Week 4 Reading Diary: Sita Sings the Blues

This is my reading diary for the first half of Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley.

This first half of the film has been a summarization/animation of the Ramayana. There are three distinct storylines going on: the Sita/Rama storyline, the Nina/Dave storyline, and the storyline of three narrators who discuss parts of the Sita/Rama story.

I decided to organize my thoughts based off of these three storylines, rather than linearly.

A screenshot from the film "Sita Sings the Blues" by Nina Paley. (Wikimedia)

Sita/Rama

This storyline is really fun to watch since I have read these stories. I love how Sita's feelings are shown through her songs, and I think they really capture her inner spunk! One particular line that I caught at 0:19 was "I'll be so true to him, he'll never doubt me", and this struck me as pure irony considering the fire trial. Also, I like how the captured how mean Rama was when he turned Sita away after finally defeating Ravana. There was this one line at 0:43 where Sita sings "I live only for you", and this made me think of the abusive/obsessive relationships. It is becoming more popular on facebook to see those videos on how love is not abuse, and it saddens me that this line is in the story. Love is not obsessing over your significant other. Love is not making your significant other throw themselves in a fire to prove their purity to you. Rama and Sita have love all wrong.

Nina/Dave

I didn't quite understand why this storyline was included at first, but I am starting to see the parallels between Nina/Dava and Sita/Rama. I especially like how you can see how small instances between the two are connected (Dave brushes Nina off, like how Rama did to Sita after she was kidnapped).

Narrators

I really like how the three narrators argue amongst themselves on the details of each story. It not only allows for a humorous/interesting approach to learning the story, but it also gives some time for you to actually understand what is going on. For example, there were some names that I was just not getting, and hearing them say it helped me get it. They also through in different little trivia tidbits - like how Hanuman was actually Shiva's incarnation. Something that I hadn't thought of before this, was how Ravana honestly wasn't that bad of a villain. The narrators pointed out that he didn't force himself on Sita, and how he was an overall good guy besides kidnapping Sita. I think this has potential for a story.