your project! It really looks great so far! The dark color choices and layout are so fitting to the demon tale of the demon god! I also thought the design and layout of your project were distinct. I have really never seen many projects that include the banner to have words that were included in the project! It really made it pop and engaged the reader more! You also did a fantastic job on your story too! I thought the narration of the demon god was a great way to really show the reader what his personality is really like! He really thinks hes a handsome fellow for sure! I also enjoyed that you made him so confident that way it really brings a funny element to your story. I hope to read more of your stories! Keep up the great work!
Hi Anusha,
ReplyDeleteI really like the green banner you have on your intro page. It is eye-catching and curiosity-invoking. It made me want to read more!
I like what your introduction has to say about not all demons being bad. I am writing about Ravana and his siblings, and we get to see a bit of that with some of them as well.
On your first story, I think the image fits really well. I like the graininess of it and I think it goes well with your font choice. The placement of your Bhima and Hidimbi photo is appealing and unobtrusive.
The page of your second story is when I first noticed the green underline of your title. For the first story it did not stand out too much, but on the second it did more because of the background having a lot of red in it. Is the green underline intentional? I like the background picture you chose, and I see we've upgraded to a video for the in-text visual. Nice!
Your third story. The green underline is there again, but I don't find it noticeable. It was really only on the second story's page that it stood out. It didn't look bad, per say, but a little mismatched possibly.
I like this background header the most! It is so fitting! I am excited to read the story to go along with these pictures.
Hi Anusha!! Your entire site looks really nice and visually pleasing, and i can definitely say the content within is great as well. I read your stories and I love the amount of detail you put into them, and I especially liked the way you embedded videos in one of the stories in the middle. That is a really interesting touch and I might consider doing it as well. The comments are supposed to be about the author's note, and I read all of your notes and they do a really good job in providing context for the reader. This makes it a lot easier to put pieces together after we read the story. In the story "BIRTH OF GHATOTKACHA" your author's note does a really nice job in introducing the themes of the story and also introducing the characters. I like how you also provide a short summary. Overall, really nice work!!
ReplyDeleteHey Anusha! This spin on the classic evil and good/demon and saint story was excellent! Ghatotchaka certainly showed a different side than one might expect from a demon and it was especially cool to see his friend Vishnu stand up for his character. I also liked how you took us readers on a chronological journey through the life of the good demon and looking forward to reading about the death part of his life. I particularly liked how, in your authors note, you asked the question of whether our perceptions are muddled regarding good and evil. Are humans actually good and demons only bad or do these two entities exist on a spectrum? Overall, I loved your storybook page and am really looking forward to reading more of your work!!
ReplyDeleteHi Anusha!
ReplyDeleteThe depth and detail that you've incorporated into your Storybook is astounding. I am especially impressed by the length of your stories as they tend to be fairly long and full of much plot development. You've done an excellent job in crafting the character of Ghatotkacha as well.
As to your Author's Notes, they are very informative! They don't leave me wanting for any information and they even raise important questions about the text that I might've missed the first time reading through so I really appreciated that.
The only thing that I can critique in this Storybook is the design and, even then, there's not much that needs fixed. I would recommend adding in more photos just to spice up each page a little bit. Adding in photos would also break up the text a little bit and with these stories being so long, that would be especially helpful.
You have an excellent thing going here so far! Great work!
Hello Anusha!
ReplyDeleteYour storybook is one of the best Storybook I've ever read. I've also noticed from our readings this semester that not all rakshasas were evil. I love that you decided to do a storybook based off of that and wrote about the son of Bhima. Bhima is also one of my favorite characters that I wrote a story about, so reading about his rakshasa son was very fun. The chronological order of your storybook made it really easy to follow and immerse myself in the story. I really like how Ghatotkatcha causes trouble for the Kauravas and the part where he voids a marriage by acting as if he was a woman was hilarious. There wasn't much feedback I could think of but I thought that it would be great if you could maybe expand on the fact that he was ignorant of human sacrifices being bad. I learned a lot from reading your author's note since I always struggle to write much about it. Great work!
Hi Anusha,
ReplyDeleteI thought your story book was one of my favorite to read so far! I saw that you decided to base you story off of the son of Bhima and I can see that you looked a lot into the story as I took a lot of notes on Bhima too! Your storybook was very easy to follow as it was very well organized chronologically. Your author's note was very informative and clear as it left me with no questions in particular. I really liked the way you incorporated the video for the in-text and l think more pictures and images would enhance your storybook even more. Overall, this was an awesome storybook to read and you did an amazing job!
Hey Anusha, I am revisiting your page and I'm impressed by the progression. It was great to see you stick to the same theme and layout. At the same time, you made sure to develop on your writing and storytelling. The use of the banner images is brilliant and satisfying. Like I mentioned in the previous comment, your choice of character is perfect. I was glad to read more about characters that have traditionally been neglected while retelling the Mahabharata.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Siddharth