The section of today's reading featuring Ravana's sister read like a soap opera to me. Woman desires man, propositions him as a lover, spreads lies about the woman he does love, and when spurned goes crying to someone else with more lies to entangle others in the drama. I see now why a student in previous semesters did a Storybook based off of "Real Housewives."
Rama spurns Soorpanaka
Warwick Goble, from Indian Myth and Legend (1913)
source: Wikimedia Commons
I don't understand why Rama didn't just tell Soorpanaka that Sita is his wife, because it's implied that if Soorpanaka thought Sita wasn't just some woman Rama picked up as a lover in the forest, she would have backed off. Actually, Rama's actions throughout this section seem out of character for him; his one flaw appears to be that he cares too much for his wife, ignoring his brother's wise warnings in order to please Sita. The same goes for Sita, who, concerned about Rama, pressures Lakshmana into going against his best judgment to check on him.
For the Storytelling assignment this week, I'm considering two options. One is to go in the soap opera direction, scripting the story as if set in a modern television drama. The other is to create a "Facebook" for Rama (I remember making a "Twitter" for the Tower of Babel story was a lot of fun, because of the multimedia way of linking people/images/locations, etc. that is found in social media). The people back in Ayodhya obviously care very much about Rama and his relatives, and what better way to update them on events during his exile than a social media account?
The domestic dramas and soap opera qualities of the epics are very distinctive, much more than what you find in Homer for example! And about Surpanakha and social media: you had mentioned being interested in Breaking the Bow, and the first story in that book is: "The Ramayana as an American Reality Television Show: Internet Activity Following the Mutilation of Surpanakha." :-)
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