Uday Chandra makes a point in his status on the favorite books chain that seems to have gone viral at least in my friends list - the point being Frankly, what I read in a book makes sense only if it is validated by my experience of the world through its people and places. Much of what I read, sorry to say, ends up slowly but steadily in the recycle bin of my memory. and more or less I agree with that except that in my case books have had an equal place as interactions with people - they have been my constant companions in times of loneliness and depression - but more importantly has given me the ability to manoeuvre in a world that thrives on knowledge hegemony (in the South Asian sense - Brahminism) - though it might be not just 10 or 20 or one book that changed my life as Pamuk dramatically introduces The New Life - I believe it is important to share, spread and subvert knowledge as widely as possible - why I have made it a point to share as many readings as possible - not just on this FB game - but even otherwise. For someone from my community (acknowledging all my privileges) it is a huge mobility. Just to point out that from my father;s side of the family he was the first graduate and I the second and in between us there were 12 people, of which one graduated after me (male), 9 did not finish high school or stopped at high school, and 2 went up to pre-degree (present higher secondary) It is in this context, that I got into an interesting debate with a couple of author friends and I thought at least some of you might be interested in a small FB piece that i wrote in that context and maybe expand the debate. let me quote what I wrote there; Mariam - FB is not a space for a dissertation, nor am I sure that I can write one, all that I have is a passion for literature :P. In that context, let me start from my location, with the caveat that for me aesthetics and culture is nothing but hegemonic politics - Vaikom Mohammed Basheer is considered by many to be the best Malayalam story-teller - for the multiple layers in his stories, its simplicity and humour and most of his stories are around this Muslim community from North Kerala called the Mappilas and the beauty of his writing is in the way he uses the nuances in the spoken Mappila Malayalam language and its accent - for instance there is a famous quote by him roughly translated would mean that if a rabbit tries to push its anal sphincter muscles for shitting the way an elephant does all that would happen is that its arse would tear. This sounds gross in English, but is tremendously humorous in Malayalam. That would be similar in many languages - where we get to read only translations - for instance, I cannot stop trying to imagine what Notes from the Underground would do to me if I could read it in original Russian - given that it emotionally drains me when I read it in English. It is slightly different for authors who are bilingual and more so when they can emote in both languages - like O. V. Vijayan or Kamala Surraiyya aka Kamala Das aka Madhavikutty They can emote what they had originally written in the translations if they are translating on their own like in the case of the former - and one can feel the general politics even in the translations when the author writes different books in different styles in two languages like the latter. Lets take the debate between Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo and Chinua Achebe, both brilliant writers on what language would be politically appropriate for the case of Africa, Let me quote; Still a student in 1962, Ngũgĩ immediately took issue with the official title of the conference: “A Conference of African Writers of English Expression.” He notes the irony and consequence of a conference designed to define African literature excluding a large portion of the population that did not write in English. He marvels that he, an inexperienced student, was able to attend while hundreds of established, influential African writers were ineligible. Though Ngũgĩ’s main draw to the conference was the possibility of meeting Achebe and asking him to read an unfinished manuscript (later published as Weep Not, Child, 1964), Ngũgĩ’s philosophy would evolve to be radically different from those of fellow participant Achebe. To Achebe’s argument that African writers should adapt the English language to fit the scope of their nation’s stories, Ngũgĩ counters: “Why should an African writer, or any writer, become so obsessed by taking from his mother-tongue to enrich other tongues? We never asked ourselves: how can we enrich our languages?...Why not have Balzac, Tolstoy…Aristotle and Plato in African languages?” While both writers seek to preserve their cultures, Achebe’s philosophy seems to hinge on an obligation to a worldwide community of readers, while Ngũgĩ feels a greater responsibility to Kenyan culture and language that cannot be compromised for increased accessibility. However, Ngũgĩ does address a global perspective, explaining that writers’ commitment to their native languages promotes the idea of multilingual diversity in the modern world. Though Achebe’s method is one form of resistance against disappearing cultures, Ngũgĩ’s seems the louder, more radical sort. While Achebe is somewhat resigned in the realities of post-colonial Africa, Ngũgĩ calls for resistance against continued repression in a continent still suffering under neo-colonialism and lingering colonial sentiment. He holds writers responsible for both progress and lack thereof: “Writers who should have been mapping paths out of that linguistic encirclement of their continent also came to be defined and to define themselves in terms of the languages of the imperialist position”. This is also very true of for instance the wide gap and accessibility between Indian writing in English and other languages - financially and socially This also leads to Ngũgĩs Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature which he calls his farewell to English after which he has not written in English and we are dependent on translations. One of the consequences is also the different levels of recognitions accorded to Achebe and Ngũgĩ and here again there is the question of whose recognition, the scale and from whom.... I have ranted enough for the day.... more later after I hear your views
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 17:51:03 +0000