Week 12 Reading Diary, cont.: Breaking the Bow

reading: Part D of Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana, ed. Anil Menon & Vandana Singh (2012)

"Great Disobedience": The note about the author mentioned that they've viewed the Ramayana as racial propaganda before, and this story very much tied in with some others in the anthology where the asuras and others groups are really the oppressed people, not the evil ones. Which made this tale heartbreaking, because Rama and Lakshmana as young men get stuck in a situation where their presence is used to justify horrendous crimes, and they'll go down in history as heroes for it. It's a side of the Ramayana that either I don't remember, or it just didn't make it into Narayan's version (and is a reminder of how complex the epic is, with its side stories and everything, and how many readings it inspires). Great story, but also very depressing.

It's a quite different version of Rama killing Tataka than the one seen here.

Raja Ravi Press, c.1910s

(Wikimedia Commons)

"Test of Fire" was pretty cool, despite its shortness. It's another version of Sita-from-another-people, having an ulterior motive in marrying Rama, but it plays to an alien race rather than the asuras. I also appreciated the otherworldly distaste for Rama's actions and how they view his treatment of Sita as pandering to his own self-interests (trying to maintain the favor of everyone) rather than doing what's right.

"The Other Woman" was, at times, one of the most fun stories I've read so far. I like the author's sense of humor, and I think I'll be checking out another speculative fiction by her. The setup and ending were a bit weird, but the lighter tone was nice after how deep and dark some of these stories have gone.

Week 12 Reading Diary, cont.: Breaking the Bow

reading: Part C of Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana, ed. Anil Menon & Vandana Singh (2012)

If I thought the stories about Shurpanakha were creative...wow. The ones for Sita are amazing. I actually wish they were all longer; it seemed like as soon as I grasped the central concept at play in each version, the story was over.

Each Sita character, each story in Part C really took on its own form. There's a lot of playing around with the idea of many Ramayanas, many versions of the tale and of its figures. That's the main thing I took away from "Game of Asylum Seekers," that it's like each iteration of the epic is a new version of an impersonal game Sita is trying to survive/win. Then in "Sita's Descent," Sita tries to rewrite her story...and realizes that such actions as she wants to take are not within her character after all.

the god of fire and Sita

Evelyn Paul, 1911 (Wikimedia Commons)

"Day of the Deer" was a bit different. It goes along the same route as many of the Ramayana stories I read by other students in this class, with Ravana and Sita having some kind of other relationship backstory beyond the kidnapping episode. In this case, it was that Sita was supposed to bring the destruction of Rama and his kind, who have oppressed the earth's people, her people, for generations.

"Weak Heart" was interesting, mostly for the perspective on Rama's internal thoughts and motivations. It reminded me a lot of Draupadi's last thoughts of her eldest husband in The Palace of Illusions, that in his devotion to spirituality and correct living he will gain entrance to the realm of the gods, but in the meantime he'll have to leave behind all the people he loves. Rama is much the same in this portrayal of him. To become God, he must completely reject human feelings. I think most of us would question if such sacrifices are truly worth it, if gaining a measure of immortality is actually better than retaining one's humanity.

Week 12 Reading Diary: Breaking the Bow

reading: Part B of Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana, ed. Anil Menon & Vandana Singh (2012)

"Making": It took me a while to catch on to the characters in this story. The most interesting part was the Sita character's thoughts during exile. She explains the oft-questioned insistence that Rama himself rescue her; she wants her husband to come by himself, not to arrive with an army, and she regrets the destruction of the people she's been with in captivity. It's a more nuanced version of her time at Ravana's palace than is given in the original epic.

"The Good King" was also interesting. The repeated reminders about Ravana's heads were humorous, and also aided my visualization of him (I'd always forget about his unique characteristic while reading the epic). The sci-fi elements I found difficult to parse out -- lots of jargon, especially for such a short story -- but the idea that, even in a multiverse where they live out an incredible number of lives, the story still ends the same was fascinating. And then Ravana even ties this in with multiple versions of the Ramayana, where in this case he's finally creating his own!

Ravananugraha statue with Ravana, Shiva, and Parvati

(Wikipedia)

There's a couple great quotes from this story: "Even when they were children her brother had refused to give her any importance. However, if matters ever came down to her status as his sister he would be out there protecting her like a piece of property before she could object." Sums up the patriarchy.

"When a bunch of monkeys tried to cross the straits from India, his neuroscientists caged them in the lab and ran a series of experiments on the origins of economic theory." I should add, the combination of mythic and science, religious devotion and physics is also pretty great in this story.

I don't have much to say about "The Mango Grove," other than that I love a good love story and couldn't wait for the characters to end up together again.