Anecdotal Evidence

'Tis not to see the world   As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes, And heart profoundly stirred; And weep, and feel the fulness of the past,   The years that are no more!   It is to spend long days   And not once feel that we were ever young. Growing Old - by  Matthew Arnold 30 ,  29 ,  28 ,  27 ,  26

As you have heard, the car is everyone's. The entire village loves it. Kids ride it, the postman does his beat in it, atleast one corpse is transported on its roof, infants are delivered in it and what not.  But, while the film does make the most out of a - weakened by overuse - Tamil film trope: 'the good, simple people of the village' , what makes it special is that, it engages with the touchy question of 'ownership' quite well. The film is particular about acknowledging the sense of unease in precisely what is not articulated: that the car is  not  everyone's. It IS private property after all. And that there are degrees of ownership and claims that each have over it and which they want to defend against the claim of an 'other' - an other perceived as an outsider with a lesser claim.  Or an other having a greater claim, which makes one insecure.  Or an other having without deserving, a greater claim.

Are you  someone who has somehow manage to develop a rather stately impression of your own writing ability and also feel you possess a critic's discernment? Do you have a capacity for delusions of grandeur - is that even a question, of course you do. So much so that you can exaggerate - not just your writing and critical abilitIes - but even your own impressions of them, to be able to relate to the turmoil of some who is, and expresses himself, way better? Read on then as Silvio Baldeschi - the narrator of Moravia's Conjugal Love -  writes a critique of a novel he just finished writing.

Last evening I started re-reading something I last read when I was in college. I still found it just as affecting. But let me exercise some restraint which I wish to believe -  or atleast make a show of, as if - age has made it easier for me to achieve, by getting out of the way quickly and  resting content with quoting:          ..(But) the fact remains that I have a strong, determined face that does not at all represent my true character, though it partly explains some contradictions in it. Perhaps my most noteworthy characteristic is lack of depth. Whatever I do or say, the whole of me is contained in what I do or say, and I have nothing in reserve upon which to fall back in the event of my having to retreat. I am in fact, a man all vanguard without any main body or rearguard. From this characteristic comes my proneness to enthusiasm: I get excited over any trifle. This enthusiasm of mine, however, is rather like an uncontrolled horse takin...

6961 தொடர்கதையில் இரண்டாவது பகுதிக்கு முன் எழுதியது: முன்கதை சுருக்கம்: முன்கதை சுருக்கம் என்பது கொடுமை. உயிரை விட்டு எழுதிய வாக்கியங்களை ஒருவரியில் சுருக்கி 'விமலா பார்க்கில் ராஜேஷை (ராஜேஷா ராகேஷா?) சந்தித்து அவர்கள் திருமணத்தைப் பற்றி பேசிவிட்டு மனம் மாறுகிறாள்' என்று எழுதினால் சென்ற அத்தியாத்துக்கு, அதன் விஸ்தாரத்துக்கு அர்த்தமில்லாமல் போய் விடுகிறது. ஆகவே, என் அவசரம் மிகுந்த வாசகியே, முன்கதை சுருக்கம் கிடையாது சுஜாதா - கணையாழி, செப் 1969

தி.வ.மெய்கண்டார் ஆசிரியராக இருக்கும் கவிதாமண்டலம்  சனவரி 2013 இதழிலிருந்து ஒரு கவிதை ரெண்டு திராபை stanza’க்கள் தாங்கினால் ஒரு கவிக்கணம் லாபம். உவமைக் கவிஞர் சுரதாவின் ஒப்பிலா நூல் வேட்கை - கவிவேந்தர் கா.வேழவேந்தன் ’உவமைகளே இல்லாத கவிதை யெல்லாம்  உப்பில்லாப் பண்டம்தான்’ என்றே கூறி சுவைக்கவிதை வடிவித்தவர்தான் சுரதா! அன்னார்  சொற்பொழிவோ தகவல்களின் சுரங்கப் பேழை! எவைஎவற்றை எந்நாளில் எவர்ப டைத்தார்  எனும்விவரம் சொல்வதிலே கணினி ஆவார் இவர்இந்தப் பேராற்றல் பெற்றார் என்றால்  ஏடுகளைத் தேடிநிதம் படித்த தால்தான்

The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists..... He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize - Oscar Wilde , The Picture of Dorian Gray In Satyajit Ray's Kapurush (Coward) - the protagonist Amitabha  is a screenwriter is traveling to collect material for his film he is going to write. Novelists writing about novelists is the oldest cliche in the book. Screenwriters writing about screenwriters is relatively rare and on occasion has resulted in phenomenal  awesomeness . However, it is interesting to see how Ray shows a screenwriter.