Our efforts at Dornix park hold the familiar flavor as the efforts in our book, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories", by the Guppees and Chupwalas as they worked around the Sea of Stories. Each have different reasons for their attentions, and each reason is reflected back into what we ourselves are experiencing and feeling. We just have to relies it and embrace it.
The Guppees see the Sea of Stories as a mark with there past. The old zone holds all of the old, ancient, original stories. They revive the sea of stories to make it knew, fresh, and usable. They take pride in taking care of the Sea of Stories and all that is associated with it. People have been drawn to the Dornix site for various reasons, though among them is the reason that that is where Big Timber was originally developed though they had to move the site due to an inconvenience with the rail road. It is a link with our past and the things that we crave to know. By working and restoring Dornix to a usable, enjoyable place, we bring ourselves closer to the past, the same as the Guppees bring themselves closer to those of their past through the Sea of Stories.
The Chupwalas, after their evil leader is overthrown, would probably feel a priority towards the Sea of Stories after their leader did, in fact, nearly destroy it. Because, in their minds, they would be mildly responsible for the destruction and would feel a need to correct it. Some people feel a guilt that Dornix went so long unattended that they want to restore it to a glory that people are mildly responsible for letting it slip into. Even if they are not able to make it back into the town it was, they feel that they can change it into something where everyone in town can enjoy.
Personally, I don't feel any guilt that Dornix deteriorated into something that is some one's back pasture. However, we do have a need for the kinds of things that Dornix can offer to us. I find it fulfilling to go to Dornix and help out, even if it is just raking up wood chips. There is a sense of good that fills you when you help with something so important, something that could carry on past any of the people that live in Big Timber. Sometimes I wonder if some of the people who worked on creating places like Yellowstone National Park had the same feeling as this.
All in all, our work at Dornix park relates to the feelings that are bouncing around our book. To them and to me, it is worth wild to preserve what we have, restore what we had, and appreciate all that comes with it. We are so lucky to have a community that does pitch in and create places where we can enjoy ourselves and be closer to our past.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Guppees and the Chupwalas
On the earth's second moon, Kahani, the two groups of people show their differences. there are the Guppees who live in Gup City and are bright people who enjoy peace, sunshine, and chatter. The Chupwalas live on the other side of the moon where there is complete darkness. These people are gloomy, grim, and silent with a few violent members.
What, as a work of literature, do these two factions represent? There are many answers, good and evil, dark and light, happy and sad, or is it anything but the appearance of subjects on the surface verses the deeper "personality".
While the Guppees have am energetic prince that they won't even let rule anything important, the Chupwalas have Khattam-Shud, a cruel dictator, bent of destroying the story streams and other acts of violence. A Hitler-like dictatorship is the last thing that the moon,Kahani, wants. With him as leader, the whole world would suffer from poisoned stories.
To save the ocean and all who "subscribe" to the story water, the old zone has to be secured because it is the life-blood of the ocean of stories. The oldest and most original of stories flow from the old zone and is in fact the heart of the ocean of stories. It represents the original, the pure, and all that is pure and good.
What, as a work of literature, do these two factions represent? There are many answers, good and evil, dark and light, happy and sad, or is it anything but the appearance of subjects on the surface verses the deeper "personality".
While the Guppees have am energetic prince that they won't even let rule anything important, the Chupwalas have Khattam-Shud, a cruel dictator, bent of destroying the story streams and other acts of violence. A Hitler-like dictatorship is the last thing that the moon,Kahani, wants. With him as leader, the whole world would suffer from poisoned stories.
To save the ocean and all who "subscribe" to the story water, the old zone has to be secured because it is the life-blood of the ocean of stories. The oldest and most original of stories flow from the old zone and is in fact the heart of the ocean of stories. It represents the original, the pure, and all that is pure and good.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Slide show.
The slide show depics several events out of indian liturature, expecialy the book, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" by Salman Rushdie. Also, there is refrences to different Indian traditions. First Haroun Al-Rashid is the main character out of "Haround and The Sea of Stories". The Hoopee is the bird that takes Haroun and the watter Genie (also depicted) to the second moon where the Sea of Stories is. The Assyrian Lion and winged Monkeys were passed over as mounts to the moon. In the story, Haroun and his father are staying on the Dal lake, spelled
D U L L. In the stories that Haroun's father tells of African gold mines, Mount Fuji, North Pole, and Bagdad which are all settings for his wonderful stories.
Other traditional stories are the Arabian Nights. In those are Aladin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad which feautures the mythical creature Roc.
The Mudra is one of the traditional hand gestures used in meditations.
Also depicted is the song, "I am the Walrus"
, Abhinaya, Satyajit Ray, and Goopy.
D U L L. In the stories that Haroun's father tells of African gold mines, Mount Fuji, North Pole, and Bagdad which are all settings for his wonderful stories.
Other traditional stories are the Arabian Nights. In those are Aladin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad which feautures the mythical creature Roc.
The Mudra is one of the traditional hand gestures used in meditations.
Also depicted is the song, "I am the Walrus"
, Abhinaya, Satyajit Ray, and Goopy.Tuesday, April 7, 2009
What's the use?
"What's the use of stories that aren't even true?" This quote comes from Salman Rushdie's book, Haroun and the Sea of Stories. It does make us wonder though, why do we continually create and tell stories that are not even true? The books of fiction give us incite into another world and into anther's life. Stories are often used as teaching aids by adults to send a message on to the younger generations. Also, because people have become so far advanced in technology and our lives have become so much easier, we have time to make-believe and have time to enjoy the stories that originate from there.
In a story, we are given incite and anything is possible. The good guy always gets the reward and the bad guy always ends up being punished. I don't know anyone who does not look into a book and wonders, "What would happen if I was in her place?" Things we can never imagine happening become real and valid and we see how it happens. For instance, when our class read The Power Of One I was able to see what the life of an English boy living among the mixed races in South Africa would have felt during his life. I have never been to South Africa, I have never done research on South Africa, and I probably will never go to South Africa, but I know now the heart and mind of one such boy.
Throughout time, adults have told teaching stories to educate and warn the young. The "Boogie Man" is one such story used to teach young children to behave. But stories are not only told to frighten children into behaving. Aesop told a multitude of stories that mealy taught a lesson such as, "Be kind to your elders", "Don't treat someone in a way you wouldn't want to be treated", and "Don't tell lies because when you are telling the truth, no one will believe you." Stories hold the attentions of the young and delivers a lesson in a way that they understand better than just having the lesson told to them.
Just looking at the hundreds of books that exist in our world, we must surmise that all of them are not for teaching. As history has gone by, it has become obvious that our lives are getting easier due to the fact that we no longer have to worry about surviving from one day to the next. The invention of and the wide use of the TV give evidence to the fact that we now have leisure. On average, people spend over five hours a day watching TV, and most of that comprises of sitcoms. As humans we find pleasure and humor in the telling and hearing of stories.
All in all, we have many uses for telling stories. I for one would be lost without a good book at hand to take me into a foreign land and lets me ride a dragon. Sometimes I find the characters in a book, just as real as those people around me.
In a story, we are given incite and anything is possible. The good guy always gets the reward and the bad guy always ends up being punished. I don't know anyone who does not look into a book and wonders, "What would happen if I was in her place?" Things we can never imagine happening become real and valid and we see how it happens. For instance, when our class read The Power Of One I was able to see what the life of an English boy living among the mixed races in South Africa would have felt during his life. I have never been to South Africa, I have never done research on South Africa, and I probably will never go to South Africa, but I know now the heart and mind of one such boy.
Throughout time, adults have told teaching stories to educate and warn the young. The "Boogie Man" is one such story used to teach young children to behave. But stories are not only told to frighten children into behaving. Aesop told a multitude of stories that mealy taught a lesson such as, "Be kind to your elders", "Don't treat someone in a way you wouldn't want to be treated", and "Don't tell lies because when you are telling the truth, no one will believe you." Stories hold the attentions of the young and delivers a lesson in a way that they understand better than just having the lesson told to them.
Just looking at the hundreds of books that exist in our world, we must surmise that all of them are not for teaching. As history has gone by, it has become obvious that our lives are getting easier due to the fact that we no longer have to worry about surviving from one day to the next. The invention of and the wide use of the TV give evidence to the fact that we now have leisure. On average, people spend over five hours a day watching TV, and most of that comprises of sitcoms. As humans we find pleasure and humor in the telling and hearing of stories.
All in all, we have many uses for telling stories. I for one would be lost without a good book at hand to take me into a foreign land and lets me ride a dragon. Sometimes I find the characters in a book, just as real as those people around me.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
India a History
In about 2500BC the Indus River region was inhabited by a people who built cities and created a system of pictographs in that area. Their civilization was lost in about 1500BC when the Aryan-speaking tribes invaded northern India through the passes of the Hindu Kush Mountains. Wile the Indus River people's writing remains undecifered while the Aryan invader's language is the ancestor of both Sanskrit and that of the Indo-European family of languages.
The traditional religion of India, is Hinduism. Judging by the design of a horned figure surrounded by animals (supposedly representing the Hindu god Shiva) on a seal found in the Indus River region, it is assumed that the worshiping of Shiva is the oldest worship on earth. Gautama, a prince from a small Kingdom in India, began to tell of a doctrine where renouncing desires as the key to human salvation. Gautama came to be known as Buddha, the Enlightened One, and founded Buddhism.
The oldest literary works in Sanskrit are the collection of sacred literature known as the Veda meaning "Knowledge" or "lore", written between 2000 and 800 BC. The Veda is a result of a slow accumulation of oral religious poetry that took over a thousand years and contains the traditional hymns and prayers of the Aryan-speaking tribes. The Rig Veda is the oldest and most sacred of the Vedas. The Veic Period of Sanskrit literature ended around 500 BC. Though Indian literature still has a lot to offer. There came a period of great Indian epics which include the Mahabharata ("War of the Descendants of Barata") and Ramayana ("Story of Rama"). Mahabharata is the oldest of the two and was probably written between 500 and 300 BC and involves the struggle between two branches of a ruling family over the succession to the throne and the kingdom. This particular epic is of an enormous size, coming to over 100,00 couplets and is the world's longest piece of literature.
The writings of India found new life under Chandragupta II (375-415 AD). This king of the Gupta dynasty was a patron of the arts. The ancients classics like Mahabharata were revived. Kalidasa, a great Sanskrit poet, wrote the verse play Shakuntala. Tragedy was not permitted in Indian drama. Hindu classics were translated from Sanskrit to the regional languages of India. This vitality in literature continued under Babur, founder of the Mongul dynasty, left a thoughtful account of his life in a masterpiece of autobiographies, called the Babur-nama ("Book of Babur").
The traditional religion of India, is Hinduism. Judging by the design of a horned figure surrounded by animals (supposedly representing the Hindu god Shiva) on a seal found in the Indus River region, it is assumed that the worshiping of Shiva is the oldest worship on earth. Gautama, a prince from a small Kingdom in India, began to tell of a doctrine where renouncing desires as the key to human salvation. Gautama came to be known as Buddha, the Enlightened One, and founded Buddhism.
The oldest literary works in Sanskrit are the collection of sacred literature known as the Veda meaning "Knowledge" or "lore", written between 2000 and 800 BC. The Veda is a result of a slow accumulation of oral religious poetry that took over a thousand years and contains the traditional hymns and prayers of the Aryan-speaking tribes. The Rig Veda is the oldest and most sacred of the Vedas. The Veic Period of Sanskrit literature ended around 500 BC. Though Indian literature still has a lot to offer. There came a period of great Indian epics which include the Mahabharata ("War of the Descendants of Barata") and Ramayana ("Story of Rama"). Mahabharata is the oldest of the two and was probably written between 500 and 300 BC and involves the struggle between two branches of a ruling family over the succession to the throne and the kingdom. This particular epic is of an enormous size, coming to over 100,00 couplets and is the world's longest piece of literature.
The writings of India found new life under Chandragupta II (375-415 AD). This king of the Gupta dynasty was a patron of the arts. The ancients classics like Mahabharata were revived. Kalidasa, a great Sanskrit poet, wrote the verse play Shakuntala. Tragedy was not permitted in Indian drama. Hindu classics were translated from Sanskrit to the regional languages of India. This vitality in literature continued under Babur, founder of the Mongul dynasty, left a thoughtful account of his life in a masterpiece of autobiographies, called the Babur-nama ("Book of Babur").
Monday, March 23, 2009
India free write
India holds one of the world's largest democratic countries. The major religions practiced in India are Buddhism and Hinduism. The climate varies from mountains to jungle. In the mountains, it is cooler but in the jungle it is hot and humid.
India has its own bread of elephants, the Indian elephant is part of the Asian elephant family. Asian elephants tend to be smaller than African elephants. Their ears are smaller because they do not need to cool themselves as much as the African elephants. The large ears of African elephants help them to stay cool in the hot temperatures of the savannas. Indian elephants also tend to have a light colored spotted mask on their faces. I would guess that the Indian elephant makes up a majority of the tame elephants due to the amount that the Indian people tame and use to help Carry people, goods, and help with industry like hauling out timber that has been felled.
If I am not wrong, I believe that the story, The Jungle Book is based on an Indian boy, Mowgli, who gets lost in the jungle and is raised by a pack of wolves and is friends with a bear Balue, and a panther, Bagira. His sworn enemy (in the kid's story) is the tiger Shericaun.
India is one of the few places in the world where you will still find a wild tiger population. I think that the tigers most commonly found in India are Bangle Tigers as apposed to the Siberian Tigers who are more commonly found in parts of China, Russia, and the other Asian countries that are on the Eastern coast of Asia. Bangle Tigers are known man killers so it is probably not a coincident that the tiger Shericaun in The Jungle Book is trying to kill Mowgli (in the kid's) and attacks the settlement in a different version of the story.
The Indian people have a goddess, (I believe she is the goddess of destruction and havoc) who has many hands and arms. I once saw a movie where the captain of a ship was from India. His name was Captain Nemo. I saw him on the movie, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and according to my sister, all the characters in that movie were taken from real literature.
Indian women paint read dots on the middle of their foreheads which denote their marital status. I don't remember how the dot system works though. People in America, through stereotypes, tend to place Indian people behind the counter at a gas station or convenience store. This has spread due to the fact that the owner of the convenience store on the TV show The Simpson's is an Indian man, I think his name is Achoo, but I don't watch that show.
India has its own bread of elephants, the Indian elephant is part of the Asian elephant family. Asian elephants tend to be smaller than African elephants. Their ears are smaller because they do not need to cool themselves as much as the African elephants. The large ears of African elephants help them to stay cool in the hot temperatures of the savannas. Indian elephants also tend to have a light colored spotted mask on their faces. I would guess that the Indian elephant makes up a majority of the tame elephants due to the amount that the Indian people tame and use to help Carry people, goods, and help with industry like hauling out timber that has been felled.
If I am not wrong, I believe that the story, The Jungle Book is based on an Indian boy, Mowgli, who gets lost in the jungle and is raised by a pack of wolves and is friends with a bear Balue, and a panther, Bagira. His sworn enemy (in the kid's story) is the tiger Shericaun.
India is one of the few places in the world where you will still find a wild tiger population. I think that the tigers most commonly found in India are Bangle Tigers as apposed to the Siberian Tigers who are more commonly found in parts of China, Russia, and the other Asian countries that are on the Eastern coast of Asia. Bangle Tigers are known man killers so it is probably not a coincident that the tiger Shericaun in The Jungle Book is trying to kill Mowgli (in the kid's) and attacks the settlement in a different version of the story.
The Indian people have a goddess, (I believe she is the goddess of destruction and havoc) who has many hands and arms. I once saw a movie where the captain of a ship was from India. His name was Captain Nemo. I saw him on the movie, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and according to my sister, all the characters in that movie were taken from real literature.
Indian women paint read dots on the middle of their foreheads which denote their marital status. I don't remember how the dot system works though. People in America, through stereotypes, tend to place Indian people behind the counter at a gas station or convenience store. This has spread due to the fact that the owner of the convenience store on the TV show The Simpson's is an Indian man, I think his name is Achoo, but I don't watch that show.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)