Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Week 6 Reading Diary A

Draupadi and the Pandavas, from Wikipedia

This week, I continued reading Narayan's Mahabharata. I found this week's reading more interesting than the last two sections--I think this was mostly because last week, I took the time to make a character chart and write out who everyone was, so I had a better idea of who was interacting with each other. 

So far, Duryodhana has been acting increasingly like a B-movie villian. When offered Krishna or a million soldiers, he is THRILLED that Arjuna asks for Krisha. Textbook. When everyone around him is telling him that the war is pointless and they're all going to die, he gets mad and throws himself further on the stake.

I really liked the story where Yudhisthira was tested for hours, and for me it redeemed his earlier actions of losing the entire kingdom, his brothers, and his wife because he enjoys gambling. I think he's learned, or at least is wiser now, and my confidence in him to run a kingdom has been restored. He also tends to be a little ahead of the rest of the brothers, except for Arjuna, who really shone in this section. Given the chance to get out and drive a chariot for the prince, Arjuna takes it and does well, until the Prince starts freaking out on him. I think this could make for a pretty good comedic story, though I'm not sure how I would change the setting.

I also liked how Draupadi was just too pretty for her not to go unnoticed during her time in exile. Everyone else went incognito just fine, but men were throwing themselves at her constantly, and in turn, said men died. 

Overall, I'm excited for this week's storytelling, because I think there's a lot to work from in this section! 

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