98. TIMELY AND THE TIMELESS

LITERATURE- LIGHT AND DELIGHT

98. TIMELY AND THE TIMELESS

"The Timely And The Timeless" - this is the title of a book from 1970,  by Bentley Glass, then Prof. of Biology of the State University of New York. It examined the interrelationships of Science, Education and Society. The theme of the book is that "science as a social and historical process is  surely not the same as the nature of science as an individual scientist's process of investigation". The sheer volume of 'scientific knowledge' is so huge and overwhelming , and yet multiplying so fast, that no one 'scientist' can claim  to know everything even in his own specialisation, narrow as it is. Society at large is turned into a consumer of the products of science and technology, with very little understanding of the processes of science. The whole society is thus affected by science, but this understanding is not fostered by education, which fails to keep pace with the advancements. But more serious is the fact that the long term consequences on society of the products of science are not reckoned. Glass said :

Science is indeed an instrument of service, but only if its course can be understood and its technological applications regulated and constrained in the service of man.....one must agree with ...Alexander Meiklejohn, when he wrote: "Our final responsibility as scholars and teachers is not to the truth. It is to the people who need the truth."

 .....the scientist .....must reach beyond the immediate  consequences of any technological application of his discoveries and strive to grasp its most far-reaching  and long-lasting effects upon the terrestrial environment and the social system of man as a whole.

Here we shall find  relief from the trivial. Here we may seek and join the timely with the timeless, the socially relevant with the eternally true, the goals of man with his status in the universe, of which he is indeed so small a part......the end is not even the advancement of science, though that will accrue. The true end is quite literally the salvation of man.

 From: Bentley Glass: The Timely And The Timeless, Basic Books, New York,1970.

Image from Stony Brook University

The phrase 'Timely and the Timeless' struck a chord in me. This is what our religion has been trying to express. Life is endless, eternal; but our individual lives are so short, so full of suffering and struggle. In trying to cope with the immediate, we lose sight of the eternal. The world we see and experience through our senses hides a larger reality behind it. So the scriptures tell us to use the short term means and instruments to attain the eternal goal- this indeed is  both the wisdom and fortune of man, as the Bhagavata makes it clear. We have to use the perishable body to attain the imperishable state!

This too has been the vision of poets and men of literature. Like true philosophers, they see that the the phenomena of the world distract us from our true purpose. In playing with the small toys, we lose hold of the true gems.

But in the modern age, poets and authors are more concerned with the current developments, than with the more permanent verities. Poets are more sensitive than the rest and so are quick to be touched by what happens around them. But these days they seem to be touched more by the negative aspects. Adrienne Rich, the celebrated feminist-civil rights activist-poet refused to accept the National Medal for the Arts from President Clinton in July '97, and in an article explaining her stand wrote:

"Both major parties have displayed a crude affinity for the interests of corporate power, while deserting the majority of the people....I 've watched the dismantling of our public education, the steep rise in our incarceration rates, the demonization of our young black men, the accusations against teen-age mothers, the selling of health care- public and private- to the highest bidders, the export of subsistence-level jobs in the United States to even lower-wage countries, the use of below-minimum-wage prison labour to break strikes and raise profits, the scapegoating of immigrants,the denial of dignity and minimal security to working and poor people.....we have witnessed the acquisition of publishing houses , once risk-taking conduits of creativity, by conglomerates driven single-mindedly to fast profits, the acquisition of major communications and media by those same interests, the sacrifice of the arts and public libraries in stripped-down school and civic budgets....the democratic process has been losing ground to the accumulation of private wealth.

  All this is substantially true, and cannot be found in the academic textbooks. And these developments are repeated wherever the same style of economic organisation is followed- as is happening now in India! She goes on to say:

the all-embracing enterprise of our early history was the slave trade, which left nothing, no single life, untouched, and was, along with the genocide of the native population and the seizure of their lands, the foundation of our national prosperity and power....

And what about art? Mistrusted, adored, pietized, condemned, dismissed as entertainment, commodified, auctioned at Sotheby's, purchased by investment-seeking celebrities, it dies into the "art object" of a thousand museum basements.

 All this is also true. Yet what is new in all this? This is what Goldsmith had foreseen two hundred years earlier, and simply said: "Where wealth accumulates and men decay". The money culture turns everything into a tradeable commodity. 

Adrienne Rich, 2001 By Katharyn Howd Machan
(Katharyn Howd Machan [CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons.

But this is not the fault of a Clinton, or any one. It is not that these people were particularly bad, or ignoble. They are all prisoners of a system, as we all are. Yet I feel Rich had reason enough to celebrate: that she could write such a letter and send a copy  to the President! With all her leftist enthusiasm, in how many leftist countries, calling themselves democracies, could she have attempted that and hoped to remain alive or free?

Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th century feminist thinker and writer wrote (and this is quoted by Rich in her poem 'Snapshots of a Daughter-in-law):

To have in this uncertain world some stay which cannot be undermined, is of the utmost consequence.

Mary Wollstonecraft, c.1797
National Portraits Gallery, London.

She was writing of course about the aspirations of women. But is this not after all what every one would like- men or women - to have  some stability or certainty in the uncertain world? Yet it is the very essence of philosophy that it cannot be had in this world! We cannot find the timeless in the phenomena bound by time! Yet, we have to use the timely to attain the timeless! We may make bold to say that this is the 'skill' involved in living in this world meaningfully- the real yoga- Yaga karmasu kausalam, as the Gita says!

95. ONE HEART, MANY WAYS

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT

95. ONE HEART, MANY WAYS

Humanity is one in its basic urges- its fears and hopes, necessities and needs. Cultural conditioning and exposure to social systems lead to manifold ways of meeting these needs and expressing these hopes and fears. This accounts for the richness of human societies on earth; unfortunately this leads too to much  hatred,strife and violence.

Great thinkers- whom we would call savants- from all lands have always felt this basic unity in their being.They have expressed it in poetry and philosophy. Aldous Huxley brought out an anthology of such thoughts  70 years ago, calling it the Perennial Philosophy. Some may feel that it is after all some religio-mystical stuff. But this is the region where whole truths are perceived.

At the end of the First World War, when The League of Nations was established many people felt happy. But the incredulity and irony of the situation was not lost on some deep thinkers. Writing shortly after, Einstein said:

As late as the 17th century the savants and artists of all Europe were so closely united by the bond of a common ideal that co-operation between them was scarcely affected by political events. This unity was further strengthened by the general use of the Latin language.

Today we look back at this state of affairs as a lost paradise. The passions of nationalism have destroyed this community of the intellect, and the Latin language which united the whole world is dead. The men of learning have become representatives of the most extreme national traditions and lost their sense of an intellectual commonwealth.

Nowadays we are faced with the dismaying fact that the politicians, the practical men of affairs, have become the exponents of international ideas. It is they who have created the League of nations.

Einstein's apprehensions came true. Any agreement among politicians is only a temporary marriage of convenience. The League failed and we had one more World War in 20 years. The second war had introduced the nuclear arms, which began  a competitive race, which has not ended but only intensified with time. U.N Radio interviewed Einstein on June 16, 1950 when he said:

Competitive armament is not a way to prevent war. Everything in this step brings us nearer to catastrophe. The armament race is the worst method to prevent open conflict.....real peace cannot be reached without systematic disarmament on a supranational scale....Arms must be entrusted only to an international authority.

Taken on the whole, I would believe Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit....not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in what we believe is evil. 

Quotations taken from: 'My Views', Published by Rupa &co, 1976

How ironical things have turned out to be! There is a clear race for nuclear armaments today. And there is great fear of such armaments finding their way to extremist hands. And Gandhi's own land entered the nuclear arms club! Of course, India was forced to fight in defence, and has never dipped its hand in neighbour's blood any time in history.

It does not mean Indians have not or do not now fight among themselves. Indeed such fighting has only increased after Independence. European nations which were politically divided and antagonistic for centuries have come together, while India which has been one historically is now divided on linguistic lines. Linguistic  loyalties have displaced pan-Indian intellectual affinity. This has pervaded the whole society- from the academies to the street. 

"Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by  narrow domestic walls", sang Tagore. This has come true in a large part of Western Europe; but the poet's own land was divided into two nations at the time of Independence, and subsequently, the whole country has been divided into narrow linguistic walls.

The European Union 

 History forgets some heroes

The partition of India , which killed the ancient unity of our motherland was an act of unpardonable folly. All the Indian leaders lost their head during those last years of the British rule. Surprisingly , the one man who strove to maintain this unity was an Englishman, that too an Imperial guard: Lord Wavell, the second- last Viceroy of India. He was a professional soldier and knew that India had a geographical integrity which should be maintained for its security. He did his best, through two plans and negotiations, to bring the Indian leaders together on some working arrangement. But they failed due to lack of clear thinking on the part of Congress leaders, who were eager for quick power. The course of the talks were tortuous, and it is doubtful if the leaders were at least sincere in their discussions. Unfortunately, Churchill as the British PM was against Hindus and pro-Muslims and he was determined to create Pakistan and encouraged Jinnah. Wavell got a bad name and was summarily replaced by Mountbatten to speed up the process. By this time, Gandhi had been totally sidelined, and between them, Mountbatten, Lady Mountbatten and Nehru sealed the fate of India with Partition.

Our historians have neglected Wavell. He faced very peculiar problems: Britain had ruled India by dividing the people on all conceivable lines: race, religion,caste, community.But Wavell, with his soldier's acumen, realised the importance of a united India  for even the future of the commonwealth .He wanted to avoid partition- a task which involved reversing the British historical role! He could not stall the partition. Unfortunately, the lines of division planted by the British have now grown into mighty trees, with our own leaders adding some of their own, especially language.

The vision of unity does not come to everyone, or easily. I feel Wavell got it from literature! He had been a lover of poetry and could recite thousands of lines from memory! He was persuaded by his son and others to write them down, which were published in a wonderful anthology, titled " Other Men's Flowers". First published in 1944, it is still hugely popular and in print. An anthology reveals the mind and heart of the compiler and here we see Wavell the man. The very first poem is a great gem : The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson. The man who begins his anthology with this supremely mystic poem cannot be an ordinary person! Then there is this gem:

SWEET CONTENT by Thomas Dekker (1572-1632)

 Art thou poor, yet has thou golden slumbers?
                    O sweet content!
Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplex'd?
                    O punishment!
Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vex'd?
To add to golden numbers golden numbers?
 O sweet content! O Sweet, O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny nonny - hey nonny nonny!

Canst drink the waters of the crisped spring?
               O sweet content!
Swim'st thou in wealth,yet sink'st in thine own tears?
               O punishment!
Then he that patiently want's burden bears,
No burden bears, but is a king, a king!
 O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny, nonny- hey nonny nonny!

What a wonderful poem this is! It recalls to mind Shakespeare's "Under the greenwood tree". And also reminds us of the lines of Goldsmith:

Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain;
Teach him, that the states of native strength                                                             possess'd
Though very poor, may still be very bless'd.

That an active soldier who rose to become Field Marshal could remember such splendid poems speaks volumes about the man! That he strove to maintain the unity of an ancient land is no wonder! Alas! the world can celebrate only glitter and glamour and cannot recognise pure gold!

As a soldier, he included a number of war poems. But he also knew that "while love poems are written by those who have been in love, battle poems are seldom  written by those who have been in battle".He said that " A poet is a man  to whom vision is given beyond his fellows." and that "without vision...the people perish". It is one of the quirks of history that a Viceroy with a vision to maintain unity failed, and a people with leaders lacking vision, succeeded in dividing this ancient land!

 

Wavell , at his desk in Delhi during World War II
Photo by Cecil Beaton. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT 88. TASTE FOR POETRY

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT

88. TASTE FOR POETRY

How do we acquire a taste for anything? To some extent it is inborn; to some extent it is cultivated.

I remember a personal experience. Over 55 years ago, I left home and joined a hostel, when I entered college. Those were the days we were more orthodox ( or, more restricted or choosy in our tastes and the kinds of food we were allowed to eat) than at present. Boys from such backgrounds found it hard to eat the hostel food. For the first few days, we practically starved. Fr.J Murphy, SDB, the warden- also the Principal- was a great man, a real educator, and he took his role of 'in loco parentis' seriously: he had observed us and knew the problem. He called an assembly and explained  how we were used to our mothers' cooking, how our tastes had been formed and explained that now that we had come out of the cocoon and entered the wide world, we should slowly get used to the food outside. Later, as  our own children grew up, we saw how their tastes differed.Psychologists surely have their own theories. In Indian Psychology (Philosophy?) we call this 'Vasana'- a tendency acquired in previous births.

I think something like this is in operation in respect of our taste for everything in general. Taste for poetry too is like that. If it is present at all, it can be developed, refined. But it cannot be implanted.


Poetry as teacher of mankind

This will be clear if we observe how mass education has not produced mass admiration for poetry. Oliver Goldsmith was aware even in 1770, that the rising industrial culture was damaging our poetic sensibilities. In 'The Deserted Village' he wrote:

And thou,sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid,
Still first to fly where sensual joys invade;
Unfit in these degenerate times of shame,
To catch the heart , or strike for honest fame;
Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried,
My shame in crowds, my solitary pride;
Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe,
That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so;
Thou guide by which the nobler arts excel,
Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well!

The real poet that he was, he could not bear to bid her a final farewell; he still expected her to somehow teach mankind:

Farewell, and Oh! where'er thy voice be tried,...
Still let thy voice, prevailing over time,
Redress the rigours of the inclement clime;
Aid slighted truth; with thy persuasive strain
Teach erring men to spurn the rage of gain;
Teach him, that states of native strength possess'd
Though very poor, may still be very bless'd;

Portrait of Oliver Goldsmith who " wrote like an angel".
From Wikimedia Commons.
"he touched nothing that he did not adorn"- Dr. Johnson.

Better days for  poetry?


So, for Goldsmith, poetry was the noblest of arts and guide to mankind! A hundred years after him, in 1880,Matthew Arnold was aware that 

...an era is opening in which we are to see  multitudes of a common sort of readers, and masses of a common sort of literature; that such readers do not want and could not relish anything better than such literature, and that to provide that is becoming a vast and profitable industry.

Even so, he expressed the hope that 'good litereture' would never lose its currency and its supremacy- not by the 'world's deliberate and conscious choice' but by something far deeper: "the instinct of self preservation in humanity".

Indeed, he went further and asserted:

The future of poetry is immense, because in poetry,where it is worthy of its high destinies, our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer stay. There is not a creed which is not shaken, not an accredited dogma which is not shown to be questionable,not a received tradition which does not threaten to dissolve. Our religion has materialised  itself in the fact, in the supposed fact; it has attached its emotion to the fact, and now the fact is failing it. But for poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact. The strongest part of our religion today is its unconscious poetry.

From: Matthew Arnold's essay 'The Study of Poetry'. 1880.

Matthew Arnold, by Elliott &Fry, 1886
National Portrait Gallery, London.



From Poetry to Prose!

Now, a further 130 years down the line, we find the expectations of neither of them have been fulfilled. Poetry is still being written, and surely there are great poets among us right now. But does mankind use poetry to convey its greatest thoughts and core ideas? Does it use it as its vehicle of culture? Do we express our soul in song and poem still? Has it not become a sort of an ornament of the chosen,self -chosen few? It is prose that has emerged as the most favourite literary form, the movie having displaced drama long ago.

The very idea of "good" literature is repugnant to the modern consciousness. Good by what standards? All societies had their sense of basic morality- the West deriving it from Christianity.  Good literature was expected to echo it, if not promote it. Writers generally shared it. But the twentieth century had rejected this. Public life is devoid of dedication to a sense of shared culture or ethics. There is no "stable sense of  moral or intellectual  authority at the heart of public opinion". Most democratic societies are plural, and any one stand might be identified with some one group and objected! In India, the secular English press is promoting the mass commercial culture of the West as  modernity- which involves the total rejection of its own ancient cultural values. Thus, present literary trends are marked by absence or rejection of shared values. The cinema, and now the TV have  thoroughly overhauled our sense of values. And they have ensured that the whole society is made uniform- and thus ready for mass consumption. What marks the rich from the poor is not difference in taste- but difference in the amount of things consumed. J.B. Priestley had remarked in 1941:

 "There are wide gradations of income but it is the same kind of life that is being lived at different levels." 

 Some may live in a posh flat and watch a million rupee TV, but what is watched is probably the same video or DVD  movie that is watched in the neighbouring tenements! Mass education, spread of literacy, cheap printing technologies and dispersal of income have all combined to promote uniformity of mediocre taste and absence of any idea of excellence in literature. Most writers " write of unimportant things".....they spend immense skill and immense industry making the trivial and the transitory appear the true and the enduring" , as observed by Virginia Woolf. The phenomenon of the 'Best Seller'  is the best example. Serious literature may be the intellectual expression or stimulation of some, but it is the entertainment industry - in the form of visual media and cheap print- that is the predominant form of literary culture today. The logic of the mass market has made "good quality, literary writing unpublishable". (Q.D.Leavis,1932) This applies all the more to poetry, and serious literature, which are now read only in niches.

From books to Movies?

There are those who regard the motion picture as a form of literature- as poetry,even. But there is a vital difference between watching movies - even good, serious movies- and reading good literature. In a movie, the focus is on action, based on the visual image, which arrests the mind and keeps it focused on the action. In reading the book, the focus is on mental image, which develops as we proceed. The movie stifles the imagination, while reading promotes it! The movie limits us, imprisons us; the book frees us, expands us. Here poetry in fact excels all other forms of art- as good poetry demands time and attention to understand it, even after we have kept down the book. And words in poetry assume a whole range of higher meanings, significances, associations, not possible in prose! The impression of the movie lasts, if at all,only till we watch the next one.

 The commercial TV has edged out the good movie. Like good literature , good movie is imposable to make, almost.Who will guarantee the returns? The commercial TV ad shows the sinister effects of the visual media fully, especially on growing children. And in India, the mainline movies themselves are now resembling commercial ads! 

There certainly were creative directors who gave us good, meaningful movies in India- even tackling daring social themes in creative ways. We had our Shantaram, Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee who combined art with craft. But it was mainly in the 50s when most cine-goers were also patrons of literature, and music. Indian films had good music , mainly based on the classical, folk and regional varieties; later on, they adapted from  Western music too, especially in orchestration., helped by some fabulous trained musicians from Goa. They were matched by good lyrics by poets- they are still remembered today.But this too did not last beyond the 60s. However, the old music created in those days is still popular, and through the Internet, they are reaching even wider audiences. But the over all trend there too is towards a mass-culture, ruled by commercial interests.

Does it mean that  a good story or novel cannot be presented well through the visual media?  Yes, with rare exceptions. The impact of reading  is much stronger, and lasts longer, is more varied than the visual media can  convey. Those who have not read the story may perhaps enjoy, but not the mature readers. In the West, people mention  Gone With The Wind,  To Kill A Mocking Bird,  The Graduate,The Godfather. I do not know. I watched Great Expectations, and didn't like it. The movie may be a success- as a movie, by movie standards, but it does not mean it has been true to the story. The movie version of 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' centred on the court trial and many parts involving the children were removed! In Hindi movies, I know of none which was as good as the story, except perhaps Devdas. Personally, I think Teesri Kasam was a good film, based on a short story and was well made, with fine acting and good music.. But it failed, and the producer, the fine poet Shailendra, died broken-hearted. Compared to the so called action movies, spy thrillers,,etc combining a heady dose of sex and violence, the good novel or short story stands no chance. 

 R.K.Narayan's novel 'The Guide' was thoroughly spoiled by the movie makers, which attracted strong criticism from Narayan himself in a lengthy article in the 'Life' magazine.. Even the TV adaptation of stories of Malgudi  could not satisfy the serious readers, though the TV serial was not bad. Somehow, the focus on the visual shrinks the mental horizon.

 Ah, before I forget, I must mention The Shootist, (1976) the last movie  role of John Wayne ,  with James Stewart in it. But the movie ended differently from the original story, and had some other vital changes, at the instance of John Wayne. It had a touching theme, well suited for the visual medium.John Wayne had selected the main cast, and also kept his horse  'Dollar'.But it was only considered a minor success, though well made and received high praise. This is my personal favourite among John Wayne's movies
.



Front cover of the University of Nebraska Press edition, 2011




 I read the book after watching the movie on DVD. The book is very good, but I liked the film version better- the changes made by Wayne were in fact very sensitive, but made to suit his screen image: as when he refuses to shoot in the back, and when he approves of the son of the landlady throwing away the gun, indicating his disapproval of a life of  gun and violence. What a message in the last film role of a star of nearly 200 Westerns!


In the 60s, there were three movies dealing with the subject of student-teacher relations, in a changing social context: To Sir With Love; Goodbye,Mr.Chips; Up The Down Staircase. They interested me because I have always valued teachers as the pillars of society. All three were based on well-known and well-loved stories,  based on personal experience of the authors and real life situations. They were good, very good. I could read only the first two books, in condensation at first,, in the Readers' Digest. The third book, highly rated, was not easily available. The movies attracted all types of criticism, but the books make for excellent reading.It was a surprise to know that Mr.Chips was written in 1934! I would say that the books speak to you at a deeper and higher level than the movies, though they carried convincing performances from the main cast. 

E.R. Braithwaite, celebrated author of  To Sir, With Love.Photo by Carl Van Vechten,1962. From Wikimedia Commons

Bel Kaufman, author of Up The Down Staircase. 
2012 Photo by Open Road Media via Associated Press.
Thankfully acknowledged.
 But all such successful movie adaptations were not always based on well-known stories; rather the stories became known after the movie. But there is a risk: those who see the movie first may not get to read the original story- which I feel is a grave injustice to the writer and his artistic genius. It works both when the film is good, and otherwise! In the guise  of 'adapting ' it to the screen or writing the scenario, they do maul and mangle the spirit of the author.


The book may never compete with the visual media in entertainment value, but the movie can never become a serious literary form, can never match the book, unless we learn to forget reading as technology progresses! Who can say for sure- in the next fifty years, this too may come to pass! Most of us, especially the younger generation, have already given up serious reading,; we may give up reading as serious literary activity as we advance further!


The house that Narayan built

                        

                    under demolition. Photo submitted by Pramod Singh

The house R.K.Narayan built and lived in, in Mysore from 1948.Kannada writers raised objection when it was sought to be converted into a memorial by the state govt. Thus does free India honour its famous literary 'suns'!

Note:

The photos/ pictures are shown here for purely educational purposes, and also as a mark of respect for these great spirits which shape our society. No commercial motive is involved, no copyright violation intended. If there is any objection, they will be removed.