Showing posts with label writing tips. Show all posts

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Echo Of Silence

Learn to Hear The Voice of Silence

The Other I

Solitude and silence are the virtues created by freedom of choice, since both could be either ‘Outer’ or ‘Inner’. They are the great source of creativity. Silence endowed with the quality of echo, is superior. It is the voice of your consolidated Karma of this and all your past births. It talks only after thick trust of intimacy. It connects you to the stream of consciousness formatted by impressions of all previous births. Every person is a product of all decisions taken, but also all decisions that he did not take when choices was there. Indecision is no decision, just as having no principle is not a principle. The situations were resolved by the notion of right and wrong or good and evil. What is universally accepted is not necessarily a truth or reality. In a settlement of addicts, you cannot talk sense, lest you will be labeled as insane. If you fancy -isms and ideologies you are an addict, you first have to go for a cure and what could be better medicine than silence and solitude.

The prism of the -ism dissects the ray of light which is truth. Truth in its absolute form is indivisible. So all -isms and ideologies are only contemporary truth that could prove wrong with the passage of time. The time-tested literature becomes immortal. The classification of genre is only a convenience; truth has no servitude to the finity. Nor is it revealed by an explosion or after a blind turn. Truth is veiled by a translucent silk curtain that you were always afraid to touch. Curiosity makes you anxious but does not infuse dare. By a sudden stroke of luck, by a minor incident, by a blow of air or a wave in the ocean the curtain is removed and the truth is exposed to you. It is a surprise that you were not shocked, but felt blissful. The Christ has arrived, the Krishna is born, and the Prophet Muhammad has heard Gabriel. The writer starts his walk, on such a long journey.

Ordinary becomes extraordinary for a writer. Truth is revealed to him by an ordinary incidence, so he explores the phenomenon of simple and ordinary things. He can identify that pattern of ideas, thoughts and actions that reveal in certain emotions. The characters created by an enlightened writer are either Whole or Fragmented. They could never be classified as round and flat or type and individual. A character could be whole in the eyes of Humanism while Fragmented when seen from the eyes of Realism. The ‘Whole’ existence would create trouble in the mind of existentialist, who has already split the theory so many times that by any further split in the theory, it would lose its existence.

The ‘I’ is in perpetual Love-Hate relationship with the ‘Other I’. When I is silent the Other I speaks and it is thus an ‘Echo of Silence’. The Other ‘I’ is a fanatic pursuer of truth. The simple language sounds satirical when it has an element of truth. The Other I fill the void created by the existence of I. The ‘Other I’ is irrational, no logic can convince him, if he decides to go follow the dictum of his heart. Permit him that Space and see how he transcendences the boundary of Time, and brings timeless jewel for you from the womb of the Unborn.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Write to fill the void

ART OF BEATING AROUND THE BUSH

Society is Python : Pixabay

The world is not rational. Everything happening around us cannot be explained logically. Humanism cannot be achieved by being a rational thinking man. The sufferings caused by poverty are illogical. The humanities are leisure, economics is survival. States are pawns in the hands of capitalist and make no efforts to fill the gap. Art and literature can fill the gap for bourgeois only. The upper and lower remain unaffected. Bourgeois to perpetuate intellectualism and elitism, which is characteristic of bourgeois class, create literature. If we know this fact we can set our emotions free and let the imagination go wild to bring the farfetched jewels hidden in the treasure of mysticism. Mysticism is an acknowledgement of the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm. The relationship has many dimensions and is unique to all individuals. No single theory can explain it. Nature works as catalyst and intermediary for the transience of microcosm. Nature is the key to understand both the forms of existence, gross and subtle. The art of observation is a skill. Dedication, humility and patience are required to acquire this skill. Once you understand that you do not ‘merely exists’ in this purposeless world, but your existence itself is the purpose of the world, creativity starts flowing. The flow begins consciously and reaches to unconsciousness. It is like dark matter, weakly interacting particles become high-energy randomly moving particles. It is a Big Bang of your sole existence. How much energy you can utilize for creativity is subjective.

You can utilize infinitely if you have a totally unconditioned mind. It is a very unachievable status. The bias and prejudices know many secret hidings in the mind and when we chase them one after another, they change their form and shapes and masquerade as identifiable but not distinguishable. At that level the distinction in friends and foes is obscure. Obscurity is a hindrance in the path of learning and elimination is many a times only an illusion. The clarity in perception in its purity is unexplainable. The language has its limitation. You cannot be perfect, but more near to truth, if you have better command of language. The palatability of your perception and its expression is not in stating that a spade is spade, but calling it by any other name than a spade and still your reader would know that you are talking about a spade. This is not possible with tamed imagination. The insistent pressures have disabled the natural function of the spring that leads to wilder imagination. To let loose, remove the pressures, one of which is very significant, the artificial way of life. It has become so integrated with the life that it appears to be a natural part of life. Useless things are making life complicated and have become indispensable. The whole process is cumbersome, but the results are beautiful. As an individual, as well as part of the universe that gives meaning to meaning to your life.At a point of time you surpass, the desire to be acknowledged and recognised for your contribution in the making of this world as a better place.

Never waste your efforts to wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep. Society is that python. It scares, even though it has no poison. Complacent and condescend. They like to be respected for their size and nuisance value. To ignore is disrespect. Neutrality is enmity. It needs a sugar coated prescription. Camouflaging is not cheating. Self-preservation is a creative art. If your concerns are genuine, you will find a way to hit the nail. Do not over do it. Just enough, to hold the things together. Do not exaggerate to make your point. Days of ridicule and satire are over. Didactic and reformative is hated more than the sinners are. The path is arduous but filling the void was never a smooth sailing.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Facts about Fiction

The Art of Futuristic Novels

Realism has brought fiction to the solid ground and the impressionist and the symbolist movement gave shape to contemporary realism. The distinct Forms of Art viz. Lyrical, the Epic and the Dramatic have crossed the boundaries of its watertight compartment. Writers feel more free to experiment with form, theme, setting, structure and characterization day by day.

Many experiments done at regional level in regional languages by regional authors are of great magnitude but are unexplored by literary giants. The traditional publishers have become more shy day by day. They shun beginners like untouchables. They say that they receive manuscripts every day in the quantity of truckloads. (I was surprised to hear the same dialogue from three different traditional publishers during the World Book Fair, New Delhi). It makes one happy that at least so much literature is being created everyday. At the same time, it is sure that most of it does not see the light of the day. After rejection from traditional publishers, the authors half-heartedly approach to vanity publishers and self-publishers who have different packages designed to cater to the needs of enthusiastic budding writers.

Writers who are floating in the market successfully are tied with life belts. Not every author is able to afford even the lowest package of these publishers. The vanity publishers have adopted the same channel like submission of script and signing a contract, which is a Xerox copy of the contract of traditional publishers. Such authors finally publish an eBook on KDP, which provides free service of publishing an eBook. Many authors are not convergent with procedure and even pay to publishers for publishing an eBook on KDP. May be every author should have his own publishing house, for all services pertaining to publishing a book like printing, typesetting, editing, vendors for online supply are available on job basis. Hire a marketing agency if you do not want to market it yourself.

This whole procedure is the dirty business, a nasty side of the best art of the world - Writing. So let us focus on the best part of it ie. creating a literary masterpiece to the best of our abilities. Like Tulsidas writer should write for his own satisfaction and not for immortality, popularity, fame or money. Nor for invoking any kind of kinetic or static appreciations from readers. A boat in the river may aspire a writer to paint the scene in words, writing about the reflection of the boat in the water would be more important than writing about boat itself. The coax might be a type or an individual. Can we see him as an archetype of all those sailors, mariners and shippers who struggled with untamable force of water element? Rather an archetype of all sufferers of the nature.

The mood of an ocean is close to the human psyche. You want to surf the waves or dive deep for pearls. Writers have a choice,none is superior to another. The main thing is to have microscopic observation and telescopic vision. If the writer has read sufficient literature of the world, the words would flow in the stream of consciousness or may be a stream of unconsciousness depending upon the depth the writer has reached.

It does not matter if your imagination has gone wild during the process of writing and the outcome is unbelievable. Imagination cannot create anything that is either not already happening or would not happen in future. The book Titanic was written one hundred years before the Titanic was actually made and the mishap occurred.

One of the most important tasks for a writer is universalizing of his emotions. "If you want your readers to cry, cry yourself first".

Blank verse broke the age-old traditions of poetry writing and earned a respectful place in the arena of literature. Similarly, the model of novel writing that evolved through Chaucer, Henry Fielding and Richardson to D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf is at the threshold of another new era.

Burn Me Naked is a paranormal fiction free from many traditional devices of form and setting. The story is not divided into chapters and setting of places are overlooked to impress universality. Few quotes on Burn were selected randomly and a story was woven around those quotes. The quotes are from different countries, writers, politicians, to show how collective unconsciousness can formulate an extraordinary story.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

The Art of Story Writing

Art is Long but The Story is Short

The short story has not been defined precisely in the lower limit of word count. The Novel is over 40000 words, Novella is 17500 to 40000 words, Novelette is 7500 to 17500 words and a short story is less than 7500 words.

There is a myth that Earnest Hemingway wrote Eight Word shortest story of the world.

For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Augusto Monterroso is a Guatemalan short story writer best known for his 8-word story titled “El Dinosaurio”:

When I woke up, the dinosaur was still there.

The famous story of two strangers travelling in a train. One asked “Do you believe in ghost?”

“No, ” said the other, and disappeared.

The title of the smallest book in the world is “Who rules the world?” And it is said that it has only one page with one word written on it “Money”.

The “Chicken soup for the soul” series is a compilation of many motivational and inspirational stories.

William Shakespeare in Hamlet says “Brevity is the soul of wit”.

Art of brevity is the soul of Twitter also. To express oneself shortly and precisely is the theme of the world. People skip the pages filled with long narration even when they read voluminous classical novels.

William Strunk’s “The Elements of Style” a writing manual is popular because of its brevity.

Stephen King in his second forward of “On Writing” admits “shorter the book, the less the bullshit” and in third forward says “to write is human, to edit is divine”.

A short story has a fully developed theme. "TheAccident" is a wonderful story written by Bhisham Sahni.

The protagonist is a young woman who is engrossed in conversation with her friend. She missed the saag meat cooked by her servant Jagga, so she narrates his story to her friend. The young wife of Jagga was seduced by the younger brother of her husband. When Jagga comes to know about it, he commits suicide. The husband of protagonist settles police, widow and other relatives of Jagga amicably. Shockingly, he knew that his younger brother was having an illicit relationship with the wife of Jagga. He defended the evil act of his younger brother by saying to his wife “In youth everyone sows his wild oats and so did Vikki”.

The story is a satirical tragedy. Despite the depressive end of Jagga the story is full of humor. The chauvinistic male in Indian society is insensitive and callous to a great extent. Women do not despise such man. On the contrary, they praise it as manly quality. When her husband gives money to Jagga’s wife and father to compensate his own guilt, she says “It’s all over and done with, what’s the point in squandering money like this?” The reader is baffled by the meanness of husband and wife.

It shows a middle class bourgeois tendency to exploit the labor class of society.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust~Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's ashes reaches home in Colombia

[PHOTO-LA TIMES]

The news flashes a host of memories when we were caught in the magic web woven by Gabo ( the affectionate nickname of the Author) in his books "One hundred of solitude" and "Love in the time of cholera".

Review of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" on goodreads.(17.09.12)

"For a week when I was reading "One hundred years of solitude", I was living in Macondo and lost all my connections with the real world. Every person I met I searched for either Aureliano or Arcadio in him. The whole world could be divided in two types of people Aureliano or Arcadio. The fluidity of transcendence is superb from one Aureliano to other Aureliano. The ordinary has inbuilt extraordinary in it. Rather "more the ordinary" proves "more the extraordinary" in it.
At one time superstitions and premonitions come true, at another time a long narration culminates in a quotation like "Poverty is the servitude of love."
The last paragraph of the book is amazing."It was the history of the family, written by Melquiades, down to the most trivial details, one hundred years ahead of time. He had written it in Sanskrit...".

There is only one epic "Ramayana" that was written much before the happening of events.

I salute Gabriel García Márquez.~Vipin Behari Goyal (Author)

This is what Superman says about his own masterpiece:

"One day I discovered the right tone—the tone that I eventually used in One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was based on the way my grandmother used to tell her stories. She told things that sounded supernatural and fantastic, but she told them with complete naturalness. When I finally discovered the tone I had to use, I sat down for eighteen months and worked every day.

In One Hundred Years of Solitude."

According to Terry Pratchett "Magic Realism is like polite way of saying you write Fantasy".

Gabo says "The trouble is that many people believe that I’m a writer of fantastic fiction, when actually I’m a very realistic person and write what I believe is the true socialist realism."

Author himself want his work to be classified as Social Realism rather than as Magic Realism.

Let us see what the difference is:

Realist author writes about the realities of life as perceived by him through the senses and experience. That reality may not be absolute reality. Perceptions are also deceptions.

Since World is Conical and is divided in two uneven halves, Proletariat and Capitalist, Oppressed and Oppressor, Rich and poor, Haves and Have-Nots, and if an author chooses to write about the poverty stricken people, their life and sufferings (and few breezes of happiness) and struggle, he is said to be writing about Socialist Realism.

In Magical Realism some unreal events are interwoven in a real story so skillfully that the unreal also appears to be real.

Many authors like Gabo deny their work to be Magical Realism, which is not as high stature of the work as Socialist Realism is.

The magic spelled by him will continue to enchant many coming generations.

The news about the transfer of his ashes appeared as follows:

"The ashes of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez are heading to the country of his birth, Colombia.

Garcia Marquez -- known to his fans as Gabo -- had been a journalist early in his career and traveled around the world. He settled in Mexico, where he lived for many decades before his death in 2014 at age 87.

But the author of the "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" often set his fictions in Columbia. The Caribbean city of Cartagena, particularly, served as muse and inspiration."(LA Times).

Writing Tips by Gabriel Garcia Marquez based on his various interviews:

1. Talk to Old People: Old people are treasure house of stories. Listen to them patiently. Gabo himself was inspired by his grandmother's impassive narrations to write the story of One hundred years of solitude.

2. Read Great Literature: Books written by great authors are always source of inspiration. Gabo wrote his first story after reading Metamorphosis by Kafka.

3. Visit Old Places: Specially the places where you spent your childhood. Your school, playgrounds, city library. It will bring a flood of memories and you would be able to relive a new experience.

4. Writing is hard work: Gabo considered writing to be a hard work. He said "Ultimately, writing is nothing but a carpentry." He has further explained that "Writing something is almost as hard as making a table. With both, you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood. Both are full of tricks and techniques. Basically very little magic and a lot of hard work are involved. And as Proust, I think, said, it takes ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration."

5. Read "Earnest Hemingway on writing": Gabo was also inspired by this book. He has appreciated the way Hemmingway has compared writing with Boxing. He agrees that you have to be in a very good emotional and physical state to be a writer.

6. Be a Perfectionist: Be your own best critic. He says" I think that I’m excessively demanding of myself and others because I cannot tolerate errors; I think that it is a privilege to do anything to a perfect degree."

7. Don't be a megalomaniac: Often Authors does this mistake to consider themselves as center of universe and society's conscience.

8. Work in a familiar environment: Some Author's think that they can write better in some resorts or hotels. William Dalrymple wrote his book City of Djinns in a resort at Luni near Jodhpur. Gabo finds that familiar environment are more congenial for writing than strange places.

9. Choose your best hours: Every person has different best hours of the day. Author must identify and utilise his best hours.

10. Work very hard on First Paragraph: The first paragraph decides the fate of the book. Gabo says "One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph. I have spent many months on a first paragraph, and once I get it, the rest just comes out very easily."

Rest in Peace Gabriel Garcia Marquez

© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Ultimate Goal of Artist and Writers - Supervoid

SUPERVOID

Whatever is in the Cosmos is also in our body. Woodroffe says “Man is a microcosm, whatever exists in the outer world exists in him”. The Supervoid is as much part of our existence as it is of our Galaxy. May be we are as ignorant about ourselves as we are about the outer world.

The ‘void’ or ‘emptiness’ is felt by many human beings in the process of their growth. Though all human beings are born with the elements of this void, but only very few who become an artist, writer or scientist are able to fill the vacuum created by the void. The human aspires to be Superhuman, but are devoid of Supervoid. This tends to further the intensity of void which is yet to become dense enough to cause the Supervoid.

One can reach and realize void without shedding ‘ I ‘ but the journey from void to Supervoid is possible only after shedding all kinds of Ego permanently. Unfortunately, it is a Herculean task and no sincere efforts have been made in this direction.

It is not necessary that some super event would lead to the formation of Supervoid. A very small event, a trifle for ordinary man could be of great consequence for a receptive mind. It is not necessary that those who already suffer from the void are eligible for Supervoid. All types of creativity fills up this void to some extent, the perfection in creation makes it more intense, and only a super perfection could then fill thus formed Supervoid.

In the ancient world, it was Plotinus, who reached to that elevated stage and perceived the things which only a seer of Supervoid can perceive. His ‘True Human’ identified himself with that which was best in the universe. His idea of Eudaimonia (real happiness) is attainable only within consciousness.

Since the World is Conical it is totally devoid of people who aspire for “The Perfect Life” as envisaged by Plotinus. It will not be proper to call his work as Neoplatonic since his theory of ‘One’ was closer to Indian Philosophy of Non-Dualism.

Einstein took one step towards understanding the mysteries of Nature by his unification theory and Stephan Hawkins took next step, but the perfection is still very far. Perfection then would lead us to immortality which would be a great boon to top notch people of conical world, who have cryopreserved their dead bodies in that expectation.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Author of 'World is Conical'

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Mood Swings and Creative Persons

Bipolar are Just Cross Legged Persons

It is by default that all creative persons have frequent mood swings. It is the price they pay for the gift of God. The persons affected by their mood swing viz. their family members and friends, reconcile with them with a heavy heart without any mention of it.

1. It’s not a Psychiatric problem. You are lost in a jugglery of words having complicated interpretations of day-to-day words like anxiety, depression, euphoria that would sound as serious psychological disorders. It is not a sickness so there is no remedy for it. Any type of medication could be addictive. So it is better to make use of both the types of mood.

2. It mostly has a duration, like a pendulum or a swing; the velocity and duration have a fixed pattern. One can even maintain a diary to identify the pattern of cycle of occurrence of swing. Water is one of the major constituents of our body. Like oceans have tides due to phases of the moon, the mood swings are like tides governed by our inner moon. Remember IQ84 by Murakami. The whole book revolves round the theory of “Two Moon”. The Author has given very fine symbolic narration of situations under which the characters see two moons in the sky.

3. The intensity of the swing is very important. It may depend on whether you resist or give up to it. You have to evolve a strategy to win it over. The awareness is a useful instrument. Everyone is best judge of his mood if he or she is aware of it. The famous book “An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness” by Kay Redfield Jamison is good for those who are comfortable with technical details of the things.

4. Unfortunately, much literary fiction about characters suffering from mood swing is not written. May be because most of the writers also suffer from it so they take it as a normal human behaviour. Only those who do not utilize the energy transformation of mood swing fall in the trap and slide unrestrained.

5. One may think that swings happen for no reason. But it is not so. Sometimes the activity that sets the ball rolling is apparent, often it is hidden. A scene in a movie, a dialogue or even a word from a friend or relative, a novel that you are reading, a dream, an innocent remark or even a compliment may have a connotation in your mind to open the floodgates that would drown you in emotions.

6. Benevolent and generous people are more prone to mood swings. These qualities need to be nurtured. If one constantly ignores the impulses of generosity it leads to self-condemnation or self-pity. Little effort is required to pull the strength and go out in search of a person who needs your help. If he is not on the first corner around, he is definitely on the second.

7. The creativity has numerous outlets. The writers, painters, musicians, dancers, architects and designers are popular forms of creative arts, but the list is endless. Technology has expanded the span up to infinity.

8. Three Boxes Theory: We know what is to be found in the two boxes on the right and left (being Bipolar), but the middle box is the surprise. Something different is always coming out of it. That’s the impulsive box, about which no prediction can be made. Society craves for predictability; mature and prudent people always condemn anything unpredictable. They have no objection so far as someone is diagnosed as BP and is taking treatment for it; they only want to snatch away the middle box.

9. Moods have no gender bias. They affect male and females equally. Some people are able to face it squarely, overcome it and are known for their creativity. We know that many creative and talented people have ruined their life since they were not able to cope up with their mood swings. Females may pretend a weakness to seek support and attention and male pretend to be strong and supportive for the same reason. It is a myth that Females are more emotional and thus more prone to mood swings. In patriarchal society male has an ulterior motive to serve by keeping woman weak.

10. The role of chemistry has been yet not fully explored. The secretions of the endocrine glands are called Hormones, which are chemicals. The secretion is an involuntary function so human beings are at the vagaries of the mood. The science of Yoga describes six plexus or chakras that control the working of endocrine glands. If the process is learnt under guidance of a teacher, you will surely be a master of your moods.

Author, Spiritual Counselor

Monday, December 1, 2014

Contemporary Pastoral English Literature

The glamour in rural life

The various aspects of rural life, its subjects, descriptions of countryside shepherds and cowherds and their vagabond lifestyle has always fascinated the readers.

Who can forget the famous character, Konstantin Dmitrich Levin from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. He demystified technology and used it in Agriculture. Of all the male characters in the book any urban girl would easily fall in love with Levin rather than rich, flamboyant Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky or a powerful cultivated man like Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin.

The dehumanizing factor of technology and if it is possible to make use of technology for inner peace of mind is well explained by Robert M. Pirsig in his book "Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance". The combination of two diagonally opposite virtues "rationality" and "romanticism" could be devastating for future human civilization. The beautiful part of the story is protagonist opts for less traveled side roads rather than Highways to explore and appreciate the slow pace of life, that explains a lot of philosophy in itself.

In Wuthering Heights the conflict of its occupant who are wild and passionate with calm and refined, and setup of the story in the bleak hilltop is symbolic of the unbridgeable gap in the rationales and romantics.

Encyclopedia Britannica defines pastoral literature as a class of literature that presents the society of shepherds as free from the complexity and corruption of city life.

The rural life is romanticized but the harsh reality of discomforts and malaise are overlooked. Exaggeration is allowed in the literature to make a point. The plantation literature romanticizes Old South in "Gone with the wind" by Margret Mitchell but does not try to escape the harsh realities of life evident in childbirth and miscarriages. Scarlett's love for Ashley, who represent Old South is like chasing an impossible dream that one knows in his heart would never be fulfilled, is romantic and she overlooks Rhett's love who represents New South that is opportunistic and strong willed to succeed is realistic.

This dilemma of realism versus romanticism has baffled the society for long. Though a champion of realism the human mind finds its solace in romanticizing.

Gabriel García Márquez has undoubtedly been one of the best authors of our time. In his novel "One hundred years of Solitude" he has given vivid descriptions of banana plantation age and calamities in the imaginary town of Macondo. He weaves a dream that entangles readers who not only when novel is read, but even much after that has a hangover of the town and the characters who lived there refuses him solitude. That is called magical realism.

In his other novel "Love in the time of Cholera" the old age and death has same suffering as that of youth. Could death be romanticized in a better way?

Another best author is J. M. Coetzee. His widely acclaimed novel Disgrace draws a clear line of demarcation in the treachery of urban life and rustic yet peaceful ambience of rural life. David the professor is humiliated and sacked from the University after complaints from his student (Melanie), though the act was consensual and on the other hand, in the rural farm his own daughter is raped, but she refuses to act humiliated shows that technically advance urban can lead to a disgrace which even a dog would not face in real and pure rural life.

One can read my book "Empty Cocoon" about conflicts in rural-urban life.

Overburdened, the super human would find the true values of life under the shadow of an old tree in the tranquility of a village pond where the dust of the cattle and trailing herd man returning home would obliterate the view of sunset.

Author is also Advocate at Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur

Friday, November 28, 2014

Authors can't afford to be a Hypocrite

DO AS I SAY AND NOT AS I DO

The false profession of desirable or publicly approved qualities, beliefs, or feelings, esp. A pretense of having virtues, moral principles, or religious beliefs that one does not really possess.~Dictionery

In Literature such protagonists are not uncommon who are hypocrites and are abhorred by readers. Sometimes such characters are successful in worldly sense, but the author does not like to establish supremacy of vices and shows how such characters burn in the fire of hell created by their own psyche.

That is why an author cannot afford to be a hypocrite himself. If he is good, he is good, if he is bad he is bad. There is no pretension, a desire to be respected for the virtues he does not possess. Many a times the personal life of authors are controversial, even to the extent that they are considered as a threat to the society.

Authors usually do not follow the systems built by society and they have to constantly experiment with system and values of an Individual and the Society. They become a spectator and this neutral approach is the only source of their comprehension.

Author is a proletarian and has a matter-of-fact approach to solve the riddles of life. But his readers are aristocracy whose Hippocratic life style is exposed and criticized and in the heart they discard such books but admire openly in clubs and bars.

Russians have a history of condemning hypocrisy. Putin has been alleged to have "Double Standard" when he attacked the Ukraine government for attacks action against pro-Russian separatist in eastern Ukraine while he has recently signed a law criminalizing any act of separatist.

What would be 'height of hypocrisy' or who would be a 'hypocrite of the first order' could be a matter of perspective or cultural thing, but some countries are definitely known for hypocrisy which is part of their Diplomacy. The secret hegemonic ambition of a country or an individual are sometime so powerful that other nations (Canada, EU) which lack self-confidence find it secure to blindly follow them, shamelessly. Whether it is stand of Russia in Crimean case or issue of Israel in Palestine the nations have no shame for double standard since it is accepted norm of behavior from politicians all over the world.

It is so surprising to see that even Religious leadership is also behaving duplicately, which is just opposite to the task entrusted by society on them. Whether it is a Hindu Brahmin who serves as a priest or a Muslim priest or a Christian Priest, they have crossed the limits of immorality while preaching morality to the public.

Some of them have been tried in the courts for rape, molestation, cheating, child abuse and even murder, but still the majority of the population of every religion has faith in their priest. If there is God, in all probability there is, He does not need a mediation of any kind to talk to us or solve our problem.

Andrew M. Greeley was an Irish-American Priest, and he wrote many fiction and nonfiction and never used contraception for his ideas. His deadly sin series and novels like The priestly sins were severely criticized for explicitly exposing religious catholic institutions.

In the end Greely says "I am a priest..Pure and simple.." And that is what every author has to be if he wants to create literature of the first order.