Leaving behind...

"What you leave behind is

not what is engraved

in stone monuments,

but what is woven into

the lives of others."

Pericles,

Greek Statesman

This is exactly how the world remembers a dead man. They leave a part of themselves here on this Earth with us before 'leaving'. I say 'a part' because after death a man is not remembered as one unit. We often stay attached to his memories, the moments, the smile in his eyes - all those lingering thoughts that stay alive in our minds as fresh as ever.

After all it is not the footprints that matter, it is the imprints on our minds that stay on forever. And sometimes they cannot be blown away by the sands of time, they just stay there...

The Yardsticks of Life - Success and Failure

Life is not a thing that can be measured or weighed. But we often try to evaluate it in terms of success and failure. It is the basic human nature that we try to estimate our profit and loss in each and everything we do. We often try to divide life into two watertight compartments of success and failure. But that is not to be. Life is not presented to us in definite shades of black and white, rather we have varying shades of grey.

Although we can separately define success and failure, yet we cannot draw a line between the two. They are often overlapping or at times one may replace the other. Sometimes we lose even if we have won. At other times, even being a loser we might turn to be a winner in the end.

On some occasions it happens that when we win, there's a sense of guilt lurking in some corner of our heart, which keeps our success incomplete - we means we fail inspite of the success. Sometimes we fail to keep our relationships intact - at that particular moment we succeeded as a businessman but failed badly in being a human being. We fail to justify our existence as a man at the cost of feelings of others.

Basically success and failure co-exist. The victory of one person is to be attributed to the defeat of the person in opposition. If we study these two terms from the point of view of the sportspersons we can say that - no matter how successful a person might be in any sport, if he doesn't retire at the right time, when he is at the peak, very soon the journey downhill begins - this might turn his success into a failure (failure in terms of his decreasing popularity, people might remember him for his failures in the last matches). This is only another aspect of success and failure.

In general, we often hear people remark about a wealthy person, "He is a very successful man". Can we define success in monetary terms? Definitely not. Just before Alexander, the Great breathed his last, he had asked that his hands be kept out of his grave so that people might realise that he too went away empty-handed from this world.

The sooner we absorb this message in our lives the better it is. Otherwise we too will have to lament like Hamlet: "Had I but time, O! I could tell you, but let it be". The time once past cannot be recalled and reshaped, so the time to act is here and now.

Omar Khayyam writes:

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it"

'Vibrations' - the blog

Recently I discovered a blog entitled ‘Vibrations’. The blog is about the general outlook towards life, the little ramblings about life. The word vibrations set my mind thinking. Normally we can observe the various hues of life (as life is not presented to us in only black and white), but we fail to feel the vibrations of life. The quotes posted on the blog, especially those coined by the author himself are, indeed, very meaningful. The collage created by the blog author, Harneet Singh in the post : Dear God is very nice.
Enjoy travelling through this blog and feel the vibrations!

Woof Contest Top 5 - dated Nov. 7

Poetry
Penelope Anne Bartotto - “Never” - 100 words on being true to yourself.
Robert Bourne - “Shadowed Soul” - A poem of how I grew after years of hiding what was inside.
Dragon Blogger - “The Taste Of A Hamburger” - A poem based on a twitter contest where I write a poem based on random words. This one turned out to be a poem about a hamburger.
About Writing
Writing Nag - “7 Ways to Keep the Passion for the Writing Life” - Like any relationship your writing life needs to be nurtured. Find new ways to fall in love with writing again.
Non-Fiction, Philiosophical, Opinion
PieceMike Fried - “Proud To Be An American” - The Writer’s thoughts on the Presidential Election.

R. L. Stevenson's Poetry - A Tribute on his Birthday

R. L. Stevenson, the famous Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer, was born on November 13 in the year 1850. Although wrote many short stories, poems, travalogues, novels, he is especially known for his novels: ‘Treasure Island’ (1883) and ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’(1886). Among other famous novels are ‘Kidnapped’ (1886) and Master Of Ballantrae (1889).
The aim of this post is to highlight the poetic masterpieces that have been created by Stevenson. We have all read much about his novels especially, the most about ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. (I had written a post earlier about it: ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’
I would like to share one of his poems here for my readers:
As from the house your mother seesYou playing round the garden trees,So you may see, if you will lookThrough the windows of this book,Another child, far, far away,And in another garden, play.But do not think you can at all,By knocking on the window, callThat child to hear you. He intentIs all on his play-business bent.He does not hear, he will not look,Nor yet be lured out of this book.For, long ago, the truth to say,He has grown up and gone away,And it is but a child of airThat lingers in the garden there.
Robert Louis Stevenson

Among his more famous poems is ‘Requeim’ that was published in his collection of poems called ‘Underwoods’

UNDER the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you 'grave for me:

Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

R. L. Stevenson died on December 3, 1894, which left his last writing ‘Weir of Hermiston’ unfinished. It was later on published in 1896.

This is what we can in the end (in Stevenson’s own words):

Leave not, my soul, the unfoughten field, nor leave
Thy debts dishonoured, nor thy place desert
Without due service rendered. For thy life,
Up, spirit, and defend that fort of clay,
Thy body, now beleaguered; whether soon
Or late she fall; whether to-day thy friends
Bewail thee dead, or, after years, a man
Grown old in honour and the friend of peace.
Contend, my soul, for moments and for hours;
Each is with service pregnant; each reclaimed
Is as a kingdom conquered, where to reign.

Albert Camus (7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960)

Albert Camus was born today (that is, November 7) in 1913. He was an Algerian-born, French author, philosopher and a jouralist. He won the Nobel Prize in 1957. He is remember for his especially remarkable 'The Stranger' (often titled as 'The Outsider'); among his other novels are - 'The Plague', 'The Fall'. He also wrote plays, short stories and essays.

Today as a tribute to this author on his birthday, I have created a poster with his picture, which I would like to share with my readers.

Reflection - a viewpoint

The word ‘reflection’ according to dictionary means different things – it is ‘a calm lengthy intent consideration’ (that is, contemplation) and ‘a remark expressing careful consideration’ (that is, observation) to quote only two of the various meanings of the word ‘reflection’.
If we take the word in terms of our life and our personality, we will find that what kind of life we are leading is nothing but a reflection of the type of personality we have. The fact that the scene of life changes the moment we change our outlook and attitude towards it, stand testimony to the declaration made in the previous sentence (to quote myself: “life is but a reflection of our personality”). Just as the image in the mirror reflects what we present before it, similarly our life is what we make of it.
We, as humans, are often apprehensive of the ‘self-assumed’ oncoming problems of our future life, so much so that sometimes the problem itself does not exist or is very negligible, and it is only our thinking that makes it all the more profound and so ensnaring. Charles Dickens has rightly remarked, “Reflect upon your present blessings - of which every man has many - no on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
To save ourselves of this trap of unhappiness or misfortune we should reflect upon the moments of joy that we have experienced in the past times. And we would find a sudden transformation. There would be miraculous escape from most of the problems and tensions of our life. This is possible because of that ‘inward glance’ because basically the answer lies within us; as it is said ‘It is all in mind’.
Trying knowing yourself and you’ll know the world in a much better way!

Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'

The name of Oscar Wilde needs no introduction. He was a poet, a playwright and the author of many short stories. But all of us are not aware of the fact that he tried his hand at writing a novel too. The only product of his penmanship in the form of a novel was ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, which was published in 1981, after being published as a story in a monthly magazine (Lippincott's Monthly Magazine) in 1890.

The novel is a classic example of the gothic horror fiction. The theme of the novel has a Faustian theme – the protagonist Dorian Gray wishes that his portrait would age rather than himself. And his wish is fulfilled. Then there is a series of sins.

The novel begins on a flowery note. What I mean by this will be obvious from the following opening lines:
“The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.”

Here is another of the memorable quote from the book:
“ . . . there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

Expressionism

Expressionism is an anti-realistic mode of artistic expression that flourished in Germany from about 1910 through the 1920’s. The German Expressionist painters employed expressive devices – like sharply angular lines unknown in nature and objects endowed with unnatural colour – in an attempt to suggest a new perception of reality.
German expressionist dramatists such as Georg Kaiser, Ernst Toller and the early Bertolt Brecht, inspired by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg, avoided depictions of individualized characters in realistic settings. Strindberg’s ‘Dream Play’ with its fragmented, stylized action and its flowering castle, had shown the way to a new theatrical symbolism.
In general, the Expressionists rejected the imitation of external reality in order to express either a private, inner vision or a wider political one of a world often depicted as bizarre and violent.
In American drama, some of Eugene O’ Neill’s plays, particularly ‘The Emperor Jones’ (1920), ‘The Hairy Ape’ (1922) and ‘The Great God Brown’ (1926), with its use of masks, were influenced by Expressionism in their departures from certain realistic conventions of drama.
The term Expressionism is problematic since it can be used to describe virtually any of the deliberate distortions or departures from reality that pervade modern literature and art. Thus, the fragmentary construction of T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’, the symbolic metamorphoses of characters in Joyce’s ‘Finnegans Wake’ and Kafka’s ‘Metamorphis’ can be regarded as examples of Expressionism, but such an imprecise designation embracing so many disparate works, casts doubt on its usefulness as a literary description.

Woof Contest - Oct. 24

Top 5 writings in Woof contest hosted by PlotDog Press
Poetry
Romeo - “The Natural World” - A short poem about nature and its beauty.Jennifer M Scott - “Seeking Sun” - An avant garde poem about fall.
About Words / Writing
Kimota (Jonathan Crossfield) - “Time, Productivity and the Writer” - A look at how writing isn’t necessarily as quick to produce as many outsiders believe. Taking three hours to produce 100 words might seem odd, but is perfectly legitimate to produce quality copy.
Fiction
Ferox - “Is that a Dragon?” - Things must be observed to exist. Otherwise, they can be anything.
~willow~ - “it’s all a matter of perspective…” - …where a young girl knocks a new perspective into an otherwise downcast boy on a bright autumn day…

'Impressionism' in Literature

The term ‘Impressionism’ comes from the school of mid-nineteenth century French painting, which was in reaction to the academic style of the day. The Impressionists, as they called themselves, made the act of perception the key for the understanding of the structure of reality. They developed a technique by which objects were not seen as solids but as fragments of colour which the spectator’s eye unified. The basic premise involved was that “truth” lay in the mental processes, not in the precise representation of external reality.
The literary use of the term ‘Impressionism’ is, however, far less precise. Many of the French Symbolist poets have at one time or another been called Impressionists. In England, Walter Pater, concerned with aesthetic matters, used the term ‘impressionism’ in ‘The Renaissance’ (1873) to indicate that the critic must first examine his own reactions in judging a work of art. Arthur Symons felt that the Impressionist in verse should record his sensitivity to experience, not the experience itself; he should express the inexpressible. In Wilde’s ‘Impression du Matin’, perhaps influenced by Whistler’s painting, the Impressionist technique is apparent in the subjectivity of description.
In the modern novel, ‘Impressionism frequently refers to the technique of centering on the mental life of the chief character rather than on the chief character rather than on the reality around him. Writers such as Proust, Joyce and Virginia Woolf dwell on their character’s memories, associations, and inner emotional reactions. In ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’, for example, Joyce presents Stephen Dedalus’ unarticulated feelings but little of physical surroundings.

Jane Austen on Pride and Vanity

Jane Austen has been my one of my all time favourites ever since I was in school. Although we might say all of her novels have a limited area that they cover (as a critic has said 'she worked on six inches of ivory) but even in this restricted field she has given such valuable insights about human personality. It is not that we need a very wide canvas to convey our feelings and messages.
For instance, in her very famous novel 'Pride and Prejudice' she has remarked:
"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."
Now we can't have so clear a distinction between the meaning of the two words - Pride and Vanity - even from the dictionary itself.
So the next time you read a book by Jane Austen, locate the statements wherein lies the essence of reading the book. It is not whole book that we cherish later on after having read it. it is only for such meaningful statements that keeps it close to our heart.

'Brevity is Soul of Wit'

Shakespeare in his famous drama ‘Hamlet’ writes:

…brevity is the soul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,

I will be brief…

The phrase ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ owes its origin to this celebrated play of the ‘Bard of Avon’. But the phrase gained currency and now it has become a part and parcel of the host of standard English proverbs. But due to this generalization being applied to this phrase, the original context has been somewhat distorted. While the character of Polonius (in the play ‘Hamlet’), who utters these words is of very high opinion about his ‘wit’ yet he is the least witty and the least brief of all the characters. Sigmund Freud even went on to call him “the old chatterbox”, in his essay ‘With and its Relation to the Unconscious’.
For understanding the essence of the phrase ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ let us first try to comprehend what wit really means. The meaning of wit has undergone periodic change. In the Renaissance the word ‘wit’ meant wisdom or ‘intelligence’. Coming to the seventeenth century, it came to mean ‘fancy’, implying the kind of thought and language used in the metaphysical poetry, composed by the likes of John Donne.
Sometimes the word ‘wit is now used synonymously with ‘humour’ but this is only partially true. In the modern times the word ‘wit’ connotes intellectually amusing utterances. So we can safely say that with is human with a tinge of intellectual element, that is, a mixture of humour and wisdom.
Alexander Pope, while defining a true wit, has remarked “What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed”. This brings us to the association of the element of brevity with the concept of wit. Even in our daily life we often stand witness to the situations like – sometimes a person cracks a joke but nobody laughs, while at other times only a statement consisting only of a few words clicks and is able to evoke roars of laughter. This is where the role of brevity in wit comes in. Pithy and precise statements can exercise the desired influence. As opposed to this, humour gets lost in the downpour of words. Verbosity can never be the basis and soul of wit.
So be careful, next time you say something to make someone smile, make it brief!

Arvind Adiga wins Man Booker Prize 2008

Arvind Adiga has won the prestigious Man Booker Prize for the year 2008. The winning novel ‘The White Tiger’ is his debutant novel. He is among the very few who pocketed this award for their respective first novel. With this achievement he has joined the camp of Arundhati Roy (for ‘The God of Small Things’) and DBC Pierre (for ‘Vernon God Little’). This time the other debut novel in the race was ‘A Fraction of the Whole’ Steve Toltz’s first novel.
Adiga is the fourth Indian born author to win this prize after – Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai, who won the prize in 1981, 1997 and 2006 respectively (V.S. Naipul is not to be counted because not an Indian by birth). Adiga was born in Chennai (Andhra Pradesh) and now in Mumbai (Maharashtra, India). His novel, ‘The White Tiger’ is about the journey of a man from his rural life in an Indian village to achieving success in enrepreneurship.
So grab a copy of ‘The White Tiger’ and enjoy! I am certainly going to do so.

Get your copy here: The White Tiger: A Novel