Sunday, April 10, 2016

Week 11: Famous Last Words



It’s the home stretch! I have figured out my basic weekly assignment list for the rest of the semester: two more Storybook things (both of which are revisions), three reading posts a week, and about five points, on average, in other assignments a week. Shouldn’t be too hard to keep up with, right?

This week was a busy one for reading. I ended up finishing The Palace of Illusions, reading an Amar Chitra Katha comic, and starting Breaking the Bow. I really enjoyed the final chapter of Divakaruni’s novel and the philosophical way in which it wrapped up after hints being given to Draupadi about that all along. The comic, Stories of Creation from the Brahma Purana, was fun. I hadn’t tried any of the comics or graphic novels at Bizzell, so I’m glad I took the opportunity to see what one was like. And of course, I’m enjoying Breaking the Bow right now. I’m interested to see what else the anthology has in store, with such a diverse array of authors, genres, and takes on the epic.

I had a couple interesting Epics-related interactions this week as well. Checking out the comic from Bizzell, one of the workers gushed about how much she loves the comic series, having grown up reading these. The lady who checked out the book to me was just amazed at it being volume 834. J

Earlier in the week, I unsuccessfully tried to avoid yet another campus proselytizer on the South Oval. But this one turned out to be super friendly (and seemed genuine about it) and was discussing the Bhagavad Gita, not Christianity. Turned out she’s from ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), which made me realize that while many of us read these epics for entertainment, others can view them as texts relating stories of spiritual significance. I hadn’t really connected the Krishna of the Ramayana with a god who people still worship, so this was an interesting perspective to encounter.

 life-size statue of ISKCON founder Swami Prabhupada
from ISKCON Temple Chennai

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