Week 10 Story Planning

For my next story, I am thinking about doing a twist of Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde story with plots from the Mahabharata. I want to compare Tristan and Isolde's unfulfilled longing with something from the Mahabharata... I am not sure what that is... yet! I plan to take the story of how Arjuna shot bhisma down with so many arrows that he ended up lying on a bed of arrows that prevented him from touching the floor and use that in Wagner's version of the ending of his opera where Tristan takes off his bandages and approaches Isolde. I think there could be something really powerfully there about the death of Tristan and the death of Isolde on top of Tristan while Marke comes and weeps over the tragedy that happened. I might end up twisting the scene a little bit and have Tristan lying in Isolde's arms as he is dying, but do to sheer will power, he chooses to stay alive. As he is dying, Isolde and Tristan exchange some last words before King Marke shows up. I could incorporate some dialogue along the same tone of the Mahabharata. Also, I might end up putting Richard Wager in hell instead of Tristan and Isolde. I'm not sure yet!


source Tristan and Isolde's death

Bibliography:

R.K. Narayan - the Mahabharata
Richard Wagner - Tristan and Isolde

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Part B

Today, the story of Bhima and his encounter with Hanuman was awesome to read! I think I totally missed that part when I was reading through R.K. Narayan's version and I had no idea that Hanuman told Bhima the story about Rama. In that connection of the Ramayana to the Mahabharata, the epics are really connected and I appreciate that. One thing that stands out to me in Dharma's version is that Hanuman is grown in size and he seems so much stronger than he did in the Ramayana. In comparison to Bhima, it seems that Hanuman could easily take down any other god and that is really cool. The descriptions of how he gathered the lotuses were really neat too!


source hanuman and bhima in their encounter

Bibliography:

Krishna Dharma - The Mahabharata

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Part A

This week, we read about the Pandava's exile into the forest. Once again Krishna Dharma's version of the epic is a lot more eloquent and detailed than R.K. Narayan's version. One thing that makes Dharma's version so great is that there seems to be a lot more detailed of dialogue. For example, the cries of the villagers when Yudhistera left was quite dramatic and I think it relates great to what has happened with the events that were going on. Also, the detail that it was the Sun God who gave the copper plate to Yudhistera is really neat as well.
Furthermore, the anger and anxiety that Dhasaratha felt and his accusation of VIdura's bias with the Pandavas is very well portrayed. The epic almost reads a lot more like a novel and it makes it really interesting to read and experience.

an image of the Pandavas in their exile. source

Bibliography:
Krishna Dharma's The Mahabharata 

The Mahabharata