David Denby, The New Yorker, 2006:
"A hundred years ago, Upton Sinclair, the muckraker and
socialist, brought out “The Jungle,” a sensationally grim exposé of the noisome
squalors and dangers of the meatpacking industry. Dedicated to “the workingmen
of America,” the book became an overnight best-seller. At the White House,
Theodore Roosevelt, who had watched soldiers die from eating rotten meat during
the Spanish-American War, wrote a three-page appreciation and critique of the
novel, and sent it to Sinclair with an invitation to visit him. (Those were the
days.) “The Jungle” played a major role in pushing forward the Pure Food and
Drug Act, which Roosevelt had long favored, and which was passed in June of
1906, marking a major expansion of federal regulatory power. The book’s
influence hit the dinner table as well: after a couple of years, meat
consumption declined, and it was widely believed that Sinclair’s book was the
cause. By common consent among literary historians, only one American novel,
before or since—Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”—has had so powerful
an influence on practical affairs...."
अप्टन सिंक्लेर यांच्या एकाही पुस्तकाचा अनुवाद मराठीत झाला आहे का हे मला माहित नाही.
मी त्यांचे नाव क्वचितच मराठी लेखनात पाहिले आहे. त्यामुळे आचार्य अत्र्यांचा १९६३ सालचा "अप्टन सिंक्लेर" हा प्रदीर्घ लेख वाचून आश्चर्य वाटले . (पहा 'आषाढस्य प्रथम दिवसे: 'मराठा' तील अग्रलेख', पृष्ठ ३२६-३३३, १९६९-२०२२).
अत्रे सिंक्लेर.यांच्या गाजलेल्या जंगल, १९०६ या कांदंबरीचे परीक्षण विस्ताराने करतात. अशा कादंबऱ्या मराठीत किंवा भारतीय भारतीय भाषेत निर्माण झाल्या का, असा प्रश्न मला पडला.
उदाहरणार्थ भोपाळच्या युनियन कार्बाइड किंवा अशा अनेक कंपन्यांवर जंगल सारखी कांदबरी निर्माण झाली असती तर तिथली भयानक दुर्घटना टळली असती का? आजही भारतात अनेक केमिकल कंपन्या आहेत....
अत्र्यांच्या लेखातील एक पान पहा :
Eric Schlosser writes in his "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal":"...The working conditions in these meatpacking plants were brutal. In The Jungle (1906) Upton Sinclair described a litany of horrors: severe back and shoulder injuries, lacerations, amputations, exposure to dangerous chemicals, and memorably, a workplace accident in which a man fell into a vat and got turned into lard. The plant kept running, and the lard was sold to unsuspecting consumers. Human beings, Sinclair argued, had been made "cogs in the great packing machine," easily replaced and entirely disposable. President Theodore Roosevelt ordered an independent investigation of The Jungle's sensational details. The accuracy of the book was confirmed by federal investigators, who found that Chicago's meatpacking workers labored "under conditions that are entirely unnecessary and unpardonable, and which are a constant menace not only to their own health, but to the health of those who use the food products prepared by them."..."
He further says though:
"...Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906; reprint, New York: Bantam Books, 1981) unfortunately remains the essential starting point for an understanding of America's meatpacking industry today. Nearly a century after the book's publication, many of the descriptive passages still ring true. Sinclair's prescription for reform, however—his call for a centralized, socialized, highly industrialized agriculture—shows how even the best of intentions can lead to disaster...."
Upton Sinclair by Edward Sorel , The New Yorker, 2006
.jpg)
2,jpg.jpg)
