Musings tonight.
On Mary Sue: AMAZING insights today that could very well change the contours of the intended short story. Haven't progressed much in terms of word counts, but that's okay; think we could have something coherent, but more importantly mindnumbingly fascinating, up by the end of the week.
There's a lot of stuff I'm sifting through even as we speak, and yup, that includes the curious occurrences of Gajanani, or the female Ganesha, appearing in Hindu mythos. Come to think of it, Hindu mythistory has had significant sexual ambiguity; both Siva and Vishnu have taken female forms. More on this later.
Will be attending sg's French Meetup group meeting tomorrow, so am not sure if I can work on Mary Sue. Je parle un peu Francais, but have forgotten more than I remember, so these meetings are, believe it or not, excursions in nostalgia. Still, am working at getting something fun up; a friend and I might be performing a French skit during next month's meeting. Details will be posted as soon as they're available. As usual, this would mean more research, and more ideas to mull over, so this is a fair tsunami warning alert.
Book Sightings: White Mughals (will pick this up soon) and Baksheesh and the Brahman.
Movie Sightings: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and Soldier's Girl, a tragic true love story with pressure group implications.
Music: Viswa Vinayaka (CD), the music of the dance extragavanza.
Yes Dirk, I also believe in the fundamental interconnectedness of things.
posted by The Cydonian @ 9:47 pm
3 Comments:
At 2:45 am,
Anonymous said…
THE PRACTICE?!! Ok! You get this one for free.
Female Siva? Hmmm. Nope doesn't ring a bell. Could be a story that I've heard and forgotten. Will get back on that. Female Vishnu - Mohini - _Everyone_ knows that story(ies). Lemme see... who else?
Sexual ambiguity. You do realize the glaring fact of course: Kumaraswamy. He was supposed to have been born from the "amSAlu"[essences] of Siva and Vishnu. Basically a homosexual union. Combine it with the fact that the Ayyappa (avatar of Kumaraswamy) temple forbids women from entering the temple area unless they are pre- or post-menstrual. That appears to be pretty suggestive doesn't it? Maybe we were a very forward culture and didn't know about it (*wink wink*).
Please disregard that blatant displaty of crassness and total disregard for religious sensitivity. I am an idiot. (I'll soon run dry of that defensive resource)
Est modus in rebus is all I can say.
At 1:34 pm,
oremuna said…
male vs female is not constant.
there is no gender for soul :-)
you can be a male in this life and can be a female in the next form. If you think of lady at the time of dying u will be a lady in the next life. Ther is a story in Bagavatam where a king thinks of lady at the time of death and becomes a lady in next life.
Kumara swami is a pefect son of parvati and Siva. I don't get where did u get the vishnu info.
and Ayyappa, ayyappa is so famous now; but there is no proof of ayyappa in puraanaas, vEdaas; I guess it is some make up story and temple in the time.
At 1:07 am,
Anonymous said…
Ah! But I beg to differ. I ask you to revisit the legend with your best source.
If I know my story right, the rakshasa[demon] who was to be killed by kumaraswamy had asked a boon from Siva/brahma (don't know who) that he would not be killed by anyone born of the union of male and female - or something to that effect. Then, when he eventually became a menace and too great a weight on the earth (bhoo bhaaram pEriginapuDu), vishnumoorthy and paramaSivuDu join together and something happened here. I'm not sure why, but a being with 6 heads releases six drops that fall into a river (I think it's the ganga - not sure here either) and turns into six babies. Somewhere an old lady comes into the picture here - or could be parvati and joins these babies together to form the six headed child kumaraswamy.
You have to keep in mind that the birth of each god corresponded with the granting of an impossible boon to some evil-doer. rAmA for rAvaNa, nArasimha for hiraNyakasipuDu and so on.
I remember reading a book where they glaze over the part about the union between Siva and vishnu but my grandparents set me right on that detail.
Cydon - what the f***? I didn't miss anything. I'm pretty sure.
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