Microfiction: The Life of the Buddha, The Fair Maiden and Gopa's Dream
Story: Life of the Buddha - The Fair Maiden and Gopa's Dream
Microfiction 1: TwitteratureLength: 140 characters
They went to the woods where the maidens waited. They offered him gifts, but all he could think was, "They laugh because they know nothing."
Author's Note: I took the first part of this story, where Udayin and Siddhartha go to the woods where the "fair maidens" are. I assume from the way the girls are described with the phrase "skillful in the game of love" that these girls are meant to entice Siddhartha. They all offer him different things, gifts and affection, but Siddhartha can only think about how they don't know about sickness or old age or death, and that that is the reason why they laugh so easily. They didn't know suffering the way he did, and to him that meant they were ignorant. I tried to capture the kind of headiness of that whole scene, which reminds me of the scene in the Odyssey with the lotus-eaters that try to seduce Odysseus, in just 140 characters.
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| Siddhartha and Gopa (Source: Varananda) |
Microfiction 2: Two-sentence stories
Length: Two sentences
Gopa dreamt that the Earth shook and ripped everything away from her. She went to tell her husband of the dream, and he said, "This is a lovely dream, go back to sleep."
Author's Note: This is the second part of the same story, where Gopa has a profound, intense dream, and when she goes to tell Siddhartha about it, he tells her that it is a good sign, a good dream, and that she should go back to sleep happy. In the dream, her clothes are ripped off of her, her hair is cut, her jewels taken, her marriage bed with Siddhartha broken, hence the line "ripped everything away from her." I tried to show how that scared her, how she had everything taken away, and the contrast with Siddhartha's calmness and even joy at the news of the dream.
Hi Cece!
ReplyDeleteThese microfictions are so fun! You do a really god job at explaining your intentions in the author's notes. Those help guide the stories to their intended purpose instead of letting the reader get lost in the lack of detail. However, it is evident that you are careful with the expressions and words you use as they convey great detail and emotion. You are able to capture complex feelings in a few sentences; that is not easy to do. Great job!
Hi Cece. I have not read the original stories, so reading your microfiction was definitely a bit confusing, which is why I appreciated your very detailed author's notes. After reading your explanations and rereading the microfictions a couple of times, I think they are a great summary of the source material. I especially love the parts where you say that Goppa got "ripped everything away from her" and how Siddharta thinks "they laugh because they know nothing." I think both of these quotes are so well thought out and filled with meaning. When I made my microfiction I sturggled a lot and they weren't as meaningful as yours, so I am really impressed. Great job!
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