Viṣṇu Śarma's Panćatantra

I've nearly finished reading Viṣṇu Śarma's Panćatantra (in a translation by Chandra Rajan).  Recently, I read a story that has the same basic events as one of Aesop's fables.  It's necessary to quote at length:

    Once, in a certain city, there lived a Brāhmana named Misery.  By begging for alms, he collected barleymeal and after eating part of it stored the rest in a clay jar which he hung on a peg in the wall.  Placing his cot right under the jar he gazed up at it for hours each night until he fell into a reverie.

    Night after night he created a scenario in his reverie, which went as follows:  'Sometime this jar will become completely filled with barleymeal:  then a famine will strike this land and the barleymeal will fetch a hundred silver coins.  With that money I shall purchase a pair of goats; as goats have kids every six months, I shall soon be able to build up a herd of goats.  With those, I shall purchase a pair of cows whose calves I shall of course sell to purchase some mares.  As the mares start to foal I shall soon acquire a whole lot of horses.  By selling the horses I can amass a great store of gold.  With the gold I shall acquire a mansion with a courtyard and large halls.  Then someone will come to my mansion and offer me his beautiful daughter blessed with all excellences.  A son will be born to us whom I shall name Moonbeams.  When he is old enough to crawl on all fours, I shall be sitting one day in the garden behind the stables with a book in my hand and be lost in contemplation.  Meanwhile, Moonbeams, my boy, will see me sitting there and getting out of his mother's arms, will make for me in his eagerness to ride on my knee; but he will go too near the horses.  This will make me angry and I shall shout to the Brāhmani, his mother, "Hey, you! catch hold of the boy, pick him up."  But being busy with household chores my wife will not hear.  Whereupon I shall rise straight away and give her a good kick on her behind.'

    One night sunk as he was in a deep reverie, Misery let fly a good string kick upwards and caught the jar, smashing it.  All the flour spilled out and fell on poor Misery turning him white all over.

In Aesop's Fables, there's a similar story about a milkmaid (No. 29 in the Barnes & Noble Classics edition, translated by V.S. Vernon Jones):

A farmer's daughter had been out to milk the cows and was returning to the dairy carrying her pail of milk upon her head.  As she walked along, she fell a-musing after this fashion:  "The milk in this pail will provide me with cream, which I will make into butter and take to market to sell.  With the money I will buy a number of eggs, and these, when hatched, will produce chickens, and by and by I shall have quite a large poultry yard.  Then I shall sell some of my fowls, and with the money which they will bring in I will buy myself a new gown, which I shall wear when I go to the fair.  And all the young fellows will admire it, and come and make love to me, but I shall toss my head and have nothing to say to them."  Forgetting all about the pail, and suiting the action to the word, she tossed her head.  Down went the pail, all the milk was spilled, and all her fine castles in the air vanished in a moment!

In both stories, a single asset is imagined to be sold and multiplied into ever greater possessions, but then the dreamer, caught up in his or her vision, does something that results in the loss of the one tangible good on which the whole dream is based.

Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy

I recently finished re-reading The Hunger Games trilogy (I've read it four times now).  At some point, I want to do a more in-depth study of the books, but for now, here are some minor points I noticed.

The Hunger Games

In Chapter 26, Katniss deduces some of the layout of the Training Center:  "It's a relief to be alone with Cinna, to feel his protective arm around my shoulders as he guides me away from the cameras, down a few passages and to an elevator that leads to the lobby of the Training Center.  The hospital then is far underground, even beneath the gym where the tributes practiced tying knots and throwing spears." (p. 352).  This also works metaphorically as an indication of the hospital's lesser importance; the Capitol is more concerned with training children to fight each other than with healing them afterwards.

Catching Fire

Near the beginning of Chapter 6, Katniss lists the foods and drinks at the Capitol party:  "Countless cheeses, breads, vegetables, sweets, waterfalls of wine, and streams of spirits that flicker with flames" (p. 77).  As if to mirror the extravagance of the Capitol, part of her description alliterates:  "waterfalls of wine, and streams of spirits that flicker with flames."

Mockingjay

In Chapter 4, Katniss comments on her shoes:  "Mine don't fit right anyway, since in the spirit of waste-not-want-not that rules 13, I was issued a pair someone had outgrown.  Apparently, one of us walks funny, because they're broken in all wrong." (p. 52).  This, too, can be understood more metaphorically as Katniss's not fitting in to District 13.  Earlier in the book, she even admits this, although it's just a small example:  "once I moved into Compartment 307 with my mother and sister, I was expected to get with the program [the schedules printed on her arm every day].  Except for showing up for meals, though, I pretty much ignore the words on my arm." (p. 18).

Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron

I've nearly finished reading The Decameron.  This is the third time I've read it but the first time reading this particular translation (by Richard Aldington).  Recently, I read the third story of the tenth day.  Here's the summary that precedes the tale:

Mitridanes envies the generosity of Nathan and sets out to kill him.  Nathan receives Mitridanes without making himself known, informs him how he may be killed, [and] meets him in a wood as arranged, to the shame of Mitridanes, who becomes his friend.

After reading the story, I realized that Nathan's name is significant.  As Nathan explains to Mitridanes, "Since I have been of age and desirous to do the same thing that you have undertaken, nobody ever entered my house whom I did not endeavour to satisfy as far as I could in anything he asked of me.  You came wanting my life.  I did not want you to be the only person who ever went away from here without receiving what he asked for, so when I heard you ask for it I immediately determined to give it to you."  Nathan's defining feature is his generosity in giving to others (even to the point of giving his own life to Mitridanes), and his name reflects this since it's derived from the Hebrew verb נָתַן, which means "to give."

Les Misérables, Part One, Book Five, Chapter III

I'm still (slowly) reading Les Misérables, the first time for this particular translation and an unabridged edition.  Recently, I read Chapter III ("Sums Deposited with Laffitte") of Part One, Book Five.  This chapter contains one of my favorite lines, but I was a bit disappointed with how it's rendered in this translation:  "Books are remote but reliable friends."  I much prefer the other translation I read, where this line is "Books are cold but sure friends."  I lookt up the original French (which I got as a free e-book years ago) and found that it's "les livres sont des amis froids et sûrs."  I would translate this as "books are cold and sure friends."  "Et" is usually translated "and," but apparently both translators felt that the context permitted a more adversative conjunction.

A couple weeks after I read this, I was still thinking about the original French sentence, and I realized that there's assonance between "livres" and "amis" and that this emphasizes this type of clause.  "Livres" ("books") is the subject nominative, and "amis" ("friends") is the predicate nominative.  Both words have the same semantic weight, so to speak (nouns on opposite sides of a copulative verb), and the assonance between them indicates this balanced relationship.

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Almost as a side-note, I'll add this:  the entire sentence (describing Jean Valjean in the guise of Monsieur Madeleine) is "He loved books; books are remote but reliable friends," and this provides a direct contrast with Javert, described two chapters later (in Chapter V. "Dim Flashes of Lightning on the Horizon"):  "In his rare spare time, although he hated books, he would read...."

Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia"

On 1 January, I started re-reading (for the first time) The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, which contains facsimiles of thirty-seven Holmes stories and The Hound of the Baskervilles as they originally appeared in The Strand magazine.  As I was reading the second part of "A Scandal in Bohemia," I discovered that Watson is not a very reliable narrator.

As Irene Adler's carriage arrives at Briony Lodge, Watson describes how "a fierce quarrel broke out [between loafers trying to earn a bit of money by opening the door for her], which was increased by the two guardsmen, who took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors grinder, who was equally hot upon the other side... Holmes dashed into the crowed to protect the lady; but, just as he reached her, he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood running freely down his face."

After the rest of Holmes' plan had been carried out and he has located the photograph that the King of Bohemia had hired him to retrieve, he returns to Watson and explains some of the particulars of his plan:

"The matter was perfectly simple.  You, of course, saw that everyone in the street was an accomplice.  They were all engaged for the evening."

"I guessed as much."

"Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the palm of my hand.  I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand to my face, and became a piteous spectacle.  It is an old trick."

"That also I could fathom."

In his description above, Watson writes that "the blood [was] running freely down his face," yet here he claims that he knew all along that it was merely red paint.  Either he's lying to Holmes and trying to save face (apparently not willing to admit that he, a medical doctor, mistook red paint for blood), or he purposely misled his readers earlier in an effort to sensationalize his account.