|
Social Media Narrative:
hosted by
The Rutgers Camden Digital Studies Center Facebook, November 16 - 21, 2016
Chindu Sreedharan
The project (@epicretold), which began on July 29, 2009, is a retelling of the Indian epic Mahabharata, a "distributed narrative" that lasted 1605 days. Epic Retold has also been published in a print book form by Harper Collins India. Epic Retold: Story of a Twitterfiction
The first tweets that I drafted were total rubbish, but I thought they were cool. It took two kind friends to put me straight. Luckily, they stopped me before I went live. A crucial aspect of making a story work is the 'attitude' (which goes beyond mere 'voice') of the protagonist. This is even more crucial in #Twitterfiction, where you have more demanding audiences. I found first-person telling the most effective to capture this on Twitter. When I started ER in 2009, I had every intention of finishing it within a few months. It took me a few years. I thought the 140-character limit would be limiting. I actually found it liberating. I think of the Mahabharata as an anti-war story. I think of ER an anti-war story, for which I draw from the principles of Peace Journalism and similar. I struggled writing the love scenes. I also struggled writing the killings at Kurukshetra. But I had great fun drawing in Marshall McLuhan into the fray and have Krishna say, when Ghatotkacha is killed: "Any advanced weapon is indistinguishable from magic to many!" I had tears in my eyes when I killed Ghatotkacha. ER was written on an iPhone, iPad, and Mac; at home, at work, between lectures, at dinner, at airports, in airplanes, on buses, in cars... but much of it was written in a Subway in Landsdowne , Bournemouth. I saw the bearded face of Hemingway when I struggled with the dialogue in ER. I heard the French of Genette when I struggled with scenes I couldn't decide on whether to write 'long or short'. I loved getting Drishtadyumna to say: 'War is ugly. There has never been one without treachery. There never will be.' I had O Henry in mind when I wrote the last chapter. I had a fair idea how I would end ER, but I figured out the twist only towards the very end. I struggled a lot with the battle between Arjuna and Karna, but now it is one of the bits I like most. Which is your favourite part in ER? One of my favourite characters is Hidimbi. Who is yours?
And here's a link if you would like to read a bit of ER:
The Epic_Retold Conversation |
Judith Adele
James J. Brown, Jr.
Jay Bushman
Dene Grigar
Antoinette LaFarge
Deena Larsen
Cathy Marshall
Chris Rodley
Katrin Tiidenberg
Marco Williams
Alice Wong
Rutgers Camden DSC 
|
Chindu Sreedharan is the programme leader for MA Media and Communication at the School of Journalism, English and Communication, Bournemouth University, UK. He holds a PhD in crisis reporting, and is also interested in literary journalism and social media. Recent projects include 
Once again, hello! Here are a few interesting things about Epic Retold that I have never told anyone (well, not really):