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Thursday, January 31, 2019

Reading Notes: Online: Public Domain Edition Ramayana, Section B



(Rama ready for battle. Source: Wikimedia)

In this section I noticed that the story is told in the form of third person. The narrator is never part of the story. It is interesting to see how they narrator also switches the way the write the story or let the characters speak. In some instances the characters are given speech bubbles or parentheses so you know exactly what they say and in other instances the narrator simply sums up what they say. 

When the author ends the story they tend to do one of two things. They either have an ending to the story or leave almost a cliffhanger where it keeps you wanting to read more. I think it does depend on where you are at in the scheme of things. Sometimes you need to have a nice finish and other times it is better to keep going. There does need to be some time of conclusion though. 

The intro does a really good job of either summarizing what just happened in the previous story. They  connect the previous story with the one they are going to tell currently which I will have to keep in mind when I am writing my story. 

I found it kind of funny how the author let the demon speak and explain himself before the fight. In Viradha, the demon tells Rama who he is and what he will do to him. To me, this seems added just to enhance the dramatic purposes of the story. In real life, I do not think we would take time to announce who we are and what we planned on doing to our enemy. If we knew they were our enemy then I think the battle would just occur. That being said, I was intrigued on how detailed the author put into the demons speech and I was able to visualize this scene better. So maybe I should not just discard the idea of letting the enemies talk before the fight. 

Bibliography: The Ramayana by Manmatha Nath Dutt


I also like how some characters come back or pop up in the story. In Kharathe demon popped up again and tried to destroy Rama again. I think I would include this in my stories if possible because it makes the story more interesting. For example, I forgot about this demon, so it was nice to be like oh yeah he's back like he said and see what happens. In this opening scene the author did not really connect it but went straight into what was happening right now. They really set the scene and were descriptive with what it was like. This allowed me as an audience member to picture where this was at. Then the author introduced the characters and what was happening. This really enhanced the story. 

Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie

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