Author's Diction~Dr. Vipin Behari Goyal

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Primitivism in 20th century literature

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 08:15:00 +0000

Primitivism in 20th century literature

Primitivism is a belief in the value of what is simple and unsophisticated, expressed as a philosophy of life or through art or literature.

Simple is described as having few parts or features; not complicated or elaborate, easy to understand, do, or carry out, having or composed of only one thing, element, or part.

Primitivism is an internally coherent set of images and ideas that shape perceptions of the primitive.

Primitive is 1. Of or belonging to the first age, the period or stage; earliest, original.

2. Having the quality or style of that which is early or ancient.

3. Original as opposed to derivative; primary as opposed to secondary.

Benevolence is anti-thesis of intellectualism. Primitiveness helps them in being benevolent without posing as intellectual.

The subjects of "civilization" are trapped in the "primitive" hidden within themselves. Patrick White in his novel “The tree of man” has delineated the poetry and mystery in the lives of the simple farming couple Stan and Amy Parker. They deal with complex situations and the chain of events in an unsophisticated manner. The elements in the form of flood and fire are bravely fought and conquered. The bravery is the natural outcome of simplicity. Those who pretend aggression to scare the people is basically cowards. Simple life is far from any kind of pretension.

The simplicity of true grandeur found in tree transcends in the human being who live their life in the proximity of nature. The act of adultery by Amy, not only once by twice reflects that it is not impulsive but a deliberate act to overcome the boredom or an act of rebellion against a husband who had become unromantic. Their marriage was not a consequence of a decision, but an outcome of a certainty. They had a highly romantic honeymoon.

The writer says “the whole night had become a poem of moonlight…. Flesh is heroic by moonlight. The man took the body of the woman and taught it fearlessness.” Mystery and poetry of real life are revealed in an extraordinary within the ordinary. The Author has rationalized Amy’s act of adultery by concluding “Sometimes her simplicity would blaze electrically.”

Stan also makes a brief encounter with passion when he rescues Madeleine from fire. Flavor of the incident is romantic, but passions are sublimated by conviction and values. Moreover, simple deserves forgiveness. Madeline once admires the crude furniture in the house of Stan for it had reality.

For anything that is grand and simple, even the end is a new beginning. The grandson of Stan wants to write a poem of life, of what he did not know, but knew. So that in the end there were trees.

Eliot as a primitivists talked about inverting the hierarchy of savage and civilised since he spoke from a position that was, "deeper" and "older" than - and uncontaminated by - their culture.

James Clifford stated "primitives were fundamentally all the same, and important primarily as a window onto suppressed aspects of the civilized personality."

Eliot's theories of poetic imagination to his and Woolf's ideas of the importance of "impersonality" and Lawrence’s adaptation of “Psychoanalysis” were an attempt to strike a balance in their dual responsibility towards society as wells on their own-self. Primitivism is the criteria by which the work like “The Wasteland” (Eliot), “The Voyage Out” (Woolf), “The Plumed Serpent”(Lawrence) can be understood.

Do the earliest condition of man society was best? Human race treats the nature as an enemy. The human relationship has been deteriorated by an advancement of technology. Is it possible to return to primitive life we once had? We have come so far from nature, would nature forgive and accepts us?

Should native red-Indians forgive genocide when we are not ready to even apologize for Hiroshima. The harmony has been damaged beyond repair.

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Life is picnic

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 20:41:00 +0000

If you were having a picnic in a dream

Margy at Brighton Beach

“I’ll affect you slowly

as if you were having a picnic in a dream.

There will be no ants.

It won’t rain.”

― Richard Brautigan, Loading Mercury With a Pitchfork

Life is picnic. Life is not a picnic. Plan your picnic. Never, ever plan a picnic. The picnic is an escape; the picnic is an ideal way to confront.

All contradictory views about the picnic are true, as they are true about life. The ample supply of delicious food, scenic view, music, dances, games, sparkling beverages and loads of fun with friends and family members, is the basic idea of a good picnic. Excitement reverberates and laughter is exuberant. Messages traverse through the eyes of young couples and they sneak behind the thick trunks of trees or walk in the bushes, without looking back. While elders are having a heated discussion about religion or politics, youth pursues their passion and children play their games, angels wander in the sky to witness the exotic sight of fun and frolics. People remember such picnics for the rest of the life for some perfect moments.

The Devil has his own plan to prove that opposite of truth is not lie but another truth. Anything may happen during the brief spell. A child may slip in a lake while recovering his ball, a couple in the bush may get bitten by a snake, an old man may have a heart stroke, or thunder and rain may ruin the picnic. People for the rest of their lives regret such picnics.

“Be there a picnic for the devil,

an orgy for the satyr,

and a wedding for the bride.”

― Roman Payne, The Basement Trains

A picnic organised by the company or office is no picnic. The hierarchy of office staff is apparent at Picnic Spot. Bosses are on an ego trip and the young recruits laugh at middle executives. A true sycophant would always allow his boss to win the game. It is not a genuine picnic, its mockery of that.

A school picnic is a great fun. Teenagers usually have their first crush during a picnic. Hidden talents of their classmates impress them. A studious girl surprises her classmates as a good singer, a geek turns out to be the best drummer or a notorious drug addict puts his life at risk to save the life of a drowning girl.

Picnic in the school days is a dream comes true. The preparation of picnic is no lesser fun than the picnic itself. There is debate about almost every issue. The location of picnic is often from the list of popular sites. The girls discuss their attire while boys make plans for adventure sports.

To plan a picnic is like to plan the life. The essential components of a good picnic and a good life are same. The objective is fun, but not everyone achieves it. Some suffer a defeat by the rejection of their proposal to date; others might suffer a quarrel with a friend, or an injury while playing. The worst calamity is an abuse by a perverted teacher.

The word pique-nique is French in origin and was first used by Tony Willis in 1692. Lord Chesterfield introduced it in the English language in 1748. The French described it as a group of people dining in a restaurant who bring their own wine while in the English language; it was associated with card playing, drinking and conversation.

The best description of the picnic is in a Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald in 1120 ACE.

A book of verse beneath the bough,

A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness –

Ah, wilderness were paradise enow!

— The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

In Jane Austin’s novel Emma the “Box Hill Picnic”, was an utter failure. Everyone was disappointed for one reason or the other. Emma suffers a grave humiliation when reprimanded by Mr. Knightly for her misbehavior with Miss Bates. The atmosphere is of lassitude. There is a “want of spirits, a want of union, which could not be got over”. Nothing as vulgar as the consumption of food is alluded to, but one assumes it was on offer.

Frank Churchill said to Emma: "Our companions are excessively stupid. What shall we do to rouse them? Any nonsense will serve…" Excessively Stupid needs to be aroused without raising their suspicion.

Picnic like life is a combination of good and ridiculous.

The Telegraph in an article about picnics also makes a reference of Jane Austin days.

“The list of the best "food with a view" sites is part of a drive to encourage people to eat outdoors, as was the fashion in Jane Austen’s day.

Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust, said people are often nervous about the weather or wasps.

But she said picnics can be simple and healthy, and rather fun in the rain.”

“Picnics are something we're well known for in this country, but we don't need to wait for the summer sun to arrive. ” She said.

"Spring is finally here and we have our extra hour's daylight – it's a great time of year to head outdoors and enjoy food with a view.”

"Spending more time outside is also the perfect way to refresh and re-energise both body and mind.”

Virginia Woolf in her novel “To the Lighthouse” describes an unpretentious picnic in a boat within sight of the lighthouse and the novel’s closing pages. Mr Ramsay enjoys the simplicity of the fare: “Now he was happy, eating bread and cheese with these fishermen.”

Picnics are sensual in D.H.Lawrence's novel “Women in Love”. The nude dances in full moon by Ursula and in the rain by Coney (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) have remained controversial in the history of literature. The lakeside picnic in open air is an aphrodisiac. The complete the picnic Lawrence does not forget to mention the delicious winy cakes, caviar sandwiches and hard chocolates besides tea, cucumber, bread, cheese, raisins and apples.

Some schizoids love to picnic alone on a beach with a book, thermos filled with coffee, basket with enough food and drinks, a blanket and a beach towel. We may think that they are alone but the fact is that they are in the company of nature and like Wordsworth; they too believe that nature is not only alive but also endowed with a personality.

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Floating in The Vacuum With No Purpose

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 14:49:00 +0000

Floating in the vacuum with no purpose, not a one.

Why in the night sky are the lights on?

~ Fleet Foxes - Blue Spotted Tail

Floating is a perfect posture for the thinking mind. Floating is a mental state reached by practicing. Whatever you need for physical buoyancy, deep breathing, lungs full of air, more oxygen in the blood, relaxed body, the first thing for you is to believe that you can float.

The same is true with the life. The journey starts with a belief. If you believe you can, you can. Then you need a dose of oxygen, positive energy. An oxygenated mind is like fertile soil. The ideas germinate and find a purpose in the lights put on in the night sky, a purpose in every single breath that you inhale and exhale.

Buoyancy is a principle of Physics. It is just an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of an immersed object, or in other words, anything with higher density than water, will sink in water. The human body is naturally buoyant like all other animals, but they need to learn swimming. Most of other animals have a natural instinct to swim by keeping their nose above water. Mammalian Diving Reflexes, Vertical Anatomy of Ape, Guerrilla and Homo sapiens and Theory of Evolution are interesting attempts to understand this unresolved issue.

In the ocean of life, mind is under a weight of memories and past deeds, hope is the upward thrust required for buoyancy. Righteous deeds carry the consent of conscience and are light in gravity. Wrong deeds are conducted under temptation against the conscience, become heavy in gravity and cause a downward thrust. Every human being is a mix of these two streams. Wrong deeds or bad conduct creates hurdles in achieving the object of completeness. Complex situations are gifts of nature to advance evolution. Temptations have tendency to camouflage. Most of them elope when identified. Repentance is the hope of being forgiven.

"The highest type of man is he who effectively unites in himself the widest variety, complexity, and completeness of life."~ Spencer

Our Central Nervous System and Skeletal System are obsessed with specific gravity of the body. Salty water gives a buoyancy that makes our mind free to concentrate on other issues like elevation. Secretion of chemicals also determines the nature of our response. Adrenaline causes fear and extra glucose help to run or retort aggressively. However, by meditation the secretion of chemicals can also be controlled.

The human mind is said to be superior in the whole animal kingdom. Prenatal memories or memories of past incarnations are also possible. Man chases the secured buoyant life he had in the uterus. Right brain, which governs creativity and imagination is more active in a buoyant state. The homeostasis is ideal in a floating position, since external stimuli are at a minimum.

Buoyancy is bliss. We have arbitrary notions of progress that creates conflict in the mind. The Unknowable sets up a vacuum. Though acceptance of unknowable also implies that we have certain knowledge of the thing (Spencer). In the great sea of existence, we are a transient wave. The wave is an effort to restore the force of gravity.

Next time, when you are in water, seek buoyancy and float. Christ could walk on water. Many Buddhist monks walk on water, even today. Learn Buoyancy.

Letters to CC:

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Confessions of a Teenager

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 18:21:00 +0000

Butterflies can't see their wings. They can't see how truly beautiful they are, but everyone else can ~ Naya Rivera

Reflection On Perception: Photo By Ashu

I hate to look at myself in the mirror. I am not ugly. I look good. My mirror is perfect, but I am not. I do not like many mirrors in the house. I have kept only one, above the washbasin. People expect me to have at least one at this place. It depresses me. My day starts with a sigh of sorrow to face another day of self-deception.

My parents repeat the same sermons every morning as if it is great news. They think I am tactless. I believe what they say, though I do not know exactly what the meaning of tact is. I like the way I am, but the obsession of being tactful has made me ugly. Why all those who claim to love me, crave for my improved version. Why do they lack empathy if they are not narcissistic?

It is better to be ‘tactful evil’ than to be ‘tactless good’. They advise but do not clarify. I cannot be a puppet. I do not have any strings attached. Not even in my mind. I walk, sleep and wake up like a robot. Can you expect a robot to be tactful?

My well-wishers say, “You have talent, tactics can make you successful”. It may be another way to say that I am dumb, which I am not. I do not appease my parents, teachers and bosses by keeping a record of their birthday and marriage anniversary, nor do I play vice versa with my friends and colleagues. I can be as jubilant or sad as you can, without being verbose about it. You may find me a ‘good company’ even if I remain silent.

I perceive the things in fragments. I take time to visualize a concept in its totality. If people do not have patience, they walk away. I do not mind. I cannot proceed unless I am sure. I vouch for the Truth. Society does not appreciate the truth. They seek pieces of glass with diamond cut.

Tact bridges the gap between talent and success. Everyone has a different idea of success. Society approves people who chase prosperity, fame and status. It makes society indispensable. For me success is happiness, but I have no idea what makes me happy. The same things often have made me feel gloomy.

I want to spend time with innocent young people. I find them more creative than experienced, wiser people. They had had their life; I want to have my own. The hypocrite behavior of people around me is confusing, but ultimately I will find my way. May be not today, or tomorrow, but eventually, I will. I am not in a hurry. If time mould me to be one of them, I would commit suicide. However, I doubt if any of them have the courage to do so.

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The River is Everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 07:50:00 +0000

“The River is Everywhere.”

― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

CC at Ganges in Banaras

For long, long hour rain writes the story on the breast of the river. In different moods. Fast and slow, mild and fierce, stroke after strokes. Clouds feed the ink. Thunder claps, lightening cries. The story is tragic. The story is a comedy. The story is the story of life.

Rain stops writing. River is always flowing indifferently. Rain has writer's block. The boredom of repeating the words, which have no meaning. As purposeless as life. River has swelled. Like desires. She looked so thin and cute. She has crossed margins. Wayward flow of life.

River is older than civilization. Richer than Kings. More thoughtful than sages. She is also like an ignorant peasant youthful girl. It has reflections. The trees, cattle drinking water, or taking a bath, children ready to jump, blue sky, birds, clouds, the bridge everything is recorded on the breast of the river. But nothing remains forever. Every moment a new story is drafted with different characters. Continuity of flow causes stress. Every moment is a pull and push. The future becomes present and past at that single moment.

River has problems with ungrateful people. Those who take her for granted. Those who render her feel dirty and ugly. She silently seeks to teach them. They have inflated ego and swollen pride. They do not understand. Then river retorts. It is not an easy decision. She finds another path, her course. New terrain, new people. They welcome her with open arms. The abandoned path becomes barren. People beg for mercy. She does not listen. She can’t.

No other part of nature is dynamic like her. Nor so omnipresent. For the theist, she is symbolic of God, for an atheist, a friend. She prefers being friend rather than God. Friends do care. Theists have destroyed her. They are the enemy of civilization.

She sings beautiful songs, with blissful abundance. The rainbow plays the tune; birds chirp and wind create sound with the rustling of leaves. The symphony played in the orchestra of nature.

The river splits the world apart. On one end, are sensual on the other end, abstemious. Denial and acceptance are same for the river. River has bridges. Root bridges are hereby replaced by concrete bridges. The other side always is more enchanting. Bridges facilitate swift transformation, swimming across the river is a miracle.

Look at the face of the river. The turbulence is merely apparent. Deep down, she has reflection of your soul. It has many stories to share. She has ancient and modern stories in her treasure. You should have patience. Listen to them.

"I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers."

~KonaBody

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Action is Suffering, and Suffering is Action

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Sun, 24 Jul 2016 11:47:00 +0000

Right Deeds for the Wrong Reasons~ T. S. Eliot

Turbulent Sea & CC

Dear CC,

My heart bleeds when I think about your sufferings. Moreover, because I know that you are a kind of innocent girl. Even before you have reconciled with the grief, it strikes you again in some other form. Your determination melts like a cube of ice melts in hot summer. You said, "I never thought I would give in but he touched me the right way." It implies that you gave in because you were touched in the right way. Nothing else mattered for you. No emotions, no commitments are required. You have become an automated device that anybody with the correct password can operate.

You have literally shocked me out of breath by this message

"V**** Now I'm in Varanasi and everything is catching up to me I think and I'm tired. I can't think straight. I can't make decisions. I am short tempered and making everything so much more complicated than they have to be. I feel I can't trust anybody lately. I have been cheated too many times. So I feel resentful, dismissive. I can't sit still, so many things are playing on my mind but I'm numb. As vulnerable as ever. Recently I spent some time with an Indian boy. I never thought I would give in but he touched me the right way. He's married to a girl from Russia... Surprise, surprise, again, I'm the mistress."

Confusions and contradictions are the stepping stones to Truth. You said, "You need to hear the truth from me"; but I think you already know the truth. You only need my confirmation. I cannot confirm it for you. Buddha said, "Be your own lamp." If you wish to overlook the obvious, it is up to you.

Travel with caution. The journey on the path of Truth is not safe.

Cheating has many dimensions. The more you trust, the more vulnerable you are. To cheat in revenge is more heinous than to cheat on impulse. Those who do not cheat are only good liars. Simple or lovable liars. So far the relationship is mutually beneficial, we trust the lies. When we believe that it is over, we blame. Everyone is a cheater if the sequence of events is reversed and sensations are felt in space only.

Suppression makes us vulnerable. It works like a spring. You have to uncoil yourself from time to time. When you constantly avoid right people, you end up with the wrong kind of people. The right people are not persuasive, the wrong people are. Wrong people have expertise in exploiting the vulnerable people and situations. We need stronger will power to dissuade them.

Mistress is no longer a short-term relationship. It is also a sensible kind of relationship, which has all the benefits of marriage without being bondage. Mistresses have played a great role in history and literature. It is too early to confess and feel guilty of being a mistress. You do not confirm to the definition, think of something else.

This word is coined by patriarchal society to degrade the women who rebel against the middle class mentality and the norms of morality. It requires a lot of courage and strength of character to be a mistress. However, I am more intrigued when I imagine about the Russian wife of the Indian boy.

It could be a harsh thing for me to say, but make it sure that you are not taking a revenge of your father's deeds.

CC, don't burn yourself in the fire of your past. All the efforts that you do in order to come out of marsh drag you deeper. Remember what T. S. Eliot said " action is suffering, and suffering is action". All action leads to some kind of suffering, and then any efforts made to decrease suffering would only enhance it. Be kind to your sufferings CC, and endure them passively.

Just do not tease me. First, you went away when you could have stayed. Second, you stayed in a town so close to mine for long and did not accept my invitation. I am hurt, but I am not offended. I have patience. My virtues will be rewarded at the proper time.

So long.

You can come and stay here as long as you want. Right deeds for the wrong reasons are not appreciated. Do it for right reason, such as to collect your mojo.

Other letters:

Letter 4

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Isabel’s Dilemma in The Portrait of a Lady

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 18:45:00 +0000

What Women Look For In a Man?

Bathsheba Everdene is the main character in the novel by Thomas Hardy, “Far from the madding crowd” and Isabel Archer is the main character in the novel by Henry James “The portrait of a lady.”

In chapter 42 in "The Portrait of a Lady" Isabel introspects her life. Henry James has an intention to rationalise the act of Isabel. She is an epitome of American innocence struggling against European experience. However, the reader is hardly convinced, but the reflections of Isabel as the “central consciousness” to understand herself are honest. Isabel had three suitors, and she makes a wrong choice.

In “Far From the Madding Crowd” Bathsheba also had three suitors and she also makes a wrong decision. Isabel is educated aristocrate girl from US while Bathsheba is from the countryside of England called Wessex. Isabel selects Gilbert Osmond and Bathsheba opts for Sergeant Troy as their life partners. Osmond and Troy were already having an affair with the women of low stature, Merle and Fenny respectively.

What women look for in a man? Why a prudent pretty girl would make a wrong choice? No, they are not at fault. Osmond and Troy represent archetype 'sly and greedy male'. They know how to entice pretty and rich girls. They play romantic tricks to win the heart and squeeze the flesh and money out of their beloved. Both women felt immense pleasure in squandering their inherited fortune. The inheritance was a good gesture of some distant relative. It sat on their conscience, so they lavishly bestowed it on their Prince Charming. They did not care if their spouse gamble or buy a rare piece of art. Bathsheba in chapter xxv draws various conclusions. “Idiosyncrasy and vicissitude had combined to stamp Sergeant Troy as an exceptional being.” They believed every word their beloved spoke to flatter them. When all the money was exhausted the true characters of their beloved husbands were disclosed, but by that time, it was too late.

In the movie “Far from the madding crowd”, Bathsheba Everdene says, “It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language chiefly made by men to express theirs.” They are not a victim of destiny; they are victims of their frailty. Hamlet saw this frailty in his mother Gertrude when she chose a goat-man over a sun god.

The suffering of a woman who makes a wrong choice is an “active condition”. She has an urge to develop and beat the circumstances. She finds a way to get rid of the relationship that has become a burden. They cannot carry it forever. Feminine pride is distinct from masculine pride. Feminine pride is hidden underneath her “identity” and no woman compromises on that, even if her self-esteem is low due to an immoral act. Man’s pride is in “Self”. If his self-esteem is poor, he loses his pride. They reflect to consciousness in different ways, which defines the basic character.

Either we may presume about the author’s intention or we may draw our own conclusions. Ernest Hemingway probably had this view in mind when he wrote, "books should be judged by those who read them—not explained by the writer.” According to new criticism author’s real intention is to create a work of art and reader can draw his own interpretation (Wimsatt and Beardsley essay “intentional fallacy”). The author is dead once the book is completed. His opinion then is as good as that of others. Thomas Hardy and Henry James have already put their intention in their work. Reading literature is not an exercise to decipher the message of the author, but an experience to find the solution and perspective about the world around us. How does it matter if deceased cousin Minny Temple inspired the character of Isabel Archer?

Isabel conceives a deep mistrust for her husband. She is suffered by deception. She thought she could change-as he wanted. “She was, after all, herself- she couldn’t help that;” So she stops pretending.

A woman is obsessed to occupy the mind of the man she loves. A clever man pretends the privilege and defeats the objective. He is only interested in her pretty appearance and not her ideas. When a husband realises that he is unable to regulate the emotions of his wife, there is nothing left but to hate her. Therefore, Isabel generously renounces everything and goes to Rome, to look for answers.Henry James has left her heroine 'in the air'. The 'whole' of anything can never be told. According to Joseph Conrad, it makes the ending "life-like". Life itself is incomplete and inconclusive.

Thomas Hardy makes a happy ending.Bathsheba and Oak are together finally. James Wright says “The scheme is charmingly neat; it is satanically false to Hardy.”

Letter 4

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Soulmates at Crossroads

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 15:42:00 +0000

Men and women -- even man and wife are foreigners. ~ Mark Twain

cc at crossroads

Dear Ⓟ

You don’t conceal your mind. Not only me who has spent his life with you, but anybody would know about your feelings. You don’t say it in words, but everything is apparent by your gestures. And you dislike when any woman tries to be intimate with me. You have shown your attitude to such woman and frankly speaking, they found no reason to displease you. You are so cordial and submissive that nobody likes to hurt you for no reason. You demarcate your possessions precisely. I hope you remember the Italian girl Giovanna who was tactfully put off by you.

How much time is required when two persons living under the same roof would understand each other? It seems half century is not enough. The bond changes with time. Infatuation, emotions, passions and social-moral bonds traverse through different level of the psyche and consciousness on the path of marriage. When we reach to a conclusion, something happens to shake the foundation of our belief. We are left flabbergasted. I never claimed that I understand you, but at the same time, you were no stranger to me. Simplicity is a dangerous weapon. Innocents have hurt more people than crooks.

What is the saturation point of love? What is the beginning, middle and end of it? I do not know. Nor can I classify my certain emotions as love. I open my heart to every good listener. I love telling stories with wit, sarcasm and humor. I laugh heartily. I earn admiration or sympathy at my will. A negative catalyst can stop this chemical reaction at any time. Why not enjoy the ride while on it?

We were not sure about the destination when we began our journey. Retrospectively, I have no reason to doubt that everything happened for some reason. Some lessons were cheap, others were trifle at great prices. You can’t learn every lesson at the right price. Life is not mathematics, nor it is a business. I found you in a labyrinth and thought you too were lost like me, but now I realize a pattern in it. We spent our life in the labyrinth, but the passage appeared new every time. So I say benefit of experience is limited. Even in the same situation, same option would give different results. Boredom was kept away by the newness in the appearance of the passage, but weariness found its way into the soul. You were cheerful and I was melancholic when we reached to the opening of the labyrinth. May be I had started enjoying the confusions it offered. Or maybe I enjoyed your company in the solitude.

I asked CC what does she think about our relationship. To be precise I asked her, “Do you think I love P_.” You know what was her answer. She said “I see there is respect”. Then she pondered, got perplexed and nodded her head vigorously. She wanted to say something specific, but was hesitant. Ultimately, she said, “Don’t ask me such question, I am confused”. I wanted her opinion since she was good at analysis. I have never asked this question to anybody else, including myself. She has been on her own in this wide, wild world since her early teens. She got her education in the school of the world, which even the best universities do not teach.

If love does not become respect with the passage of time, it is lost. When passions are turned into embers, the companionship keeps the fire alive. Her observation was perfect. Love is not a possession. Love is freedom from bondage. Sometimes I feel like a cage-bird, but I am as addicted to cage as I was to the labyrinth. The security and care are my rewards. Adolescent crisis, Mid-Life crisis and Later-Life crisis is caused by a shift in roles. At the junction you have to play two roles. The commitment to role playing also strengthened our relationship.

It is hard to understand why a man would drop his wife for another younger woman, especially when he is the father of her children. The woman who gave him moral support during his early struggles in career, is deprived of the fruits of his success. He makes financial provisions for his wife and children, but has no time to share emotions with them. I think it is a crime, not only against his wife and children, but against the entire humanity. You cannot lust like animals, when you are supposed to act humane. The sufferings of women are universal. It needs no language, to communicate. They just know when they meet. Why a happy woman should feel guilty for the sufferings of another woman? Because she knows her happiness is temporary.

CC grew up under the cries and moans of her mother. She grew up fighting her insecurities. She loved her father. He had all those qualities, which made her proud of him. In a way, she was of opinion that it was the fault of her mother that she could not keep him happy and contended. She was scared to live life of her mother, so she became melancholic, while her own spirit wanted to be cheerful. So she escaped. Her whole journey is an escape. But she is not running away from a place or people, she is running away from her own self. That is not easy. The past haunts until you decide to confront it. Face to face. It tormented her and made her cry, but she cried on her own, like a brave girl. I hate people who need a shoulder to cry.

CC shared many things with me, which I can’t share with you. That would be a breach of trust. Once, after an intimate conversation she said "I think I should not have told you these things. This is usually shared between two women.” I was happy that she talked with me as she would talk to a woman. If I have that much feminine in me, then my soul can dance in ecstasy.

You like normal, decent people, because you live a normal decent life. You shove the things under the carpet. I appreciate this kind of life. You are like an anchor to my comfort zone. When my ship is on the High Seas, it faces the storm bravely. You are my strength. I falter, but I falter to rise again with more determination. Every war has made me stronger and indefatigable.

After CC, Jenny came. Being Asian she had better adaptations. She had locked her past and had thrown the keys in the ocean. (She lived on a yacht as crew). She is ambitious and cannot afford to be emotional. Every traveler has his own search; they find glimpses of it in our home. We live a museum life. Jenny did not find anything interesting in our home. My conversation with her was many times sarcastic. She was hurt by my remarks about her small boobs. She had laughed and pulled her T Shirt forward and peeked inside as if to confirm. I love when people can take even a silly joke in spirit.

You might be bored by now; I will tell you more in my next letter.

Yours

VBG

Letter 3
Letter 5

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Immanence and Transcendence in Literature

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 11:15:00 +0000

When there is no belief in soul, there is very little drama.

~Flanner O'Connor

Thomas Hardy and Edmund Husserl (wiki)

Immanent means 'indwelling' or 'inherent'. Beauty is not something imposed, but something immanent — Anthony Burgess. Spinoza and Husserl, who influenced Wordsworth, Shelley, George Eliot and Beckett gave signs of the Theory of Immanence. Edmund Husserl was of the view that realities must be treated as pure phenomenon. Everything that is not immanent to consciousness must be ruled out. There is no fundamental substrate reality other than what it appears to us. Thus, sign for the object and the object itself are perhaps one and the same thing. Likewise, Spinoza says the sign is immanent to substance. The implication of this postulate on English literature is taking us in a new direction, where, despite the philosophy the story would be interesting. Literature would incorporate political. Scientific and social advancement in the core to present an expanded homogenous vision of the universe.

The effect is inherent in the cause. The interpretation of the effect is limited by comprehension and stands at an uncertain point in time and space. To establish certainty we must ignore everything that is beyond our immediate experience. Transcendence is extra objective experience. It is possible due to the causal link between objective immanence and transcendence. In Swastika (Hindu Sign), there is a juxtaposition of immanence and transcendence. The horizontal line represents the immanent which results in “Knowing” and vertical line represents transcendence which results in “Being”.

Thomas Hardy had a conflict of fatalism and determinism in his work. The elements and unstructured forces of nature are unscrupulously appropriated and misused by man. God created country man created town. William Patrick has explored the extraordinary out of the ordinary in the Tree of Man. The woman is a dangerous natural force and is potentially violent. She represents male inadequacies and fears and in future would shape the destiny of our planet by Immanent Will. 'Immanent will' manifest itself in many ways. Woman is one of them.

Nature acts as setting for those who live a life in perfect harmony with it. The Light, Inertia and Action are the three elements of nature according to Indian philosophy. They have a tendency towards harmony and balance. When we become an instrument of imbalance, the nature plays the role of actor and restores the balance at our cost. Not only one gets what he deserves, but deserves what he gets.

When a writer is in harmony with nature, he does not make any effort to reflect divinity in his work. The divinity pervades the entire cosmos and it automatically transcends into his work. The extraordinary emerges out of the ordinary. And the reader may have extra objective transcendental experience which writer had while writing the book. Life and Death are part of the same 'plane immanence' (Deleuze) so it is not necessary to conclude a story.

Existence of Moral Universe leads to Immanent Justice. Every negative experience is punishment for prior misdeeds. Prior may also mean the prior birth. Plato believed in the Myth of Er in the conclusion of the Republic. This is an account of 'afterlife' experiences of a soldier who died in a war. Hermeneutics sees “interpretation as a circular process whereby the valid interpretation can be achieved by a sustained, mutually qualifying interplay between our progressive sense of the whole and our retrospective understanding of its component parts”. Can we presume that human intellect is progressive? Exposure to knowledge does not sharpen the intellect. The author's intent is not immanent since it has determinants and the reader must experience the inner life of the text to understand and interpret it. Thus, all interpretation would be relative.

Immanent may remain dormant and fossilised as a perspective for a long time and may reveal and manifest itself in an encounter. It may take other centuries when that perspective will be socially acceptable.

If literature is examined and interpreted through the lens of immanence, a new kind of divine message can be read which could shape our destiny.

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The Alien Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 16:35:00 +0000

Forbidden Navel Show

Jenny The Alien Girl

Dear Jenny,

I would have never come to know that you are an alien, if the topic of a navel show would not have crept up while discussing why people love to post photos of their feet. Your theory that “I am not in the mood to show you my face, see my feet”. I agree to it. I prefer that you have to begin with the feet on a vertical journey at my body. It’s a message, I am proud of my feet; they take me places. Whatever, my suggestion was that the navel is the only source of prenatal existence and we should proudly display it to remind that our microcosm has a definite relationship with macrocosm. The navel has many shapes and is an index of the mind. Decoration of the navel by tattoo and pierce rings is therapeutic. A proud declaration of existence in an otherwise a meaningless and purposeless life. I requested you to show me your navel. Initially you were shy and tried to laugh it off, but when I insisted you declared that you don’t have any navel since you were an alien. It was a shock for me. You were earnest in your declaration. Everything started falling in place and a complicated puzzle was solved. From the very beginning, I was skeptic about your human form.

You were mysterious from the very first day. You had already left a house without saying goodbye, just because you could read the mind of your host. That was your first alien quality I noticed. After that when I told you about CC and you could presume everything that happened between her and me. You quickly explored CC and found everything about her. I just do not much care about the past of a person, nor I am good like you in drawing conclusions based on casual remarks posted on social websites. Though I admit that all these things have a bearing upon us and nothing happens without a reason. Only an alien could be that potential geek.

When I asked your opinion about the CC’s remark in her letter that she wrote to me “Oh V-, you are not just a good man”, you were hesitant to accept that it was meant to be a compliment. You were fishing for some covert negative meaning in it. I believe in intuition, though you are suspicious almost about everything. It is nice to start a relationship with an element of doubt at every step till the person proves himself trustworthy. I usually do not bother about other’s opinion and act as natural self. You had no reason to trust me moreover; you had recently met an unpleasant situation with another man. It did not put myself under any pressure to act differently than normal self. People are so accustomed to artificial life that anything natural upsets them. Can it be my fault?

I do not know what else am, if I am not just a good man. Jenny I asked you also, but you preferred to remain silent. Being an alien you had some mechanism to dissect the human behaviour by primordial genetic code. You must have been surprised to read my genetic code. It has been mutated by my “will to power”. That makes me a good man without any conditioning of the mind. But you know what, I am sick of being known as a good man. It stops me from freedom of choice to be a bad man. Good men are the big losers.

In the cave temple you were under trance. Apparently, you were communicating with some other world. While returning from the cave temple we did not speak a single word. Your alien character was obvious and I was suddenly happy in your company. Tranquility was communicated. Our plan of revenge had evaporated and aggression had diluted.

You were constantly making me think of CC. Once you told that, you would trail her and meet her. If you do so, I will be grateful to you. I want your perspective about everything. You have a comprehensive approach in analysis like an author. I am not just curious to know everything, but I also hang on your opinion like a thread of breath. You look at our life as if you are viewing a video game. This kind of mechanical neutrality is disquieting for most of the mankind. I think I appreciate it. I believe in the mechanism and eventual failure of it.

Live long, as if you have nothing else to do.

VBG

Letter 4
Letter 5

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Perspectivism and Documentary Objectivity

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 10:58:00 +0000

Art is twice removed from reality ~Plato

Painting By Christine Cormier

If art is an imitation of an imitation, since all objects are imitation, approximation, or instantiation of an ideal form, no Truth that finds its way by any means of expression is an absolute Truth. Hence, we agree with Nietzsche “all ideations take place from particular perspectives.” That is why Objectivism of Ayn Rand that reality exists independent of human consciousness and is perceivable through sense organs is not tenable.

Kim Voynar says “Are documentaries journalism or storytelling, feature-length beat reporting, op-Ed or color commentary — or some combination of those, or even none of the above? Is it necessary for a filmmaker to capture both sides of a given story to be fully objective? And if a documentary filmmaker unabashedly focuses his lens only on the moments or interview bytes that tell the story he wants to tell — or that his subjects want to tell — has he made what can be objectively called a documentary, or has he made propaganda promoting a particular cause or idea?”

Documentary filmmakers are in the same palisade as writers. The dilemma of Non-Fiction writers is greater due to the onus of citations. Perspectivism is the rejection of dogmatism, which has infected literature several times in its history. It refrains writers from being didactic and could help in creating a legislation for mankind, which does not draw a line between ‘ Art for art's sake’ and ‘art with a purpose’.

Even if we forget about gaps in signifier and signified and read a story objectively, it is not possible to overlook emotional perspectives. Who can read Anna Karenina without walking across the boundaries of gender and nations? Even than how you perceive Anna is a perspective, and no two individuals have the same perspectives.

Even Imagist and Impressionist are not able to do justice with images and impressions, since by the time an image is perceived and interpreted by the mind, and the writer decides to pen it down, it has changed a thousand times. Moreover, images and impressions pass through a sieve of the subconscious and unconscious and get tainted. The stream is linear while water drops are spherical or oval, so the flow is only apparent. Virtually, only half of it is content and rest half is a void filled by the imagination. Even if it is an enlightenment, which has occurred after contemplation, description will be of the rays that are made of photons. This incompleteness of expression is three-dimensional. The panorama, the vision and the depth of the human psyche are infinite and human perception is finite. Writers often confuse the sense of time with a sense of duration. It could be interesting to compare Bergson with Nagaarjuna’s theories when they define the time and duration. The eastern Momentism (Buddhist) is more scientific in approach. Can moment be further divided into beginning, middle and an end?

To create art for art's sake is also a purpose. When art is not kinetic, it compels the intellect for contemplation. Contemplation leads to self-realization, which is the sole objective of human existence. The intellect that defines the purpose of human existence is not a ‘snob intellect’, but a pure ‘intellect’. The prosthetic senses have limitation of perception. The empirical world consists of many layers like an onion and writers strive to reach the core. Writers who reach closer to the core create the immortal legislation of humankind.

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So It Was Not A Goodbye

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Sat, 28 May 2016 03:01:00 +0000

The Divine Experiment

Photo By CC: Void To Void

C_C,

Every end has a new beginning. I bid you a farewell. Thought, you will be lost in the mist and clouds of Himalayan Valley, and the world beyond that. We have departed never to meet again. Though this thought was depressing, but I had reconciled with it. I never look back, nor do I chase shadows. I just keep on walking in the opposite direction until everything stops making sense. I have deliberately separated your initials by a space, a void or rather a subtle void in between your initials. You are an illusion and reality at the same time. Once you were a reality, now you are an illusion.

I said to you few shocking things. Whatever I told you, my intentions were good. A man needs to be judged by intentions. My intention was to heal a bruised soul. A pure and divine soul, which was a victim of the callous world. Tears wash the stains of the soul. You said ‘you learned from me’, and you know what ‘I unlearned from you’. My learning had made me complicated, dubious and rational, which consumed my vital forces. Then I met you, a breath of fresh air. At first sight, I felt no vibration. You appeared just like any other Western girl looking for the solution of personal riddles in the mystic land. There is special providence in the fall of Sparrow (Shakespeare). The fresh air had touched my skin to penetrate deep and affect my psyche. I started unlearning. Will you be surprised if I tell you that now I am on the path of simplicity, faith and intuition. My intellect has deceived me. Now I need to ensure that intellect was the real cause of my void.

Respect is not important. You always need a reason to respect somebody. But you can love anybody without a reason. Learning weaved a web around the senses and reduces perception. Love is that magic which breaks the talisman of flesh and makes you see things with feelings. That kind of unconditional love, a panacea of all suffering, evaporates like camphor in the heat of a ruthless world. You have hidden that love in the secret crevices of your heart and sometimes it overflows and soaks a deprived soul, just like an aimless drifting cloud of valley soaks a wanderer for nothing.

You need not to be grateful to anybody. Rather, people should be grateful to you for being around. As I am. If people are disappointed in you, it is their problem. They are greedy and want more, while you have already given more than they deserve. Forgive and forget them. They are normal selfish people who value a thing only when it has slipped out of their hand.

You wrote, “Also, some things you said..maybe I should have said something and I didn’t”. That makes you more beautiful as a person and as a human being. In these two dots followed by ‘maybe’ is the secret of the universe. This kind of silent conversation is the strength of any relationship. It is good to leave things unsaid. Conscience doesn’t permit us to be judgmental.

You are warm, as warm as cozy blanket you are wrapped up in the valley of Himalaya, right now. I would pity the person who does not find you warm. Why should you bother for such kind of insensitive person?

This whole gambit is no experiment. It is a divine plan. We cannot always make things happen. Sometimes they just do happen to us. Your smile is very precious CC, smile if it makes you happy to think that the entire episode was an experiment, but rest assured it was a divine experiment.

Ciao

VBG

Letter 3
Letter 4
Letter 5

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Great Expectations By Charles Dickens and Coolie By M.R. Anand

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Sun, 22 May 2016 17:05:00 +0000

Is Munoo an Incarnation of Pip?

Pip at Estella's House

Mulk Raj Anand is a distinguished Indian writer in English. His work reflects social and economic concerns of the oppressed class of society. That results into injustice, class conflicts, and exploitation of the poor people by rich etc. Coolie is a novel first published in the year 1936. It is the life story of an orphan Munoo, a 14-year-old hill boy and his various kinds of exploitations as the underdog in the society.

The novel is a panorama of Indian Society during the British Regime. The poverty and hunger across the various cross section of society in rural and urban area, evils of rapid industrialisation, consequential trade unrest and communalism due to British Policy in India and snobbish behaviour of Britishers in India is painted over the entire canvas of the novel.

Munoo is the hero of the novel. He is a victim of exploitation by relatives, employers and benefactors. Munoo is ill treated by his aunt, sent to work as a domestic servant in the house of a Bank cashier, suffers severe thrashing abuses and tortures finally runs away to another city. Works in a pickle factory, exploited by the Manager, the owner goes bankrupt and Munoo becomes a freelance coolie. Chasing mirage, he goes to Mumbai, where extreme torture and harassment awaits him as a child laborer in a cotton mill. He escapes a communal riot and an Anglo-Indian lady takes her to Shimla. He is physically and morally exploited until he suffers consumption and dies. The details about family background of Mrs. Mainwaring is unnecessary and uninteresting. Anand wanted to entertain his European audience by padding. He miserably destroyed the flow of the novel.

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens first published in the year 1861. Charles himself had a troubled childhood and his descriptions of suffering and exploitations are more genuine and heart touching. Pip is the central character of the novel. He is 8 years old orphan living with abusive sister and kindhearted brother-in-law. He is taken to the house of a cynical rich lady living with her adopted daughter. He helps a criminal under threat, who in turn arranges education of Pip through an attorney in London. Pip reaches London, is disillusioned when comes to know about benefactor, and comes back to Kent and finds his first love, waiting for him.

Charles Dickens had to work in Blacking Factory when his was father was in Debtor’s Jail. Mulk Raj Anand was born in a well to do family and received his higher education in England.

Pip and Munoo, both are orphans. Both are ill-treated and abused by relatives in childhood. An orphan child is an economic burden on the poor families, whether it is England or India. Society of England and India are patriarchal, but in domestic matters, the will of Lady of the house prevails. Pip is ill treated by his own sister Mrs. Joe and Munoo by his aunt. Pip’s first encounter with the opposite sex happens with Estella, and Munoo is enchanted by Sheila, the elder daughter of Bank cashier Nathooram. Estella slaps and rebukes Pip, Munoo bites the cheeks of Sheila, who teases him for banana while playing a monkey game. Pip determines to win the love of Estella, Munoo runs away, never to see Sheila again.

Pip reaches London, Munoo to Mumbai. This is turning point in both the novels. So far, both the novels cover the wide spectrum of society and can be called picaresque, but growth of Pip as an individual after every incident is remarkable, while Munoo remains the victim of drudgery his whole life. Pip is a round character while Munoo is a flat character. Great Expectations is an example of the Bildungsroman, Coolie is not.

Both the novels have female characters, but their relationship with the main characters has been left to the imagination of readers. Lakshmi, wife of Hari, and Mrs. Mainwaring soothes or inflame Munoo’s desires, while Estella and Biddy do the same for Pip.

Charles Dickens changed the end of the novel on the recommendation of Bulwer Lytton. Pip meets Estella at the end of the novel; Munoo finds solace in the arms of death, the eternal bride of sufferers.

Comparatively Munoo is a second-rate version of Pip.

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Goodbye Letter To CC

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Thu, 19 May 2016 06:00:00 +0000

We look before and after, And pine for what is not. ~Shelley

Dear C_C

I worship, suffering. Especially when it comes from my own beloved people. I wonder on the means of my sufferings, because the causes are universal. Like all other human beings, I too have expectations and attachment. Therefore, I never presume my life to be devoid of suffering.

When our relationship was caught in an ennui, I knew either of us would take a step to terminate it. One with more self esteem would take a lead. So it had to be you. Being a good friend of the mirror, I knew almost everything about me. I do not know how people who have scarcely met me a few times or for a few days, claim to know more about me. Even you, not because you had other priorities, but because of your innocence, ignored what was vital to our relationship. Your moves and gestures betrayed what was going in your mind.

I refused to be a nucleus of your life, just because it would have killed either of us. There is no doubt that my suffering is due to my habit of seeing you around. First, you made yourself indispensable and then you walked away just like that.

I cherish this suffering and I would not be scared if happiness knocks at my door again and then leave me more bruised and hurt. I have surfed on the waves by choice. Sea has his own way of reciprocating love. Just like you. I really want a big wave to finish the story. To die choked by water and being eaten up by fishes. Life may be purposeless, but not the death.

Your intellectualism did not permit me to call you by any pet names. I know you hate being called ‘Darling”. I too think it to be obscene. But I do not understand why you always spoke in masculine gender. Why you were afraid of accepting your femininity? Innocence and insecurity go together, except in children. Even experience does not make you mature, otherwise you would not have made the same mistakes so many times. Maturity is just another name of cunnings. I can never fall in love with a cunning girl.

You always pretend to be a strong girl. Sometimes I could look into your eyes and know that you have cried. Crying is not a weakness, only strong persons are not afraid of crying. Your heart is butter, I have felt its smoothness, it melts even by little warmth, catches fire and gives burns.

Thankfully, we were honest with each other. Though both of us exaggerated while recollecting past. May be because we loved melodrama. Even we departed in a dramatic way. You said, “It does not matter, I go this way or that way”. Your kit was on my porch even though I had requested you to stay. For a moment, I thought you were playing a game. I immediately felt guilty to doubt your intentions. Your eyes were clear and honest. It really did not matter for you at that fraction of a moment. I knew what was best for you. To move. You have to melt tones of ice, before you could breathe normally. I bid you farewell with a heavy heart. Not even a goodbye kiss. I was afraid.

I still laugh when I remember how easily you accused me. You said you feel insecure of sexual assault with me and I refrained you from projecting your dirty mind on my character. Did you really think I could molest you? You are tempting, no doubt, but I have nothing to gain and much to lose. Though once or twice, I crossed the line and could feel your discomfort.

You have wonderful art of telling stories. But I am also worried about the way you tell a story. You are intense and sensitive. You relive every moment while telling a story. No CC No. You have to detach and look at your past objectively. You have set your feet for a long journey, don’t change your path for trivial emotions. I miss you, so many people miss you. You also miss many of us; we are at your back. You are safe even if you fall back, but we all pray that you never fall back.

Adieu

VBG

Letter 3
Letter 4
Letter 5

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The Charisma of Epistolary Novels

noreply@blogger.com (Vipin Behari Goyal) — Sun, 15 May 2016 09:38:00 +0000

Victor Hugo: "?" Publisher: "!"

Letter writing has become obsolete. Blogs have replaced diaries. Pamela

; or, Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson in 1740. Epistolary novels is a novel written as a series of documents. The documents may be letters, diary entries, newspaper clipping, doctor’s note, ship’s Log, telegrams or e-documents such as messages, emails, blogs, graphics, emoticons etc.

Third person omniscient point of view narration in which the narrator knows everything like God, the future course of events and even what is going on in the mind of every character. The narrator has the option to be objective or subjective. If he chooses to comment and evaluate the action and motives of the character, he is an intrusive narrator. This form has remained popular amongst all the great novelists such as Fielding, Austen, Dickens, Hardy and Dostoevsky.

Even before Samuel Richardson published Pamela, Aphra Behn a British Playwright published three volumes of “Love Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister” in the year 1685. It was based on a scandalous affair between Lord Ford and his Sister in Law, Henrietta.

Epistolary became a popular genre all over Europe during 18 Century. Henry Fielding wrote a pamphlet anonymously “An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews” (1741) to ridicule the Pamela. His most famous work “The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams” begins as burlesque, but soon takes a form of “comic epic poem in prose”. This is supposed to be first authentic novel of English, despite the work of Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift and Richardson. Walter Scott called Henry Fielding the “Father of The English Novels” due to the theories given by Fielding in the forward of his novels Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones and Amelia.

Samuel Richardson learned the art of epistolary in his boyhood. He was often employed by less educated working girls to write love letters for them. Richardson had a natural talent of letter writing, and heard the sentiments of cupid stricken girls with great awe and admiration. The experience helped him in writing first famous book “Pamela”. It became so popular in England that this novel was found in the bag of every school and college going girl to pose that they too are virtuous like Pamela, have high morals and do not come under temptation.

Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker in their novels “Frankstein” and “Dracula” have made successful use of the epistolary form with wider applicability.

“The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank was published posthumously, by her father. It is not a work of imagination. It is the true story of the sufferings of Anne Frank a Jewish girl victim of holocaust.

Saul Bellow’s “Herzog” and Stephan Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a wallflower” are most admired modern fiction. In “Color Purple” Alice Walker and “, The White Tiger” by Arvind Adiga are highly acclaimed by critics.

Epistolary has a history of glorious three hundred years. It seems that this genre would never be obsolete in literature lovers.

It is a unique experience of direct, intimate relationship between reader and protagonist. The faith and trust generated by bondage help the protagonist in revealing 'step by step' the inner most secret thoughts. Reader devour it like a 'stolen apple' since the letters are mostly not addressed to him. He finds pleasure in peeping into other’s lives. The diary is also a personal document where a writer can take full liberty in expressing his views creating an illusion of realism. The reader is tickled by a curiosity which is an impure form of imagination.

Since the authority of the author is lacking due to his choice of remaining unintrusive, the reader is free to make his own interpretation of the situation and action taking place in the novel. The moral conclusion, if any are to be drawn by the reader himself.

It is not necessary that letters would be posted. They may be a tool to keep the memories alive of a deceased person, or a past relationship. One could be honest and introspective in such letters. If letters are to be delivered to the person they are addressed, the narration may camouflage the emotions and events. Letters are expanded communication, to say something which you primarily could not communicate.

If the diary writer observed a chronology and on many days, nothing worth mention happened, later when publishing the diary comes to know about something happened during that time, or when publishing wants to retrospectively comment on the occurrence of events on a particular date has a poetic liberty to do so. Read Maya's Diary.