Reading Options and Choices

In terms of reading options... I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at. I should mention upfront that I'm into comic books and graphic novels, but I've never experienced a mythology told in that form (other than Marvel's Thor, which is usually a hop skip and a jump from actual norse mythology.) So the idea of reading comic books and graphic novels sounds really cool! Also, for this class, I don't even have to deal with the worst part of comic books and graphic novels - they're insanely expensive, so having them all in stock at the library is a dream come true. That being said, when I read an adaptation, I get a yearning to understand the source material afterwards to see where the differences come in. I'm really looking forward to reading Narayan's novel and following it up with the graphic novels. I think this will be a lovely way to experience the story, like reading the book and then going to the movie.

 However, past weeks 3 and 4, I'm not sure what I want to read or do. I want to see how the graphic novels play out before committing to them for the rest of the semester. I went and looked at the images page for the class and the image of Ravana caught my eye - he seems like a really interesting villain (at least at first glance), so I'm glad to get the chance to read about him in week 3. I also went and looked at some other images of him (which may have been due to my inability to find all 20 arms in the first picture) and stumbled across this artist's modern interpretation of Ravana, which I found to be very cool!

I know it is probably quite inaccurate, and I'm a little disappointed it didn't include Ravana's veena, but I still thought it was a very original and frightening piece of artwork. Nonetheless, I can't help but love a good villain, and I'm excited to see if Ravana lives up to the hype. 

Finally, I explored some of the Amar Chitra Katha comic books. I haven't decided which ones I want to read yet, but I will probably check out another version of the Ramayana just to see how it compares to the text and the graphic novels.