Famous Last Words: Divinity

I found many similarities between The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. They both involved somewhat divine heroes, and their faithful, beautiful wives. It involved an epic battle between an enemy and those said heroes. It also involved divine intervention in the form of weapons, boons, and curses. I am starting to realize that the epics of India have a writing style all their own, and I really enjoy reading these. I cannot wait to start on the fleshed out version of The Mahabharata next week. I would love to eventually study the whole thing, although from the introduction that sounds like it would be quite the undertaking. In a very loose sense of the word, this is somewhat like a bible to me. It describes life and death, how certain types of positions should act, and various parables that guide one’s life. It is all through the various tales of unordinary people’s lives. It had some striking similarities to the Christian bible, but obvious differences as well. I definitely found this more readable than my bible. It is like a religious text and an epic legend all in one. However, one of the most striking differences I found was that God was questioned in The Mahabharata. Granted, I do not blame Draupadi for questioning his existence and powerfulness. She was mishandled and almost raped and completely humiliated in front of her husbands. I would not be feeling all lovey-dovey towards God either if I had gotten treated the way she was. It surprised me that this passage was put into The Mahabharata, when the rest of the text is highly invested in religion and the gods. Of course, the words were put into the mouth of a woman, because a man would never say something that stupid. There were a surprising amounts of contrasts in this epic that I enjoyed very much.

Draupadi and Krishna
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Storytelling Week 10: Dhritarashtra's Monologue

I feel weak. I have always felt disadvantaged, but never weak. I am a king, for Christ’s sake. I have 100 sons and excellent counsellors. I have a stunning wife who serves me in every way. I have countless chambers of women ready to please me. I have never let my blindness stop me from being the king I was born to be. So this new feeling, this feeling of no control and disapproval from my friends, this is not okay. I cannot handle the way Vidura talks to me these days. To me, the inflection of the voice is everything. It is all I have. I have the touch of my wife and the warmth of the son, but to really judge how a person feels about me, it is all in their voice. Not even in the words they say, no. In the manner which they say them. I do not need sight to tell when someone is deceiving me. I do not need sight to tell when someone is smiling or weeping. I have heard the inflection of admiration, of awe, of love, but never of this horrible disapproval I am getting from Vidura. I know I have always been partial to my son Duryodhana, but he is a good boy, bless him. I know the prophecy, that he would be the end of our race. I was not blind to the way he howled like a jackal as a child. I knew there was something wrong. But he was my first born, and I could not bear to part with him. He is brilliant. He will do awesome things. Terrible, but awesome things. I am afraid I will always let him into my heart, and therefore my decisions. Vidura does not understand that, I am afraid. Listen to the way he chides me. He has always spoken too bluntly to his king. I keep on distracting him with questions of life, destiny, and death. It is a salve for my soul. He keeps on telling me how I need to abandon Duryodhana, but I know in my heart I will never do this. So I distract him for a moment. I can tell he is getting tired, and even Vidura’s knowledge is not limitless. Aha! I have finally asked him a question he does not know the answer to. Now the inflection has changed. That is so much better, to listen to him struggle for an answer. Maybe now he will drop the subject of abandoning my son, and I can rest.

Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana
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Author's Note: I am fascinated by Dhritarashtra's character. He was a strong and respected king, but so foolishly partial to his son. He allowed his son to persecute the Pandava's for years, and did nothing about it. I constantly wondered what was going on in his mind, and so I elaborated just a little bit on it in this story.
Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

Reading Post B: Draupadi's Plight

I thought Sita was mistreated in The Ramayana, but compared to Draupadi, Sita had it easy. SIta was merely cast into a stereotypical role and never allowed to truly shine as the woman she could have been. Draupadi was forced into a marriage with five men. While they all treated her well, and promised to erase all thoughts of her while she was with one of the other husbands, how unfair is that? No one asked Draupadi what she thought of this arrangement. There is no passage describing Draupadi's joy at having five husbands. Sure, there is a tale that describes how she came to be fated to have these five husbands. But even in the tale, she is simply calling out for her husband that she served her whole life who left her. And this is just the beginning. After that, she is dragged out into a room full of men after she was lost in a bet by her husband, in a single cloth because she was on her period. She was a princess! And this is how she was treated. After she was manhandled and dragged by her hair into the presence of not only her husbands but all these elites, her single cloth was torn off of her. Not a single of her brave five husbands stepped in to stop it. No one did anything, so she begged Krishna to help her, and he was her only salvation. There is so much wrong with this character and the situations she was put in.


The Disrobing of Draupadi
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Bibliography: Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

Reading Diary A: The Different Sides of Krishna

Krishna is a fascinating character in The Mahabharata for me. It is said he is God, and presents an image to Dhritarashtra that is so grand that it says the king regained his sight more a moment in order to see it. However, during the war Krishna proposes a plan that is quite deceitful and in my opinion not very godly or omniscient. He says to lie to a foe about the death of his son in order to make him more vulnerable. This does not sit well with me. Maybe it is because of the barriers of growing up in a very different religion that I see God in a very different way, but to me Krishna is too human. I do not see God lying to people in order to kill them, or speaking rashly the way Krishna does at the end of the tale. I do not know if it is because he is reincarnated, and therefore has human restraints. He knows of his reincarnation though, so I do not think he surmises himself to be human. This is an interesting point for me, and one I will continue to ponder.


The Death of Jayadratha
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Bibliography: Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

Commenting Review Week

I have made a few connections in the class! As the semester goes on I am returning to people's blogs and getting to know them and their writing styles better. I think repeat interactions are the key to creating connections. Maybe, make our storytelling commenting groups the same every week (and assign us one random one on top of a standard two), that way we can see each other progress and really get to interact with each other on a weekly basis, while also experiencing other people's writing styles. The introductions help as well. You could also add an extra credit option where you get some extra credit if you and another person comment on three of each others post and respond to at least one of their comments about your writing. My project comments have been suuuuuper useful. I do not use my storytelling ones as much but they do encourage me in my writing. When I leave a short comment, I focus on the big picture. What I liked most and what I liked least. When I have a longer comment, I will focus on the more minute details of the story. I make a lot of comments in other classes, but it is a different kind of class, more science-based.


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Writing Review Week

Honestly, I have adored every story I have written. I have absolutely loved being able to flesh out parts of the story that I felt warranted more attention than they received. It was so much fun to flesh out characters and add in details that I wanted to. The storytelling is my favorite part of the week, and probably what I spend the most time on. Some writing goals I have are maybe to branch out on my writing style. Do a perspective I normally would not do or write from the opinion of someone with opposite beliefs of mine. Maybe modernize some of the epics. Just push myself. I have not really gotten any of my ideas from other student's writing, but I have picked up little tips here and there. The most helpful feedback for me is specific feedback! Saying "Oh it was a little bland" or "Oh I didn't really get where this was going" does not help me. Telling me what was bland or where someone got lost is what is productive for me. I have learned some things about myself as a writer. I skip over grammatical details because I am more worried about how the story flows, and I do not realize that this will be distracting for my reader. I also have realized that I need to take a step back and make sure someone who is not inside my head will understand my writing. Oh, and that I really, really, realllllly love comma splices.

Rama is one of the most interesting characters in The Ramayana and I just love writing about him so much. There is so much there to work with!
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Reading Review Week

Looking back over my reading diaries, I have to say that honestly I do not really take notes actively while I was reading either version of The Ramayana. These stories are so vivid and interesting that I stay engaged without note-taking, and the scenes from that week's reading stay fresh enough in my mind that I am able to write about them just by referring to my book. I have only read a few fables and The Ramayana so far, but I really enjoyed it. I liked the sequence of the books. Starting off with the shorter more concise one and then working into a longer and more descriptive one was a good decision. It allowed me to appreciate the rich details in Buck's version. The Reading Diaries do not remind me of scenes I have forgotten per-say, but they do remind me of reactions I have that I no longer remember. That is beneficial to me. I used to read a lot for pleasure, unfortunately I do not have the time anymore. The reading in this class has been like pleasure reading to me. It does not feel forced and it certainly does not seem like I am reading a textbook. I am not a computer-reader, I am old fashioned and like the feel of a book. So if you proceed with the Un-Textbook, I would still offer resources so that future students may purchase a paper copy if they choose. I know that is the option I would prefer.


This is one of my favorite pictures. It pictures a scene that does not get a whole lot of renderings. I also like all the emotion in it.
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