Literature Nobel
What the feminists want of me is something they haven’t examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness. What they would really like me to say is, ‘Ha, sisters, I stand with you side by side in your struggle toward the golden dawn where all those beastly men are no more.’ Do they really want people to make oversimplified statements about men and women? In fact, they do. I’ve come with great regret to this conclusion.
Doris Lessing, NYT, 1982
Regarded as the Grand Dame of Literature, Doris Lessing has been awarded the Nobel prize this year for literature. I haven’t read her. But the good thing about these prizes is that you get to read and know about such amazing authors and appreciate them. The Grass is Singing and the Golden Notebook are my next literary purchases.
Rethinking John Galt
Last night Wadhwa, Arunav and self were having this whole discussion about Atlas Shrugged and the character John Galt. For those who have read the book, they’d remember the question everywhere, “Who is John Galt?”. Well there is this beautiful line in the book that says something to the effect that ‘John Galt is Prometheus coming back to take the fire that he had given away.’ Wow!.
For me the very idea of stopping the motor of the world had been a fascination. Galt and Howard Roark used to my heroes at one point of time. Not to forget, Ive read the books twice. But while Ayn Rand’s idea and philosophy is something to admire, the bigger question is that should we really stick by it and follow it all through our lives? This question was a major part of the discussion that the three of us were having last night. Rand seems to be our heroine, but we ourselves are rational beings. We know what to borrow and what not? For example, the idea that man must do what he feels is right or as Wadhwa put is straight ‘He must do what gives him pleasure’.
