Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Is serious talk diluted by humor?

Imagine a teenaged girl on her first trip with friends. She wants to fit each of her dozen favorite dresses into a tiny bag for just a weekend outing.

I’m having trouble keeping a reign over my choice of ideas. It’s like I’m going to author only one book ever; hence the urgency to stuff everything in it. Make it an expression of all my thoughts—everything that I’ve felt, ruminated over, understood, deconstructed. This is the Achilles heel of first timers: too much, too soon.

Sometimes, when I read what I’ve written after a reasonably long interval, I’m rather surprised for someone who’s reading his own writing. The purport appears much diluted than what I had apprehended at the time of conception, or the analogies are jarring. Words of value have the power to weather time and situations. They should make sense, carry the same punch, at all times: marshmellowish in or out of love; deeply moving before and after pregnancy; funny on bad as well as good hair days.

Or they should carry the tang of abstract metaphysical shit. Whose shit it is, then, is entirely left to your sense of smell or to how clogged your sinuses are.
I love Murakami for the nothingness that he portrays.... He’s a nihilist, yet so much of a believer.... I mean, his words say nothing, yet everything.

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I’ve always wondered about the truth in *discovering* oneself. I think its usage is clichéd and inaccurate. I don’t think there’s a complete, definite *you* waiting to be discovered. A more accurate word is *evolve*. It’s by putting yourself in different situations that you allow yourself to grow, in whichever way, and evolve into the person that you subsequently become.

A staunch Church-fearing Catholic is most certain to not discover her sexual side before marriage, if she abstains from premarital sex. Give her a riding crop, banish the Church from her mind, or hand her hope with batteries, and you may just trigger a perpetual hormone surfeit in her system.

You think cricketers in the 70s and 80s had more integrity than the present crop, which made them keep their hands off match fixing? No. They just didn’t have the opportunity. So, although it is commendable that they were honest, hardworking working-class sportsmen fighting to win each time they stepped onto the field, they managed to stay relatively squeaky clean because a good enough temptation hadn’t presented itself yet in their time.

You may strongly oppose abortions and have reasons aplenty to substantiate your choice. But, you still may not have carried an unwanted life inside you. Or you may not have seen a friend or your own child go through the travail of a teen pregnancy. Having experienced any one of the above, you may very well switch sides. Would you then find who you truly are?

Nothing determines us as much as the part of the human spectrum that we’re witness to.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reminded me of this thought in a book of Michael Crichton's(Timeline).In explaining the concept of time travel he talks of time going along two paths every moment; what happens next if this did happen or what happens next if this didn't. And each of these parallel worlds keeps moving on splitting up into many more worlds. Amazing to just think of what could have been and what wouldn't have been if not for a certain turn of things.
I remember..there is hope..it comes with batteries

satyajit said...

Shishir: ya the odds are really miniscule sometimes

Anonymous said...

You know sometimes it takes a life time perhaps to write just one book..think out for yourself what it is you want to put forward..urself..ur ideas or literature..and let time decide where it takes you..in reading your previous bolgs it seems you are fighting against something but are still a little shaky somewhere..give it that time and the thought..the end..if foreseen wouldnt be as intresting..would it? you will win in the end..u dont believe in the world..okay..but at least keep the faith in yourself...dont make one book or several your destination. you have chosen your destiny.it will take you where you need to arrive. all the best to you. always

Anonymous said...

keep the faith.and go wherever it takes you.i dont know if nihilism pays..or for that matter extreme concreteness, but at the end if you can find the answer to the soo m any questions that abound on your blog (minus answers of course) i guess u will agree that even the ghetto is a far more agreeable place to live in than you previously thought. :)