मेघदूत: "नीचैर्गच्छत्युपरि दशा चक्रनेमिक्रमेण"

समर्थ शिष्या अक्का : "स्वामीच्या कृपाप्रसादे हे सर्व नश्वर आहे असे समजले. पण या नश्वरात तमाशा बहुत आहे."

G C Lichtenberg: “It is as if our languages were confounded: when we want a thought, they bring us a word; when we ask for a word, they give us a dash; and when we expect a dash, there comes a piece of bawdy.”

C. P. Cavafy: "I’d rather look at things than speak about them."

Martin Amis: “Gogol is funny, Tolstoy in his merciless clarity is funny, and Dostoyevsky, funnily enough, is very funny indeed; moreover, the final generation of Russian literature, before it was destroyed by Lenin and Stalin, remained emphatically comic — Bunin, Bely, Bulgakov, Zamyatin. The novel is comic because life is comic (until the inevitable tragedy of the fifth act);...”

सदानंद रेगे: "... पण तुकारामाची गाथा ज्या धुंदीनं आजपर्यंत वाचली जात होती ती धुंदी माझ्याकडे नाहीय. ती मला येऊच शकत नाही याचं कारण स्वभावतःच मी नास्तिक आहे."

".. त्यामुळं आपण त्या दारिद्र्याच्या अनुभवापलीकडे जाऊच शकत नाही. तुम्ही जर अलीकडची सगळी पुस्तके पाहिलीत...तर त्यांच्यामध्ये त्याच्याखेरीज दुसरं काही नाहीच आहे. म्हणजे माणसांच्या नात्यानात्यांतील जी सूक्ष्मता आहे ती क्वचित चितारलेली तुम्हाला दिसेल. कारण हा जो अनुभव आहे... आपले जे अनुभव आहेत ते ढोबळ प्रकारचे आहेत....."

Kenneth Goldsmith: "In 1969 the conceptual artist Douglas Huebler wrote, “The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.”1 I’ve come to embrace Huebler’s ideas, though it might be retooled as “The world is full of texts, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.” It seems an appropriate response to a new condition in writing today: faced with an unprecedented amount of available text, the problem is not needing to write more of it; instead, we must learn to negotiate the vast quantity that exists. How I make my way through this thicket of information—how I manage it, how I parse it, how I organize and distribute it—is what distinguishes my writing from yours."

Tom Wolfe: "The first line of the doctors’ Hippocratic oath is ‘First, do no harm.’ And I think for the writers it would be: ‘First, entertain.’"

विलास सारंग: "… . . 1000 नंतर ज्या प्रकारची संस्कृती रुढ झाली , त्यामध्ये साधारणत्व विश्वात्मकता हे गुण प्राय: लुप्त झाले...आपली संस्कृती अकाली विश्वात्मक साधारणतेला मुकली आहे."

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Once In 200 Years: Lizzy Bennet Sultry, Full-lipped, Tanned Hottie


Brooke Allen:

"For no filmed version of an Austen novel is really satisfactory: Of all 19th-century novelists, she dwells the least on the physical surfaces that are the essence of the cinematic art." 


Howard Jacobson:

"If we declare ourselves, as readers, to be on the side of life, the question has to be asked what sort of life we are on the side of. Life governed by the rules of respectability and fear? Life rounded at the edges with all the horror turned away from? Life seen whole and steadily with all the breakages and shaking taken out? I don't mean to set up false dichotomies. I would never say of those great writers whose work clearly falls outside the category of non-redemptive, even anathematising black-heartedness I am championing that they make us "feel good". Jane Austen's vision is a fraction from being a despairing one, her final chapters are dispensations of kindness, like the fifth acts of Shakespeare's comedies, in which we are spared bleakness by a hair's breadth, though we feel its presence all around."

The world is celebrating 200th birth anniversary of  'Pride and Prejudice', a novel by Jane Austen.

As is always true of most of such celebrations in the West, there is a lot of passion and there is a lot of commerce.

The New York Times on February 13 2013 gives us a glimpse of the way the covers of Austen's book have changed over the years. View it here.

It is such a delight but also made me wonder if I had seen anything like this in Marathi. I haven't.

Janine Barchas says in the article:

"Let’s just be honest about our superficiality. Even when it comes to the high-­minded business of literature, people do judge books by their covers. Perhaps that’s why Amazon produces glossy mock “covers” for its disembodied e-books, to be inspected and decided upon alongside the traditional print offerings.
Book covers may be especially important when it comes to the classics. After all, many of us have a general sense of, if not a thorough familiarity with, the contents within. Perhaps more than anything else, these covers show what matters to prospective buyers. Two centuries of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” are particularly revealing about the novel’s broad and sustained popular reach..."

In Marathi we can surely do such a study for a lot of saint-poet literature.  


courtesy:  Marvel's 'Pride and Prejudice'

"In 2009, Marvel tried to turn young women into comic book readers by issuing “Pride and Prejudice” as a graphic novel. The cover art plays down — even disguises — the book’s sexy interior. On the outside, a primly presented Keira Knightley look-alike, drawn by Sonny Liew, graces a spoof of Seventeen magazine. Inside, the illustrator Hugo Petrus characterizes Lizzy Bennet as a sultry, full-lipped, tanned hottie."

I wonder if Amar Chitra Katha has any plans to create a comic book based on P & P. If they do, which Indian hottie will it be? Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor...

5 comments:

अवधूत डोंगरे said...

''people do judge books by their covers'' - I agree.

http://bhaupadhye.blogspot.in/ - here in the right hand side column, one can find two covers of Bhau Padhye's Vasunaka and judge Marathi sensibility and why Marathi mind has been insensitive towards the writer like Bhau. I cannot say it for sure, but probably readers judged Bhau's books by the covers. But then there have been covers of Bhau's books done by the likes of Vasant Sarwate (for Barrister Anirruddha Dhopeshwarkar) and Sudhir Patwardhan (for Vaitagwadi). Probably I am not the right person to judge.
Another cover that needs the mention here is of Murgi, it can be found in the same column. It has completely ruined the book.

Thanks for the post.

Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Thanks Ek Regh.

I know about covers of Bhau's books...I like Vasu naka's ('वासूनाका'ची नवीन आवृत्ती ) cover very much...I have that version with me...I agree 'Murgee' cover is a disaster..'Rada' third edition cover (the one I have) too is not very good...In general, Bhau has not been very lucky with covers...or he has not been lucky.

अवधूत डोंगरे said...

होय. 'वासूनाका'चं नवीन कव्हर चांगलं वाटलं मलाही. पहिलं बिघडलेलं.

mannab said...

I appreciate your suggestion of bringing such idea about our classic novels in Marathi.I hope some publisher such as Ashok Kothavale may think on this in 50th year of 'Lalit' magazine.
BTW, I request you to write re. Lalit's 50 years on your blog.
Mangesh Nabar

Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Thanks Mangesh...Lalit may probably do it...For instance one can study and write on Sarwate's Lalit covers for 49 years...but I was more interested in Gatha, Bhagwat, Pandav Pratap, Dasbodh, Dnyaneshwari etc because they have been around for more than 200 years...Mr. Sarwate has invited me to write for Lalit this year for the issue he is going to jointly edit...I am not sure if I will...but thanks for your suggestion...