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All In Good Humour!

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, Jul 3, 2017.

  1. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Hmm, I have few light-hearted opinions on that anglicised leaning which probably started in early 90s — why kids took to English more than regional tongue. Today, when you are working in international firms, Indians talk about James Joyce or Carl Sandburg, and there is no Rabindranath Tagore. Also I work for a firm where fun conversations on science and literature are a common place. But mostly it is American or British humour! I am sure the Japanese and the Bavarians in my firm have similar grievance of growing up in 90s and railroaded by English literature. More later.
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2017
  2. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    There are many reasons but the top reasons for my generation:

    Accessibility! Not many English medium schools stocked up regional literature. English books and comics are the norm. (The reason I keep emphasizing comics is 'coz I had read more comics than any literary books while growing up.) Middle-class parents are inclined to buy English magazines and subscribe to English papers in an attempt to instill Englishness in kids when they aspire to raise their kids above their standard of living. Satellite television was a game changer in India back in the 90s. With the advent of affordable and communal cable network, children drifted towards English cartoons and Western shows. I can recall only a few Indian cartoon shows save for the Jungle Book but I can waffle away numerous English cartoon shows that glued me to the television back in the 90s (darn! no subtitles back then). Honestest reason: Teens smacked posh when they conversed in English and rattled off Western slang in India. I am only the messenger of faithful account, don't shoot me!

    Today, kids in India engage in English in informal conversations even at homes. They are so much at ease and comfort with English which is very prevalent in social catch-ups and almost sneaking up to contend for national language from being a lingua franca.

    However, back in the 90s, the English we had learnt from entertainment box happened only to be a stepping stone. When I met those Yale and Brown graduates then I realised English sourced from literature is striking. Hence I regret a phase of my life when I hadn't paid much attention to "literary" learning. English as spoken in English-speaking brethren is not only impeccable but more catchy!
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2017
  3. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    Nobody can be blamed for this changeover. I have heard young people queuing in front of book shops all night whenever a new title is announce in the Harry Potter series. I have never seen such phenomenon in my younger days. In fact, we waited for novels to come to 'second hand' book stalls where we could buy the books at 25% of the original cost. Some authors were meant for forming part of our curriculum! My first acquaintance with Tagore was through my text books. His brand of music called Rabindra Sangeeth is indeed captivating.
     
  4. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    When our Shakespearean professor in the college enacted Shakespeare's dramas in classes, we would feel the gap between where he was and where we were! We even clapped our hands once moved by the drama, he scolded us saying that 'Shakespeare is no clapping matter'. 'When you feel moved, you don't clap your hands', he advised us. I remember how we used to make fun of each other with questions like, 'Whence come you?', 'Whither directing your course?' !
    I think that the thirst for works of high literary value starts only beyond 40 or so at least in my case. When I read them now, I feel sorry about the scant respect I paid them at the material time.
     
  5. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    I would not have made head or tail of those literary works if I had read them earlier. It would be like leaping from zero (comics) to five (literary criticism) and landing on a pratfall. I am able to respect, mull over, laugh and enjoy these works today because I am able to view through a lens that accrued the intermediary one, two, three and four stages. Frankly, if I had read Gore Vidal, Gogol or Gödel in my earlier days, I would be scratching my head till my hair fell off. True, with age or awareness one is sensitised to voiceful literature and also develops a taste for variegated reading. For a whole decade of my life, I was a devoted limpet to just one genre — comics!
     
  6. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    The three G's continue to be beyond my intellectual reach! Normally if a book does not appeal to me within the first 50 pages, I toss it into the bin. This is the problem with slow-paced stories. My love for PGW is only on this count that you can open his book in any page and start reading and enjoying it too. I have read quite a few serious fiction to find out why people are not falling head over heals in love with them. I have been told that there is a distinct difference between the literary tastes of men and women. This is, of course, an unverified statement.
     
  7. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    '50 pages' is an adequate measure to kick in interest. If a book does not work its magic in 50 pages, then it cannot in the next 500 pages.

    Slow-paced stories are simmered in slow-cooking literary appliances, wherein, when a man and woman meet, the author painstakingly describes the color and shape of the sunlit backdrop for five pages, followed by the contours of the grass for the next five, then meteorological nuances like the warmth and the windiness of the day, at this pace he won't arrive at the sartorial details of the man and the woman for a good twenty pages. Any foreshortening of this destined meet-up is to deprive the characters of their literary grandiosity. When a man and woman meet in novels, time stalls to accommodate these peripheral agents. I have not come across one novel where a man simply happens to meet a woman without the elemental fanfare. They say, its peremptory to build up the tension between the lovers. What good is such tension that builds up BP and anxiety-induced cholesterol alongside in the readers.

    One person's opinion is unverified but with two people it becomes an ideology and with three it can be turned into a law. Tell me, are women or men into serious literature?
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2017
  8. HariLakhera

    HariLakhera Platinum IL'ite

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    Dear Sri Cheeniya,
    There is always a Kamu for not so serious guys or pretending to be not so serious guys. I think a good hearty laugh among adults and seniors is lost on the way. We find those laughter clubs instead. Laughing wide mouth is no more fashionable. There are paid stand up commedians to make the audiance laugh on silly political or sexy jokes. Santa Banta have changed names. I was told there are some 500 jokes that keep repeating in one forum or the other, only the names and community or country changes.

    Back then we could laugh on any thing. A friend of mine had a tremendous power of observation and he would describe the funny situaion with a flat face. We could hardly wait to laugh.
    One was when he visited a friend who kept a dog as a pet and would tolerate all its tantrums but at the same time ignore his kid wanting to climb on his lap. Nothing new but my friend could make it so humorous.
     
  9. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Same here! The flea market in my city was a bustling place during the weekends with students, bibliophiles, and collectors huddling at the make-shift tents with markdown books. I must have bought very few books at original price back then. The dilemma was whether to spend money on books or food. I chose later and don't regret. Gee, what good is reading Murakami on an empty stomach. Few of my friends were book leaches who would blow their money on minted editions. They were semi-collectors of cotton-crisp books. I prefer to call myself a niche book antiquarian. Curried and greasy stains on a book were symptomatic of an unputdownable read. What better discernible marker do you need to establish the reputation of a book?
     
  10. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    I suppose that you are talking about fictional love here. I do not know about other languages but in Tamil thousands of pages have been written on the waxing and waning of the moon while describing love. Of course, real lowers have no time for observing the moon in any position. When I say love stories, I refer to the ancient ones when there was nothing else for the lovers to converse about. Today's lovers have no time for the sun and the moon. They are mostly closeted in malls, theatres and restaurants. Love songs in movies of over five decades back had moon as the theme mostly. But there is no moon present in any modern love songs. People just want to be more practical and direct in their approach. I remember the song by Eliza in My Fair Lady:
    "Words, words, words!
    I'm so sick of words
    I get words all day through
    First from him, now from you
    Is that all you blighters can do?

    Don't talk of stars, burning above
    If you're in love, show me!
    Tell me no dreams, filled with desire
    If you're on fire, show me!"


    The word 'serious' used in conjunction with literature instantly makes it eminently unreadable! I am very cautious about reading material branded as 'literature' but when the adjective serious is added to it, I position myself as a sprinter in hundred meters race waiting for the gang to go!
     

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