Thompson Tales: Week 9 Reading Diary, continued: The Mahabharata by Peter Brook

I really like how Peter Books made it to where it was very clear that Vyasa wrote the poem. It was not very confusing for me when he would switch back from him telling the story of his poem and him explaining. I really appreciated that. When thinking about the film before I watched it, I was very nervous how confusing it was going to be him trying to explain that Vyasa wrote the poem but also tell his story of how he was created. But, I think he did a fantastic job of explaining everything. I find it very interesting how Vyasa’s mother was born. I am not exactly the point of that and her fishy smell, but it makes for a great and creative story! King Shantanu falls in love with Vyasa’s mother, Satyavati, and they have a son. Bhishma goes to a tournament and wins three brides, but one of them says that she is already in love with another man and wants to go back to him. Bhishma lets her go to the man that she already loves, but the man will not take her even though she never did anything with Bhishma. Amba (the wife that tried to go back to the man that she already loved) went back to Bhishma and begged him to take her back, but he would not. So, in one of her most famous lines she says, “Never forget me, Bhishma. I am your death.” I feel really bad for Amba. I cannot imagine going from man to man after them saying how beautiful and wonderful she is only to get rejected hard. Definitely in that culture it would pretty much be the end to a lot of your dreams that you have been waiting and hoping for- to get married and have children.