Famous Last Words: It's All About Perspective

For my reading this week (after reading ahead for next week to clear the schedule some), I've just about finished The Palace of Illusions. It's been really interesting to see all the characters and events of the Mahabharata—which had very specific, distinctive characters and events, but was also somehow kind of vague about them, skimming over details without that much depth—laid out like this, with enough room to unfold naturally.

A huge factor in how it unfolded so naturally, though, is the narrator the author chose. Back when I read the PDE Mahabharata, I didn't pay that much attention to Draupadi: she seemed really promising at first, but quickly took a backseat to her husbands and their legacy.

One thing The Palace of Illusions does brilliantly, though, is show the huge extent to which that shouldn't be the case. As I read through the cousins' war, I was struck by the fact that this time around, each of the deaths of the various warriors meant something. And once I thought about it, I realized that that was because Draupadi was the perfect narrator: she had ties to every one of the other characters. Drona: father's nemesis, destined to be killed by her brother. Duryodhan: her enemy since he tried to have her humiliated after the gambling misadventure, and her husbands' rival. Karna: never-to-be love interest, secret brother-in-law. Dhri: commander of the Pandava army, her brother. And so on. Sometimes because of special connections the author added or embellished, like the one with Karna, but often just because of reading between the lines of the existing text, the author found Draupadi at the center of the huge, complicated web that is the Mahabharata; with her as a reference point, all of the other characters had a role and a place, instead of all running together. It's a fascinating study in point of view, and in reworking mythology in general.

I also shifted my course schedule around this week, (at least temporarily) substituting extra credit options to make up for a missed story each week and the resulting missed project addition. While I still miss writing a new story each week like I did last semester, it really has been a huge help so far; I'm not so stressed, and I've actually been able to work ahead a little on my reading, making room for next week so I can focus on deadlines coming up in other classes. For now, at least, it's a good system, and I'm sticking with it.

Image Credit: Staggered Windows, by PixelAnarchy. Source: Pixabay.