Introduction to 24
Well, my name is David Czovek and I am 24. You're probably thinking "that's a tad old for an undergrad" and you'd be right but that's what makes this all the more fun. I am from a city in Connecticut called Bristol and graduated in the spring of 2014 from Bristol Central high school. On a normal track, I should've finished my undergrad in the spring of 2018. While in high school, I applied to 8 schools and got into all of them. I decided upon Baylor University. I had never been to Texas and was excited to get away from home and go somewhere warmer. I enrolled as a General Engineering major and by the end of my freshman year, I realized it was not for me. Typical freshman who didn't know and was trying different things. I did a business internship which I loved so I thought maybe become a business student. One semester later and... yep, you guessed it business was also not for me. I went to my counselor and she had me take tests to figure out what caree
Howdy howdy, I had not realized that islands were previously winged behemoths, so this is already an interesting project. I am curious to learn more as this semester goes along, so you absolutely have at least one repeat reader. I appreciate you putting links to your sources, I’ll likely return to those soon and read through them more closely. It’s a very bold play having your introduction be purely a foundation poem; I feel like that does establish the reader in the world of the project and provide them with background information, but it’s fun in that it isn’t purely explanatory. You’re leaving us with work to do as the project continues and that’s really exciting. It’s always good having more explanation and exposition of background characters, and I’ve been seeing more and more people discuss Hanuman – which is very exciting as he’s easily my favorite character we’ve read about this semester. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteHi David,
ReplyDeleteI like how your project starts out and gets straight to the point about Hanuman. He was a very interesting character in the Ramayana so this concept of telling his story is super intriguing to me. I think your title already is a strong start that draws people in to want to know what your project is about and to find out if Hanuman is actually a monkey god or a loyal chimp. The background of Hanuman is very helpful, especially since some people might not know who he is or what he did. I commend you for being able to translate the poem into more layman's words. In your introduction, it might be helpful to explain what the poem is supposed to explain. I would put the explanation under the translation so just in case someone did not quite understand the background they still are able to continue reading your project when you actually start posting stories. Overall, I think your project is going to be really good and I can't wait to continue to read more about Hanuman's story from your words!
David,
ReplyDeleteI want to start off by saying that the background information you gave us about Hanuman is really helpful for understanding him as a character. Obviously from the Ramayana we know he's a monkey and can jump really far, but you going into his background and explaining how that came to be is really cool. I really appreciate the fact you took the time to write a poem instead of the usual story. It refreshing! Was the poem adapted from anything, or is it completely original? I'm not sure if there is supposed to be author information or not, that's why i'm asking. I like how you are using your project as a first person view from Hanuman. Most of the material that I have read so far, whether required reading or classmate's stories, are in third person. I think that, overall, your project is going to be an interesting one, and you have started it off in a great way.
Regards,
Jake
Hey David,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your title and overall set up of your site. A good technique for setting up a site and coming up with stories and introductions is having a good title to gather an audience, and I feel like you did a good job! You also followed up your title with a brief description, which I enjoyed. I feel like it added to helping me understand what your site was all about. The introduction itself really caught my attention as you wrote it very poetically. Most introductions are very prosaic, and I really like you strayed away from that and wrote it the way you did. I also really enjoyed reading it because of your syntax, or sentence structure. Overall, and job well done.
Hi David!
ReplyDeleteAs far as formatting goes, I would first recommend to make it clear or bigger where your comment wall link is, as it took me a second to figure out where link to click was located on your home page. I also wouldn't be surprised if it was just my non tech-savvy self being lost as usual. I love how you actually insert yourself as a character in this storybook, who has a relationship or interaction between the main epic character highlighted. I love how you wrote this introduction in a prose, poem sort of format. If you use this poem type of structure for further stories, I would recommend adding an introduction statement or paragraph that leads into it. In the future with these poems, you could even add some sort of rhythm or rhyming aspect which would make it even more unique. Although it was a little more abstract than other projects I have read, I think this is absolutely beautiful. Fantastic work!
Hey David, So during my time reading the Ramayana, I kind of got annoyed with Hanuman. It was only because I was so annoyed with Rama for taking so long to get to Sita. Hanuman is a story that I really didn’t get into. Which means I am more than willing to give the monkey man another chance. It seems that you are really into his side of the story. Changing the perspective is one of my favorite elements of storytelling. It is really cool seeing his statue on your website because it makes me feel more personalized with his story. He really had a big chunk of time in the Ramayana so I'm sure you have plenty of content to work with. I think you did an excellent job with the poetry or verse side of the story. I have found it the most challenging. But I think yours was pretty good! Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteHi David,
ReplyDeleteI love that you called Surasa's boogers celestial goo. I chuckled at that. There seems to be a lot more snot related incidences in Indian mythology than in Greco/Roman mythology. I like the setup of your site, and that you are making Hanuman the author and keeping his voice in the Author's Note. I'm interested in hearing and explanation on why Hanuman needs David's help. The original authors of the epics we read wrote themselves into the story. How could you write yourself into Hanuman's story? Did you find a magic scroll and now you're sharing Hanuman's story with English speakers? Were you sucked into a time vortex and you've pledged yourself to be Hanuman's historian until you've found your way home? The narrative voice you are using is jovial and easy to engage with. I suggest reading through your story one sentence at a time and making sure that each sentence makes sense. If the sentence doesn't make sense, ask yourself if it is the sentence itself that needs to be clarified, or is it the sentence addressing something that hasn't been clarified in the story yet.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this project grows!
-Eden
Hey! So I just got through going through your website and I wanted to say that your design is very nice! I like how you were able to add a picture by the navigation bar. I don’t know how you did that but it came out great! Looking at the context of the pages, I really enjoyed the poetry that you led off with in the introduction. I have always appreciated the fine work of poetry in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. I think your introduction from Vesuvio was really interesting. I think the rhythm was the best part. It was equal parts fast and slow and really allow for the words to flow naturally. Great start so far! Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteHey, I remember weeks ago I read your home page and left a comment, and I wanted to just say again that it does a great job at introducing us to Hanuman as a character, and how he related to the Ramayana. I love how you took the time to use a poem, its a nice break from a regular story! Anyways, reading your first story was entertaining because the Ramayana was probably my favorite read so far in the class. Getting to read it from his perspective was cool and seems to flow very well. I also like how you changed it up a bit by changing the time frame of Hanuman figuring out his powers. I also like the placement of your picture. I'm thinking about reorganizing my pages now because the bigger picture on the side of the text looks nice. Anyways, keep it for the next story, I really like this type of narrative!
Jake
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteYou have a very pretty homepage! Hanuman is one of my favorite characters in the Ramayana– he's inspired so many cool folktales and spin off characters. I remember watching a cartoon called Journey to the West, which featured a monkey based off of Hanuman. I assume your project is a storybook? I'd put that in your homepage just to signal to new readers what your project is all about! I really appreciate your introduction page though– the poem is very beautiful and the picture is great. As for your stories, they are all very well formatted; their progression is very clear, and you have good dialogue breaks. You appear to have a strong command over the source material too. The format of your second story is especially nice. The way you have the three pictures arrayed over the top is really beautiful. Overall, you have a very good structure to your project; it appears quite well thought out.
Hiya David, I'm very impressed by your use of poetry instead of pure prose, and I think the mix you've got going works really well! After the Ramayana, it felt like we had just scratched the surface of what Hanuman was capable of, so your stories going into more detail on him are awesome! Reading through your stories, the way you decide to tell them (coming from Hanuman himself) is a fun twist compared to other stories. It could be just my computer, but the formatting on your second story seems a little off. It's nothing too bad, just makes it a little harder to read the short poems. "Emerging from my nose will grant you no blessings from me" had me rolling for a bit, great sentence. I can't wait to see what you've got cooking up next for us and the tales of Hanuman.
ReplyDeleteHey David! I love how you started your website off by making using Hanuman as the narrator, but also intertwines yourself into the narrative as a side kick. Your picture is vivid and really drew my eye and I think you chose well! I jumped into your introduction to get an idea as to what was going on and I thoroughly enjoyed how you wrote this introduction. It was distinctive in the way it was presented and produced a nice air of calmness. I decided to jump into Mainaka as I think it was your most recent writing. Right away I the pictures called out to me and I the calmness I felt from reading your introduction carries over. Your overall creative choices in textual formatting was quite nice. I like how the paragraphs and stories were side by side as I found this to be quite unique. If I had to throw out a suggestion, it would be to maybe capitalize on this a bit more. The pictures line up quite nicely but the text itself is a bit distracting and I had a moment of confusion on where I was going. Overall great job! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi David,
ReplyDeleteI love that Hanuman is the author and that you are just helping him out. When I was reading the author’s notes I was laughing. I really enjoyed Hanuman remembering things differently and that is how you both decided to share the “updated” version. Your storybook is wonderful to read and even just to look at. I like the format and picture placements. Your paragraphs are set up well and I liked how you separated the quotes so that there was a contrast from the story to a character’s thoughts or words. The organization of the paragraphs is extremely interesting in Simhika and Mainaka where you attached them to the pictures. It is such a cool concept and the images you chose are perfect. This is one of my favorite storybooks because there is so much character and creativity in it. I absolutely would need a nap after an epic battle, and you were right to include it. I can’t say enough good things about your storybook!
Hey David,
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I love your format. It is by far the most visually appealing storybook I have seen so far. I really liked the introduction you had written up. I had not really focused on Hanuman in our stories so it helped me out alot to set up his background. I also really liked the images you chose in your stories, it helps a lot with the atmosphere of your stories for me. I was interested in why author note for Surasa is so short. I really like the notes you gave for the other stories, but I felt that the Surasa note did not help much. If you could make that author note more like the other notes I think it would help out that story a bit.
Hello David,
ReplyDeleteI thought your storybook was organized really well and that the format was easy to follow and understand. I also really liked how you used poetry throughout your storybook. Having poetry present in your different stories made the whole thing feel connected and flow well. It was cool that you took the stance of speaking for Hanuman, almost as if you two were friends co-authoring your storybook. I also liked that you took the time in your introduction to give your reader some background information so that we could understand what was going on and refresh our memories. It was also cool that you didn't hesitate to remind the reader of Hanuman's weakness in moments, like when he defeated Simhika. Overall I thought you did a good job on your storybook!