'Coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins'!

Myriad Musings on the Metaphor!

[Part – 1]

Lakoff & Mark | Metaphors We Live By

The current covid crisis that’s erupted from Wuhan to the world over, has also quite charged up an intrigued academia to read and to research on stacks and stacks of covid-related literature!

One word that so spontaneously connects with the covid would be the word – Metaphor! 

[Guess why?] ;-) And yes! if you’ve gotten the clue, do mail it across to me without further delay, and get rewarded rightaway with a cash prize of Rs. 1000/-, on a first-come-first-served basis!]  

Well, this was again, a sheer delightful trope of, oops stroke of coincidence too! Call it this blogger’s ‘eureka moment’ of sorts!

And yup! to start at the very beginning, my foray into the domain and the spherule of the Metaphor proper was prompted much-o-much by my gleanings from the legendary Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche!

That good ol’ line from Nietzsche that’s proved to be the flagship to all ‘post’-related theories, which says, ‘What is truth? A Mobile army of metaphors’, has proved such a powerhouse for the emancipation and the celebration of -  

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Such has been the charm and such the aura of the metaphor!

Truth is, says Nietzsche -

A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms—in short, a sum of human relations which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins.

And that has continued to ‘faithfully remain’ theory’s trump card ever since! Ain’t it?

Well, the word ‘metaphor’ has always been such a rage and a rave – amongst the scholar, the thinker, the preacher, the politician, the physician, the philosopher and the poet alike! To each their salt, to each their sugar!

Lakoff and Mark

After Nietzsche, it was Lakoff and Mark’s epical and insightful study on Metaphor titled, Metaphors We Live By published exactly four decades back, in the year 1980, that real caught my attention! And howww!

'Do you ask to be the companion of nobles? Make yourself noble, and you shall be!'

It is Open to Labour and to Merit!

Ruskin on the Move - Part 2

Well, this post is a continuation of, and a sequel to our last past post on John Ruskin!

Ruskin from here on, exhorts the reader to exercise their prudence and their discretion in choosing good friends for themselves! Friends of whom they will be so immensely proud of all of the time!

But at the same time, Ruskin also avers that good friendships are quite hard to come by!

Says he, in his Sesame –

[Additionally, let me append a gentle little suggestion for you dear reader: Please do read these Ruskinean lines given herein below, with much awe, adore and relish! 

May these Ruskinean delights of yore, seep gently into your system, pervade gracefully your entire psyche, help you transform your life’s purpose, and thereby enable you to chart your course anew with a rejuvenated dynamism from here on! 

By the way, please don’t feel shy of giving flying kisses and flying muahs ;-) to some of the sweetest phrases and noblest Ruskinean lines that you’re sure bound to come across in these mighty Ruskinean delights! ;-) Thank you!]

Ruskin speaking -

Granting that we had both the will and the sense to choose our friends well, how few of us have the power! or, at least, how limited, for most, is the sphere of choice!

Nearly all our associations are determined by chance or necessity; and restricted within a narrow circle. We cannot know whom we would; and those whom we now, we cannot have at our side when we most need them.

All the higher circles of human intelligence are, to those beneath, only momentarily and partially open. We may, by good fortune, obtain a glimpse of a great poet, and hear the sound of his voice; or put a question to a man of science, and be answered good- humouredly.

Blessed is the little child who is trained in the beautiful art of reading!
For the child who reads, becomes an adult who thinks!

We always relish momentary pleasures and momentary chances!

We may intrude ten minutes’ talk on a cabinet minister, answered probably with words worse than silence, being deceptive; or snatch, once or twice in our lives, the privilege of throwing a bouquet in the path of a princess, or arresting the kind glance of a queen.

And yet these momentary chances we covet; and spend our years, and passions, and powers, in pursuit of little more than these; while, meantime, there is a society continually open to us, of people who will talk to us as long as we like, whatever our rank or occupation; - talk to us in the best words they can choose, and of the things nearest their hearts.

And this society, because it is so numerous and so gentle, and can be kept waiting round us all day long, - kings and statesmen lingering patiently, not to grant audience, but to gain it! - in those plainly furnished and narrow ante-rooms, our bookcase shelves, - we make no account of that company, - perhaps never listen to a word they would say, all day long!

You may tell me, perhaps, or think within yourselves, that the apathy with which we regard this company of the noble, who are praying us to listen to them; and the passion with which we pursue the company, probably of the ignoble, who despise us, or who have nothing to teach us, are grounded in this, — that we can see the faces of the living men, and it is themselves, and not their sayings, with which we desire to become familiar.

'Only when you free yourself of all these clutters do you really begin to live! Till then you only exist!'

Learners’ Corner | What Makes you Special?

Well, these ‘covid’ holidays are a real boon and a godsend for you to catch up on your personal space, ain’t they?

That precious personal space that you’ve been longing for, all along, has finally knocked at your door now! Seize the day! Carpe diem! Rightaway!

And don’t ever allow your holidays to be wasted on trifles and trinkets, please!

As such, you could also try as much as possible to be far away from your mobile phones, especially the worlds of Whatsapps, Instagrams and Facebooks!

On this count, I’m so proud to say that my closest friends are just ten in number. And what’s so special about them all, you may ask! ;-) Yes! all ten of them are achievers in their own right! Go-getters of the highest order, who enjoy and celebrate their own chella personal space! 

And what makes them stand out? you may ask? ;-) Well, they are too busy celebrating their own space, that they do not have time enough to indulge themselves on any of these social networks! And all ten of them today are remarkable achievers in their respective fields! 

And that’s what makes them special!

That’s what makes them stand out and stand tall in the crowd, ain’t it?

And that’s why I’m so proud of them all! I simply admire the way they all celebrate their personal space! 

Just imagine the likes of an Abdul Kalam, or a Swami Vivekananda or a Mother Teresa!

Bring them all before your mind’s eye for a minute or two! Bring their image right in front of you just for a minute, please, will ya?

Had they lived now, do you think they would have had the time on them to indulge themselves in such time-burning, time-passing social networks, watching sensational memes, trivial videos, responding to vain arguments and discussions, and whiling away precious time in gossipping, and nosing into other people’s lives?

Possibly NOT! Because they had a vision! They had a foresight! And they knew that the thief of time like a winged chariot was flying fast-o-fast right in front of them, and hence, before they exited this world they had mighty noble deeds galore to be accomplished,  -  igniting minds and motivating hearts all the way! 

And that’s what made them special! 

Well, dear learner, remember, the world needs more of Swami Vivekanandas, more of Dr. Abdul Kalams and more of Mother Teresas, to build up society, to transform society, to get rid of ignorance in society, to give grace and nobility to society, to inspire and to impact society! 

'What's natural is the microbe. All the rest - health, integrity, purity (if you like) - is a product of the human will... of a vigilance that must never falter'

A Plague | An Epidemic | A Pandemic

Eliot and the Ebola Connect!

In the wake of the outbreak of the dreaded Covid 19 in such pandemic proportions, there’s been a lot of doubt, disquiet and dismay on the subject.

And in the present post-truth society that we all inhabit everywhere around the world, there’s really been a dearth in getting to know what is the truth, and what is in the disguise of truth!

All the more reason why we need a bit more of a clarity on the covid!

As such, this post seeks to explain a few important concepts connected with covid, compiled, collected and collated – NOTTT from user-edit-wiki wiki pedia ;-) - but rather from four highly authentic and validating books on the subject – books that have been on the stacks for more than a decade now!

[Let me add a quick rider too! Yup! for a profound, insightful study on the subject, you are requested and also expected ;-) to look up some sound medical literature with covid connects! Thank you! ]

So now, here, we go!

In his book titled Pandemics: A Very Short Introduction, McMillen outlines the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic in such common, layperson terms!

McMillen here observes that, an epidemic is generally considered to be an unexpected, widespread rise in disease incidence at a given time. A pandemic is best thought of as a very large epidemic. Ebola in 2014 was by any measure an epidemic — perhaps even a pandemic, while the influenza that killed fifty million people around the world in 1918 was a pandemic, he observes.

As such, Tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS, which affect enormous swaths of the globe and kill millions and millions each year, are persistent pandemics.

In short, scholars the world over have suggested that to be deemed a ‘pandemic’, it must meet eight criteria, as follows –

wide geographic extension,

disease movement,

high attack rates and explosiveness,

minimal population immunity,

novelty,

infectiousness,

contagiousness, and

severity.

McMillen adds to say that, an epidemic or a pandemic cannot occur without a dense and mobile population. None of these diseases emerged in pandemic form until humans had settled down to farm and begun trading with one another.

Infectious diseases need to be transmitted from host to host to survive; that host must be susceptible. Smallpox remained such a killer among American Indians because it was able, over centuries, to find non-immune populations; once those populations diminished, the disease naturally declined.

Trade and travel were well developed by the fourteenth century; the plague took advantage of this. TB exploded only when conditions allowed it: the densely packed cities and workplaces of industrializing Europe in the eighteenth century. AIDS has relied on human mobility to move around the globe.

When pandemic influenza spread around most of the planet in a matter of months in 1918, it could only have done so because of the newly built transportation and trade networks and the heightened mobility brought on by World War I.

Human, animal, and insect movement are critical in the spread of epidemics and pandemics.

McMillen then proceeds to define a plague!

A plague is defined as a disease we now know to be caused by a bacillus, Yersinia pestis, transmitted by the bite of an infected flea - a flea seeking a human host after its animal host died. It first appeared in the sixth century ce when the first identifiable pandemic occurred during the Byzantine Empire. It is commonly called the Plague of Justinian after the eastern Roman emperor Justinian. The Greek historian Procopius said that the plague claimed ten thousand lives in Constantinople in a single day in 542.

The association between trade, travel, and the plague was longstanding. That’s one reason why governments suggest a lockdown period for a particular number of days, to contain travel and trade in the intervening period!

'In the face of its onrush, all the wisdom and ingenuity of man were unavailing'

Boccaccio |The Decameron

Well, this post would serve a sequel to our last post on Camus!

However, here, it’s Milton’s delightful quote that steals the thunder! ;-)

Waxing with such eloquence on the power contained within a book, Milton, John Milton says that, ‘A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life’.

This sagely saying augurs well, for each of those lovely-o-lovely books of ages past, written down by good ol’ sages past for a life beyond life; books that carry on them all along, the burden of the author’s culture, the impact of the author’s milieu, and the aura of the author’s personality stamped on them!

In our last past post then, we had discussed Albert Camus’ The Plague and the conflicting dualities present in the thought processes of the main characters.

Our next good book that’s in store for today’s post also evidences such ‘conflicting dualities’, and it is titled, The Decameron written by Boccaccio, way back in the year 1353.

The Decameron, has always been extolled, venerated and celebrated as the ultimate paradigm of Italian classical prose, and has proved immensely impactful and influential on all of Renaissance literature.

The backdrop to the Decameron is yet again - a plague!

In fact Boccaccio is said to have lived through this plague, and hence has had a first-hand, eye-witness account of the great plague that swept across and ravaged all of Florence in the fourteenth century. It would also be meet here to bear in mind that by approximate estimates, historians have attested to the deaths of two thirds to three fourths of the city’s 100,000 strong populace in Florence, as a result of this devastating plague!

The Decameron hence starts its narration with the fleeing of seven women and three men, who – after having thus fled Florence because of the plague – are now closeted and sheltered in a deserted yet sylvan, fertile country villa, outside of the city of Florence for a period of fourteen days! [Hope the number ‘fourteen’ in the context of the Corona virus, rings a bell on you!!!]

They now decide amongst themselves on ways to spend their days, their fourteen days in isolation, and hence resolve to host a number of events to keep them occupied all of these fourteen days.

As such, they decide to have alternate story-telling sessions, wherein stories are to be narrated by each of them in turns, over a course of ten days – hence Decameron – or Ten Day’s Work!  

The remaining four days were set aside for religious purposes like prayers and devotions! As such, in toto, there were a hundred stories in all!

The Decameron has often been nicknamed, The Human Comedy. And much akin to Dante’s long narrative poem titled, Divine Comedy, [written by his own Florentine contemporary,] The Decameron also shows utmost respect to the age-old parameters of a comedy which advocates ‘foul and horrible at the beginning, in the end felicitous, desirable and pleasing!’

On a similar strand starts then, The Decameron!

Kinda foul and horrible at the beginning, as it describes the plague in such horrific detail. But again, the gentleman in Boccaccio so gently persuades his reader to withstand the horrific descriptions that don the beginning, as they would soon proceed to more pleasing and more entertaining descriptions too, quite too soon, during the course of the pages – like hikers who are confronted by a steep and rugged hill are led from thence on, and look beyond – to see a fair and beautiful plain ahead of them!

In like fashion, then, the book begins with tales of vice at the very beginning, and ends with tales of virtues towards the very end, forming thus, a perfect comedic closure of sorts!

Like Camus, Boccaccio too, in the course of his descriptive takes on the pestilence, takes an intense dig on the decay and the disintegration of revered traditions and respected social institutions, which according to him were literally ‘powerless’ in the face of such a disastrous natural calamity as this!

'What’s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves'

Camus | The Plague

‘Literature always anticipates life. It doesn’t copy it but moulds it to its purpose’, said Oscar Wilde.

All our delightful literatures that we drink deep of, from around the world, across genres and languages - how true they prove to this credo!

The current ‘Covid’ pandemic that’s proving lethal in many parts of the world, has forced many governments across the world, to come out with pro-people initiatives and strategies to safeguard its citizens.

Great novelists, poets and writers from across frontiers have also sprinkled on paper their very own figments of imagination and their artistic air of realities on the subject.  

Indeed, literatures in English from far and wide, have been witness to great creative spirits who have written extensively about plagues, pestilences, epidemics and pandemics – both fictitious, allegorical and real as well, in their books, across ages and climes!

True to this credo - since time immemorial - the pages of the past have had their own shares of plagues and pestilences from across the world; and writers, who have many a times proved mirrors to their milieu, have spontaneously given vent to the impact and the intensity of these contagious diseases, in their intensely original and highly creative musings.

One such intense reflection - albeit fictitious in its ambit - of an epidemic that sweeps through the town of Oran in Northern Algeria sounds quite premonitory and highly relevant to today’s scenario! 

It’s no wonder then, that this Albert Camus masterpiece titled The Plague, catapulted him to instant celebrity status, thanks to the intense air of reality that pervades the pages of this philosophical read, all through!

While reading through The Plague I was quite spontaneously reminded of the famous Oscar Wilde-an dictum – ‘Literature always anticipates life. It doesn’t copy it but moulds it to its purpose’.

'When your friends are leaders, givers and have integrity and excellence then those qualities will rub off on you. When you are with them, you are investing your time wisely'

Wading Through Literature...

Dr Lilian Jasper

Principal

Women’s Christian College (Autonomous), Chennai

[Speech given on the occasion of the inauguration of the English Literary Forum, MCC]

The Inauguration of the English Literary Forum 2019 – 2020 brings back memories of fun times spent in the deep woods of this fascinating campus with its sinuous snakes, mischievous monkeys, ubiquitous mongoose, colourful birds and graceful deer.

The proximity I enjoyed with the wilderness has been addictive and it has taken me on explorations across Uttarakand and the lower Himalayas, the Western Ghats, Kaziranga, to Bohol in the Philippines in search of Tarsiers and to Kenya in West Africa.

It also reminds me of my classmates. Ten of us in the MPhil class… eight girls and two despondent boys. One of the boys is the current principal of St. Stephen’s College in Delhi and I think John owes it to all of us girls for catapulting him into greatness. Some of the friendships you make here stay with you for life.

Dr Lilian Jasper, with her book titled, Kenyan Odyssey that she has co-authored!

Time is one of the most valuable commodities we have and it is more valuable than money as you cannot make more time whereas you can make more money. Your days in campus might look like you have a long way to go.

But believe me life is flying by and this is your one shot. Don’t hang out with people who pull you down, invest your time astutely and live purposefully and wisely. Staying on Social media and catching up on the latest gossip is not redeeming time.

A great many people are incredibly talented and have great potential but they are not disciplined when it comes to spending their time.

For us in this vast arena called literature, books and authors beckon us from every side. So it is imperative that you have reading lists at the beginning of each year and keep ticking them as you proceed.

You can choose your lists based on your area of interest or if you are an undergraduate I would suggest spreading your reading list over Greek classics starting with Homer’s gripping epics The Iliad and Odyssey and moving on to Aristophanes’ comedies or the tragedies of Sophocles or Euripides. When I first heard about them from my Literary Forms teacher in my UG class I thought they sounded too dense until I read the first play. It was absolutely gripping much better than even Harry Potter’s adventures while the English Mystery and Miracle plays gave me new perspectives of the Bible accounts.

'The scene was an artist's dream come true'

Nividitha Gideon

18/03/2020

My Visit to the Library

I hail from a quaint little town called Coonoor, which fails to ring a bell with most people as it lies nudged into a small cranny beneath the shadow of its more popular neighboring town, Ooty.

During the winter the weather is fairly pleasant during the day, and it was on one such fair December morn, the 27th to be more precise, that I decided to set out and explore one of the Heritage sites of the hills, The Nilgiri Library. The travel failed to produce the literary aesthetic I was trying to cocoon myself into, but let’s set that aside for now, assuming that in this case, the journey did not matter as much as the destination.

On reaching the gate of the library, one has to take a short walk up the driveway leading to the building. This walk that barely takes up a minute is full of breath-taking scenes as one gets a marvelous view of the old building and its lush surroundings of Pine trees and Weeping Willows.

The gravel on the road is decorated with the crisp dry leaves fallen all over it, giving the visitor a very noisy welcome as he maneuvers his way amid the dead carcasses of leaves. I strongly recommend visiting the library during sunset for those who enjoy basking in the last rays of sunshine, just before it vanishes behind a thick grove of trees.

‘You worry too much’, said the black fish. ‘One shouldn’t worry all the time. Let’s start out and our fears will vanish completely’.

Li Bla Fi – 5

or

The Little Black Fish

By famed fabulist Samad Behrangi

The final part to Li Bla Fi…

The little fish looked up at the moon and said, ‘Hello, my lovely moon!’

‘Hello, Little Black Fish. What brings you here?’

‘I’m traveling around the world’.

‘The world is very big’, said the moon. ‘You can’t travel everywhere’.

‘That’s okay’, said the fish. ‘I’ll go everywhere I can’.

‘I’d like to stay with you till morning’, said the moon, ‘but a big black cloud is coming toward me to block out my light’.

‘Beautiful moon! I like your light so much. I wish you’d always shine on me’.

‘My dear fish, the truth is, I don’t have any light of my own. The sun gives me light and I reflect it to the earth. Tell me, have you heard that humans want to fly up and land on me in a few years?’

‘That’s impossible’, exclaimed the fish.

‘It’s a difficult task’, said the moon, ‘but whatever they want, humans can ...’

The moon couldn’t finish her sentence. The dark cloud approached and covered her face.

The night became dark again, and the black fish was alone. The fish looked at the darkness in surprise and amazement for several seconds, then crept under a rock and fell asleep.

The fish woke up early in the morning and saw overhead several tiny fish chattering. When they saw that the black fish was awake, they said in one voice:

‘Good morning!’

The black fish recognized them right away and said, ‘Good morning! You followed me after all!’

‘Yes’, answered one of the tiny fish, ‘but we’re still afraid’.

‘The thought of the seagull just won’t go away,’ said another.

‘You worry too much’, said the black fish. ‘One shouldn’t worry all the time. Let’s start out and our fears will vanish completely’.

But as they were about to set out, they felt the water all around them rise up and a lid was placed over them. It was dark everywhere and there was no way to escape. The black fish immediately realized that they had been caught in the seagull’s pouch.

‘My friends’, said the little black fish, ‘we’ve been caught in the seagull’s pouch, but there’s a chance to escape’.

All the tiny fish began to cry. On of them said, ‘There’s no way to escape! It’s your fault since you influenced us and led us astray’.

‘Now he’s going to swallow us all, and then we’ll die’, said another.

Suddenly the sound of frightening laughter twisted through the water. It was the seagull. He kept on laughing and said, ‘What tiny fish I’ve caught! Ha. Ha. Truly, my heart bleeds for you. I don’t want to swallow you! Ha, Ha ...’

‘If you lived a hundred years’, said the little fish, ‘you’d still be nothing more than an ignorant and helpless frog’.

Li Bla Fi – 4

or

The Little Black Fish

By famed fabulist Samad Behrangi

Li Bla Fi - 4 continues...

The tadpoles became very angry. But since they knew the little fish spoke truthfully, they changed their tone and said, ‘really, you’re wasting words! We swim around the world every day from morning till evening, but except for ourselves and our father and mother, we see no one. Of course, there are tiny worms, but they don’t count’.

‘You can’t even leave the pond’, said the fish. ‘How can you talk about traveling around the world?’

‘What! Do you think there’s a world other than the pond?’ exclaimed the tadpoles.

‘At least’, responded the fish, ‘you must wonder where this water comes from and what things are outside of it’.

‘Outside the water!’ exclaimed the tadpoles, ‘Where is that? We’re never seen outside of the water! Haha ...haha ...You’re crazy!’

Little Black Fish also started to laugh. The fish thought it would be better to leave the tadpoles to themselves and go away, but then changed its mind and decided to speak to their mother.

‘Where is your mother?’ asked the fish. Suddenly, the deep voice of a frog made the fish jump. The frog was sitting on a rock at the edge of the pond. She jumped into the water, came up to the fish and said:

‘I’m right here. What do you want?’

‘Hello, Great Lady’, said the fish.

The frog responded, ‘Worthless creature, now is not the time to show off. You’ve found some children to listen to you and are talking pretentiously. I’ve lived long enough to know that the world is this pond. Mind your own business and don’t lead my children astray’.

‘If you lived a hundred years’, said the little fish, ‘you’d still be nothing more than an ignorant and helpless frog’.

The frog got angry and jumped at Little Black Fish. The fish flipped quickly and fled like lightening, stirring up sediment and worms at the bottom of the pond.

The valley twisted and curved. The stream became deeper and wider. But if you looked down at the valley from the top of the mountains, the stream would seem like a white thread. In one place, a piece of large rock had broken off from the mountain, fallen to the bottom of the valley, and split the water into two branches. 

A large lizard the size of a hand, lay on her stomach on the rock. She was enjoying the sun’s warmth and watching a large, round crab resting on the sand at the bottom or the water in a shallow place and eating a frog he had snared.

The little fish suddenly saw the crab, became frightened, and greeted him from afar. The crab glanced sideways at the fish and said,

‘What a polite fish! Come closer, little one. Come on!’

‘I’m off to see the world,’ said the little fish, ‘and I never want to be caught by you, sir!’

‘Little fish, why are you so pessimistic and scared?’ asked the crab.

‘I’m neither pessimistic nor afraid,’ answered the fish. ‘I speak about everything I see and understand’.

‘Well, then,’ said the crab, ‘please tell me what you’ve seen and understood that makes you think I want to capture you?’

‘Don’t try to trick me!’ responded the fish.

‘Are you referring to the frog?’ queried the crab. ‘How childish you are! I have a grudge against frogs; that’s the reason I hunt them. Do you know, they think they’re the only creatures in the world and that they’re very lucky. I want to make them understand who is really master in the world! So you don’t have to be afraid, my dear. Come here. Come on’.

As the crab talked, he was walking backwards towards the little fish. His gait was so funny that the fish couldn’t help laughing and said,

‘Poor thing! You don’t even know how to walk. How did you ever learn who runs the world?’

The black fish drew back from the crab. A shadow fell upon the water and suddenly a heavy blow pushed the crab into the sand. The lizard laughed so hard at the crab’s expression that she slipped and almost fell into the water. The crab couldn’t get up.