Death Stories and Birth Stories: Styles Brainstorm
Topic: The topic I am choosing is Death Stories and
Birth Stories. I hope to find as many stories as possible and choose the most interesting
ones for my project. I was immediately drawn to this topic with the opening of
Ramayana, and the fact that Rama would have never been born without the help of
“magic” rice. I really love that story about Rama and his brothers, and it was
sort of rushed over in Ramayana. It was such an interesting way to start an
entire epic and I would like to see other storyteller’s versions of their
births. Maybe I will be able to get their birth stories in the perspective of
their parents and their hardship as they struggled to conceive. I really find
the information about Shashthi very interesting. While I may not do a story
directly on her, her role cannot be avoided within other’s stories as goddess
of children and childbirth. I am also interested into looking into the story of
Ravana from the viewpoint other storytellers. I really would like to know if
his death story is different from a different author than the perspective Narayan
gave us.
Bibliography:
Styles:
1. Mothers (or fathers) telling birth stories. Who would remember someone’s birth story,
better than your parents? I like the idea of having a pre-birth story and
conception as well as the actually story of someone’s birth itself. There are
tons of stories about how gods, humans, and demons came to be but not
necessarily a lot of stories told from the standpoint of their mother. A lot of
times these individuals sort of just came to exist, so exploring their birth
stories seems very interesting to me.
2. Stories
from an onlooker: I also really like the idea of telling a story from the view
point of a god or onlooker that sees the whole picture, whether it be someone’s
birth or death. Having the perspective of someone who sees everything instead
of just the individual’s viewpoint is very interesting to me. This sort of goes
hand I hand with Karma (which I almost chose) and someones death or birth may
be because of a plan far bigger than they could ever see themselves. That may
be a little more difficult to find with the aspect of the stories of everyone
else around the individual but I’m willing to give it a try.
3. Death
stories in the viewpoint of a loved one: death is a very difficult thing to
process as a loved one. Having someone taken from you is hard to understand,
and I would like to see if there are any stories that have family members that
tell the story not only of their death but also reminisce on their lives.
4. And
lastly the person themselves: the last
storytelling option I would like to explore is the viewpoint of the individual being
born or dying. This may seem unconventional to us, but in such a setting with
gods and goddesses, and past and future lives, those individuals may be more
aware of their fate and purpose than those around them. I would like to see if
these characters have a perspective of their own to tell about their birth or
death.
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