Week 13 Reading Diary, cont.: Breaking the Bow

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

I didn't really get "Machanu Visits the Underworld." Perhaps it's just because I was unfamiliar with this part of the story, about Hanuman's son Machanu, but I just wasn't entirely sure what was going on. It did continue to play around with the overarching themes for this collection, though, things like multiple versions of the story and trying to rewrite it, but ultimately ending up in the same place again.

"Oblivion: A Journey," however, is another one of my favorites. I think the futuristic sci-fi setting is a key part of that; I came to this anthology expecting a lot of sci-fi, and I find that this genre seems to garner an amazing amount of creativity from authors looking at social issues and new versions of old stories. I always love a well-told, well-built sci-fi story!

Which Singh provides here. The protagonist is from a consciously Ramayana-inspired planet and sees themself as like a modern Ram chasing a Ravan -- but are their stories actually the same? The tale was a perfect blend of new material mixed with references to the old epic, with some moral questioning thrown in. All in all, it was excellently told.

still of Ravana from Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley)

Tech Tip: Pinterest Search

For this tech tip, I tried searching Pinterest for Scherenschnitte, or German/German-American papercuts. I've been interested in this craft for several years due to participating in 18th-century living history programs in North Carolina (my home region was heavily settled by Germans coming in from Pennsylvania) and have been trying to find early examples of it. Pinterest has actually been one of my best sources for finding and keeping track of Scherenschnitte -- Google searches don't work very well.

Just searching for Scherenschnitte pulls up a lot of pins for modern works, so I added "18th century" as well and found some cool new things:

watercolor, ink, and cut paper lovebird token

Wm. Johnson, probably PA, early 19th cent.

(orig. source: Sotheby's)

valentine, "Ever of thee, I'm fondly dreaming"

Salina Brown, VA, early 1870s

(orig. source: An Acquired Taste)

Week 13 Reading Diary, cont.: Breaking the Bow

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

"The Princess and the Forest" was cool because it concerns a modern (more or less) woman drawing on the stories of the epic in her own life. It's powerful in much the same way that Sita Sings the Blues is powerful, by showing the bonds that people often create between literature and their lives, especially in times of turmoil.

still from Sita Sings the Blues

(Filmic Literacy)

"Sarama" was interesting because, once again, the point of view shifts from the usual Ramayana characters to those on the "bad" side. It's a good reminder that there's always at least two sides to every story, and that nice people get caught up in terrible events.

The last story in this section, "Regressions," was my favorite, possibly out of the entire book so far. The world that emerges in the background of the plot is drawn tightly and concisely, not to mention it's a futuristic all-women's utopia (named for Amba from the Mahabharata?) waging a time-traveling battle against their fundamentalist peers. Ties in a lot with the issues I've been reading about for my history capstone class, actually. Anyway, the ideas of revisionist stories and hundreds of Ramayanas both come through in this tale, and I wish it was a full novel rather than a mere 20 pages.

Week 13 Reading Diary: Breaking the Bow

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

"This, Other World" reminded me first of the poem "Jabberwocky." There's a lot of words thrown in to enhance the sci-fi feel that don't actually have meaning in our world, but you can figure out their general function through context. It was interesting to try to unpack all the worldbuilding Tidhar does over the course of the brief story. Sita's decision at the end and Brahma's contact with the characters were neat twists on the epic.

Perhaps because I was reading "Fragments from the Book of Beauty" late at night with some goofy friends, I thought this one was unintentionally hilarious. One friend read the first section aloud to all of us and we couldn't stop laughing. The vocabulary is just over the top, and the descriptions of the world in this tale are ridiculous. There's also more Jabberwocky words invented and thrown in. Annnd then it takes a weird turn when Mandodari is entreating Sita to give in to Ravana.

"Kalyug Amended" was cool as an updated version of Sita and her sons' story. Sita's a divorced mother, and the custody battle for her twins ends up in her favor, because in now women have more power than in the world of the epic. The last two stories in this section I don't have much to say about, other than that "Petrichor" was interesting for the backstory on Sita's origins.

Hanuman finds Sita

(Wikimedia Commons)