Story: The Mechanical Monster

The Mechanical Monster

In that twelfth year, when the Pandava brethren were to finally return home from their long and arduous exile, they were beset by one of the greatest challenges they would face yet. And so it happened that a white deer had stolen the kindling of a well known Brahmin and this Brahmin had begged the Pandavas to aid him and finally Yudhishthira acquiesced and promised their aid. And so they had gone forth into the forest to hunt the deer, but no matter how hard the Pandavas tried and no matter how carefully their traps were hidden or how true their aim was, they failed to capture the beast. In their exhaustion, they rested in the middle of great forest under a leafy canopy that blocked out almost all light from the sun. One of them by the name of Nakula climbed a tree to look for a water source so that they could drink and continue their quest. Spotting a clear, blue lake, he quickly descended the tree and sprinted to the water but he was stopped by a giant metal monster that came in front of him and shouted, “You must answer my question before you can drink.” Nakula did not listen though and attempted to drink from the lake and the great mechanical beast rolled forward and with long, rope-like arms so fast they could not be seen, he snatched up Nakula and then was gone in a puff of smoke.

            One after the other, those that had journeyed forth to find the deer came to the pond and they were confronted by the great mechanical beast who demanded that each one answer his questions. Never did they listen though and soon four brothers had been snatched away by the great monster. Finally,  Yudhishthira came forth and the beast spoke to him. “You must answer my question before you shall drink.”

            “Speak then, but first I must ask you, why do you do this? I have seen you take the others and I know what you plan to do to me as well if I do not humor you,” Yudhishthira said.

            “Don't ask me silly questions

I won't play silly games

I'm just a simple choo choo train

And I'll always be the same.

I only want to race along

Beneath the bright blue sky

And be a happy choo choo train

Until the day I die.”

“I do not understand you, great beast,” Yudhishthira said.

“It does not matter,” the beast said. “There is a thing that nothing is, and yet it has a name. It's sometimes tall and sometimes short, joins our talks, joins our sport, and plays at every game.”

“It is a shadow,” Yudhishthira said.

“Right. Now you ask me one,” the beast said.

“But you said if I answered your question, you would leave me be. If I answer your questions, will you free my brothers?”

“Your brothers are dead and so soon you shall be too. Ask me a riddle or I shall end you.”

“Fine. What's better than all the gods and worse than Old Man Splitfoot. Dead people eat it always; live people who eat it die slowly?”

“Nothing, of course,” the beast said quickly as if it wasn't even a challenge. “Today he is there to trip you up and he will torture you tomorrow. Yet he is also there to ease the pain, when you are lost in grief and sorrow.”

“Alcohol,” Yudhishthira said. "You hear it speak, for it has a hard tongue. But it cannot breathe, for it has not a lung. What is it?"
"A bell," the beast said.
 And so it went on in this order with one giving a riddle and another answering it immediately with neither one having to think for even a moment about what the answer was. This continued for several days and nights with the two never stopping and never stumping the other. Finally, a little boy wandered into the verbal struggle and by the beast noticed him immediately. It rolled up to him and it demanded “Tell me a riddle, child!” The child was not at all frightened though and then asked the beast, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” And the beast was silent. It did not know the answer to this question. It thought hard and from deep inside its metal body, a great grinding sound split the air. Then it went completely silent for a several minutes.

            “I don’t know. What?” the beast said.

            “To get to the other side!” And the beast roared and prepared to harm the child, but in the time that it was distracted by the child, Yudhishthira  pulled off the wheels of the beast and he found his brothers stored in a cage in the back part of the beast's body. The beast was unable to move and howled loudly as it had been beaten. The brothers drank from the water and went from that place in peace.

Author's note: I originally had wanted to keep this piece in the historical setting but very quickly had a good idea that involved riddles from one of my favorite book series out there: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. This specific idea is taken from The Wastelands. I took the train from those books and I used him as the one asking the riddles instead of the original character in this story. For those that don't know, the train is a big fan of riddles in the story and becomes a major antagonist by asking them so it made sense to me to put him in a piece like this. It was a fun little blend to write and it probably would have been fun to make it a bit longer, but for a class like this, It's better to just leave the piece shorter and maybe write another addition later related to this instead. Ultimately, I felt that having the train asking riddles fit the story really well because both the original source material in the Mahabharata and the piece by Stephen King have difficult challenges for their respective protagonists involving riddles. The riddles also help to draw the reader in because they're are always fun to read  and that definitely gives the reader some intrigue so they aren't just bored with the story. In my revisions, I actually left most of the content the same and decided to focus most of my changes on the little details of the piece. I added more descriptions, more colors and visuals so that the reader can better center themselves in the piece. I intentionally left the train vague still because it makes the build up much better for the reader. 

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata, link,    The Wastelands By Stephen King

(God yama statue, wikimedia commons)

Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata Part D

There’s so much conflict here and we really don’t see a ton of variation in styles for whatever reason. The general format we see here is very matter of fact and almost historical sounding, which makes the piece have a certain weight to it, but it can weaken the strength of some of the more intense and emotional scenes like when Bhishma finally falls. I think I’d want to really play up the raw emotional aspects of many of these scenes. They’re horrible tragic and they could be done very well. It could be interesting to do a sort of modernized letter (like one sent from the military to a deceased spouse) to alert someone of a family member’s death. It could make for a fun writing project.

I’ll definetly need to include conflict in this week’s piece as there really is just so much of it. We see so many battles and so many horrible tragedies of war. I’d be amiss to not use that kind of beautiful and compelling source material in my writings for this week’s storytelling. The very somber tone that is carried throughout many of the pieces in this reading works very well to express the gravity of what is actually going on. It leaves the reader in a constant state of nervousness and fear waiting for the next tragedy to befall the characters we have no doubt bonded with on some level by now. I hope to be able to emulate that kind of tone if only half as well. It does such a good job of bringing the reader in and giving them something to actually care about so they keep reading. It’s a great stylistic tool and I want to try to emulate it. Perhaps the best example of it is in Ghatotkacha.

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata, link

(Death of Drona, wikimedia commons)

Reading Notes: Public Domain Mahabharata Part C

It’s very interesting to see how many parallels there are between the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Many of the same tropes and themes pop up throughout and this is probably true of most ancient stories that probably originally were passed through oral tradition. I do wonder is there is any actual crossover of the pieces in the originals or if it is just due to the effects of oral tradition but I guess there’s no way to know for sure. We see some small connections throughout for sure, though.

The tale definitely takes on a more epic and arduous format here. The journey through the forest is a very universal archetype that shows up time and time again in literature. Here we see the Pandavas wandering in the forest and as almost always happens with this archetype, they further develop themselves and their minds.

Once again, the gods play a very important role in helping out our characters. Both the god of the sun and Krishna make appearances very early on and promise their assistance. It’s something I’m really not used to seeing in literature and much of my storytelling for this class has essentially avoided it or tried to lower the role of the fantastic but I’m thinking I may want to try to include a little more in the future. I don’t want to make it too strong, but it’s certainly worth trying to include. If I were to revise my latest piece, I would consider adding a more divine aspect to it. I think it could really change the nature of the piece.

It’s interesting to see how some of the pieces are almost comical in nature while many of them are very serious and dark. I’m not sure if it has to do with the various authors involved in the public domain edition or if this is actually in the original, but it’s very interesting none the less. 

Bibliography: Public Domain Mahabharata, link

(Hanuman statue, Wikimidia Commons)