Reading List, January 2023

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Our monthly stories are productions looking to connect people to the magic of stories.

We create supplementary reading lists as a way to give you an insight into the inspirations and thinking behind our monthly stories. These reading lists take you behind the story, revealing the process of its making.

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Rasa → Veeram (वीरं): Heroism. Presiding deity: Indra. Colour: saffron. Śṛṅgāraḥ (शृङ्गारः): Romance, Love, attractiveness. Presiding deity: Vishnu. Colour: light green

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Archetype → Everyperson

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To belong is to know that someone else has the same wants, fears, regrets, joys and hopes as you do. To belong is to have a people or a place that you can walk home to, no matter how strange the world gets.

This desire to belong is universal; but according to Carl Jung’s theories, this need is profoundly requisite in the personality archetype known as the ‘Everyperson’. Although named ‘the orphan’ in Jung’s theories, and later called ‘the citizen’ and the ‘everyman’, we refer to this personality archetype as the ‘Everyperson’ when we use Jungian archetypes as a storytelling tool. This is the archetypal everyday person who wants to find belonging and connectedness with his fellows; in its shadow self, this archetype does anything to fit in, at any cost, unquestioningly following societal norms and popular beliefs, often to their detriment and complete loss of identity. But, in its light, the Everyperson is a larger-than-life force quietly permeating our everyday life, holding up the simple aspirations and ideals of the common person—a job, a partner, a house, a family to belong to—with illuminating earnestness. The main character of this month’s story, Sunil, was created using this archetype.

This story was designed to trigger two moods; desire, and heroism. Our storytelling moods are derived from the eastern performance art theory of Rasa, which typifies moods created in all works of art. Desire (sringāra) is the spectrum of moods connecting to sensual enjoyment; it’s a recurring mood throughout this current story series exploring human desire. The other dominant mood heroism (veeram) is from the rasa spectrum hosting states of mind connecting to valour. It’s a mood created by determinants such as the presence of mind, perseverance, diplomacy, discipline, strength and assertion.

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Below is a list of art, literature, research and knowledge that inspired us in the making of this story;

January 2023

• The 2021 World Happiness Report found that people who experienced an increase in connectedness with others during the pandemic had greater life satisfaction, more resilience, and better mental health. Having a strong support system helps people overcome challenges more easily and maintain a state of mental well-being.
  

• 1995, Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin: Baumeister and Leary’s landmark paper, was the first to establish ‘belonging’ as a universal human need, ingrained in our motivation as a species and stemming deeply from our ancestral roots. The paper resulted in a significant change in our understanding of belonging especially as it relates to our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Tackling loneliness, caring for an older population, and school violence are just some of the problems that this research had a significant impact on. Since then, research on belonging has played an essential role in responding to these problems and offers great relevance to educational psychology.
  

• Retrieved January 2023, Everyman. Wikipedia: The Everyperson character is defined by an intent that most audience members can easily identify with. This character is distinguished from the ‘hero’ character because archetypal heroes are always prepared and respond readily and rapidly with action when there is a crisis; whereas an everyperson typically avoids responsibility and action or reacts ambivalently until a situation demands a reaction to avert disaster.
  

• 1985, Small Town, John Mellencamp. Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC: This song from John Mellencamp’s album Scarecrow paints the beauty of ordinary dreams in an extraordinary light. In 2013, Mellencamp told Rolling Stone, "I wanted to write a song that said, 'You don't have to live in New York or Los Angeles to live a full life or enjoy your life.' I was never one of those guys that grew up and thought, 'I need to get out of here.' It never dawned on me. I just valued having a family and staying close to friends."
  

• 1970, Working Class Hero, John Lennon. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Apple Records. Lennon’s autobiographical song captures his story of growing up in a poor, post-war area of Liverpool, and reflects his roots in making music that was so appealing to ordinary people. He joined ‘the folks on the hill.’ He said in a 1971 Rolling Stone interview: “I think it’s for the people like me who are working-class—whatever, upper or lower—who are supposed to be processed into the middle classes, through the machinery, that’s all.”
  

• Flawed and challenged yet, honest, practical and humble, the everyperson archetype is the antidote to the overtly pretentious narratives of grand heroes and sweeping romantics.

  1. 1964, It Ain't Me Babe, Bob Dylan. Another Side of Bob Dylan, Columbia Records. Originally from Dylan’s fourth album, this song captures the distinction between the hero and lover archetypes from the everyperson.

  2. 2016, Something just like this, The Chainsmokers and Coldplay. Memories...Do Not Open and Kaleidoscope EP. Disruptor/ Columbia Records: Many love songs are about finding the ideal person. In this song, the search isn’t for perfection, but flawed and ordinary. “I’m not looking for somebody / With some superhuman gifts / Some superhero / Some fairytale bliss.”

• 2022, Pandey, P., Tripathi, R. & Miyapuram, K.P. Classifying oscillatory brain activity associated with Indian Rasas using network metrics: This neurocinematics study explores different brain processes and mental states while watching movies. In line with this, neuroaesthetic is the field that involves the study of esthetic processing in the brain while watching a structured video pertaining to a set of emotions. Veeram (heroic), rasa was identified as a pleasant emotion, triggering brain waves in the delta and gamma bands; it concluded in similar states to sāntam and sringāra and generated patterns markedly different to bhībhatsam (disgust).
  

• Agriculture bears a strong connection with the everyperson archetype as well as the heroic rasa. The most basic and standard representation of the simple working human tilling the earth for food, farmers have embodied the everyperson archetype in the collective psyche for millennia. As the providers of food and nourishment to humankind—something we are acutely reminded of in the thick of crises like war and pandemics—stories of honest farmers induce a heroic mood in us.

  1. Dr. Vandana Shiva—an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, and anti-globalization author and Farmer Rishi Kumar—a small-scale farmer, sustainability educator and consultant speak about how people can connect with regenerative gardening and agriculture.

  2. The character William Wallace in Braveheart is presented as an economically and politically marginalized farmer Memories...Do Not Open and Kaleidoscope EP—as one with the common peasant, and with a strong spiritual connection to the land which he is destined to liberate. The character ​​Isabella of France is shown being fascinated by the stories of this Scottish commoner, giving us an insight into the allure of the everyperson archetype, especially when used with the heroic rasa.
     

• 2020, This is why. SickKids VS. Toronto, Canada: SickKids VS was the most successful healthcare campaign in Canadian history, raising over $1 billion in just four years. This is an inside look at the realities SickKids patients and staff face daily. “The VS campaign has been recognized around the world as a bold shift in tone for a children’s hospital. With SickKids VS, we celebrate the resilient spirit of our patients, families and staff, and showcase the good 'fight' that goes on at the hospital each day,” says Lori Davison, Vice President, Brand Strategy & Communications, SickKids Foundation. “Our goal was to shine a spotlight on what goes on behind the doors of the hospital, the life-or-death battles taking place every minute of every day that not everyone gets to see or appreciate,” says Craig McIntosh, Executive Creative Director with Cossette.
  

• 2021, Keep Moving, Jungle. Loving In Stereo, Caiola/ AWAL: This song, about moving on and moving through hard times, is a mantra ‘to not worry about stuff too much but to be hopeful instead’ according to one of the band’s founders, Josh Lloyd Watson. Signifies community, love, and spirit themes, alongside the strong message "I could live with it", as a reminder for us all during challenging times.
  

• Instances, where the everyperson archetype and the heroic mood come together, are public campaigns designed to speak to the masses, communicating the power of people, action, and communities working together.

  1. 1988, Just do it, Nike: Just Do It or JDI for short is a trademark of the shoe company Nike, and it is one of the core components of Nike's brand. It channels the heroic rasa (Veeram). The Just Do It campaign was highly successful, with the company defining the meaning of being both "universal and intensely personal." One of the campaign's objectives was to target all Americans—regardless of age, gender or physical fitness level, and it allowed Nike to further increase its shares and worldwide sales.

  2. 2018, To the greatness of small. Alibaba: Launched as part of its 10-year partnership with the Olympics, Alibaba used emotional sports stories to drive awareness of its support of small businesses, showing how ordinary, small entities can be mighty powerful with the right support.

  3. 2008, Yes We Can, Barack Obama presidential campaign: Political campaigns have long relied on slogans such as Barack Obama’s “Yes, we can” as a call to action and a rallying call for supporters. Similarly to brand slogans it is used as a promise. The “Yes we can” slogan was used by Harris who borrowed the slogan from Obama, who borrowed the call from Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta who used the Spanish version (“Si, se puede”) to mobilize the United Farm Workers in the 1970s.

>> Read the previous reading list

Reading List, September 2022

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Our monthly stories are productions looking to connect people to the magic of stories.

We create supplementary reading lists as a way to give you an insight into the inspirations and thinking behind our monthly stories. These reading lists take you behind the story, revealing the process of its making.

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Rasa → Bhayānakam (भयानकं): Horror, terror. Presiding deity: Yama. Colour: black, Adbhutam (अद्भुतं): Wonder, amazement. Presiding deity: Brahma. Colour: yellow

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Archetype → Ruler

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This story was created based on the ruler archetype in the teachings of Carl Gustav Jung. According to his theories, the human mind is not a blank slate at birth (tabula rasa), and instead, inherits biological aspects, fundamental, and unconscious elements of our ancestors. This is where archetypes—proto patterns of the human mind—come in. Among the twelve archetypes of the human mind described by Jung, the ruler is one of the most recognizable and corruptible. The core desire of this archetype is gaining power and exercising control. The Ruler archetype is one of the most dangerous archetypes in its shadow, becoming authoritarian.

In the current socio-political context across the world, and in Sri Lanka where a majority of our subscribers live, we’re witnessing examples of the shadow rulers establishing totalitarian and authoritarian governments leaving little space for public opinion, let alone dissent. Jung’s teaching can help us develop a view of the world and its problems that includes the spiritual, psychological and the cultural.

Parallel to this, we worked with two main aesthetic flavours from the eastern Rasa theory—bhayānakam rasa which brings on moods connecting to terror and the adbūtha rasa evoking the strange and the mysterious. This reading list includes some of the literature, writing, music and films that inspired us in the making of this story.

• The emotion of terror, or bhayanaka rasa, has its origin in the dominant state of fear. The vibhavas of this state are hideous noises, sights of ghosts, panic, anxiety, staying in an empty house, sight of death, and the captivity of dear ones. The anubhavas of this state are the trembling of the hands and feet, change of colour, and the loss of voice. Its bhavas are paralysis, perspiration, fear, stupefaction, dejection, agitation, restlessness, inactivity, epilepsy, and death.

• Wood from kaluwara, Diospyros ebenum, or kaggawali, commonly known as Ceylon ebony, is highly valued for its incredibly dense heartwood, which takes at least a hundred and fifty years to mature into its coveted deep black. Kaluwara is a strictly protected species, but this rare wood is still illegally harvested by people and companies of influence.

• 2002, Female Ruler Archetype of Empress St Helena. Homza Christian,

• Stanford Experiment; The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was designed to examine the effects of situational variables on participants' reactions and behaviors in a two-week simulation of a prison environment. Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo led the research team who ran the study in the summer of 1971. What happened when a few normal people were given absolute power and what they did with it. A cautionary true story about the human factor in cultism today.

• Don Juan Dharmapala or Dom João Dharmapala Peria Bandara (1541 – 27 May 1597) was last king of the Kingdom of Kotte, in Sri Lanka. He is also known as the puppet king of Sri Lanka, controlled by the Portuguese, he once bequeathed his entire realm to the King of Portugal. The Portuguese takeover of Kotte, however, was resisted by the people and would only be completed much later after Dharmapala’s death.

• There are few who have been stalwarts of Sri Lankan politics in the last half-century quite like the man often referred to as “the fox”. Ranil Wickremesinghe gained the nickname for his apparently wily ability to repeatedly resurrect his political career from the worst failures. Finally, last July, Wickremesinghe achieved what had appeared to be a lifelong political dream: he took the executive office of the president of Sri Lanka without a single vote from his citizens and through a parliamentary secret ballot.

• The leader who transitions from the shadow to the light side of their archetype understands their role as a compassionate facilitator instead of a tyrant. The Indian emperor Asoka and Paul—a disciple of Jesus Christ, are two charismatic leaders who played historic roles in the rise of their faiths, embodying this transition from the shadow ruler to the more benevolent form of the archetype; This paper—Asoka and Paul: transformations that led to effective leadership—by Cheryl Patton (Eastern University, St Davids, PA, USA) states.

• 2004, Tarot Cards: An Investigation of their Benefit as a Tool for Self Reflection. Gigi Hofer, Concordia University.

• The Sri Lankan devil bird: In Sri Lankan folklore, the Devil Bird or Ulama is a creature said to emit bloodcurdling human-sounding shrieks in jungles at night. Its precise identity is still a matter of debate although the spot-bellied eagle-owl matches the profile of Devil Bird to a large extent.

• The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil is a 2007 book which includes professor Philip Zimbardo's first detailed, written account of the events surrounding the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) — a prison simulation study which had to be discontinued after only six days due to several distressing outcomes and mental breaks of the participants. The book includes over 30 years of subsequent research into the psychological and social factors which result in immoral acts being committed by otherwise moral people. The book won the American Psychological Association's 2008 William James Book Award.

• 1991, Administrative Adaptability: The Dutch East India Company and Its Rise to Power. D. Gerstell.

• Kane's content mainly consists of short films as well as animations that induce terror asan aesthetic flavour. He has made films based on the Backrooms, and animations based on Attack on Titan. More of his work and details reveal Kane’s impressive knack for understanding the emotion of terror.

• New research digs deeper into the social science behind why power brings out the best in some people and the worst in others

• The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 historical drama film directed by Kevin Macdonald from a screenplay by Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock. Based on Giles Foden's 1998 novel, it depicts the dictatorship of Ugandan President Idi Amin through the perspective of a fictional Scottish doctor. The film stars Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy in these respective roles, with Kerry Washington, Simon McBurney, and Gillian Anderson in supporting roles. The title of the film refers to Amin's claim of being the King of Scotland.

• Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

• IDLES - MOTHER

• Colombo is not Sri Lanka’s capital, but it is the one city that you can’t avoid in matters of gaining access, and sometimes even viewpoints, to the world beyond. Understanding Colombo has much to do with exploring its unshakably commercial soul and origins.

>> Read the previous reading list

Monthly Story, August 2022

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Image → Ron Lach

Archetype → Rebel

Rasa → Hāsyam (हास्यं): Laughter, mirth, comedy. Presiding deity: Shiva. Colour: white, Adbhutam (अद्भुतं): Wonder, amazement. Presiding deity: Brahma. Colour: yellow

Archetype → Rebel

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Leela stopped to catch her breath before shouting again between the bars of the police cell.

“You!”, she shouted, pointing at the back of the police deputy walking away. His shoulders hung from the relief of having just locked in Leela—the loudest woman he had ever encountered—pricked up again at the sound of her voice.

“You’re a dog! A hired dog paid to bark at us people,” she shouted at his back, trying in vain to rattle the heavy bars. But, the bars stood resolute and responseless.

The policeman sat down at his desk and sighed as Leela turned around throwing her fists into the air. ‘Who’s power? People’s power! You can’t shut us down!’ she chanted.

Her shouting echoed around the cell and fell dead. From the adjoining cell, two women sitting on the floor watched her. One woman chewed betel, wore a chītta wrap and a stained T-shirt. The other wore smudged makeup, a long skirt, and a red satin blouse that took on a ghostly glow under the fluorescent light. Watching Leela, both wore expressions of half-hearted contempt. Leela recognised this contempt so well. From her university days—spent mostly in student protests—Leela had seen how, for most people, it was easier to respond to rebellion with a sudden disdain for lawlessness than to join its exhausting current towards upheaval.

Leela considered the two smoldering faces for a second; “You know why governments always make fools out of people? Because people act like goats who only know how to get herded; you sit here chewing away till the jackals come...,”

“Goats?”, snarled the woman chewing betel; the word ‘goat’ seemed to have struck her somewhere particularly sore. An escaped smile twitched Leela’s mouth; she knew that poking where it hurts was the fastest way to get people up and angry.

“Why does ‘Madam’ here get her own cell? Some big insurgency fellow?” the woman in the red blouse asked the policeman, cocking her head at Leela.

“Please be quiet, I’m trying to record this arrest,” said the policeman, his voice strained between concentration, exhaustion, and annoyance.

Leela felt her mouth open automatically in reaction, despite her best efforts to savor the secret pride of being speculated a ‘big insurgency fellow’. “Trying to send me to the Counter Subversive Unit? Dog!” she screamed at the policeman. But he scribbled away, determinedly ignoring the three women.

“Counter Subversive Unit? Damn good!” the betel woman’s voice cut through. “You insurgency-types belong there”.

“I heard there’s a torture chamber in some coconut plantation where you people are being taken to…”, the red-bloused woman said, unable to hide the glee on her face.

Leela seethed at them; “Yes! Goats like you’d rather see me dead than put effort into rising from your slavery. But, you know what? You’ll never see our revolution dead! Victory to people’s liberation!” she shouted, throwing a fist into the air. But, somewhere at the back of Leela’s mind, her husband’s voice echoed; ‘But, do the people you’re trying to liberate really want to be liberated?’

“To hell with your revolution. We have enough problems as it is,” said the red-bloused woman. “Since you got here and started shouting, they’ve even forgotten our dinner. You insurgency people never make it easy for the rest of us you know,” she said.

The policeman picked up the telephone and reminded someone about dinner.

“You don’t see the enemy do you? You don’t see how they make it about your people vs. my people, and keep us at each other's throats while they empty the bank…?” Leela shouted.

A man in khaki shorts walked in whistling; He held a tray of wrapped food and a glass of water in one hand and three carelessly stacked metal plates in the other. The man smilingly placed the tray on the policeman’s desk; He slid the metal plates under the bars without looking at the women and strolled back out, whistling.

“Wonder what’s in the special meal for Sir...” the betel woman remarked pointedly, picking up a plate.

“Not goat feed for sure...” said Leela, wiping food from the bottom of her plate.

The betel woman’s angry retort was cut off the next second when, suddenly, the electricity blacked out. Everything paralyzed into a soundless night.

“Police station being attacked? They cut the power? Apooo! The insurgency people are coming to kill us!” The red-bloused woman started wailing. “Let the thirty-three thousand gods see this! Oh gods I haven’t sinned that much...”

“Quiet! No one is coming to kill us!” the policeman’s voice snapped.

Without the ceiling fan and fluorescent lights driving them away, mosquitoes took over like a hungry choir. Leela heard their humming circling her. Their stings punctured her skin; She swatted one and got food on her forehead. To her side, a curse erupted in the betel woman’s voice with the sound of a metal plate being dropped loudly onto the floor. The startled policeman—who sounded as if he had just knocked over the glass of water—clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“What the hell is this power cut?” asked the betel woman.

No one responded. Even Leela had nothing left to say.

Only a quiet idea floating in the dark seemed to present an answer too uncomfortable to swallow. It settled down amidst them, growing painfully apparent against the dark.

Read the previous story

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The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.