Roger Ebert calls it an “astonishing original†and something that has him “smiling from one end of the film to the other.†I am of course talking about Nina Paley’s animated film Sita Sings the Blues. A project of passion, Nina has worked on this film on and off over the past five years. The Mutiny has followed Nina’s progress over the past few years of development and finally, her Sita Sings the Blues is finished in it’s entirety.
On Saturday March 7th, if you have access to WNET NY Channel 13, set your TiVo for 10:45 because Sita Sings the Blues will be broadcasted. Not in NY? Not to worry, the film can be watched fully online streamed from the Reel 13 Blog right now and will be available to download in various forms on March 7th from the site.
What exactly is Sita Sings the Blues? I got to watch the full movie this weekend and it’s…. well it’s…well a cartoon, I guess? But it’s like, wow….and unlike any cartoon I’ve ever seen. And a musical… and there is dancing, and blood. And puppets, really funny puppets. With four different parallel stories. About Sita. Hmm…I’m at a loss for words. Nina Paley calls her movie, “…a personal, musical, animated interpretation of Sita’s story in the Ramayana set to old American jazz and blues by Annette Hanshaw.†But really, it’s so much more than that.
I got the chance to catch Nina before she flew off to Vienna for an animation conference. Just for you, an exclusive interview with the writer, director, animator, and producer of Sita Sings the Blues, Nina Paley:
I’ve heard you say in the past that this story was developed after you yourself experienced heartbreak. In a very stark way, you placed yourself as an animated character in the final product. In one part of the film, the animated version of you is in black lingerie trying to get your husband to take notice of you. Why did you make the movie so personal when you had the option of not?
I was making the Sita segments to tell my story. In real life, when I explained that, people were at least as interested in what happened to me….so the autobiographical bits serve as a built-in FAQ. Might as well put that into the film itself, instead of just the inevitable press kit.It was a very personal project from the beginning. Including the autobiographical bits emphasizes that. I didn’t set out to tell THE Ramayana, only MY Ramayana. I wanted to be very clear about my point of view, my biases.
Has your Rama, your ex-husband Dave, seen the movie? How does he feel about his broken marriage being displayed on the ‘big screen’ like that?
He saw an almost-finished work-in-progress. I think he understands it’s my side of the story, from my point of view, about my feelings. I didn’t aim to speak for him, only for me. After viewing it he told a friend of mine he was “relieved.” I tried to focus on myself and my feelings; I still don’t understand why either of us behaved the way we did in real life, and I don’t think he knows either. I like the ambiguity of the Ramayana for that reason. It doesn’t explain why the characters behave as they do; only that they do.
A big part of your animation process involved the screening of clips of the movie to the internet community throughout your filmmaking process. What once started as an animated short is now a full fledged film. How have your thoughts evolved since you first started putting clips from the film online five years ago? You often got slammed by angry responses to the clips. How do you think that has shaped your thinking and the film?
It sure gave me a lot to think about during the production. It honed my philosophy. I wrote a bit about it as I went along, like this.I learned more about Indian politics. At first I took every bait that came my way, but once my blog was overwhelmed by Hindutvadi trolls, I learned to ignore them. I also engaged in some thoughtful dialogs with critics, back when I had time. We never changed each others’ minds, but got better at articulating our points of view. All the online reaction continues to teach me about detachment. I can get just as attached to praise as to criticism; it’s up to me whether I’ll let it dominate my life.
My two favorite sequences are the musical montage of the opening where two gods are sailing through the sky…
That’s actually Vishnu and Laxmi, of whom Rama and Sita are said to be avatars. The very beginning of the film is Laxmi rising form the Eternal Waters, listening to a broken record. Spinning records, cycling Yugas, it’s all about cycles….
…as well as the dancing woman during the scene of heartbreak…
The dancing woman in that heartbreak scene, which I call Agni Pariksha, is Reena Shah, whom I videotaped and rotoscoped.
…What inspired you to mix up the animation styles?
Fear of boredom, mostly. But also to hint at what a wealth of visual traditions are associated with the Ramayana. I barely scratched the surface.
You also added some contemporary artists a contrast to the 1920s jazz music. How did you pick/find these musicians and decide to include them in the film?
Todd Michaelsen was engaged (now married) to Reena Shah, who played the speaking role of Sita. He ended up creating the title music and Agni Pariksha which Reena sang… Rudresh Mahanthappa, whose modern jazz graces the modern scenes, was my downstairs neighbor in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn…Rohan (“Rama’s Great” and “Burnt Sugar,” the music in the trailer) was recommended to me by Sank Sury, who I met at a Sepia Mutiny meetup. Nik Phelps, who did the “Intermission” music, was a collaborator of mine from San Francisco who since moved to Belgium. Masala Dosa is a French band who found me online and traded their CD to use in “Sita” for some animation to use in a music video. Their sound was perfect, and they – like the other collaborators – are the sweetest most wonderful people you could hope to meet. They’re all geniuses.
I loved the narration of by the black shadow puppets between each of the scenes…
The designs are based on Ramayana shadow puppets from Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, and India.
…They had what sounded like very real dialogue – they were talking over each other and correcting each other. How much of that was scripted?
None – it was completely unscripted, 100% real.Here’s how I got them all in the studio: I met Manish Acharya (Loins of Punjab Presents) through Manish Vij…I guess Manish V told Manish A to check out Sita, and then Manish A asked me to do animation for a Loins music video, and part of the payment was he’d let me record an interview.
Aseem Chhabra had written about me and Sita and I bumped into him at the Loins of Punjab screening. I asked if he’d lend his voice to an interview and he said yes. He actually met Manish the day of the recording – he interviewed him that morning for an article. They sound like best friends who have known each other forever, and they’re great friends now, but they’d just met that morning.
Bhavana Nagaulapally I met at a play reading of Anuvab Pal… Apparently, I stuck out like a sore thumb because I was the only white woman in the audience, and she asked, “are you Nina Paley?” She had a great voice, and I asked if she’d consent to the interview too. I didn’t know if she would – luckily she showed up, and was awesome, and the rest is history.
I was surprised when I was able to watch the film in its entirety online. Usually when films are made, you watch it in the theater or buy the DVD. Why are you opting to stream your film fully online? You mentioned that “Sita is in copyright jail and needs $43,000†on your blog – is the online release of the film related?
Yes. The whole struggle with our broken copyright system turned me into a Free Culture activist. I’m actually going to release all my old “Nina’s Adventures” and “Fluff” comics under a Share Alike (copyleft) license too. I saw what happened to Annette Hanshaw’s beautiful recordings: they got locked up so no one could hear them. I didn’t want that to happen to my film. My first concern is Art, and Art has no life if people can’t share it.This is actually a very big subject. I’ve written a lot about it on my blog, including: Your Children are Not Your Children, Sita’s Distribution Plan, The Nina’s Adventure in Copyleft Project, Watch Me Go On and On and On About Copyright, Fairies are Forever, Copyright Was Designed By Distributors, Lessons Wrong and Right, and Free Culture.
It seems like you have been forced to take an alternative route to get your film out there. Where has it been screened? What’s in the future for Sita Sings the Blues?
The complete screening list is here. Giving Sita to the audience, its life is only beginning. As I wrote, “Like all culture, it belongs to you already….From the shared culture it came, and back into the shared culture it goes.” I’m excited to see what happens next.
How has your film been received, in particular the South Asian community as well as the Hindu community? What are the responses you’ve heard from viewers?
Oh my! I’ve gotten a LOT of love, and it means a lot to me. For example, here’s a great letter. There’s lots of discussion in the blogosphere, more than I could encapsulate here.
Do you feel like you were able to put your heartbreak to rest after the completion of this film?
Yes! Thank you Valmiki!
What next for Nina Paley?
Hopefully a bunch of shorts about Free Speech, which we’re currently calling Minute Memes. I’m all about the Free Speech/Free Culture right now.
And now: my big heartfelt thanks to Sepia Mutiny, whose discovery of the Sita work-in-progress changed my life. When I started Sita I hardly knew any Indians in New York, and was just blindly following my muse.Sepia Mutiny (and Turbanhead and later Ultrabrown) connected the project with 1st- and 2nd-gen desis online and in real life. Manish Vij’s anti-Apu tirades bolstered my decision to avoid fake accents (even the super-stilted scripted dialog is performed by 2nd-gen desi actors, whose quasi-historical “Indian” accents are informed by their relatives). Sepia Mutiny is how I found Bhavana and, indirectly, Rohan. Thanks to Anna John, I’ll never misspell “Gandhi” again.
Also, when the hate mail came pouring in, there were always voices on Sepia Mutiny who remained intelligent and kind. The Hindutvadis wanted me to believe they alone spoke for “Indians” and “Hindus”; Sepia Mutiny and sites like it confirmed they did not. Not by a long shot.
Thanks, Nina
Thank YOU, Nina. You can watch Sita Sings the Blues online, and to follow the film’s progress you can visit www.sitasingstheblues.com. To read more of Nina’s writing, please visit her blog.
51 · gnagesh said
So, who is qualified to comment on the Ramayana? Ramanand Sagar? Or are hagiographies of these characters exempt from this inspection?
Years ago I came across a small book in a train station “Sita’s Trial” I think it was called. I bought it figuring to read some sort of analysis of Sita’s “trial by fire” as we say. It turned out to be a communist critique of Rama and an indictment of Hindu culture at large. The author was born into an Indian Hindu family. I didn’t complete the book but from what I read of it did help to open my mind to critiquing the lilas (won’t use the word “myth” here) that are foundational to my own tradition and from which I and we draw inspiration. It was from that point forward that I started to analyse my tradition from within the paradigm of 3 time frames; pre-modern, modern and post-modern.
You see, the pre-modern (and to some extent the modern Indian)mindset holds that Rama is maryada purushottama, that means, the perfect example of a divine man that upholds dharma and “maryada”. Maryada can be translated as “etiquette” or even as “political correctness” or anything that is meant to describe what “should” be done for the welfare of all.
It is actually HE who is seen as the great sacrificer because he loved Sita more than anything and anyone (eka-patni-vrata), yet to uphold the “maryada” of his region and era, he had to give her up. Hence, “maryada purushottama”.
Yet, if you analyse maryada and political correctness from a post-modern viewpoint, he would not be deemed “maryada purushottam”.
So, this animation is perfect for us Vaishnavas, us Sita-Rama bhaktas of the post-modern age.
And I also think the particular issues posed in the Ramayana are probably part of the reason why the Lilas of Krishna capture the imagine of today’s world in a much more obvious way.
Whereas Rama is “maryada purushottam”, Krishna remains “prem purushottama” – the perfect example of love over all.
Uh, yeah. That’s why I asked the second question. I thought she answered it well.
I think the “secular progressives”
45 · Amardeep said
Try using the term “Judaic, Christian and Islamic Mythology” in a conversation with ‘people of the book’ and you will know what I am referring to.
Ennis@49: try calling Jesus ‘spineless’ because he didn’t fight back and you will know what I am referring to.
I don’t want to sidetrack this topic as that will solidify the accusation that Moornam is a troll. I am just deeply hurt by the fact that Indians have been taught their history from an outside viewpoint – be it caste, social practices or religion itself. And we collectively seem to espouse it as if it were our own opinion (big generalization, I know). I will lay out my case when the right opportunity (topic) presents itself. Till then, I shall hold my peace.
To get back on topic, I will watch SSTB and make a worthwhile comment if I can.
I haven’t read the unabridged in English, let alone in Sanskrit, so I am ignorant here. My understanding was that Rama rejects Sita because of the washerwoman’s comment about Sita’s chastity. Yet, if I remember correctly, Sita had already survived trial by fire, and so Rama had a choice as to how to respond to gossip amongst the populace. Does Valmiki lay out his decision in great detail so we can understand why Rama did what he did? Or is it left ambiguous?
52 · saivite said
Personally, I would suggest someone who has read the whole thing 🙂 Could you write a thesis on the Illiad just by reading the Cliffs Notes? I suppose so, but you would be opening yourself up for the very same criticism that seems to be leveled against Nina.
Then again, apparently Slumdog Millionaire is like the greatest film ever set in India. So what do I know. Maybe this is how it is these days.
56 · KundiKarrupan said
nobody here disputes that fundies of all stripes are crazy.
Do you read sanskrit, gnagesh?
Amardeep/Ennis,
I ff’d through the first ten minutes of the movie. To her credit, Nina has given voice to the viewpoint (what was that generalization/stereotype of Indian men?) that Rama went to the forest because of his virtues, and that he tries to dissuade Sita from joining her. So my bad in assuming Ebert’s position to be that of Nina’s.
Maybe one of these days I will watch the rest of it. However, there are some things that I stand by:
M. Nam
Moornam – I think you misunderstand both the free culture and free software movements. Neither is socialistic. Instead, like science, they argue that having less restrictive rights leads both to greater benefits overall and new opportunities for money making. According to your formulation, scientists who make patents and then give away their discoveries, or refuse to patent at all, are worthless.
57 · Ennis said
Yes, he does lay it out in great detail. As I recall (it’s been many years since I myself went through that tome), Rama struggles internally a great deal before deciding that he must forsake Sita. Sadly, it’s next to impossible to get an unabridged copy of the book, even an English version, outside of India. My father purchased one from Higginbothams many years ago, it was four volumes long and took me almost a year to complete.
56 · KundiKarrupan said
Theologians and professors of Religion refer to Genesis as a creation myth, that’s the standard terminology for it. Part of people’s umbrage is that they aren’t used to the language that academics use in this context.
Another point from a Vaishnavite perspective.
Rama was faced with a dilemna due to “log kya kahenge” (what will people say) mentality and REPUTATION.
He chose to side with public opinion, even if that public was a minority. He sent his beloved Sita to forest and he spent the rest of his days pining for her. Even when the “swarna Sita’s” that were carved for representation at a sacrifice came to life magically, he did not wed any of them, keeping to his “ek-patni-vrat”, although those deities of Sita were, in a sense, non-different from her!
Contrast this with Krishna Lila, occuring many thousands (if not millions) of years later…
When those 1,100 girls were kidnapped by that asura (someone help me out with his name) and hidden in a cave for his later enjoyment, Krishna came to free those girls.
Public opinion had it at the time that they could not return to their homes. Why? They had been “soiled” by the touch of a “man”, whereas really, they were VICTIMS of the crime of kidnapping. Yet even their own parents would not have them back, what to speak of young men seeking their hands in marriage.
What did Krishna do?
He gave the middle finger to that society by MARRYING all those girls and making them QUEENS in his Dwarka kingdom (whereas they begged him to become his house servants since no one else wanted them).
So here you have the SAME GOD, in two different incarnations, two different time eras and two different missions.
Hence the difference between “maryada purushottama” and “prema purushottama”.
Krishna-avatar, though pre-modern, was much more POST-modern in his approach.
Sita Sings the Blues rocks & it’s a classic! I was born a Hindu & there is nothing offensive about this entertaining animation. I’m looking forward to N.Paley’s animation for the Mahabharata!
Just my opinion that stories like the Mahabharata, Ramayana,etc are meant to be symbolic of the battle of good vs evil within our own selves. The monkeys and Hanuman represent conquering or getting control of our senses & calming down our minds, the demons or rakshasas represent our dark sides. I’m still trying to figure out what Jambavan the King of Bears & the squirrels who helped build the bridge to Lanka symbolize. But I must admit that I’m uncomfortable at how women are portrayed in the Ramayana & the Mahabharata. Like Kaikeyi acting like a crazed b***ch & Rama doubting Sita’s purity & faithfulness after she was imprisoned by Ravana, etc. Then again, I’m also a bit disturbed how females are portrayed in the older Disney movies (many of them based on Grimm’s fairy tales). Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella had to wait for a righteous dude to save them. Only the newer Disney releases (& maybe a few others) like Mulan, Aladdin & Pocahontas have strong willed female protagonists.
Even the Old Testament stories should not be taken literally (other than the 10 Commandments). There’s a passage that adulterers/people who curse etc should be stoned or something like that (see http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/stoning.html) . If we take it too seriously, you’ll see tons of people nursing serious wounds.
60 · One Vaishnava’s Opinion said
I do not; as I said above I read an unabridged English translation from Chennai that was faithful to the point of being a bit awkward; honestly some of those Sanskrit verses just cannot be translated while preserving the beauty of the original language. Or at least that’s what my Chinappatti, who read the whole thing in Sanskrit, told me.
I haven’t seen the film but nevertheless cannot agree with the above. Valmiki wrote a story. A story is neither true or false. You can make of it what you will. When I keep insisting that hindus don’t have a belief system, this is precisely what I mean to argue. Rama’s actions cannot be described as being bad or evil in a normative way. It depends on the context. At times you can say he was a jerk for throwing her out, at other times you can say he was a truly noble for caring more about his subjects than his wife. There is no one correct point of view (and damn the feminists). It is very distressing to see hindus get all worked up about having things presented in one and only one perspective. The whole beauty of the culture is that the ethos is transmitted through stories – neither true nor false – that have the power to shape your character but at the same time allow for adaptation to any number of situations.
Ennis, you don’t have to have read the ramayana in sanskrit or anything. extreme textual analysis is not part of the hindu tradition. all kinds of simple village folk relate to these stories and glean whatever they have to from them.
KundiKarrupan: I wanted to talk to you about Nina Paley and her take on the Ramayana. PBS Pubah: And this offends you as a Hindu. KundiKarrupan: No, it offends me as an animation artist.
68 · Divya said
<
blockquote>
<
blockquote>Valmiki wrote a story. /blockquote>
And how do you know that its a story and not a biography?
No disrespect to Nina but the white lady’s obsession with Hindu gods and goddesses is a little creepy. Not unlike the white Muslim Islamic convert you see in Muslim cirlces who are obsessed with 7th century Arabia.
68 · Divya said
Well, Ramayana is Smriti, and this is more true of the scriptures in this category. What you say is not true of Shruti. (Independent of this, I fully agree with your statement: It is very distressing to see hindus get all worked up about having things presented in one and only one perspective.)
Divya, I agree and I don’t agree with you at the same time regarding your “free flow” take of “Hinduism”.
Yes, anyone is free to interpret “Hindu lore” in any way they please and apply the same to their life circumstances for lessons learned.
However, there are several “sampradayas” in India that DO have very old and rich tradition of textual analysis.
Their commentaries on texts are called “tikas”. There are many, many tikas of ancient texts. Indians who cannot read the languages that these texts are written in nonetheless get their particular sampradaya’s take on various lores and their issues via “katha”, “path”, “pravachan” – classes given by people well-versed in their sampradaya’s commentaries.
The Vedanta Sutra alone, which is a philosophical text and not a lore, has several different commentaries on it – each of the major Vaishnava sampradayas has a Vedanta Sutra tika which reflects the specific ideology of each sampradaya.
In fact, the Gaudiya Vaishnavas were criticised some hundreds of years ago by the other Vaishnava sampradayas for NOT having a written commentary on it. That is how important textual analysis is esteemed in Vaishnava sampradayas.
I’m not equipped to throw my hat into this theological dialogue buuut…I just watched it from beginning to end and I loved it. It may not be 100% accurate but it would have stifled her vision if she was just trying to appease nitpickers. It was a fascinating and personal take and I hope Nina keeps putting out her amazing work.
The Yuddhakanda and the Sundarakanda are not available yet but the rest are. These editions have the Sanskrit transliterations on one side and the corresponding English translation on the facing page.
Scroll down to Valmiki. http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/volumes_all_authors.php
Just a side note. Rama’s kingdom was Ayodhya. Ayodhya is in Uttar Pradesh. It is not uncommon in Uttar Pradesh for people to refer to the dhobi episode when someone, especially a woman, is being wrongly accused. It is also not uncommon to hear wronged women being referred to as “Sita”. Therefore, although I do not think Nina was comparing herself to Sita in her animation. The tradition of drawing parrallels between one’s own personal traumas and that of Sita’s is alive and well in India.
Nina, if you ever want to animate the other tragic love story of Radha and Krishna, let me know. I’ve got alot of material you can work with.
59 · saivite said
<
blockquote>56 · KundiKarrupan said
Actually, that’s offensive to me and I’ll happily dispute it, since you’re potentially lumping me in with a large swath of people with whom I may or may not belong, and accusing me of mental illness, to boot. Classy. I hardly consider myself a fundamentalist, but I am religious, and it is hurtful when people dismiss my holy book as mythology. I try not to make that mistake with other faiths, whether it’s Islam or Hinduism, because I know how I have felt when everything my faith is based on is dismissed as “myth”. I may not believe in the Ramayana, but I have loved ones who do, and I don’t want to hurt them. It’s basic respect.
64 · Ennis said
<
blockquote>56 · KundiKarrupan said
Well call me a simpleton who doesn’t dwell in an Ivory Tower, but I don’t think claiming academic-ese is a suitable way to untangle this mess, and I never thought of that as “standard terminology. To me, it’s rather loaded. If some Theologian wants to alienate me by calling it a “creation myth”, they’re free to do that, just like I’m free to reflect on how a little respect goes a long way.
Last comment: I assume you guys have no problem then with Blagojevich comparing himself to Gandhi and MLK then, right?
Anna, I used to be wary of the terminology “myth” and “mythology” also, until I researched various definitions of the terms. Myth does not mean “not true”! Since discovering that, I happily refer to the stories of my religious tradition as “myth” and I’m not offended when others use similar terms.
I also broke it down like this;
M.Y.T.H.
MY TrutH .. . .
Myth.
Correction to Comment# 75: That should read Yuddhakanda and the Uttarakanda
64 · Ennis said
i don’t think that explains it half enough. johann hari had a very pertinent observation in his essay in the statesman that causes such a ruckus in west bengal and led to newspaper editors being hauled in under 295a. some interesting sections:
Amardeep, from the excellent ‘author’s note’ in Banker’s version, It is quite clear to me that he believes in the Ramayana. Whether he thinks it is historically true, I’d have to ask him. But he does end the note with ‘Jai Bajrang Bali, Jai Siyaram, Jai Hind’.
O V’s O – This is a genuine question. What is the post modern Vaishnava world?
It is not an uncommon view that the Uttara Kand as a later addition and not a work by Maharshi Valmiki himself.I could provide the details/links if required. It is in the fundamental nature of the ‘religion’ that is Hinduism to be open to interpretations, and evolve constantly but still retain it’s essence. That is what makes it the ‘Snatana Dharma’.What I do not agree with is judging the Dharmic narratives from a purely western epistemiological context. I haven’t seen SSTB, but I can’t think that it could diminish the Ramayana in any way. Any passionate retelling will just just be another stream that enters the vast, eternal river that is the epic.
One just has to be honest.
71 · Pagal_Aadmi_for_debauchery said
hey, the ladiez don’t call me mahalingam for nothin’.
Exactly!
And this is why I suggest that “people of faith” take the same approach to their religions as do holistic people in regards to whatever “modality” that they use for self improvement or health increase (body-mind-soul therapies).
I have started referring to my spiritual path as a “modality” – a model of possibility, instead of an “absolute truth”.
The beauty of a personal practice (sadhana) is that it is a “relative truth” anyway. A personal unfolding.
83 · saivite said
Don’t become a LingaThalai. (thalai = head, in Tamil)
82 · Lupus Solitarius said
so do daga, teja and walcott.
Hehehe!! LoL. Lupus khush hua
85 · Illuminati said
how becoming my lingathalai is a matter between me and the ladiez.
Hmmmm. I just had a strong sense of deja vu.
i am hardly one to thrust my beliefs on another, but i think that categorization, or what you call dismissal, is perfectly reasonable in a discussion about how inviolable a narrative is that it is unacceptable for somebody to reinterpret it. and those who take offense to that statement in this context are, at the least, over sensitive.
can’t understand why everybody is quarreling over an epic compiled thousands of year ago instead of discussing about the art work.. 🙁
79 · One Vaishnava’s Opinion said
Thank you for replying to me and giving me that information, One Vaishnava. 🙂 I really appreciate it. I felt uneasy about putting my comment out there (yeah, imagine that, me uneasy about the overshare :p), because I think (on this site and elsewhere) it’s not cool to be a devout…anything. My friends who are professors and lawyers and scientists etc often say things which make it seem like they look down on anyone who is stupid enough to believe in a book of fables, no matter which book of fables that might be. I don’t think they realize or remember that I come from a pretty religious family and that I’m uneducated and unsophisticated enough to value the bible. It’s not hip to believe in myths.
I know Nina Paley in real life. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her (and grabbing her kundi at a meetup), and I’m in awe of her talent. I was one of her earliest, most passionate defenders on this site and I love the style of animation she utilizes. Hell, I once dreamed of redesigning my blog with a SSTB theme! Finally, I swoon over the gorgeous music SSTB is set to…but having said all that, I have learned a lot from SM over the past five years.
I am not the same person I was when I started blogging. I’ve met many of you, IRL and sat down with you over food or drink to hear you out. And you have changed me, taught me, enlightened me. And that is why I now get why some (not all) of my Hindu friends are less than enthusiastic about SSTB. It may put me in the minority here, but I think those feelings of unease deserve to be accepted, not invalidated. Religion is such a personal, significant element of a believer’s life. It’s easy to be hurt or offended, and sometimes, it’s not easy to articulate why; a lot of the time, I understand why some of you feel intimidated to even try. So this flailing attempt at a comment is for you. I see you baby…shaking
that thangyour head.(Yes, though I rarely have it together enough to reply, I read every single email each of you sends me. Each of you teaches me, so much.)
Perhaps we invest too much of our own “egos” into our holy books. Surely God is not disturbed when books written by humans about Her are dismissed.
Why do we care so much whether somebody else honors our own personal and private modality or not?
You know, after leaving India and an environment where everyone I associated closely with believed in the same myth structure as myself, and coming to USA and trying to find the right “people” to align with, I was really aided in refining my approach to spirituality.
The “new age” community has really helped me because they are all about “acceptance” and “non-judgement”. I was happy to find a group that did not ridicule my “belief system” but at the same time, I had to be “non-judgemental” and “accepting” of whatever “modalities” they were into.
Being conditioned as I was, it wasn’t entirely glitch-free.
The best thing I have learned is to present my “myth structure” and my “ideology”, as simply a “modality” – a model of personal possibility, just as I would present EFT (emotional freedom technique) or any other self-help modality that is out there, or any herb use for health benefits that is out there that does not have official FDA approval.
Suddenly my whole approach towards all the various religions of this world was shifted and I become alot less sensitive in regards to perceived “offenses” against mine.
More from Johann Hari:
[Link]
If I remember right, Curtis White also has a nuanced take on this in a way that I appreciated in “Hot Air Gods” (Harper’s Magazine, Dec 2007). The article is listed under the following labels: Belief and doubt; Capitalism; Political culture; Social values; Spirituality.
Too bad Harper’s cannot afford to give free access to its fine content.
92 · A N N A said
Thanks for that Anna.
This blog has changed quite a bit from where it was a few years ago. Still, I am surprised at the egregious intellectual dishonesty of the so called “intellectuals”. Scrounging a PhD is not a guarantee to an open mind.
Anna, I get your point and appreciate you wanting to respect all religions, but as a “religious person” myself, I feel that we need to lighten up big time collectively.
My personal growth in my own daily spiritual practice has nothing to do with whether or not my neighbor likes/dislikes or respects/disrespects my practice or “belief system”.
What is sacred to me may be profane to someone else and vice versa.
The Hindus who may be offended by Nina’s cute and clever animation do in no way represent me, nor I them.
Somehow I am left with the hunch that had Nina been an Indian male, her animation may have received kudos from some of the dudes on her blog that levelled curse words.
In my tradition we say that our myths and philosophical treatises are Universal and their wisdom applicable to all throughout time and space. This is a general belief across varying Hindu sects.
From that perspective Ms. Paley has not appropriated anything that isn’t already her’s just by virtue of being a soul, a part of the larger whole.
Just a rhetorical question, OVO. Would you use these herbs/self help modalities if your life depended on it? or your loved ones’? Would you encourage an acquaintance to choose a herbal remedy over chemotherapy for a Lymphoma? Spiritual questions are very important. The most important. We desperately need some randomised, double blind controlled trials.
Y’know the Ramayana adaptation that I found really offensive? That tacky Sunday morning Ramanand Sagar spectacle with Technicolor cardboard sets, cheesy sound effects, and sparkling arrows and chakras which made the production values of Sports Hour on Doordarshan almost seem Spielberg-esque in comparison. I hope that their garishness brings them cult status similar to the Evil Dead series in a future Indian landscape infused with ironic self-awareness.
Of course, like all good actors who play Gods on TV, it promptly vaulted Deepika Chikhalia (Sita) and Arun Govil (Ram) to deity status among the populace, which the authentic Hindu party, the BJP, parlayed into campaigning, and even a Lok Sabha seat for the Sita woman from Gujarat.
congratulations. I fell in love with SSTB when i heard Sita’s solo in the abduction sequence. An aural and visual delight.
on behalf of all desis, eye thank ye.
just a minor quibble. ideologues can pungentify any environment, ergo an ideological resistance to those who speak for their faith is itself pungey. i think it is important to recognize that some people could be legitimately hurt by a different presentation of their faith. that said – i hope the debate has largely been respectful.
Ughhh…It’s not the animation that we’re critiquing. If anything, technically the piece looks decent.
It’s the thought behind it (or maybe our misunderstanding of her thought).
Please google and read Rajiv Malhotra, Sankrant Sanu, SN Balagangadhara etc. The first step in enslaving/colonising a people is to attack their most cherished traditions and those people at the root of the traditions. Once you successfully establish that what they worship is garbage, then you automatically sow the seeds of doubt and mistrust in their other choices (food, clothing, language, etc etc). Before long, you’ll have a whole lot of them clicking their heels at you and saying: “Jolly good. Pip pip“.
I am not at all implying that Nina is even remotely attempting that. However, given the history of the subcontinent and the events of the last two decades, forgive us if we analyse and critique what we deem as detrimental.
M. Nam