Week 9 Story: Marble
Marble
Image Link
Story:
In New York City, Marble was the son of an important figure in the entertainment industry. Marble looked up to his father and aspired to be exactly like him. When Marble wasn't accepted into his dream university he was devastated. He thought in that moment he would never be as great as his father, but Marble thought to turn this slight misstep into an opportunity. Instead of becoming just like his father, Marble was determined to become the greatest in his own field. He sought out the legendary modeling guru Benjamin. Benjamin was uninterested in teaching Marble his ways though and sent him off. Undeterred once again, Marble decided to learn from Benjamin by doing what everyone else does. Starting with his Wikipedia page and reading through interviews and company reports, Marble quickly learned what it would take to become a modeling executive through self study.
One day some of Benjamin's interns were trying to get in touch with an up and coming model. When one finally got a hold of her the model said she was already signing with a new agency. The interns ran to Benjamin and told him the news. Benjamin couldn't believe that a top model didn't sign with him. He looked into this company and found Marble, the lost young adult that many years ago asked to be his apprentice. Marble was now the CEO of a booming new company. Even if Benjamin was secretly impressed with Marble he was not about to lose to an industry rookie. He immediately set up a meeting with Marble.
Marble was happy to meet with Benjamin. He was after all an important factor to Marble's success today. During the meeting, Benjamin accused Marble of somehow stealing his company secrets. Marble took the accusations in stride. It was easy to defend himself for he had done nothing wrong. Benjamin began demanding Marble for a portion of his profits, claiming that since Marble's success came from him, Benjamin should be getting a cut. Marble initially refused, but when Benjamin threatened to blacklist some of Marble's models he knew he needed to do something. There was no reason, Marble thought, to drag his hard working clients into this. Marble decided to give Benjamin the contract of the up and coming model that had brought Marble to Benjamin's attention in the first place.
Benjamin was generally satisfied with this agreement. He knew deep down though that this was not the last he would see Marble and worried what would happen during future encounters.
Marble had never believed in holding grudges but he did believe in karma. He knew that one day Benjamin would get whatever the universe had decided for him sooner or later.
For my extra Mahabharata I watched the Epified YouTube series. My story was inspired by the archer Ekalavya's path to becoming a great archer. Ekalavya went to Drona and asked him to teach him the ways of archery. Drona rejected him, claiming he was not worthy enough. Ekalavya did not give up, instead creating a statue of Drona to inspire him during his self training sessions. When Arjuna saw arrow work that could only have been done by a master archer he confronted Drona. Drona was impressed with Ekalavya but his pride kept him from taking the young archer under his tutelage. Drona asked Ekalavya for his right thumb, believing it would keep him from becoming a great archer. Ekalavya did as asked but his great future was not over.
In my story Marble is Ekalavya, Benjamin is Drona, and the interns represent Arjun.
Bibliography:
Epified, Mahabharata Videos Part B, Source
Hey Mariah,
ReplyDeleteI like your take on this story from the Mahabharata, you really completely transformed it! I also watched the Epified version, and this story also caught my eye. My favourite part was the ending you included, where not only did you show Marble to be the bigger person, but also added in that karma would return for Benjamin. I feel like in the Epified version, there was no real comment on how cruel Drona was or that he would get his 'just deserves'.
Interesting modern spin on the Ekalavya/Drona relationship, Mariah. I forgot about this part of the Mahabharata, and Drona's seemingly unprovoked disdain for Ekalavya. Was it just because he preferred Arjuna that he rejected Ekalavya? I guess, in the end, he did get his karma with the "death" of his son in the war. Maybe if he didn't act in such a way to Ekalavya, he wouldn't have that spot of bad karma that would come to bite him in the end.
ReplyDeleteHi Mariah,
ReplyDeleteI also recreated this story because I thought it held so many lessons. I like your version of it; albeit I was hoping your's had a less humble ending. Maybe if you ever run out of story ideas, you can rewrite this one, but instead have the "up-and-coming model" be a decoy planted by Marble to teach Benajmin a lesson. That would be satisfying! Anyways, great job!
Hi Mariah,
ReplyDeleteI like what you did with this particular story. I didn't particularly like the original one in the Mahabharata because it didn't feel fair like some of the other stories had been. Drona took from Ekalavya his thumb so that he wasn't the world's greatest archer anymore. If I remember right, it didn't end his archery work there, but it still was a rather selfish move on Drona's part. In your own adaptation, you preserved this selfishness in your analogue of Drona, but I was much more satisfied with your ending than I was with the Mahabharata's. Good story.