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, October 30, 2019

The End of Diwali, Getting Orphaned, The Weight of the World






“Why do they all gain those extra pounds at the exact same time of the year?”  

Artist: Drew Dernavich, The New Yorker, December 2016

या वेळची आमची दिवाळी मोठी कठीण ठरली, ऑक्टोबर  ४ ला माझे सासरे - श्रीधर बाळकृष्ण देशपांडे, ८८- वारले आणि ऑक्टोबर २२ला माझे वडील - गोपाळ दत्त कुलकर्णी, ८३ - वारले. (माझी आई २००६ मध्येच वारली.)

त्यामुळे वरील कार्टून ने ३० तारखेपर्यंत थोडा वेगळा अर्थ घेतला... आपण घसरून पडलोय आणि आपल्यावर पृथ्वी पडलीय असा काहीसा....

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Asterix@60


#Asterrix60

Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix , a series of French comics, first appeared in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959.

Mary Beard, LRB, April 2001:
"When René Goscinny, the creator of Astérix, died in 1977, it was, in the words of one French obituary, ‘as if the Eiffel Tower had fallen down’. The cartoon adventures of the plucky little Gaul holding out against Roman conquest (with the help of a magic potion that could confer a few minutes’ irresistible strength at a single gulp) were as much a defining part of French cultural identity as the most distinctive monument on the Paris skyline. A national survey in 1969 suggested that two-thirds of the population had read at least one of the Astérix books; and by the time of Goscinny’s death total sales in France are said to have amounted to more than 55 million copies, putting Astérix substantially ahead of his main (Belgian) rival, Tintin. The first French space satellite, launched in 1965, was named in his honour (the US later matched this with spaceships called Charlie Brown and Snoopy). There was also, predictably, a more mundane range of Astérix spin-offs, from mustard to washing powder, that flooded the French market in the 1960s and 1970s. The story goes that Goscinny’s partner, Albert Uderzo, once saw three advertisements side by side on a Métro station, for three completely different products each endorsed with equal enthusiasm by Astérix and his cartoon comrades. From then on, they put much tighter limits on the products they would allow their hero to advertise...

..Most critics, on the other hand, have thought that there was a good deal that needed explaining. Some, like the Italian interviewer, have dwelt on the appeal of the David-and-Goliath conflict between the Gauls and the Roman superpower. Or, at least, David and Goliath with a twist: Astérix doesn’t beat brute force by superior cunning and intelligence – he does it thanks to his unexpected access to even bruter force than the enemy can deliver. In adventure after adventure, most of the Gauls’ over-ingenious schemes misfire as badly as the best-laid Roman ones. The reassuring fantasy is that, thanks to the magic potion, Astérix and his friends can mess things up and still win out..."

The star cast
 
courtesy: Wikipedia and the copyright holders 

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Monet or Manet?

Monet or Manet?

“I’m Monet. Who the hell is Manet?”  

Artist: Jason Adam Katzenstein, The New Yorker, September 2016

p,s.

On the wall: Grainstacks in the Sunlight, Morning Effect, 1890-91 by Claude Monet

Monday, October 21, 2019

शिशिरागम... Sempe's Autumn Sonata

बा सी मर्ढेकर:
"शिशिरर्तुच्या पुनरागमें,
एकेक पण गळावया
कां लागतां मज येतसे
न कळे उगाच रडावया.
..."
('शिशिरागम', पृष्ठ २०, 'मर्ढेकरांची कविता', १९५९/ १९७७)


कलाकार :  Jean-Jacques Sempe, द न्यू यॉर्कर, ऑक्टोबर २०,१९८०

सेंपे ह्या वसंत सरवटे यांच्या आवडत्या कलाकाराच्या मुखपृष्ठाकडे पहा.

कदाचित दुपारी घराच्या अंगणात टी पार्टी चालू असावी, त्या स्त्रिया थंडीची वस्त्रे विणत असाव्यात (उजवीकडचे टेबल पहा). ते सगळे बाजूला ठेऊन आता मेहफिल रंगली आहे. घरातील एक छोटी मुलगी पण त्यात शामील झाली आहे. फॉलची, मर्ढेकरांना रडवणारी, पाने पडत आहेत. मी म्हणेन Autumn Sonata सुरु आहे....

Friday, October 18, 2019

विंदांचे राहून गेलेले बर्गसॉंदर्शन - नारी दर्शन ....Bergson, Women and Vinda

#HenriBergson160

दुर्गा भागवत:
"... ' जे प्रमाणाच्या मापात, नसे बाबा सापडत; 
त्यात आणि आकाशपुष्पात , भेद काय?,'

हा तुम्ही अज्ञानवाद्यांना विचारलेला प्रश्न तुमच्याच अंगावर उलटवता येईल. अज्ञानाला एक न्याय आणि ब्रह्माला दुसरा , असे कसे? पण शेवटी असल्या डावपेचांनी अर्थ तो किती! म्हणून मी तक्रार करत नाही , ही अस्पष्टता व संदिग्धता निखळ तत्वज्ञानाला अपायकारक असली तरी तत्वकाव्याला उपकारकच ठरली आहे..."

 (पृष्ठ १६०, 'अमृतानुभवाच्या अनुवादाच्या निमित्ताने', 'भावसंचित', मे २०१५... 'संत ज्ञानेश्वरांचा ।।अमृतानभव।।: ज्ञानदेवरचित अनुभवामृताचे विंदाकृत अर्वाचीनीकरण', १९८१/२००८)

विंदा करंदीकरांच्या "अष्टदर्शने" मधील सातवे दर्शन आहे बर्गसॉंदर्शन (पृष्ठ ६५-७३), आवृत्ती २००३.

त्यात दोन महत्वाच्या उणीवा मला जाणवत आल्या आहेत...खालील गोष्टींचा उल्लेख विंदा करत नाहीत:

१. बर्गसॉं यांची २०व्या शतकाच्या सुरवातीची सेलेब्रिटी लोकप्रियता 
२. विशेषतः स्त्रियांमधील त्यांची लोकप्रियता आणि त्यामुळे त्यांच्या विरोधात आलेली लाट

त्याची पुन्हा एकदा जाणीव मे २०१९ मध्ये एमिली हेरिंग यांचा हा लेख वाचून झाली.

"Women loved Bergson’s philosophy of creativity, change and freedom, but their enthusiasm fuelled a backlash against him... 

...The presence of women in a traditionally exclusively masculine space was regarded at best as a source of ridicule, at worst as a nuisance (for instance, some worried that, by their mere presence, the Bergsoniennes were robbing male philosophy students of their rightfully earned seats). Others took this phenomenon to be the sign of something more serious. The fact that so many women were drawn to Bergson’s philosophy perhaps said something about Bergson as a thinker. Indeed, traits traditionally associated with femininity, such as irrationality and sentimentality, clashed with the traditionally masculine qualities deemed necessary to be a good philosopher. Some of Bergson’s most serious adversaries began arguing that Bergson’s success among women was no accident. They believed that the reason the most irrational beings of all, women, were so enthusiastic about Bergson’s ideas was that Bergson’s philosophy was a philosophy of the irrational....

....Bergson’s philosophy, they said, lacked clarity, and should be combatted, because it was grounded in an unreliable and obscure mysticism that was ‘feminine’ in nature...."

विंदा म्हणतात :
".... 
बुद्ध आणि ख्रिस्त । बुद्धीला टाळून 
सन्मार्ग नवीन । दाखविती . 
मानवाविषयी । प्रेम व करुणा 
यांचीच प्रेरणा । होती त्यांना 
..."
 हे खरे आहे , पण बुद्ध आणि ख्रिस्त यांच्या बरोबरीने प्रेम व करुणा यांच्या संबंधात विंदांना स्त्री आठवत नाही?  प्रेम व करुणा म्हटल्यावर पहिल्यांदा मला माझी आई आठवते... आणि नंतर बुद्धी लावल्यावर आठवतात बुद्ध आणि ख्रिस्त!

Bergson and Einstein

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Quality Control Or Spectacular Apologies

Quality Control Or Spectacular Apologies

“With the money we’ll save by shutting down quality control, we can issue some truly spectacular apologies.” 

Artist: Robert Leighton, The New Yorker, October 2016

Sunday, October 13, 2019

चंद्राचे प्रेमगीत....Kojagiri Purnima

आज अश्विन कोजागरी पौर्णिमा शके १९४१


Artist : Not Known to Me

Thursday, October 10, 2019

बक्षीचा पक्षी केला...Painless to the Criminal and Terrible to the Beholder?

म. वा. धोंड:
"...  (दौलतराव शिंदे (१७७९-१८२७) यांनी) सेनापती नारायणराव बक्षी याच्या दोन्ही अंगास बाण बांधून बत्ती दिली आणि त्यास आकाशात उंच उडवून ठार केले, का?  तर "बक्षीचा पक्षी केला" असा प्रास साधण्याकरिता !..." 
(पृष्ठ ३३, मर्‍हाटी लावणी, १९५६/२००३)

 
Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779–1859):
“Elphinstone did not hesitate to order the (Brahmin) ringleaders (of a plot to murder all the Europeans in Pune) to be blown from guns, observing that this method of execution ‘contains two valuable elements of capital punishment; it is painless to the criminal and terrible to the beholder’.”
(Philip Mason. “Men Who Ruled India”, 1953)


Artist: Gerhard Richter (1932-)  from 'Comic Strip', 1962

Amazon.com says:
"Reproducing a recently found 1962 notebook, this small, beautifully clothbound volume reveals a never-before-seen dimension of Gerhard Richter's art. Comic Strip 1962 contains a series of cartoon-like drawings, done in the style of American greats such as Saul Steinberg (hence the artist's cartoonist-style abbreviation of his name to "Gerd" here). The black-and-white drawings generally feature one or many hatted silhouette figures, floating in the air, against bare backdrops or atop planets, with occasional handwritten text (in German, and mostly illegible) interspersed around them."

Monday, October 07, 2019

मराठीत असा संग्रह केंव्हा निर्माण होईल....Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper



In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper,” edited by Lawrence Block (Pegasus): 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, any of Edward Hopper’s paintings of American loneliness is worth an entire short story. Here 17 contemporary authors imagine the Depression-era backgrounds to various Hopper masterpieces. Consider the matchups: Michael Connelly with that apotheosis of the urban diner, “Nighthawks,” Lee Child with the bleak “Hotel Lobby,” Joyce Carol Oates and the naked woman at the window of “Eleven A.M.,” Stephen King and the alienated couple of “Room in New York,” and Megan Abbott with “The Girlie Show.” Ekphrasis — seeing a story in a picture — was seldom so much fun.