| Username |
Post |
| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 29-Oct-02 08:58 AM
Dear all,
I've noticed , in the short time that I've been a poster at Sajha, that many of us share an immense love of literature. I am starting this thread for people to describe, discuss, and disseminate their love, fascination, disgust, horror and so forth for their chosen work of literature. In the process, we will learn more about both past and contemporary works. And simultaneously, about each other. :)
I would have loved to start :) but am pressed for time at this moment. Will return and write. In the meantime, please do proceed!
In peace.
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| NirajBS |
Posted
on 29-Oct-02 02:22 PM
I like the title of your thread "Your Chosen Writer" which reminds me of a short story by V.S. Naipaul titled "His Chosen Calling". This is one of his very early work, collected in 'Miguel Street'. Like most of his early writings, this has a lightness of touch and a terrific sense of humour which are largely absent from his later writings.
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| hunga munga |
Posted
on 29-Oct-02 04:07 PM
That's some BS Niraj :)
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 29-Oct-02 04:36 PM
Niraj-ji,
Are you Niraj from the Boston area? I'm a Bostonian New Yorker! Sorry--had to say that.
Thanks for your compliments on the title of this thread. Must say that I was "clueless" about its coincidental resemblance to a Naipaulian work!
I have not read Naipaul at all, unfortunately. Have had cursory readings of writings On him, though. Must say they've been mixed expressions.
I picked up a book called Possession by A.S. Byatt on my flight back this summer. Have read a few chapters of it--nice work, but not gone far enough to say more.
A writer I admire is Anton Chekov. Mostly writes short stories. "Lady with Lapdog" is my personal favorite. Why? Paradox---the beauty mark of good literature. It's written both with sagacious somberness and acerbic humor. The latter is rather difficult to detect on a first read as Chekov lulls you with the mellow romance of old age. But a second and/or third perusal should "cue" you in. ;)
In peace.
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| krishna |
Posted
on 29-Oct-02 04:56 PM
I have read "The lady with lapdog" and its a fascinating as well as very romantic love story. I am very impressed with Chekov like you. Its difficult to seperate writers specially with their distinct fields. However I am fond of the skills of the master writer Sir Conan Doyle and his ever famous book Sherlock Holmes. I have read with interest most of his literary work and have been his ardent devotee ever since.
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| lamachaur |
Posted
on 29-Oct-02 08:48 PM
War and Peace by the Russian literary giant Tolstoy is an "epic". Set in the back drop of the napoleanic battles, the events portray 19th C russian society.
The whole story is about human nature at large. Tolstoy engages his characters in moral dillemas, whims and predicaments thereby exploring the very fundamentals of human nature. Elaborate descriptions of the then Russian society and intriguing tales of bravery in war interwined with affairs of love gives a golden touch to the whole story. You cannot relate to any other characters , better than you do with the characters in this novel. Foreword to those who are going to read this novel:" You will be addicted!!"
cheers!
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 29-Oct-02 09:01 PM
Krishnaji,
Good to know of your fascination for Chekov. :)
Sherlock's quite a character, isn't he? Stylistically, I am not too fond of Doyle. But I must say the world is indebted to his creation of SH and the famously infamous (well, to the crooks, at least!) Baker Street. The Blue Carbuncle was hysterically funny! Read it in 3rd grade, and fell to the floor laughing. :)
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| NirajBS |
Posted
on 29-Oct-02 09:08 PM
SimpleGal-ji
No I am not the Niraj from Boston area. But if you are (and since you are such a huge fan of Chekhov), may I suggest you a new production of 'Uncle Vanya' (arguably his masterpiece ) at the American Rep Theater (at Harvard) which will be opening in November.
Chekhov is one of my favorite writers too, both his plays and short stories. My favorite is 'The SchoolMistress' a story of thwarted passion and misspent life- themes he was later to explore so powerfully in his plays like 'Cherry Orchad' and 'Uncle Vanya'. There are other stories equally good- 'the Darling', 'On Official Journey and 'The Kiss' which was well adopted into the Hollywood movie 'Living Out Loud'.
And,if you are not in Boston, there is this movie-'Vanya on 42nd Street'.It is actually the entire play ('Uncle Vanya')shot in a theater in Broadway. Quite simply the best two hours any Chekhov fan will spend in front of the television screen :)
As for Naipaul, 'House for Mr. Biswas' remains his best piece of fiction. I was also very impressed with the 'The Bend in the River'. Naipaul has long since given up writing short stories andthe verdict on his newer works of fiction (Half a Life) is decidedly mixed . His non-fiction pieces,though, are powerful as ever.
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| slipknot |
Posted
on 29-Oct-02 09:37 PM
my god, people are well read. nice job, simplegal, starting this thread. for a person like myself, who was busy till the sixth grade running after sparrows with a catapult and chuckling at street dogs in coital union, visiting this tread will certainly be inspiring. i look forward to constructive viewpoints in here from all those who care to share about literary pieces that have touched their lives.
Peace!
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| diwas k |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 02:21 AM
Right now I am reading "Talkative Man" by RK Narayan. This is the first fiction after a long time that does not fall into required readings for EngLit classes. Malgudi is Narayan's Timbucktoo, and (I am at page 26) he brings both towns together in this.
More on this when I finish the book.... _d
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 05:17 AM
Diwasji,
RK Narayan is a fine writer. Have read and seen the movie version of his The Guide. I noticed this summer that Sony channel in Nepal televises the Malgudi Days series. I was an avid watcher. There is a cute tune in the series (don't know what you call it--background music?) that goes like this, literally:
Ta na na ta na na na na...
Ta na na TANA na na na!
I loved it!
Speaking of Indian writers, a neat work by Bharati Mukherjee--WIFE--is a book I recommend to sajhaites. Read it for a women's studies course once. The ending is quite elusive. It's basically about East meets West, in a nutshell.
Slipknotji,
You were quite the observer in your "Lolita" days (6th grade ma you must have been close to her age ni, hoina ra?)!!! :)
Do you mean to imply that you will not "care to share" your literary passions? Oh, what a shame indeed!
In peace.
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 05:53 AM
Niraj-ji,
Thanks for the info. As I said, I am a Bostonian New Yorker. So, either way, I will meet Chekov's "Uncle Vanya"!
Had a cursory glance at Naipaul's Bend in the River when in transit. Ok, I'll admit my superficiality here (ahem) I was largely looking at the book cover, and was transported to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Was surprised at my reaction. Later, my dear friend who is also a Naipaul fan told me that Naipaul's works are often compared to those of Conrad. Talk about intuition, huh?
In peace.
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| Harvard_Dropout |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 10:08 AM
One of the books I have revisited every year for the last six years is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" by Robert Pirsig. A year or so back after reading this book I drive from my abode in New England for the Harley Davidson Weekend in rural South Dakota. I decided to complete the total length of I-90 and drove all the way to Seatle-Tacoma, not on a motorcycle but a Honda Accord. I drove for some 17 days on and off - alone - and had the NPR stations as my company. Who said that a good book does not motivate one to do things out of the ordinary?
This year I was stuck at Hotel Bidya in Dhangadi, Kailali for three days as there was a Nepal Bandh and Madhya and Sudur Paschimanchal Bandh back to back so I revisited this book one more time, my sixth reading, cover to cover. Taking the things into consideration here in Nepal, I have decided not to do anything out of the ordinary this time around! But I admit that I enjoyed the book even more this time around.
I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to take a spirtual journey into the unknown!!!!
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| Saajan555 |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 12:40 PM
Hi all,
Thanx to SimpleGal for the grand topic chosen. If you guys like sthg. dealing with mystery. Go for Agatha Christie. Christie's novels are heart-thrilling. I recently read "The Unknown Destination". I was so addicted that I burnt my cookings. Her characterization of Hercule Poirot is simply the grreat.
CY'L
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| lamachaur |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 12:59 PM
It seems to me after going through the postings that Naipul is a" must read" writer. I have not read any of our South East asian writers and know little about them . Now , it sounds like Naipul should be the one I should begin with.
Any particular ones you folks would recommend? I'd be glad.
cheers!
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| najar |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 01:31 PM
I have read naipaul's two fictions-- 'house for mr. biswas', 'half a life'--highly recommend both--truly gems. I have also read his travel narrative, Among believers--an islamic journey, did not like it all that much esp after having read another travel narrative by Paul Thereaux-The great railway bazaar, an outstanding travel recount based on railway odeysse.
Other favorite writers--
Garcia Marquez--One hundred years of solitude
Isabelle Alende--Daughter of fortune
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| ek puriya |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 01:49 PM
has anyone here read anything by nepali writers? no one here has even mentioned a book by a nepali writer. can anyone here anyalyze a nepali writer and his/her works the way some of you have analyzed naipul and his work.
lets see how many of us have read the works of our very own writers.
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| oys_chill |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 01:52 PM
Simple Gal ji, nice thread indeed....
just like slipknot says, never had an inclination for books...was busy in handigaon ko pitch nabhako streets ma jatra herdai, pangra gudaudai, khoppi kheldai, singan chuwadai, langur burja handai, changa udaudai, thiti lai sithi mardai..........forgot i needed to catch up with some reading....
ON final note, a couple of years ago,I happen to run into a biography of a very dark sided writer of course non other than FRANZ KAFKA..I have been absolutely drained in his writings...why? here's one of his KAFKESQUE thoughts
"Old convoluted, Labyrinthine self doubt":
" The gesture of rejection that always met me did not mean I don't love you, but rather you can't love me much as you'd like to; you are unhappily in love with your love for me, yet your love for me isn't in love with you.
Therefore, it's not right to say I've known the words "I love you" all I've known is the expectant silence that should have been broken by my saying "I LOVE YOU" "
chill oys......continue reading!
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| svengali |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 03:05 PM
On nepali writers,
Read "Kaireni Ghaat" by shankar Koirala this summer. I don't get to read Nepali too often. But the book is fantastic in terms of the haunting mentalscape and imageries it evokes. The vignettes in the book are idyllic in one sense yet also eerily captivates the timeless disposition and aura of Nepali attitudes. Sort of revolves around the impressions of an expat returning home. This is a classical theme in so much of Nepali fiction, and I am sure identifiable to varying degrees to many of us. Even though "Lahurey" has a distinct connotation to men, and to less than glamorous employment...I feel that the term still applies to all who are in less than glamorous employment, and also to those who are scattered all over the world for intellectual pursuits. So any stories about Lahureys are stories of the mold that partly defines our identity.
Drawback: seems incomplete, and plot is fairly weak (but then its not plot driven).
I get the sense that Nepali literature is stunted in its development. Stylistically writers continue to reinterpret and rework break throughs made decades ago. I am thinking marginal improvement over what heavyweights like BP, Sama, Devkota or Bhairav Aryal made. Not that, they can be replaced but rather its an issue of dissolving focus over time. Too much out there anyway, English is so accessible and so much of unexplored great works there, and of course there are TV and movies. Detracts from the singular focus that the earlier creators had.
Optimistically in the last five decades of increasing exposure to the outer world, we are hungrily suckling on the teats of the ideas in the greater world rather than simply the subcontinental world. And nutrition is always good no matter what dimension it is you are nurturing.
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| slipknot |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 03:40 PM
excuse my ever-happy mind in the gutter, but by golly svengali, "hungrily suckling on the teats of the ideas"... lol. i guess, ideas thirve in prostitution, else why would we (or someone on our behalf) have to buy books for us to 'finger' the ideas in them? :)
sgal: now that you know i was 'quite the observer' in my 'Lolita' days, what were you in yours? did a humbert ever pass by, did an aschenbach crumble from inside in your sight? :)
about caring to share, i would if i had spent more time on "hungrily suckling on the teats of ideas" instead of imbibing tomba and chhyang. :) dang, i can't get over that phrase, forgive my indecency. but it's nice to come to a place where one can selectively absorb other people's opinion about the works they like.
peace!
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| svengali |
Posted
on 30-Oct-02 08:53 PM
Slipknot,
You say drinking tongba and chyyang is more pithy
Well then let's hear the tales of the dingy taverns and smoky ceilings, slurry voices, split millet spewing sweet juice, like the rosy cheeks of the sahuni, wanting to bite 'em.
she smiles showing her gold tooth, a quick flash of that pink tongue, and all the cavities yonder. You don't care as she throws out a maggot from the fermenting bag, refills the tumba, its dirty you want to think. But now its the highlands and the air is thin, and with every breath you take you smell her perfume an eclectic mix of churpi and yak hair.
Every nanofiber of you is concentrated into this moment. But there's just the millet, the tumbler, comically customized for you, this must be some cosmic joke you think -- so ridiculously inadequate.
All it needs is the muster shepard back yourself dissipating in the musk of this highland sally, into the texture like the chew of that tender churpi, into the forests of black hair with dazzling flecks of dandruff. Conduit to himalayan ecstasy running through the folds of that dirty baakhu, so beautiful the way its draped, and those patches of dirt, damn lucky dirt so close to her...and hell no I am drunk.
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| Suna |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 07:07 AM
WOW! Svengali!
If you wrote that - hats of to you!
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| Rusty |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 08:05 AM
Ek Puriya,
Since you brought the topic about "Nepali writers", here is a list. Somebody had posted this list back in May.
A. Prose
1.Laxmi Prasad devkota
2.Shanker lamichhane
3.Balkrishna sam
4.Krishna chandra singh pradhan
5.Keshav raj pindali
6.Taranath sharma
7.Madan mani dixit
8.Bhairab aryal
B.Drama/novel/story/
1.Balkrishna sam(drama)
2.Vijaya malla(drama/novel/story)
3.Bhimnidhi tiwari(drama/novel)
4.Dhrubachandra guatam(novel)
5.Parijat(novel)
6.Bishweshwor Pd. Koirala(story/novel)
7.Bhawani Bhkchyu(story)
8.Ramesh Vikal(novel/story)
9.Guru Prasad Mainali(story)
10.Daulat bikram bista(novel)
C.Poetry
1.Laxmi prasad devkota
2.Bhupi sherchen
3.Mohan koirala
4.Madhav ghimire
5.Siddhi charan shrestha
6.Bairagi kainla
7.Lekhnath paudyal
8.Ishwor ballav
9.Modnath prashrit
10.Banira giri
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| Rusty |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 08:10 AM
Laxmi Prasad, BP Koirala, Bhairab Aryal, Parijaat, Taranath, and Bhupi Serchan are my favorite writers...and I like almost all listed nepali poets.
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| svengali |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 11:26 AM
Suna
of course, none other than the originator,
had too scrape the cannies of nostalgia...but well there it was, in all its vividness, I could almost smell the buff chilli too!
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| Suna |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 11:31 AM
Svengali
Some more of those crumbs please :).
Hats OFF huna parney, hats of heheh
well from the hat of my hats, hats off to you!
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| slipknot |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 04:08 PM
she settles into a receptive posture before me, her effervescence slowly transforming into an intoxicating smile. my senses, dulled by long weekdays and short sleeps, rejuvenate with almost lascivious exuberance as she flexes her form, casting seductive glances that electrify my body with wanton desire. anxiety kills me in anticipation-- i swear i could have lived a thousand lives in that brief moment before the sweet aroma of her essence finally brushes against me. i know, in just a while, my calloused
hands would tightly clasp around her slender waist, lifting her to meet my eyes. her gaze unleashes a tsunami in my mind, brutally ravaging every other thought that veers out of her course. i can wait no longer, i need a touch to quench my thirst, a touch of her sweet taste to smother my swirling tongue. with almost trembling hands, i lift her up, pull her towards me, slowly, for i don't want to spill her all over me in haste. i can feel the heat of consummation, and the radiant smile on her face that shines in the dim smoky light of the room. gently, i lean forward for to her; my mouth --agape in wonder, want, thirst-- ready to siphon her to the last drop.
this, my friend svengali, is how i drank chyang and tongba. it was not the sauni nor her rustic crude beauty but a lust of thirst that kept me away from "sucking on the teats of ideas" in the great many literary books. :)
peace!
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 05:25 PM
Pardon me, but what are chhyang and tongba??? Nepali local drinks ho?
In peace.
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| Dilasha |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 05:43 PM
Svengali, man that was superb! you sound very familiar... lemme make a guess:
the "shoe" got drenched in "rain"
was a loss not a gain
oh what a pain, what a pain!! :)
Simplegal, interesting thread. I'd love to write about this book i read this summer but now i gotta go "trick or treat" so perhaps some other time. keep it up folks!
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 05:51 PM
Svengali,
Very nicely written!!
Am reminded of an R.L. Stevenson novel -- Kidnapped -- yeah, that's the one. ;)
In Peace.
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| SITARA |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 05:51 PM
Dilasha ....
Trrring trrrrring? Ring da bell? plink!!!!!did the penny drop????????????????
It did for me too!!!!!!!!!
well sorta... ;)
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 06:38 PM
Ek puriyaji,
I agree with you that Nepali writing needs reading in equal measure as any other literary work. The one work I remember reading during my brief stay in Nepal and with much relish is BP Koirala's Doshi Chasma. It was simply AMAZING, the metaphorical use of the chasma!
Prose is certainly food for the mind, put poetry is the elixir of life--food for the soul! :) I think Proteanji broached upon and questioned the significance of the 2 kinds of "foods" in the Psych. of food thread. Hope the distinction above offers some sort of answer.
I recently "discovered" a brilliant poet---Edna St. Vincent Millay. I hadn't had a chance to read her, and realize now what I had missed. She is truly fabulous---says just the right things that come out of a woman's heart through the vicissitudes of her emotions and the trappings of her life. I recommend the following sonnets by her:
1. I know I am but summer to your heart (#27)
2. When I have too long looked upon your face (#18)
3. I think I should have loved your presently
4. I shall forget you presently, my dear (#11)
5. What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (#42)
I love #3 on the list the most...
In peace.
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 10:19 PM
Harvard_Dropoutji,
Wow, so you actually let your life be a mirror of art!! :) I advise you to be cautious, but I can sense from your posting that you are cognizant of that already. As my dear beloved writer Oscar Wilde would've said Art is a mirror of Life, but Life ought not to be a mirror of Art.
Sknotji,
I just noticed your query. Well, in my Lolita days, I was too much into my baby sister to pay any attention to a Humbert "[passing] by". Raha sawal Aschenbach ka, well, I wouldn't know right? I mean, the man lived his fantasies in his mind. So, if I made, to use your words, "an aschenbach crumble from inside in [my] sight" I would be perfectly oblivious of it!! ;) In contrast, therefore, to your being quite an observer in your Lolita days, I was famous for being quite an oblivious one in mine!!!
In peace.
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| svengali |
Posted
on 31-Oct-02 11:34 PM
Mucho Gracias for the kind reception all.
There was indeed a hole in the wall, set in in a non descript building's northern facade, no sunshine ever, and easily escaped eyes. And in winter, a half a mile hike to this place was, an absentminded walk through the Lang Tang Valley of your minds. Such chill in the wind. So budget, those rectangle walls, exposed bricks, no paint, and a dirt colored screen door. if it meant transporting back from Lang Tang of mental scape and so bare in this chill, you'd rather choose a hole in the ground.
You dive in through the door. A cloying smell, of oil, of garlic, of skukuti blackening in the line, of tongba, of chyaang, of tharra, and the noise, overwhelming buzz a stove, guzzling kerosene, rounding the smell. Today its the husband that's your maitre d'. Puffed up face, probably a liver condition aggravated by the pool of tongba that he lives in, sucking on incessantly...A beelzeboob, barely coherent, here because the gold toothed sahuni, knows when to peck his head, at those awful, hurtful, schizophrenic moment of dissociations. She does not stop yakks on and on and then he slaps her, regrets, because she is so warm under the covers, they make up, and in feeling of a warm cheek and ringing ear, she thinks how much he really loves him. She feels neglected if she doesn't get the whack. Such is the realization. he dresses up to greet the guests down stairs.
Would you really see so much in those puffy watery eyes with bits of chipra stuck in the cornbers. So dirty, nauseating because he probably picks on that and goes into fry your chilly. but forget it. sit down as he brings over a thermos, and awaits instructions for buff chilly, the back half of his mind is already gone, in the bouyant, saline solution, cash is only what keeps him here.
Regardless he is the conductor, and tonight too he will deliver. The millets are splitting and the chalky strings of juice bubble out. You take a sip, and peer at the innards of the kitchen two doors away, a flash of bakkhu and you recognize it, but its so early and its two doors away. In between sits the sahu counting his wad of business, with every flip of the paper, his head enlarges, "pop" image of Johnny walker, "pop" the seiko from hongkong market, "pop" sahuni pouting lips, heavy lipstick, escapes boundary, goosebumps. He curses under breath, miscounted. But he wouldn't mind and go counting forever
Where does this happen really? All this narrative? All this while you have been talking with this friend who is sitting in front of you. "I am building a ship, a rickety ship. With some luck, I think it will float. I am gone baby." Its bobbing and floating, something moved, as sahuni walked out of the kitchen, her ample breasts, in a stern voice she talks with the sahu. You freak out, "I am barely afloat. Will this raft float her too?"
Dilasha,
Much as I would like to get your cryptogram, I cannot. If associations evoked at all, better that they arose in pleasant shades.
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| Dilasha |
Posted
on 01-Nov-02 05:42 PM
Svengali, never mind the rhyme...i was just amusing myself :)
"She feels neglected if she doesn't get the whack" ha ha!! this is so funny and true sometimes cuz i've seen some women in my neigborhood who are very similar to the "sahuni". :)
"Would you really see so much in those puffy watery eyes with bits of chipra stuck in the cornbers. So dirty, nauseating because he probably picks on that and goes into fry your chilly" eeeashhhh! yuckkk!!! svengali how can you even imagine such a thing and just eat the chickn chilly kuppakup!! or is it like "if you didn't see it, it didn't happen" kinda thingy? :)
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| svengali |
Posted
on 01-Nov-02 07:18 PM
Dilasha, BTW how's the parody universe coming along?
On chicken chillies
But isn't it rife with risk, From spitting in the onion rings to spitting in burgers, If you eat what's cooked out and by others, you assume the liability. When I order in, I make sure I tip the delivery guy well. You never know if the runny consistency of the lamb vindaloo is partly saliva otherwise. At least its wise to hedge the chances by spending a little more.
There was this one boarding school. Since it was back in the firewood days (circa 1980s in Nepal), in Magh usually the water cut through your skin. So they let a few of the boarders, who could negotiate with this cook, into the kitchen where you warmed your hand by the fire.
The cook was this guy, an inbred ornery from Ramechhap. But location is not important. Worked from the left, with a perpetual left tilt of his head, a freaky ornament to an already retarded personality. Anyhow, this day he was cooking this huge vat of Kalo daal. There were fifty or so boarders to feed and daal supplemented in protein what was absent in lackluster tarkari. So the few boarders are sitting by the fire atop which the kalo daal in a huge dekchhi is boiling, and he his stirring the daal, he coughs a deep cough, you the sort that rumbles deep, with few trial runs too shake off all kind of vile sh it off the brochial walls, before you give out a shot of a cough, with the diaphram ejecting whatever collected ... So this huge ball of phlegm flies right off his mouth and plop lands in the pot of boiling daal.
Everyone's stunned. Then the boarders bawl into laughter and start cussing and hissing.
This was dinner time already. No way he was gonna throw all that daal out. As he sheepishly fished out oyestery phlegm with the same ladel, he struck a deal- some cash for keeping the mouth shut of whoever was there.
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 02-Nov-02 09:52 AM
It's good to see nice writing here by some of the posters. However, aren't we being a bit narcissistic by trying to showcase our own writing on a thread that was meant to be a discussion of our favorite writers? ;)
Just trying to bring people back on track. No offense anyone!
In peace.
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| slipknot |
Posted
on 02-Nov-02 11:31 AM
My favorite writer: Svengali. :)
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| svengali |
Posted
on 02-Nov-02 11:58 AM
I totally concur Simplegal
the audacity of some people, can't stick with the agenda can they? Go off on a tangent and preen themselves, how dare they!!!
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| SITARA |
Posted
on 02-Nov-02 12:30 PM
My favouritest Writers:
Slipknot, Svengali! How dare you be so...????????? How dare you meander from the Literary works of the Literary world of the thread originator!!!!!!!!! tcha tcha tcha....
toe the line, dance to the tune, do the foxtrot, but not digress so!!!!!!!!!
:P
My second favorite Writers:
Paschim, czar, Nepe, Kalankisthan, Dhumbasse, Rusty, Ashu, Dilasha, Oys_chill, Deep, DWI,Anepalikt, Nk, Suna and the gang ;) .... MP, Biruwa, Protean ........ and most of the sajhaites ....
hehe!!!!!!! Damn, Slipknot, I think I have no class as far as literary tastes.....
Still need to cultivate it!!!!!!!!!!!
:P
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 02-Nov-02 01:51 PM
Hahaha!
Ok guys, I get your point!! :) Maafi paun hajur!! Bachchai chhu, ajhai sikna banki chha zindagima.....but on a little serious note, yo simpleton of an originator ko saano request ma pani yeso ali kati dhyaan diye sarai abhari hune thiyen!!! :)
In peace and laughing still.
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| lamachaur |
Posted
on 03-Nov-02 02:56 PM
Najar ji,
after going through your posting , without much ado i checked out Naipul's "A bend in the river" and have started reading it. So far its fine.
Here's where I am. Salim has made that journey to this precarious town( already reduced to shambles) by the bend of the river, to take over an establishment he has bought from Nazruddin ( the wine sipping , french talking dude ) . In coming to this town, as far away from his native in the east coast Africa , it seems like Salim was trying to run away from something, something that i have not yet been able to discern.... Anyway here he is , in this new town overturned by the violence between the natives and the Europeans ( who have now, taken off to safety) and the whole place is like a scene in the aftermath of a battlefield. Only relics , scattered, now here and and there, speak of the colonial occupation of the town. The whole place is much to his dissapointment , not anywhere close to his expectations and he realises that he has to get along with it.............
well, so far thats all i can say. looking forward to reading further...anxiously waiting for the story to pick a trail.
cheers.
lamachaur
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| lamachaur |
Posted
on 03-Nov-02 03:04 PM
Curiousity on Naipul lead me to this.
VS Naipul is called 'fantastically rude'
By Malcolm Moore
(Filed: 23/02/2002)
V S NAIPUL, the Nobel prize-winning novelist, was described as "fantastically rude" by the organisers of a literary festival he was attending yesterday.
Sir Vidia Naipul, born in Trinidad to parents of Indian descent, was taking part in a discussion at the International festival of Indian Literature. But his temper flared when he was asked whether Indian writers should write in English.
Responding to the argument that English was seen as a language of colonial oppression, Sir Vidia said: "My life is short. I can't listen to banality. The very word oppression wearies me.
"If writers just sit and talk about oppression, they are not going to do much writing. And I have to make a living by writing."
A pat on the back from fellow author Vikram Seth did nothing to calm Sir Vidia's rage. "What are you doing?" he said. "This is only the second literary conference I have come to. The first was a calamity."
Last year he called the Taliban "absolute vermin". He has also accused Tony Blair of cultural vandalism, saying: "It is terrible, this very plebeian culture, an aggressive plebeian culture that celebrates itself for being plebeian."
An official of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations said: "Naipul is fantastically rude. It is difficult to organise a festival with him as an invitee."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/02/23/wnaip23.xml
cheers!
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| dhocholecha |
Posted
on 03-Nov-02 03:57 PM
It’s been awhile since I visited Sajha and I was pleased to see this thread. Reading about Naipaul got me thinking about his Boswell—Paul Theroux. It’s been at least a decade since I last read him, turned off, as I was, by his offensive portrayal of the third world (which is not to say I am an apologist for politically correct and antiseptic narratives either). No. It’s just that I had begun to notice a certain pattern in his style: that of a snobbish WASP explaining to the ignorant West what “those people and places are really like”—the real, honest shit, if you will. Honesty, in the Therouxian sense, however, seemed to imply that he had the license to say the most demeaning things about non-western places and people. And he got away with it!
Looks like he is still getting away with it. I was reading, for example, an interview on him in aldaily.com, of which here is a snippet: “Admiring the scenery is not Theroux's style; he is more likely to note that the Chinese are evasive, bad-mannered and regard the world as one big spittoon, the Japanese 'little bow-legged people who can't see without glasses'.”
Now, substitute “Nepali” for the nationalities mentioned above and see how that hits you. People just don’t get the irony, is how Theroux explains such essentialist, if not racist, declarations. Can you imagine him uttering the “N” word and using the same defense? But the interviewer appears not to be overtly perturbed by this. “Oh, it’s just that incorrigible Theroux saying his usual honest things”, seems to be the drift that I got. In other words, it was okay. Is it?
Love to hear your thoughts on this, hopefully after you’ve read the interview for contextual purposes. Am I being oh-too-sensitive here?
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| SITARA |
Posted
on 03-Nov-02 06:48 PM
Dhocholecha ji...
There had been a discussion on Naipaul some time ago. Please visit these thread (started by Paschim); you will find quite a few links to Naipaul.
http://www.sajha.com/sajha/html/OpenThread.cfm?forum=2&ThreadID=6952
http://www.sajha.com/sajha/html/OpenThread.cfm?forum=2&ThreadID=6816
Enjoy!
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 03-Nov-02 08:26 PM
Thanks Sitara, Lamachaur, and Dhocholecha for this renewed interest in Naipaul. I thought we'd exhausted this topic long ago!
Dhocholecha, great remarks -- so you follow the duo too?
The New York Review of Books has been kind to Naipaul throughout his career. So has the equally celebrated "New Yorker", but Naipaul, I think, recently trashed (no surprise there!) the New Yorker saying it knew "nothing about writing, nothing" :)
Anyway, talking about his latest novel, "Half A Life" -- not at all a great book, but highly interesting nonetheless -- here's a review from the NY Review of Books by J. M. Coetzee that was published a year ago.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/14680
[Like Kafka's hunger artist, Chandran makes a living doing what he secretly finds easy: denying his appetites (though his appetites are not so exiguous that he cannot father two children on his "backward" wife). In Kafka's story, despite the hunger artist's protestations to the contrary, there is a certain heroism in self-starving, a minimal heroism befitting post-heroic times. In Chandran there is no heroism: it is genuine poverty of spirit that allows him to be content with so little. In his first and most critical book about India, An Area of Darkness (1964), Naipaul describes Gandhi as a man deeply influenced by Christian ethics, capable, after twenty years in South Africa, of seeing India with the critical eye of an outsider, and in this sense "the least Indian of Indian leaders." But India undid Gandhi, says Naipaul, turning him into a mahatma, an icon, so as to ignore his social message. Chandran likes to think of himself as a follower of Gandhi. But, Naipaul suggests implicitly, the question Chandran is asking of himself is not the Gandhian "How shall I act?" but the Hindu "What shall I give up?" He prefers giving up because giving up costs him nothing.]
-----
Simplegal, I watched the 1998 version of Lolita (with Jeremy Irons and Dominique Swain) the other day...emotionally unsettling!! But I heard that the 1962 version by Stanley Kubrick was better. Its screenplay was written by Vladimir Nabokov himself and was apparently the only category for which that movie was nominated then.
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| HahooGuru |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 04:53 AM
Hey, Guys!
Sashiburi desu!
I am in Korea!
After a long time, I logged into Sajha.com. I just found Lamachour, so thought writing here. May be its irrelevant. Korea is another great asian coutnry. Seoul is also great
and Pusan too. I will be in Pusan for another 5 days.
Hope to write my experience more in detail as time comes.
HG
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 05:37 AM
O-ho, HG dai is back! Guru ko darshan paiyo dherai pacchi. Dil khush huwa!
While HG has been away for a while, I think GP-ji has not quite abandoned us, having visited us in another avatar. Ho ki hoina, Gurudev? Sutukka email ma confirm gardim ta :)
Paschim
President, Hahooguru Fan Club (HFC) -- No royal coup can topple me from this post, I earned this title!
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 06:29 AM
For those who are into the study of abnormality THROUGH literature, I recommend the autobiographical work by the greatest ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky:
The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky---edited by his wife Romola N.
EXTREMELY well-written by Nijinsky, who suffered from schizophrenia, the book contains mind-boggling sketches by him, contrived during his confinement in mental asylums. If books could make you fall in love with the work, this is the one that I fell headlong for in my younger years! :) Being a dancer with the unique vision to pioneer the craft of creating ballet movements that integrate both the placidity and the passion of love, the anguish and rage in jealousy and anger--- basically the undulations in human emotions, he was able to get into the skin, not only of the ARTIST, but also himself as a visionary and a human being. Despite his debilitating disorder, he was able to create, or should I say, replicate, in this work (though EDITED by his wife!) the traits of his tarnished yet talented life. Or the talent that tarnished his life!?
My beloved writer Oscar Wilde would've probably replied to me by saying, "Aah! But my dear, all art is at once surface and symbol! Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their own peril. For it is the spectator and not life, that art really mirrors!!" One is led to question, as I am as I write now---well, my dear Mr. Wilde, does not the spectator have a life? ;) I loved this particular work more so because of its distinctively paradoxical nature---which is the beauty mark of good literature. Dissonance, both in ideas and the fluidity of writing is essential to achieve this. And Nijinsky's said work does just that, masterfully.
In peace.
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 06:40 AM
Paschim,
I haven't seen the Kubrick version of Lolita, and have managed to see only bits of the one with Jeremy Irons (marvelous actor!!! Besides my fav Anthony Hopkins---"that budho" as my friends call him!). Kubrick's last--- Eyes Wide Shut was really something! :) And The Shining is (brrrrrrr) the scariest movie I've ever seen...
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| najar |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 08:31 AM
Lamachourji,
I am glad my posting inspired you to check out Naipaul and his work. Have not read 'A bend in the river'--let us know what you thought of it once you finish it. And thanks for providing the piece on Naipaul and his personality. I too, have read in the past that on this issue, naipaul being rude, harsh and arrogant.
Paschim, thanks for more on naipaul, had enjoyed your past thread on this topicl.
Hahooguru--welcome back. Sajha has been 'soonnay' in your absence.
Everyone have a good Monday!
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| NirajBS |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 08:50 AM
Paschim,
Here's yet another review of Naipaul's 'Half A Life'. From The New Republic's James Wood. It is as much an essay as it's a review and James Wood is always provocative, not to say interesting. As someone put it, he's 'arguably the finest literary critic writing in English today.'
http://www.tnr.com/110501/wood110501_print.html
This has a very different take from Coetzee's piece in NYRB but equally pursuasive, I think.
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| aeiou |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 10:02 AM
coetzee is himself an excellent writer. one of my favourites. 'the life and times of michael k' and his latest book, 'youth' are highly recommended.
but are we talking about nepali writers?
then it's parijat for me.
happy reading!
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| ashu |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 10:29 AM
Hahoo-guru,
Great to see you back.
Hope you are having a great time in Korea.
*********
On another note, given my bias toward reading lots of non-fiction, my chosen writer
would be: John McPhee.
Ever since I encountered McPhee in a writing class, I have been buying and reading his books whenever I get a chance.
I admire the sheer simplicity and plain sturdiness, not to mention the intricately woven picture-forming details, of his non-fiction prose, into which much background research and hardwork goes. On a related note, McPhee has inspired many other younger writers too, some of whom now edit or write for The New Yorker, among others.
That said, I recently had a very enjoyable time reading this book called "Bombay, London, New York", by Amitava Kumar, a professor at Penn State. Part autobiographical, this book traces Kumar's liteary journey from Bihar to Delhi to Minnesota to London to New York . . . places where books by Naipaul, Roy, Kureishi
and others come alive for Kumar. A wonderfully written book by a bibliophile on why, how and where books are read and what that means.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| ashu |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 10:38 AM
Here's one short review of McPhee's latest book.
Enjoy this, especially you too like to fish in the National Zoo in Jawalakehl, where they now allow fishing.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
*********
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E28%257E901380,00.html
It's easy to get hooked on McPhee's fish story
By Bill Pride
Special to The Denver Post
Sunday, October 06, 2002 - For almost 40 years, while professors, publishing superstars and other know-it-alls have argued about the meaning of "literary nonfiction" and "the new journalism," John McPhee has been quietly and industriously cranking it out.
Librarians will tell you that McPhee's 26 books, most of which began as New Yorker articles, are found all over the Dewey Decimal System. He turns up in the social sciences, the natural sciences, fine arts, sports, literature, travel, history, on and on.
For his newest book, "The Founding Fish," McPhee lets us in on a bit of his private life: In his leisure hours, he's a fisherman. "Leisure" might be the wrong word. John McPhee fishes the same way he writes books, avidly and intensely. He wants to know everything about the fish he's after - its history, its habits, its place in the cosmos. He wants to know all about his fellow fishermen, too, and about their boats, hats, families, friends and favorite stories.
McPhee's special genius is that he knows how to put all this potentially numbing detail into a book and make it absolutely interesting, even to someone like this reviewer, who hasn't tried to catch a fish since 1952.
McPhee lives in Princeton, N.J., the town where he was born in 1931. The best fishing in that part of the world, as far as he's concerned, is for shad. We aren't talking here about the kind of shad found in lakes and reservoirs in Colorado and other inland states. We are talking about Alosa sapidissima, known as American shad. In 354 pages McPhee scarcely mentions the inland varieties.
American shad spend most of their lives in the ocean, but like salmon, they spawn in fresh water, such as the Delaware River. That's where McPhee takes us on his opening page, in the spring, right after a friend has called to say "They're in the river."
Shad weighing 11 pounds have been caught in the Delaware, but more are in the 3-to-5-pound class. They are fierce fighters; the first chapter tells of a 2 1/2-hour McPhee-vs.-shad battle that drew a crowd of spectators.
Shad are good eating, McPhee insists, nutty and buttery - sapidissima is translated as "most savory" - but there's a drawback: They have a lot of bones. In Maine, he tells us, when people say "You've been eating shad," they mean "You're late."
McPhee doesn't really address the bone problem until he has us firmly hooked, around page 300, but here he is on "shad-boning wizards":
I have stood for many hours beside such people -- mainly at Jack Morrison's Nassau Street Seafood Company, in Princeton, New Jersey - intent on every move, only to be shown, again and again, that you don't learn magic by watching a magician. When you take a fillet off a shad, you are freeing it from the backbone. That far, I can go. The rib cage adheres to the fillet. You slice it away. I can do that, too. Now you have two series of fine, sharp intermuscular bones to get rid of, some shaped like suture needles and others like wishbones.... From here on, you need to understand Braille. This is the point at which my dexterity founders....
Typically, McPhee goes well beyond fishing. Why is shad fishing so good along the Delaware? Partly, he says, because it is "the only main-stem major river in the forty-eight contiguous American states that is not blocked by a dam." This sets up a chapter in which we learn about the 1999 removal of the Edwards Dam, built in 1913 on Maine's Kennebec River and finally ordered out of existence by the federal government.
Why the title "The Founding Fish"? That's another chapter. George Washington, among his many accomplishments, was a commercial shad fisherman. Ben Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette had a fair amount of shad-related news and advertising. Thomas Jefferson was known to dine on shad.
Other chapters take us northward to the Bay of Fundy and southward to the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo. There are recipes, too, notably for shad roe, a substance once thrown away or fed to pigs, now sometimes found on the menus of spiffy Manhattan restaurants. And there is an evenhanded discussion of whether catch-and-release fishing really qualifies as ethical treatment of animals.
McPhee won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction with "Annals of the Former World," an exhaustive 20-year undertaking to tell the geological story of North America. Here we see him at work on a smaller scale, but no less exhaustively. THE END
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| NirajBS |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 01:59 PM
aeiou,
J.M. Coetzee is indeed a fine writer and also an eloquent essayist. I also admired his new work 'Youth' which is actually a memoir. Written in third person (in the tradition of 'The Education of Henry Adams'), it chronicles his student days at University of Cape Town and later in London. I especially liked the part when he talks about the loneliness of starting in a new city (London) with few acquintances and limited social skills. And although the protagonist is not a particularly likeable character, he achingly comes to life as a computer programmer working for IBM in London. The sense of being trapped in wrong career,writing poems in the weekend even as he writes computer programs during the day, of listless romances and widening distance from a faraway home in South Africa is perfectly rendered without a hint of self-pity or sentimentality.
In a way, it's like a coming of age story, in the tradition of Naipaul's (here again:) 'Finding the Center' and 'An Enigma of Arrival'. And closer home, I have found some equally powerful writing in the same vein from Pankaj Mishra entitled 'Wilson in Benarus' (collected in Vintage Book of Indian Writing, edited by Amitav Chaudhary).
And equally fine is Coetzee's Booker prize winning novel 'Disgrace' as it explores the brave new world of post-apartheid South-Africa. And speaking of South Africa, isn't there the great Nadine Gordimier ? But then I digress.
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| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 03:34 PM
"Death in Venice," about which I have written elsewhere, is of course, a great book. :)
Also wanted to bring to your attention the one movie I could find of the same name, which I saw some years ago. I loved the book so much that I HAD to see the characters. Sounds silly, I know, since movies often mar the literary work. But I couldn't help myself. :P
Anyway, Aschenbach is played by none other than the legendary Dirk Bogarde. His eyes alone could've contained and conveyed the anguish, ardor, and annihilation of the solemn, shaken, suffering, yet stupendous von Aschenbach. The film is slow, but well suited to the tempo of the narrative that allows the reader to FEEL the kaleidoscope of emotions that von Aschenbach experiences.
Btw, there is a movie on Nijinsky as well. I saw the older version played by some Russian actors. Excellent dance movements are captured therein. Don't know the name of the movie---but it was under the title of his autobiographical diary. I hear that a new one with Derek Jacobi is out, but haven't had a chance to see it.
In peace.
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| dhocholecha |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 04:35 PM
Sitaraji, thanks for the info; I will check out the links. However, before I do so, and at the expense of being redundant, I have a few thoughts to jot down.
I miss the Naipaul of Miguel Street/A House for Mr. Biswas/Mystic Masseur—the Naipaul who actually wanted to be a comic writer at the time! That he wrote from a place of affection meant much to me. His later books, like In a Free State and A Bend in the River, while beautifully crafted and immensely readable, seemed to lack that. And the depiction of women was something to be desired. They were, I don’t know, so loveless, harsh, and without any trace of playfulness. (Rushdie says as much in reviewing An Enigma of Arrival in Imaginary Homelands (a must read); if I recall correctly, he praised the prose and the composition, but called the book bloodless and was disturbed that the word “love” was not once mentioned in it.) I am, of course, not talking about the Hallmark brand of love here (even though that, like everything else, has its use), but, you know, something deeper, like a more generous way of looking at the world, even while its imperfections are being held to light. Bus, tetti ho! Not surprising then, that while I am fascinated by Naipaul’s life and his works, I much prefer Rushdie/Mistry/Roy. Now, please, please don’t ask me to go into details. As for Lolita, I thought both the movies failed to capture the twisted humor of the book, and I thought it was a hilarious book, among other things.
Paschimji, yes, I used to follow the duo; the intersection of such diverse backgrounds was intriguing to me. They seemed like such an anomaly in the western literary scene at the time: an equally boorish (based on his statements) New England WASP writer worshipping a mercurial Indian/Trinidadian/British artist. Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course. I am also a big fan of Kafka.
Okay, time to shut up and go read before I get labeled a naïve fuddy-duddy with all this talk of love!
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| dhocholecha |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 05:10 PM
Correction: The “they” in “They were so … loveless …”, etc., refers to the book, not the women. Sorry.
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 04-Nov-02 07:51 PM
Great to see the arrival and inputs of NirajBS on Sajha. He is one of the most well-read and sophisticated Nepali literary connoisseurs I know, and we are sure to learn an immense lot from him! Thanks Niraj for that piece by Wood -- will read it.
Dhocholecha (what an original name! What does it mean if I may ask?) -- my initial reason for following the duo was similar to yours, although I'd discovered them in isolation -- Theroux's "Great Railway Bazaar" has triggered my own life-long passion for train travels (esp. in India) and Naipaul remains the genius for crisp prose.
This is such a rich thread, learnt a lot from many inputs above -- I'll save it for future reference.
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