最近在看 The Palace of Illusions，差不多跳着把主要情节过了一下，果然史诗什么的转到女性视角就有很多地方不能看，又荒诞又残忍。简单地说，这本书是黑公主视角的摩诃婆罗多，cp是德罗波蒂×迦尔纳，还是暗恋。我不是特别理解这个cp，但是印度人民好像挺喜欢的样子。这本书里面能读出很多史诗里面没有或者有意无意忽略掉的东西，黑公主和猛光的感情写得很好，感觉这个里面的猛光跟13版的形象还蛮接近的，比较温和干净的那种大男孩吧，所以他杀德罗纳的时候爆发了我感觉特别难受，战争是真的会摧毁很多美好的东西。束发姐姐一出场就是束发哥哥，但是也超级帅。强硬版的贡蒂虽然不讨人喜欢，但是意外地丰满，比一般作品里面满满母爱的那个形象更像个真人。五子单在感情这方面真挺那啥的（怖军除外，怖军是个好男人，坚战最后扳回来了一点，但总体上我实在是没办法给他们说什么好话），客气一点说真是一群自我中心、无可救药的男性沙文主义者。
读得最难受的是五子共妻那一段，好久没有看书看到胃不舒服了。每次和下一个丈夫在一起就会变成处女的情节，史诗里面就是那么一说，但是这里面写出来就显得特别让人难受，真的是又荒诞又残忍有恶心又冷酷。女人真的就像一种财产或者货物一样被对待。德罗波蒂吐槽说：我的父亲和我未来的丈夫在讨论我的选择，但是他们只想到这些行为会对他们自己有什么益处——或是害处。黑公主还说给女人的那些赐福都是站在男人的立场上的，其实女人根本就不想要，然而也没有人会费心问她们的想法，比如贡蒂那个。
黑公主自己讲共妻的那一段原文贴在下面了，晚点有精神的时候再试着翻译吧……
Vyasa sent a prompt verdict: I was to be married to all five brothers. My father was not to distress himself about how this would affect his reputation. This never-before-seen marital arrangement would make him more famous than a heap of battle victories. If people asked uncomfortable questions, he could blame it on the gods, who had ordained it lifetimes ago.
To keep me chaste and foster harmony in the Pandava household, Vyasa designed a special code of marital conduct for us. I would be wife to each brother for a year at a time, from oldest to youngest, consecutively. During that year, the other brothers were to keep their eyes lowered when speaking to me. (Better if they didn't speak at all.) They were not to touch me, not even the tips of my fingers. If they intruded upon our privacy when my husband and I were together, they were to be banished for a year from the household. In a postscript he added that he would give me a boon to balance the one that had landed me with five spouses. Each time I went to a new brother, I'd be a virgin again.
I can't say I was surprised by Vyasa's verdict. (Hadn't his spirits threatened me with such a fate years ago?) But now that it was to become an imminent reality, I was surprised at how angry it made me feel—and how helpless. Though Dhai Ma tried to console me by saying that finally I had the freedom men had had for centuries, my situation was very different from that of a man with several wives. Unlike him, I had no choice as to whom I slept with, and when. Like a communal drinking cup, I would be passed from hand to hand whether I wanted it or not.
Nor was I particularly delighted by the virginity boon, which seemed designed more for my husbands' benefit than mine. That seemed to be the nature of boons given to women—they were handed to us like presents we hadn't quite wanted. (Had Kunti felt the same way when she was told that the gods would be happy to impregnate her? For a moment, sympathy twinged through me. Then it was lost beneath a surge of resentment. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be in this miserable situation.)
If the sage had cared to inquire, I'd have requested the gift of forgetting, so that when I went to each brother I'd be free of the memory of the previous one. And along with that, I'd have requested that Arjun be my first husband. He was the only one of the Pandavas I felt I could have fallen in love with. If he had loved me back, I might have been able to push aside my regrets about Karna and find some semblance of happiness.
