Thursday, November 26, 2015

Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and Mahabharata

There could be better things to discuss, in these days of degenerating tolerance or intolerance. However, for the fear of not being able to save this topic for later discussion, I am posting this now. After all, that is what my blog, a thought repository, is all about.

The Game of Thrones is the cult fiction of the decade, it is such a craze among people. It is not a cult in terms of fashion, however, it is in terms of which series to watch. George R. R. Martin's plot and the script are simply amazing - unpredictable twists and turns in the plot take most of the credits. The characters and their development are amazing too. Each character is detailed in depth in a completely different dimension - this is something that is not seen in many other series, in my opinion. (I have not watched many other series, so my evaluation may not be the best.) I am not picking any character in particular - that is material for another blog post.

Without much digress, let me present the topic of discussion here - how would the Mahabharata (or the Ramayana - I have not read the Bible or the Koran, so I am not mentioning them here for comparison) fair in terms of literary merits when compared to the Game of Thrones or the Lord of the Rings? This thought occurred recently to me as I was thinking how can creativity be measured, after attending a talk at the University at Buffalo, on 'Creativity and decision making in architecture' by Ms. Ming Hu, Director of Academic Engagement at the American Institute of Architects (AIA). I continued my thoughts along the line of creativity and quality in literature, and then ended up on Lord of the Rings, a contemporary classic work of fiction. Not that there are better works - but this one is the best among the contemporaries in terms of creativity - J.R.R Tolkien's imagination and creativity in creating the 'middle earth' is beyond praise. No, the Harry Potter series is not better because J. K. Rowling followed  J.R.R Tolkien in many ways. The best possible example is the similarity between Rowling's Dobby and Tolkien's Gollum. 

The point is that the Mahabharata has lost its appeal among contemporary youth - the reasons are primarily: (1) westernization: most people prefer western culture to eastern - this trend is seen in fashion, history, mythology, culture, and everything else; and (2) the dragging serials based on mythology which were and are aired in India get no sympathy from youth. I think Mahabharata would be much more popular if it is shot in James Cameron's Avatar-like setting.  No, not as powerful as the Game of Thrones, for the Game of Thrones takes advantage of two of the three whims of mankind - sex and violence. The third one, for a consolation, is comedy.

I stop here by requesting the mankind - to make merry, but live and let live. And picking the Mahabharata was completely random. 

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