When Active Partnership Existed between Writer and Illustrator

Dinah Birch, TLS, June 23 2023, review of  "THE ART OF THE REPRINT:Nineteenth-century novels in twentieth-century editions" by Rosalind Parry

"... llustrated novels – except those written for children – have now fallen out of favour in mainstream publishing, though they have found a different kind of vitality in the development of the graphic novel. But many nineteenth-century novels were written with the power of illustration very much in the author’s mind. Charles Dickens’s career as a novelist began when he was asked to supply descriptions to supplement a series of comic sporting plates – a project that morphed into The Pickwick Papers, the origin of his long working relationship with the artist Hablot Knight Browne (“Phiz”). Much of Anthony Trollope’s fiction was first published with accompanying illustrations, and he took a keen interest in their effect on his readers. In Orley Farm, published at the height of his success in the early 1860s, he highlights a drawing by John Everett Millais (his favourite illustrator) to make a point about Lady Mason, the novel’s central character:

In an early part of this story I have endeavoured to describe how this woman sat alone, with deep sorrow in her heart and deep thought on her mind, when she first learned what terrible things were coming on her. The idea, however, which the reader will have conceived of her as she sat there will have come to him from the skill of the artist, and not from the words of the writer. If that drawing is now near him, let him go back to it.

Such moments of deference to an artist’s achievement are rare, but active partnerships between writer and illustrator were not...."

 artist; Sir John Everett Millais , 1861-62

Why was Unpastoralized Germany So Wealthy by 1960s?

I read on twitter following: 

 

"We don't realize how badly Nehru/Indira ran India, After WW2, USA gave $13 billion to Europe, $10 billion to India, Germany had been bombed to dust in WW2,

By 1960s, they were giving aid to India, In 1974, after 27 yrs of Cong rule, India still begging US, UK & Canada for food" 

 

(Abhishek @AbhishBanerj, Jun 26)

 

I have witnessed how socialism inflicted upon Indian poor and middle-class untold misery for almost 50 years since independence but I have a problem with Germany's wealth by 1960s...

 

Read a small para from David de Jong's recent bestseller book "Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties": 

 

"...But this book isn’t just about the sins of Germany’s titans of industry and finance. Here too is the story of how, after the war, it fell to the victorious Allies to decide the fate of these Nazi profiteers. But for the sake of political expediency, and for fear of the looming threat of Communism, the United States and the United Kingdom quietly handed most of these tycoons back over to Germany, which in turn allowed most of the guilty moguls to walk free, with little more than a slap on the wrist. In the decades that followed, the western part of a divided Germany developed one of the world’s most prosperous economies, and those same Nazi businessmen amassed billions of dollars, joining the ranks of the world’s wealthiest tycoons. All the while they kept silent, or outright lied, about their ties to genocide.

 

As of today, a small few of these men’s heirs have truly reckoned with the family past. Others still refuse to do so, with little negative effect. ..."

 

If Germany's money had been taken away from them by the allies at the end of WWII, Germany too might be asking for money just like India in 1960s...I am not alone in such thinking...

 

Evan Thomas, 'Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II", 2023:

 

"...When Treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau recommended that Germany be “pastoralized”—its industry plowed under—Stimson vigorously protested, not just because it would weaken postwar Europe’s recovery but because Germany might become a wasteland of starving peasants. In his diary, he noted that “it is very singular that I, the man who had charge of the Department which did all the killing in the war, should be the only one to have any mercy for that other side.” ..."

 

Threat of communism kept Germany wealthy, no wonder the current German leadership is doing the bidding of the allies by making threats to Russia because of their war with Ukraine....

 

I never believed for one second that the country responsible for tens of millions of deaths across the world just 75+ years ago has bounced back so much and so hard without using illegitimate resources.

 

 

G. A. Kulkarni, Herman Hesse...Siddhartha Had More of Nietzsche in him than of Buddha...जी, ए. कुलकर्णी, हर्मन हेस

#GAKULKARNI101

जी, ए. कुलकर्णी म. द. हातकणंगलेकरांना ४. ७. ८० रोजी लिहतात :

 

"...I have felt very near to Hesse, for one simple reason. He does not mind being very very old fashioned....I doubt whether he can imagine , what may be loosely called ultimate. Reality without accepting God..."

(पृष्ठ २३७, 'जी.एं. ची निवडक पत्रे: खंड ४', २००६/२०२०')

 

जीएंना खरे हर्मन हेस फार समजले असे वाटत नाही...

 

जॉन ग्रे त्यांच्या ५ डिसेंबर २०१८ च्या न्यू स्टेट्समन मधील लेखात म्हणतात :

 

"... A lifelong narcissist, Hesse pursued relief from his own worries more than anything else. Even his secluded life in Switzerland, where his home was fronted by a sign saying “No Visitors”, did not give him the distance from the world he craved... If Hesse returned from the East to another bout of depression, one reason was that the goal of the religions he had been half-heartedly exploring was the opposite of what he was looking for. Hesse wanted self-realisation, whereas Eastern ¬mysticism aimed at the dissolution of the self. As Decker notes, Hesse’s Siddhartha had more of Nietzsche in him than of Buddha. For Hesse’s protagonist, as for Hesse himself, “It was not a question of renouncing the Self but of finding it. This was a very Western line of thought.” ... Hesse’s Magister Ludi remains a strangely insubstantial figure – not unlike Hesse himself. Apart from his overweening egotism, there is very little that is distinctive in this prophet of individuality. Though he made much of Jung’s theory of the divided self, Hesse was himself a man without a shadow."

 

जीएंना हेस यांचे "secluded life" आवडले होते काय?

 

जीएंना हेसची जवळीक वाटण्याचे कारण हे असू शकते:हेस जीएंसारखे चांगले चित्रकार होते आणि, जीएं जे हवे होते पण जमले नाही, तसे कवी सुद्द्धा!

 

"In 1912 he moved to Switzerland, where he wrote his best-known books, including the classic Siddhartha; composed poetry; and painted landscapes."

 

सोबतच्या चित्राचे नाव : At Agra , चित्रकार : Herman Hesse, वर्ष : १९१९

 

 

 

सुपरहिरो गणवेश काढेपर्यंत अंग कस खाजवतात?...My Holy of Holies is the Human Body

सध्या सुपरहिरोंचा जमाना आहे... 

मला लहानपणी सुपरहिरो वेताळ (Phantom) पासून माहित झाले... 

आणि एक प्रश्न मला भेडसावत आला आहे: ते सुपरहिरोचा गणवेश काढेपर्यंत अंग कस खाजवतात? कारण भारतासारख्या देशात माझ्या सारख्याला अधून मधून कुठेतरी स्वतःचे अंग खाजवायला लागत असते.... आणि सुपरहिरोंचे कपडे सुद्धा अगदी tight आणि कदाचित सुती सुद्धा नसावेत.. 

त्याचे उत्तर सोबतच्या कार्टून मध्ये बहुदा Wonder Woman साठी तरी मिळाले, कलाकार माहित नाही... 

Eva Marie Saint@100

Fasri, Urdu and Mirza Ghalib

January 2024: "The government of India has decided to include Farsi as one of the nine classical languages of India in our New Education Policy," said S Jaishankar, highlighting the cultural, literary, and linguistic connections between Iran and India.

 

Sidney Lumet@100

 Sidney Lumet gave us some great movies. One of them is '12 Angry Men', 1957. 

artist: Benjamin Schwartz, August 2015

मृणाल गोरे, मी आणि सध्याची "पुरोगामी" चळवळ...Mrunal Gore@96

 आज जून २४   २०२४, मृणाल गोरे यांची ९६वी जयंती आहे...

Sonal Shah, EPW, Aug 11 2012:

“Mrinal Gore, veteran politician and leader of the women's movement in Maharashtra, who passed away recently was the quintessential grass-roots leader who could also hold her own in the state legislature. A call from her would mobilise thousands of women on the streets of Mumbai and she tirelessly raised issues that affected the common citizen, from rising prices, shortage of water, sex determination tests to corruption in real estate. Mumbai's citizens, otherwise ever cynical about politicians, held her in great esteem and affectionately called her paaniwali bai - the water lady.”

 

मी शाळेत असताना (१९६५-१९७५) कै मृणाल गोरे माझ्या हिरो होत्या कारण त्यांच्या चळवळीचा भर ह्या गोष्टींवर होता - भ्रष्टाचार, महागाई, सामान्य महिलांचे प्रश्न... 

 

माझ्या माहितीप्रमाणे स्वतः त्या सरकारकडून कसल्याही सवलती पदरात पडून घेत नव्हत्या... त्यांचे आर्थिक आयुष्य अतिशय पारदर्शी होते... त्या अतिशय साधेपणाने रहात असत... 

 

त्या पुरोगामी होत्या आणि मला तसे पुरोगामी व्हायचे होते... आणि माझे आई-वडील (होते तोपर्यंत) आणि मी गोरेबाईं सारखे पुरोगामी आहोत... 

 

मी आयुष्यात भ्रष्टाचार केला नाही... अंधश्रद्धा, भविष्य यांच्या मागे लागलो नाही... जातीभेद, धर्मभेद, भाषाभेद केला नाही.... माझ्या वडलांनी माझी मुंज केली नाही , मी माझ्या मुलाची मुंज केली नाही (बायको त्यावर अजून वैतागली आहे!)...

 

मिरजेत रहात असताना आमच्या कुटुंबाचे संबंध बहुजन समाजातील लोकांशी आणि अल्पसंख्यांकांशी, ब्राह्मणांबरोबरीला संबंधांपेक्षा जास्त चांगले आणि प्रेमाचे होते... माझे आर्थिक आयुष्य संपूर्ण पारदर्शी आहे... मी अतिशय साधेपणे राहतो... 

 

मला कन्नडा, बांगला बऱ्यापैकी समजते... भारतात अनेक ठिकाणी राहिल्यामुळे माझ्या कडे साने गुरुजींच्या आंतरभारती बद्दल आत्मीयता आहे... 

 

सध्याची पुरोगामी चळवळ सर्वव्यापी भ्रष्टाचारावर थयथयाट करताना मला कधीच दिसत नाही... एखाद्या कडे इतक्या assets कशा असा प्रश्न विचारत नाही.... साधेपणाचा, आंतरभारतीचा कधी पुरस्कार करत नाहीत...

 

भारतीय समाजातील शक्तिशाली (अगदी हौसिंग सोसायटीतील पदाधिकारी सुद्धा शक्तिशाली) लोकांच्या assets पहा... शून्ये मोजता येत नाहीत... 

हे विषय का महत्वाचे राहिले नाहीत ... फक्त युरोप आणि अमेरिकेतील पुरोगाम्यांचे मुद्देच का भारतात पुरोगाम्यांसाठी सर्वात महत्वाचे होऊन बसले? 

 

ह्या कारणामुळे ही "पुरोगामी" चळवळ माझी होऊच शकत नाही...

 

 

Parrots Are Taking Over the World...मिठू मिठू पोपट

 

दिलीप चित्रेंच्या प्रायोगिक रंगभूमीवर गाजलेल्या ‘मिठू मिठू पोपट’ (१९८९) ह्या नाटकात काय आहे हे मला माहित नाही....

 दिलीप चित्रेंना इथे दिलेल्या विलक्षण गोष्टींची माहिती होती का हे ही माहित नाही ... 

 

मात्र अरुण कोलटकर, बा सी मर्ढेकर , सदानंद रेगे आणि स्वतः दिलीप चित्रे या प्रतिभावान कवींना हे माहित असते तर पोपट त्यांच्या कवितेत वेगळ्याच पद्धतीने नक्कीच आले असते... 

 

"... For better, for worse, and sometimes both, parrots have taken over our cities. Their ability to thrive in our altered habitats is a testament to what makes these species special and why we should work to conserve them in the wild while minding the potential impacts of introduced parrots. They're innovators, problem solvers, socializers and survivors. That's how they earned our adoration in the first place. Sometimes it's a joy to stop and marvel at the parrots."

 

Read essay by Ryan F. Mandelbaum for Scientific American titled "Parrots Are Taking Over the World"dated July 1 2023  here.

 

                            A Parrot Perched on a Mango Tree; a Ram Tethered Below

 

painting belongs to the Golconda school and dates back to 1670. The painting was displayed at the Met in 2015 as part of the ‘Sultans of Deccan India’ exhibit. 

Where, in short, are the Flying Cars?

 David Graeber :

"A secret question hovers over us, a sense of disappointment, a broken promise we were given as children about what our adult world was supposed to be like. I am referring not to the standard false promises that children are always given (about how the world is fair, or how those who work hard shall be rewarded), but to a particular generational promise—given to those who were children in the fifties, sixties, seventies, or eighties—one that was never quite articulated as a promise but rather as a set of assumptions about what our adult world would be like. And since it was never quite promised, now that it has failed to come true, we’re left confused: indignant, but at the same time, embarrassed at our own indignation, ashamed we were ever so silly to believe our elders to begin with.

 

Where, in short, are the flying cars? Where are the force fields, tractor beams, teleportation pods, antigravity sleds, tricorders, immortality drugs, colonies on Mars, and all the other technological wonders any child growing up in the mid-to-late twentieth century assumed would exist by now? Even those inventions that seemed ready to emerge—like cloning or cryogenics—ended up betraying their lofty promises. What happened to them?

 

We are well informed of the wonders of computers, as if this is some sort of unanticipated compensation, but, in fact, we haven’t moved even computing to the point of progress that people in the fifties expected we’d have reached by now. We don’t have computers we can have an interesting conversation with, or robots that can walk our dogs or take our clothes to the Laundromat.

 

As someone who was eight years old at the time of the Apollo moon landing, I remember calculating that I would be thirty-nine in the magic year 2000 and wondering what the world would be like. Did I expect I would be living in such a world of wonders? Of course. Everyone did. Do I feel cheated now? It seemed unlikely that I’d live to see all the things I was reading about in science fiction, but it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t see any of them."

 

 

 

artist: Bill Watterson