Week 9 Reading Diary A: Mahabharata

So, we pretty much open with the story of Shantanu and Ganga. That's pretty messed up. The river Ganga seems to be a pretty messed up character in various stories - trying to flood the world, trying to kill Sita, now drowning babies... yikes.

Then Shantanu gets with Satyavati. It's pretty nice of Bhishma to give up his claim to the throne AND vow to live a celibate life just so his dad can hook up with some new girl. I mean, that's kind of a big sacrifice. There's got to be some other girls out there for Shantanu.

And then there's that weird story about Satyavati smelling like a fish - cuz she was conceived by a sperm eating fish? I mean, what? I feel like that should be a Monty Python thing - You're mother was a fish and you smell like one too! Just.., I can't. And then, like, she sleeps with this rishi and has a son by him, and that's just okay? I mean, wasn't virginity and chastity kind of a big deal here? We saw that with Sita, even though she was always faithful to Rama, so why is it just no big deal that Satyavati had a son out of wedlock?

Anyway, then there's Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika (wow, thanks dad for naming us all practically the same thing). Kinda sucks how they're just like, there for the taking. Really sucks for Amba - see, she was rejected by Shalwa for even maybe being unfaithful, yet Satyavati... oh well, moving on.

So now here's where Vyasa comes back to sleep with now-dead Vichitravirya's wives - cuz that's not weird and terrible at all. Apparently he looked so jacked up that Ambika had to close her eyes (yet she still had to sleep with him) and, because this is how science works, their son ended up blind. And the next one pale. And then a maid is thrown at him (wow, women are really just tossed about as objects here) and she's like, whatevs, and their son turns out normal.

Man, there's so much weird stuff about sex in here. Like, Pandu can't have sex or he'll die? What? That seems like it should be funny... but it's not. Though it reminds me of that Mean Girls sex ed scene, "Don't have sex or you'll get pregnant and die" (was that Mean Girls? I think it was Mean Girls, or something).

Anyway, what's up with the story - he shot a deer having sex that turned out to be some sort of spirit? Like, first of all, it just seems like bad form to shoot a deer while it's having sex. Also - was this spirit having sex with a real deer? Or were they both spirits, posing as deers, having sex? And either way, why? Why??? You know, I don't really want to think about it too much....

And then, later, the guy has sex anyway. I mean, really? Really. You KNOW you will DIE, but you just can't keep it in your pants? Smh.

And then there's Kunti, "summoning the gods" in order to have children by them - apparently adultery is okay if it's with the gods. I guess it kinda worked out though, since that's the only way Pandu could have children. Still though.

Hey, there's Arjuna! I know him!

Some bad family rivalry going on here.

Wow, good job being a teacher, getting your students to KIDNAP a guy for your own revenge. Way to be a good influence.

Man, Duryodhana's pretty dark. "House of Joy" ends up being a fiery trap of death - darkly ironic, sounds like some twisted horror movie premise.

Oh great, more effed up treatment of women. Yeah, I think the concept of sharing goes a bit too far when a woman is "shared" between five brothers as a wife. I mean, I get sharing food that you begged for, but sharing a woman whose hand you won in marriage? Like, seriously, this woman already was pawned off to some total stranger who won a contest, now she finds out she's to be passed around from brother to brother? That's just so messed up. These families definitely got some problems.