Walter Benjamin and New Angel...Paul Klee@140

#PaulKlee140

 

Artist: Paul Klee

Walter Benjamin:

"A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress."

Raymond Biesingers, The Baffler:

"....By the mid-nineteenth century, faith in progress was already so ubiquitous as to be largely invisible to its adherents, whether they counted themselves revolutionaries or traditionalists and whether they lived in Europe itself, in the rapidly expanding settlements in the Americas and Australia, or in colonial outposts in Africa and Asia. To question it with any seriousness was to marginalize yourself as a crank, a heretic, or a fool. In the European imagination—which increasingly operated in racial terms, understanding itself as white—progress defined the world..."

...आणि १९व्या शतकातील महाराष्ट्रातील सुद्धा तेच चालेले होते... सगळ्यांनी "प्रगती"चा नुसता धोशा लावला होता.. पेशवे गेले म्हणजे प्रगती झाली... हा विचार सुद्धा नाही की शिवाजीमहाराजांच्या आधीचा किंवा नंतरचा महाराष्ट्रातील इतिहास पुन्हा वेगळ्या स्वरूपात , पुढील काळात परत येऊ शकतो... उदाहरणार्थ: 'नवकोट नाना' १८व्या शतकाच्या शेवटी गेले पण २०-२१ व्या शतकात सर्व जातीत नाना निर्माण होऊ शकतात.... (आणि तसे झाले!)

वॉल्टर बेंजामिन सुद्धा प्रगतीला भुलले नाहीत आणि काही काळा पुरती  प्रगती नाही म्हणजे काही निराशेच्या खाईत पडायची गरज नाही ...  For Walter Benjamin at least, refusing to be blinded by the false promises of progress did not mean that hope was lost....

जी ए कुलकर्णींचा ३२वा स्मृतिदिन ....Date With Destiny

#जीएकुलकर्णीं३२वास्मृतिदिन 

आज डिसेंबर ११ २०१९, जी ए कुलकर्णींचा ३२वा स्मृतिदिन

जी ए कुलकर्णी, 'घऱ', पृष्ठ २१८, 'पिंगळावेळ', १९७७:

"...  तिला एकदा तिचे घर मिळाले की मी सुटलो. मग मोडीत निघालेल्या माझ्या ठोकायंत्राची मला भीती नाही. केंव्हा का बंद पडेना ते ! मग शेजारी सिगरेटचे एक पूर्ण पाकीट असावे. एखादा दरबारी छबिना  चौघडे-तुताऱ्या वाजवत डौलाने यावा, त्याप्रमाणे वाटणारा मालकंस टेंपरेकोर्डवर तासभर उलगडत असावा. या दरिद्री जनतायुगात निःसंकोच सरदारी दिमागाने चित्रे आणि लेख छापणारे 'National Geographic' किंवा 'Realities'- सारखे एखादे मासिक हातात असावे . मग बोलावणे येऊन घेणाऱ्या , तू कसाही ये. तू दार ठोठावून ये. अगर आडदांडासारखा आत शीर.  असल्या एका सिगरेट मधून आलास तरी चालेल- नव्हे तू तसाच ये ! ते मलादेखील फार आवडेल ! ..."

(टीप: Réalités (French magazine) 1946-1981...  म्हणजे हे मासिक जीए जायच्या आधीच गेल होत!)

Artist: Jason Adam Katzenstein, The New Yorker, July 2018

दिलीप चित्रेंना जाऊन १० वर्षे झाली...Dilip Chitre, Dead For 10 Years

#DilipChitre

दिलीप चित्रे: "तुकाराम वाण्या, भेंचोद, तू खेचलंस मला मराठी भाषेच्या दलदलीत." (पृष्ठ : सोळा, प्रस्तावना, 'पुन्हा तुकराम', १९९०/१९९५)

मी: "दिलीप चित्र्या, भेंचोद, तू खेचलस मला तुकारामाच्या दलदलीत."

दुर्गा भागवत: "... दिलीप चित्रे सारखा माणूस देशीपरदेशी खूप हिंडून आला. पण आता तुकारामाकडेच परत आलाय. तुकारामालाच धरून बसलाय. आणि अगदी प्रगल्भ तऱ्हेन धरून बसलाय. त्यानं आता तुकारामाला जगाच्या नकाशावर नेऊन ठेवलंय. आता सगळं जग तुकाराम वाचेल. ही फार मोठी देणगी त्यानं आपल्याला दिलेली आहे..." 
(पृष्ठ ५६, 'ऐसपैस गप्पा : दुर्गाबाईंशी', ले: प्रतिभा रानडे, १९९८ 

DilipChitre, ‘Outlook India’, 23 March 2004:

“...During this debate, a clip from an earlier recorded interview with me in Pune was shown to the participants and the anchor, Mr. Sardesai referred to it while asking questions. Mr. Avhad, who brandished what he vouched, was a copy of Laine’s book (though it looked unlike a book), called me his (Laine’s) ‘collaborator’ on this nationally telecast debate. This is of course absurd and untrue and I could demand an apology or even threaten to sue Mr. Avhad for spreading this canard and further endanger my life since I have to live among fanatics claiming to have ‘hurt sentiments’.

But if the Mumbai and the Maharashtra  police can let the Raza Academy, the Shiv Sena, the Maratha Seva Sangh, the Sambhaji Brigade and others have their freedom of speech in instigating potential disturbances, my complaint will not cut any ice with them....

... The pluralism of Indian civilization, the syncretistic Hindu tradition, and the secular democratic Constitution of the Republic of India are under attack by extra-constitutional mobs mobilised by political parties across the board. This is the new populist culture rising in India and it carries the deadly virus of fascism.”

 

मला त्यांची सर्वात आवडलेली कलाकृती ही आहे:

एक पलड़े में नपुंसकता,
एक पलड़े में पौरुष,
और ठीक तराजू के कांटे पर,
अर्ध सत्य


 ज्यावेळी चित्रे वारले त्यावेळी मी ओळीने सात पोस्ट त्यांच्यावर ह्या ब्लॉगवर लिहल्या होत्या. डिसेंबर १६ २००९ ला मी हे लिहल:

Chitre chooses this poem of Tukaram for the last section "Farewell to Being" (असण्याचा निरोप) in his book "Punha Tukaram" (पुन्हा तुकाराम, पृष्ठ १९१).

सकळ ही माझी बोळवण करा
परतोनि घरा जावे तुम्ही

कर्मधर्में तुम्हा असावे कल्याण
घ्या माझें वचन आशीर्वाद

वाढवूनि दिलो एकाचिये हाती
सकळ निश्चिंती जाली तेथे

आतां मज जाणे प्राणेश्वरासवे
माझिया भावे अनुसरलों

वाढविता लोभ होईल उसीर ।
अवघीच स्थिर करा ठायी

धर्म अर्थ काम जाला एके ठायी
मेळविला जिही हाता हात

तुका म्हणे आतां जाली हे चि भेटी
उरल्या त्या गोष्टी बोलावया  (१६०३)

Following picture of great Saul Steinberg has appeared on this blog before.

Chitre painting the image of his great forebear, Tukaram, complete with a horn in his mouth, and Tukaram in turn places a wreath on Chitre's head for a job well done!

Artist: Saul Steinberg, The New Yorker, January 6 1962

Naked Woman On Top of a Bookcase: Alive, Stuffed or Dead?... James Thurber@125

#JamesThurber125

Today December 8 2019 is 125th birth anniversary of  James Thurber

Following is the exchange between great James Thurber and  Paris Review for the latter's issue dated Fall 1955:

"...PR: You say that your drawings often don’t come out the way you intended?

JT: Well, once I did a drawing for The New Yorker of a naked woman on all fours up on top of a bookcase—a big bookcase. She’s up there near the ceiling, and in the room are her husband and two other women. The husband is saying to one of the women, obviously a guest, “This is the present Mrs. Harris. That’s my first wife up there.” Well, when I did the cartoon originally I meant the naked woman to be at the top of a flight of stairs, but I lost the sense of perspective and instead of getting in the stairs when I drew my line down, there she was stuck up there, naked, on a bookcase.

Incidentally, that cartoon really threw The New Yorker editor, Harold Ross. He approached any humorous piece of writing, or more particularly a drawing, not only grimly but realistically. He called me on the phone and asked if the woman up on the bookcase was supposed to be alive, stuffed, or dead. I said, “I don’t know, but I’ll let you know in a couple of hours.” After a while I called him back and told him I’d just talked to my taxidermist, who said you can’t stuff a woman, that my doctor had told me a dead woman couldn’t support herself on all fours. “So, Ross,” I said, “she must be alive.” “Well then,” he said, “what’s she doing up there naked in the home of her husband’s second wife?” I told him he had me there.

PR: But he published it.

JT: Yes, he published it, growling a bit. He had a fine understanding of humor, Ross, though he couldn’t have told you about it. When I introduced Ross to the work of Peter de Vries, he first said, “He won’t be good; he won’t be funny; he won’t know English.” (He was the only successful editor I’ve known who approached everything like a ship going on the rocks.) But when Ross had looked at the work he said, “How can you get this guy on the phone?” He couldn’t have said why, but he had that bloodhound instinct. The same with editing. He was a wonderful man at detecting something wrong with a story without knowing why..."

The cartoon in the discussion does not accompany this article.

When I located the cartoon, I found it bizarre. No wonder Ross went in a tailspin.

I could not stop smiling reading Ross's query: Was the woman up on the bookcase supposed to be alive, stuffed, or dead...

Here it is:

 
 Artist: James Thurber, The New Yorker, March 16 1935

डी क्विन्सी , प्रा श्री म माटे आणि अफू....Thomas De Quincey, 160th Death Anniversary

 विलास सारंग:
"... भारतीय संस्कृतीतील वैविध्य व वैपुल्य या लेखकांनीं जसं नजरेआड केलं , त्याचप्रमाणे इंग्रजी संस्कृतीतील बंडखोर प्रवाहदेखील त्यांनी दुर्लक्षिला. एकोणिसाव्या शतकाच्या सुरवातीला इंग्रजीमध्ये रोमँटिक कवी शेली (Shelley) याच्या सांस्कृतिक बंडखोरीच उदाहरण डोळ्यांपुढे  होत, डीक्विन्सी (DeQuincey) या कलंदर लेखकाचं 'एक अफूबाज माणसाचं आत्मकथन' ही कृती होती. काव्यप्रांतात कोलरिजचं दीर्घकाव्य 'द राइम ऑफ द  एन्शंट मँऱिनर' या मध्ये कुणाही प्रयोगशील लेखकाला अद्भुताचा प्रगल्भ, गंभीर, आदिबंधात्म वापर कसा करावा याचा वस्तुपाठ मिळाला असता. परंतु संस्कृतिसंकर या प्रकारे धाडसी, प्रयोगशीललेखनासाठी वापरावा, अशी प्रेरणा या काळातील मराठी वाङ्मयात दिसून येत नाही..."
('सशक्त संस्कृती, सीमित वास्तव १८८०- १९४५', वाङ्मयीन संस्कृती व सामाजिक वास्तव, २०११)

कृतज्ञता : वाङ्मय शोभा, जानेवारी १९४३  

Artist: Corydon Bell (1894-1980), 1932

#ThomasDeQuincey