Alex's Epics of India Blog

I think that the most interesting topic for me to pursue is Death Stories. As I said in my earlier Topic Brainstorm post: " Other than birth, death is the singular uniting constant in the human experience, and consequently, the most universal theme in literature and life. To write about death is to write about life -- about what it means to be alive, because life is predicated on the looming certainty of death." I think that examining the concept of death -- especially what makes a 'good' or heroic death -- in Indian epic, as compared to Greek epic (thus examining the both the Eastern and Western viewpoints), would reveal a lot to me about how the Indian people contemporary with the composition of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata cope with death as an idea-construct. I think that my stories will center around Yama, the god of death, as narrator who greets the dying and examines whether he/she is 'good,' whether the death was 'good,' and what it m...

Death Stories : This topic is the first that stood out to me, from the list of potential ideas. I really appreciate books and television shows -- a la Game of Thrones , The 100 , and Battle Royale -- which aren't afraid of killing characters (but only in plot- or character-arc-relevant ways). Other than birth, death is the singular uniting constant in the human experience, and consequently, the most universal theme in literature and life. To write about death is to write about life -- about what it means to be alive, because life is predicated on the looming certainty of death. All that said, I think that looking into ways that ancient Indian culture viewed and dealt with death, especially in their epic poetry, is incredibly interesting. I will also be able to contrast this view with that of the ancient Greeks, whose epics the Iliad and the Odyssey I read in May. Epic Heroes : The second topic that caught my eye is incredibly related to the first. If epic heroes in India...