It seems I may have been a bit overzealous with my initial
belief that the writing style was much less formal than the public domain
edition with its many authors, but after reading this section, I felt like it
often grew somewhat matter-of-fact. Intense action scenes are often given
without much life to them – they’re simply described. Now there are some
battles in the war at Lanka that are described very well but it seems like the
majority of the time, a more muted manner of description is taken. It works in
a way because it makes it clear that is a translation of an older work. If I were
to emulate this kind of style, I’d had to maintain a certain distance as the
author and make sure the narrator himself has that same distance from the piece
so that the descriptions are more plain and simple. This style has its perks
though. It greatly increases the overall believability of the piece because
things often don’t need explanation. It’s just stated that Rama does this and
thus as the reader, we accept it to be truth. It’s a unique way to force weight
behind the written words.
I will say that the style here seems to be based in the idea
of storytelling and this makes sense given the context of the Ramayana. There’s
a certain beauty to it because it takes a more descriptive and narrative path
that still allows for certain embellishments by the actual author and though I’ve
struggled to find any major changes made by this author, the stylistic changes
alone can actually change the emotion and the tone of a scene. For example,
when the great vulture tries to save Sita, the scene in this book is much more
emotional than the one found in the public domain edition. Even though the
description is from a narrator with some distance, there is still strong emotion
in the piece.
Bibliography: Divine Archer by F.J. Gould, link
(Forest dwelling Rama and Lakshmi battle Ravana, Wikimedia commons)
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