Class Procedures and Reminders
Two Classes | One Set of Announcements. These Announcements are for BOTH the Myth-Folklore class AND the Indian Epics class. Each class has its own reading materials, but the weekly assignments are the same. So, these shared announcements are a way for those of you in Myth-Folklore to learn more about India (a great land of stories!), and also for the people in the Indian Epics class to learn about other storytelling traditions from the Myth class.
Please call me Laura! I will be on a first-name basis with all of you, and I hope you will feel comfortable just calling me Laura.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Free Book Online. Something new I'm doing this semester in the announcements is sharing a free online book every day. Today's free book is Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat Khan; find out more here. the Jataka tales of India are part of the reading in both the Indian Epics class and in Myth-Folklore; you'll be find out more about the class readings next week.
Free Audiobook Online. I'll also be sharing a free audiobook every day, and today's free audiobook is The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, which contains fairy tales from around the world; find out more here — and here's the playlist:
Myth Item. And here's some mythology on campus: OU has a sphinx. See below for more about the legend of the sphinx.
Words from India. Those of you in Indian Epics will see that I am always trying to find India connections, and the English language itself contains many words from India; for example, you can read about the Indian origins of the word JUGGERNAUT if you are curious.
India Video. And they have TED talks in India too, so here is a TED talk by my favorite commentator on Indian mythology: Devdutt Pattanaik, East v. West.
Writing. In addition to learning about ancient stories, you will also be writing your own stories in this class, so in the immortal words of Star Trek, I hope you will boldly write what no one has written before.
Reading. Reading is powerful too! Here's a cartoon from Caro Martini about visiting new worlds in books:
And here's one more video for today: Art in the Library. The video is a few years old now; some of the art shown is still in Bizzell, but there is also new art, which is an excuse for you to go take a look around Bizzell and see what art you can find!
Event on Campus. It's Winter Welcome Week, so you can get hot chocolate and other treats during Breakfast Pass Out from 7:30-9:30AM and Lunch Pass Out from 11:30AM-1:30PM on the South Oval. Here's the full Winter Welcome Week schedule.
January 14: Ingres. Today marks the death in 1867 of the French Neoclassical painter, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. You can read more about Ingres at Wikipedia. He painted many mythological subjects, and one of his most famous paintings is this depiction of Oedipus and the Sphinx; you can read about the Oedipus legend here.
