Robinson Crusoe@300 Still Does Not Need To Be Rescued...

#RobinsonCrusoe300  डॅनियल डेफो यांचे रॉबिन्सन क्रुसो पहिल्यांदा एप्रिल २५ १७१९ ला प्रसिद्ध झाले.

Jorge Luis Borges:

"... In his (Bertrand Russell)  History of Western Philosophy, he says that the most lovable philosopher is certainly Spinoza, although one might prefer other philosophical ideas. But he has persisted as a man. That is, if I say Spinoza, well, it’s as evocative as if I say, I don’t know, Robinson Crusoe, or if I say Alexander of Macedon. He has persisted as a figure, as a lovable and loved figure, a figure loved by everybody...."

Paul Theroux :
“...If Robinson Crusoe were a story about holding out against the odds, then everything would hinge on Crusoe’s rescue. But this is not the case. By mastering himself, Crusoe masters the island and makes a world of it. He progresses in an almost evolutionary sense from a lowly creature precariously clinging to life at the edge of the island, to being the dominant species on it; he moves from castaway to colonizer. At the end, Crusoe is both, as he says, a king and a ‘‘Generalissimo.’’ Defoe’s point is that Crusoe does not need to be rescued, and it is emphasized by the fact that no sooner has he been scooped up and told his story, than he returns to the island and prospers. It is a success story—of fall and rise; it is also a narrative of purification, with the most downright details as well as something approaching the spiritual. Not surprisingly, this novel has been in print and popular for almost three hundred years.”

अलीकडे मला केंव्हातरी वाटले मराठीत रॉबिन्सन क्रुसो- किमान abridged - बहुतेक अनुवादित झाल आहे पण तो कोणत्या स्वतंत्र कथा / कादंबरीत आला आहे का?

माझे वाचन अगदी मर्यादित आहे पण मला तरी आठवत नाहीये.  जीएंचा स्वामीच काहीकाळ क्रुसो सारख्या फेज मधून जातो असे वाटले. 

अर्थात स्वामीला काहीकरून सुटका हवीय, क्रुसो ला नकोय. सुटकेनंतर क्रुसो पुन्हा तिथेच परततो, स्वामी तशा  विचाराने सुद्धा आजारी पडेल.  पण अवघड प्रश्न हा आहे की केंव्हातरी स्वामीला सुद्धा क्रूसोच्या एकेटपणाचे आकर्षण वाटले होते का? 

शिवाय माणसात राहून सुद्धा तुम्ही क्रुसो सारखे राहू शकता का हा ही प्रश्न आहे. स्थितप्रज्ञता ही एक प्रकारे क्रुसो होणे आहे का? राम-लक्ष्मण आणि पांडवांनी अनुभवलेला वनवास काही दृष्टीने क्रुसो  सारखा आहे का?

समाजापासून दूर,  माणसाच्या एकटेपणाची स्वामी आणि क्रुसो ही दोन रूपे आहेत.  

Crusoe builds a bonfire as a signal to a vessel

courtesy: Tim Severin's book 'In Search of Robinson Crusoe'

If You Faint Because of the Dress, Change the Method of Stitching

दि टाईम्स ऑफ इंडिया , मे २२ २०१९ मध्ये ही बातमी पहिली

त्याआधी नुकतेच हे पहिले होते :

Vigorelli sewing machine ad (1949) 

Artist: Gino Boccasile (1901 – 1952)

... म्हटल त्यामुळे ड्रेस फार टाईट शिवला गेला असावा....

Don't Sign Up For The Thought Police...Nineteen Eighty-Four@70

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four was published 70 years ago on June 8 1949

भारतातील आणीबाणी (25 जून 1975 ते 21 मार्च 1977) चा काळ म्हणजे जॉर्ज ऑरवेल यांच्या Nineteen Eighty-Four ची आठवण करून देणारा काळ होता.

मी मिरजेत होतो आणि महाराष्ट्रातील पहिली १०वी ची परिक्षा (मिरज शहरात) पहिल्या क्रमांकाने नुकताच पास होत होतो. मी किंवा माझे कोणतेही कुटुंबीय संघात जात नव्हते. माझ्या आईवडिलांनी कायम काँग्रेस ला तो पर्यंत मते दिली होती.

मी माझ्या डोळ्याने किसान चौकात झालेली तरुण मुलांची झालेली धरपकड, समाजात निर्माण झालेली घबराट आणि एका प्रकारची दहशत पहिली आहे. जी मी नंतर माझ्या आतापर्यंतच्या आयुष्यात फक्त ULFA उग्रवाद्यांमुळे आम्ही आसाम मध्ये सन १९८९-१९९२ काळात असताना निर्माण झालेली पहिली. 

आणीबाणी मुळे एक प्रकारची अशुभ सुरवात माझ्या कॉलेज जीवनाची झाली असे मी समजत आलो आहे. १९७५-७७ काळात सांगली रेडिओ वर "हम होंगे कामयाब" हे गाणे नेहमी ऐकू येई आणि ते तर गरुड पुराणासारखे वाटे.

मराठीतील अत्यंत कमी कलावंत त्या आणीबाणीच्या विरोधात उभे होते, त्यातील अग्रेसर होत्या दुर्गाबाई....

कुठलीही पुरस्कार वापसी स्कीम चालू नव्हती, किंबहुना एकावर एक फ्री पुरस्कार किंवा पद्मश्री वगैरे मिळतायत का ते चाचपण सुरु होत....

Nineteen Eighty-Four ला आज जून ८ २०१९ला ७० वर्षे पूर्ण होतायत...  

Artist: Unknown to me

 

Artist: The late  Charles Barsotti,  The New Yorker, 2013

रशियन-भाषेचे-तुकाराम: पुश्किन@220....Pushkin Did For the Russian Language What Tukaram Did For Marathi

#AlexanderPushkin220

“….Chekalinsky began to deal, his hands trembling. On the right lay a queen, on the left an ace.

“The ace wins!” said Hermann, and he turned over his card.

“Your queen loses,” Chekalinsky said affably.

Hermann shuddered: indeed, instead of an ace, the queen of spades stood before him. He did not believe his eyes, did not understand how he could have drawn the wrong card.

At that moment it seemed to him that the queen of spades winked and grinned. The extraordinary likeness struck him…

“The old woman!” he cried in horror.

Chekalinsky drew the bank notes to him. Hermann stood motionless. When he left the table, noisy talk sprang up.

“Beautifully punted!” said the players. Chekalinsky shuffled the cards again: the game went on.”

 (Alexander Pushkin, translation by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky) 

Nicholas Lezard:

“…The translator of this volume provides a very good introduction which explains why Pushkin is so popular, to this day, in Russia: "Pushkin did for the Russian language what Chaucer did for English – but with a big difference. Pushkin's Russian is totally of today. He created a vibrant, modern language out of several different strands that needed to be woven together, predominantly vernacular Russian, French and Old Church Slavonic." So one might also add that he did for Russian what Dante did for Italian…” 

James Meek, LRB, June 6 2019:

“....In Russia schoolchildren imbibe his writings like morning milk. His phrases and idioms, like Shakespeare’s, are embedded in the modern language. Interviewed by Elif Batuman after the new translation was published, Volokhonsky talked about the expression Pushkin uses in the story ‘The Blizzard’, ‘smertèl’no vlyublenà’, which she and Pevear translate as ‘mortally in love’. When Volokhonsky asked people in Russia if they used the phrase, they said they did, but that they used it because of Pushkin. Krylov, the writer of Aesopian fables, whose unadorned prose Pushkin admired, ‘used it in the 18th century once, and then Pushkin used it, and after that it became a Russian cliché,’ Volokhonsky said. ‘But what do we do?’

Recently a Russian schoolteacher posted on the internet a list of a few of the ways Russian headline-writers have debased the famous line from Pushkin’s poem The Bronze Horseman, about Peter the Great seeking ‘to cut a window through to Europe’ by building St Petersburg:

    A Kind of Window to Europe

    This Window Is Not to Europe at All

    Kazakhstan to Become China’s Window to Europe

    Russian Capital Cuts Window to Holland/New York/South-East Asia

    Patricia Kaas Cuts Window to the Provinces

    Two Windows Cut to Europe

    Small Ventilation Window Cut to Europe

    No Window to Europe, but a Lurid Balcony

Pushkin lies entombed in the vast mausoleum of his reputation....”

 

Artist: Gennady Yepifanov, 1966 for Pushkin's Queen of Spades

पहिल्यांदा प्लासी, आता निरो...Marathi Political Analyst Simplifies and Distorts History

श्री. भाऊ तोरसेकर आणि श्री सुनील तांबे यांच्या प्लासीच्या लढाईबाबतच्या लेखनाबद्दल मे २८ २०१९ रोजी लिहले. 

आता तोरसेकर रोमचे बादशाह निरो यांच्या बद्दल जून ४ २०१९ रोजी लिहतात :
 "... त्यामुळे रोम जळत असताना फ़िडल वाजवत बसलेल्या निरो नामक सम्राटाचे स्मरण झाले. मुळात निरोने रोम जळत असताना वाद्य वाजवत बसण्यात काहीही गैर नव्हते. कारण तो मनोरुग्ण होता आणि त्याला साधासरळ विचारही करता येत नव्हता. पण याने दिलेली वतने व अनुदाने याच्यावरच ज्यांची गुजराण किंवा चैनमौज चाललेली होती, त्यांना साम्राज्य किंवा देश याची कुठलीही फ़िकीर नव्हती. साम्राज्य वाचवण्यासाठी कोणी खमक्या हुशार राजा त्या जागी आणला तर नक्कीच ते राज्य वाचवणे शक्य होते. पण असा कर्तबगार राजा असल्या फ़ुकट्या बुद्धीमंतांची आधी हाकालपट्टी करण्याची खात्री होती. त्यापेक्षा मनोरुग्ण सम्राट त्यांना कौतुकाचा वाटत होता. यापेक्षा आजच्या कॉग्रेस पक्षाची वा त्याच्या भगतगणांची कहाणी किंचीतही वेगळी नाही...."
हे वाचून मी Barry Strauss यांच्या 'Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors From Augustus to Constantine' , २०१९ या पुस्तकाकडे वळलो.

त्या दहा सीझर मध्ये निरो आहेत. Strauss म्हणतात:

 “…Nero did quite respectably at some of the aspects of his job. He won the support of the common people. He was a great builder. He was a superb impresario. He presided over a cultural renaissance. He loved Greece and won the support of the Greek East. It should also be remembered that for about the first five years of his reign, he had the support of the Senate as well.

Where did Nero fail? By appointing an incompetent governor, he caused a major revolt in Judea. By confiscating property, he stirred up revolt in the Western provinces. By persecuting and executing elite enemies, and by embarrassing himself in the eyes of the elite through his personal behavior, he stirred up conspiracy and revolt.

Nero was the most cultivated and cruelest emperor Rome had seen, and one of the last members of the old Roman nobility to serve as emperor. After Nero, and with the exception of Galba’s brief reign, it would be nearly two hundred years before another member of the Roman nobility served as emperor.

Nero’s predecessors, aristocrats all, were more martial and sometimes madder, but none was more magnificent. None would match his exhibitionism….”

मेरी बिअर्ड त्यांच्या गाजलेल्या 'SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome', २०१५ पुस्तकात म्हणतात :

“…A number of modern historians have presented Nero in particular more as a victim of the propaganda of the Flavian dynasty, starting with Vespasian, which succeeded him, than as a self-obsessed, mother-killing pyromaniac who reputedly started the great fire of 64 CE not just to enjoy the spectacle but also to clear land for building his vast new palace, the Golden House. Even Tacitus admits, the rehabilitators point out, that Nero was the sponsor of effective relief measures for the homeless after the fire; and the reputed extravagance of his new residence, with all its luxuries (including a revolving dining room), did not prevent the parsimonious Vespasian and his sons from taking over part of it as their home. Besides, in the twenty years after Nero’s death in 68 CE at least three false Neros, complete with lyre, appeared in the eastern parts of the empire, making a bid for power by claiming to be the emperor himself, still alive despite all the reports of his suicide. They were all quickly eliminated, but the deception suggests that in some areas of the Roman world Nero was fondly remembered: no one seeks power by pretending to be an emperor universally hated….”

रोमन साम्राज्य १५०० (इसपू २७ - इस १४५३) वर्षे टिकले होते. Julio-Claudian dynasty जरी इ स ६९ मध्ये संपली असली तरी निरो यांच्या नंतर रोमन साम्राज्य १३८५ वर्षे शिल्लक होते. Barry Strauss यांच्या पुस्तकात १० मध्ये निरो यांचा अनुक्रमांक ३ रा आहे आणि त्यानंतर ७ सम्राट येतात.

आता पुन्हा एकदा तोरसेकर काय लिहतात ते वाचा. 

म्हणजे निरोंचा इतिहास सुद्धा , प्लासी सारखा गुंतागुंतीचा आहे आणि त्याचे सुलभीकरण करण्याचा प्रयत्न जोरदार फसला आहे. 

'Nero's Death',  1888 by Vasily Smirnov