Week 5 Story: Hanuman Meets His Biggest Fan (OC don't steal)

PRESENT DAY, 9:22 PM, NORMAN, OK, USA: 
A young man sits at his desk in his room. It just so happens that today, the 26th of April, is this young man's birthday! And yet he is spending it sad and alone in his room. What is this young man reading?

Dan Plaff reading his book like a nerd: Personal Image

Narayan's Ramayana!?!??!1 The classic adventure of good versus evil and the cornerstone of Indian mythology? You are unimpressed. Who does this nerd think he is? Some kind of scholar? You think that you're probably smarter than him, and you're right. You're always right.
The young man looks around, as if he could hear some kind of narrator talking around and about him. You say, "What's your name?"
He looks a bit scared but responds, "Dan Plaff?" into the void. You then realize he had old name tags hanging up in his room, but no one needs know that.
He shrugs, blames the weird voices on a lack of sleep, and continues his reading.
"Hanuman..," he dreamily whispers to himself. "What a monkey."
You get the sense that this Dan kid really likes this monkey character. You wonder what he would do if he met this monkey guy, and then you realize that you're an omnipotent narrator and can make that happen. So you snap your fingers that don't exist and bring Dan into the world of the Ramayana.

UNIVERSE CYCLE #271273, 9:39 PM KISHKINDHA KINGDOM, INDIAN SUBCONTINENT (about 7000 years before present day)

Hanuman reading in the forest: BlogSpot

A large monkey-man hybrid is studying diligently in a library in a forest. The title of his book is something along the lines of "Ten Asthras that Ravana Can't Live Without - And Why You Need Them." He is all alone in the building, and seems to have sequestered himself in the corner.
Suddenly, a void is ripped in his world and out pops our favorite young nerd, Dan. He looks around,  completely bewildered at his sudden displacement.
The monkey-man reacts to this development by quickly hiding the book behind his back, and holds it there with his tail as he folds his hands in front of them to seem more put-together.
"And who are you?" The monkey-man asks, quickly running through the list of gods in his head, comparing their descriptions to this scrawny boy in front of him. Well, he must be important, he thought, there's no other explanation for this sudden appearance.
"Uh" is all that Dan can utter in his dumbfoundedness.
"Are you a god, a demon, human, yaksha, or some other creature?"
"Uh"
Maybe this creature cannot speak, or cannot understand me. The monkey-man thought. "I am sorry to dismiss you, but I must return to my, uh, research."
"AREYOUHANUMAN? OMIGOSHYOUARESOCOOLANDICANTBELIEVEIMHERE-" Dan shouted at once.
"Slow down, boy. I can hardly understand you!" Hanuman seemed a bit worried from this sudden outburst. "I must return to my research."
"(this is so cool) What are you reading?!" Dan asked, excited to be talking to this miracle of a monkey.
Giving up completely with understanding this interaction, Hanuman responded, "I am researching the weapons of that evil Ravana for my lord Rama. I spend my entire days know in pursuit of any knowledge that could help defeat Ravana. In only a few months, we will begin to search for him in order to reclaim Rama's wife."
Dan nods knowingly. "Yeah, Ravana has some deadly weapons. So you haven't fought him ye- I mean, you haven't found him?" Dan patted himself on the back for his quick thinking and not ruining the timeline.
Hanuman, the great scholar and god-incarnate, immediately understood that this boy was from the future, potentially as some sort of omen. But good or bad, he still could not tell. "No, we are patiently awaiting the conclusion of the rainy season, as was decreed by my lord Rama."
"Why do you go on with all that 'lord Rama' stuff?" Dan did indeed use air-quotes as he spoke.
"Because Rama is Vishnu-incarnate, and I have pledged my life to serve him."
"But why? You are- I mean, you seem so powerful. Why not adventure on your own?"
"Because what glory is there in personal fame? What fulfillment can be found in worldly riches? I seek the highest service in life: a life spent in devotion to the gods. I consider myself lucky to be blessed with so many gifts, the greatest of which is serving my lord Rama."
"So its a cult thing or what?"
Hanuman sighs. "It is not a 'cult-thing.' It is my deepest belief that this is my purpose and I seek to fulfill it." As the true scholar he is, Hanuman did not use air-quotes.
"Huh." Dan had not considered Hanuman's loyalty as a purpose before. "I guess that makes sense."
And on that abrupt note, you snap your metaphorical fingers and return Dan to his own time. Hanuman looks you in your eyes and asks you to never do that again. He returns to his 'research,' and you, indignant, go to leave a comment on this site saying how much you hated loved this story.
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Author's Note: That was fun! A huge departure from my earlier stories, I had a lot of fun with a more self-referential, meta-narrative style of writing this week. Since he was my favorite character, I knew I wanted to write more about Hanuman, so I delved into how he spent the rainy months in between seeing Sugriva take the throne and leaving to search for Ravana. I decided to write Hanuman as a devoted scholar to serve as a cool parallel against my nerdy main character Dan (of no relation to me, Daniel Pfaff, also a cool scholar). I also took a lot of inspiration from an online webcomic called Homestuck (often referred to as the Ulysses of the internet for its length). If you've heard of Homestuck, I am sorry. That's it. Just I'm sorry. For bringing it up and for whatever trouble any misguided fan has given you. But its writing style is so unique and felt like a fun style to try for this story. Hope you enjoyed it!

Narayan, R. K. "The Ramayana"

Extra Credit Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blue, Part B

Hello VagaBuddies,
Welcome part to Sita Sings the Blues review Part 2! In part one,  I also forgot to mention that I noticed that the movie took certain liberties with the story of the Ramayana, which kept it interesting, but one of the more controversial changes (in my mind) was leaving out Lakshmana in Rama's exile into the forest. In Narayan's Ramayana, Lakshmana was there to protect Sita when Rama went to catch the golden deer, but in the movie Sita was left by herself.
In addition to the Lakshmana removal, I also found it odd that the battle between Rama and Ravana was very oversimplified and frankly unsatisfying in this movie. In Narayan's Ramayana, Ravana and Rama battle furiously with different weapons on the ground and in the air on chariots, with tons of trickery and magic throughout the whole fight. In the movie, Rama shoots one arrow that flies straight into Ravana's chest, killing him instantly. This was after all the build up of Ravana as this powerful evil king who was Rama's wife's kidnapper, his arch-nemesis. And his death seemed way too easy for Rama.
Anyway,  story changes aside, I loved loved all the songs in here. Honestly! "Who's that Knocking" was such a bop that I am thinking of just listening to that song anyway!

Trigger Warning, Dave being an absolute d*ck: Sita Sings the Blues

Ok, another thing that I liked (and yet also hated in this movie) was the "real-life" portions of the film about Nina and Dave's relationship. First of all, Dave is a complete asshole. It is a testament to this film's storytelling ability that I disliked Dave so much, that I became so sad when he broke up with Nina over email while she was away in New York. It was interesting to learn that this story arc of the movie was based on real-life events between Nina, the creator of the film, and her boyfriend. The movie has a whole then seemed to be a very cathartic exercise for Nina, and I was happy to get a good film out of it! Overall this movie is a fun, fresh, and exciting adaption of the Ramayana (with only a few questionable choices), and I would recommend this to anyone wanting to learn more about the Ramayana, or just wanting a good story in general.

Vaga-Buon Voyage.

Nina Paley. "Sita Sings the Blues." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzTg7YXuy34&feature=emb_logo

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Part A

Hello Vagabuddies,
Today I am reviewing the first half of the the beautiful movie Sita Sings the Blues. I watched it with two other students from our class (and a past student who just wanted to rewatch the movie!), and it was such a fun movie. I really enjoyed the different art styles that were used for different purposes throughout the movie. First, there was the art style of a chalk-style rough animation on flashing cut-out real-world images such as hearts or the sun. Then, there was the art style of the characters talking to each other, which was just a simple animation, and this was separate from the animation during the songs, which was a very distinct cartoon-style animation that over-emphasized the character's body types such as Sita's very very skinny waist and Rama's Dorito chip body. Then there was the style of animation during the narrator's parts that had more realistic drawings but a choppier style of animation. Finally, running parallel to the whole story of the Ramayana, there was the drawn cartoon on real backgrounds animation for the "real life" story between Dave and Nina. This constant switching between animation styles sometimes made the story a little difficult to follow and feel a little disjointed, but overall it kept the film interesting and fast-paced.

Onto more things I liked about this half of the film specifically, the interaction between the narrators among themselves was hilarious! It felt like an episode of Drunk History, and they disagreements and confusion parallels what a first-time reader of the Ramayana feels during their read-through. I especially liked it when the narrators discussed why Sita never escaped with Hanuman, something I had also wondered. The female narrator explained (and I agreed with her) that Sita wanted Rama to save her and prove himself to the world by defeating the evil king Ravana. Other things like the comedic timing of the camera panning to Ravana every time Sita explained her devotion to Rama was hilarious and a definite laugh-out-loud moment!

Ravana's Shock at Sita's devotion: Sita Sings the Blues

In the extra reading due this week, I will discuss what I thought of the songs too (spoiler, I loved them)!

Vaga-Buon Voyage!


Nina Paley. "Sita Sings the Blues." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzTg7YXuy34&feature=emb_logo