On a given day if Tendulkar and Lara are in full form then I would choose Lara over Tendulkar.
There is something about Brian Lara’s batting that is slightly fictionalized – high back-lift, exaggerated movements in the crease, great flourish of the bat and his other mannerisms. When he plays his typical west-Indian pull, it reminds of a statue of Nataraj I had in my house in a dance pose. When on song, Lara is a like a performer on stage. Tendulkar on the other hand is all about precision – he is like that magnificent Swiss watch that never goes out of style or out of order. Lara’s beauty lies in his abundance and exaggeration, Tendulkar’s class reflects in the scarcity of movement.
Now the same thing can be applied to writing as well, isn’t it?
In the world of books I have come across three Brian Lara’s which I like – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Orhan Pamuk and Vladimir Nabokov. All of them are brilliant wordsmiths, extravagant with adjectives, words and descriptiveness. They smother you with beautiful words and take you to an entirely different realm.
But then there is a Sachin Tendulkar as well – John Maxwell Coetzee.
The first JMC book I read was ‘Disgrace’ (Booker Prize winner for the year 1999). It’s a story of a professor and his subsequent moral and social fall following an affair with a student. My early interpretations of the book were very simple. Its socio-politic impacts and the psyche behind it totally eluded me. The book was precise, dry and to-the-point kind of; if Ayn Rand’s assumes a confident tone in her books, JMC’s flavor is ‘Arrogance’.
As I went on to a read a literary dissertation on ‘Disgrace’ I was introduced to the various other finer points which I could not understand on my own. The most notable point was that of an intellectual man whose intellect is stifled. This is something which I observed in his another book ‘Waiting for Barbarians’ as well. JMC is a South-African by nationality and ‘Disgrace’ is set in post-apartheid South Africa. The book echoes of the impact of the new political conditions in South Africa. In his other book ‘Waiting for Barbarians’, yet again JMC explores the relationship between a man and government. After reading ‘Disgrace’ I could not help wondering whether the disgrace was implied at the political status of SA in the year 1999.
A lot of authors have their protagonists with similar kind of traits and the story is then built around them. A JMC lead is a sort of a misfit. David Lurie in ‘Disgrace’ is a professor of Romantic Poetry but he teaches ‘Communication Skills’ in the University of Cape Town, the magistrate in ‘Waiting for Barbarians’ is a man of intellectual choice and sensibilities yet he is working for a tyrannical empire. It would appear to me that these are reflections of Mr. JMC himself. JMC is notorious for his reclusiveness. He did not turn up to receive booker prizes for ‘Disgrace’ and also for ‘Life and Times of Michael K’. So much so, that for a noble acceptance speech Mr.JMC narrated an elliptical story (whose meaning and significance still eludes me). The story is titled ‘He and His man’- I think it is quite self-explanatory.
May be Mr.JMC sees himself as a misfit in the world which is around him? My guess on Mr. JMC’s personality was bolstered when I read his semi-autobiographical book ‘Youth’. The most startling point of the book being its honesty and as usual a language drained out of adjectives or floweriness of any kind.
It is the misfit-syndrome of Mr. JMC gives him a great power as an author. His books have a profound impact on the reader but they always keep you detached. You can ‘admire’ a JMC novel but you can never ‘fall in love’ with it. His detachment with almost everything in his book allows him to be honest and impartial. In ‘Youth’ (although the memoir is slightly fictionalized) the awkwardness of JMC, his inability to carry out small talks or for that matter to be with a women who can inflame his passion is visible and very honest.
JMC has a very interesting take on physical relations as well. He sees the activity as a basic human need. Be it David Lurie in ‘Disgrace’ or the magistrate in ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ their physical activities are driven by very primal instincts and often there is a deep sense of shame after the act is finished.
Sometimes I’m tempted to put myself in the shoes of a famous writer and think like them and I always think that they should show off their skill with an extravaganza of words, like a rich man throwing a grand party. I cannot imagine how someone like JMC be so mercilessly exacting with words but then I remember Sachin Tendulkar, instead of going down the track and smashing the bowler for a boundary he stays at the crease and played a little paddle sweep – the result is just as favorable and beautiful.
I believe that somewhere his perfect language brings out a great loneliness in the characters. He does not adorn the solitude with despairing words but his portrayal of a man of stifled intellect, a misfit brings out a deep sense of isolation. When I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s books I feel the same sense of solitude but then its solitude of different kind – it is about a person away from his motherland and finding his feet in an alien culture. In Ang Lee’s much acclaimed ‘Brokeback Mountain’ the vast landscapes bring out the loneliness of the two protagonists but again their alienation is sexual. But with JMC, the sense of isolation is very personal and sad. His ability of evoke a feeling is very subtle and polished.
A deviation from his normal themes of man versus government, or the fall of man from a stature can be found in his book ‘Youth’. In this book we see the early JMC, just out of college and struggling as an author – he finds his own poetry worthless and chooses prose. His early realizations on art and its inception in human mind are quite moving, in his own self-apologetic and dry manner he takes us through his tryst as a writer.
An interesting question that came to my mind while writing this piece is that can someone like JMC inspire a budding writer? And the answer which I found was NO. I believe an amateur writer would be far more impressed by the flowery language and the fragrant adjectives, JMC is not meant to be for inspiration, I think that it is impossible to reach his level of detachment and honesty when you are writing (and that too about yourself).
I have long believed that there is a silent man which resides in all of us (no gender biasness intended when I use the word ‘man’). He is the person who is standing on the bylines and is watching every act of ours – he does not speak a lot but he is observing everything. He knows what is right, he knows what is wrong. He is honest, impartial and critical. For me, that person is JMC is that silent man, not only it matches with his persona in real life but somewhere in his books as well he is that silent man – enduring everything quietly, being perfectly honest and deprived of all the nonsensical emotions.
There is something about Brian Lara’s batting that is slightly fictionalized – high back-lift, exaggerated movements in the crease, great flourish of the bat and his other mannerisms. When he plays his typical west-Indian pull, it reminds of a statue of Nataraj I had in my house in a dance pose. When on song, Lara is a like a performer on stage. Tendulkar on the other hand is all about precision – he is like that magnificent Swiss watch that never goes out of style or out of order. Lara’s beauty lies in his abundance and exaggeration, Tendulkar’s class reflects in the scarcity of movement.
Now the same thing can be applied to writing as well, isn’t it?
In the world of books I have come across three Brian Lara’s which I like – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Orhan Pamuk and Vladimir Nabokov. All of them are brilliant wordsmiths, extravagant with adjectives, words and descriptiveness. They smother you with beautiful words and take you to an entirely different realm.
But then there is a Sachin Tendulkar as well – John Maxwell Coetzee.
The first JMC book I read was ‘Disgrace’ (Booker Prize winner for the year 1999). It’s a story of a professor and his subsequent moral and social fall following an affair with a student. My early interpretations of the book were very simple. Its socio-politic impacts and the psyche behind it totally eluded me. The book was precise, dry and to-the-point kind of; if Ayn Rand’s assumes a confident tone in her books, JMC’s flavor is ‘Arrogance’.
As I went on to a read a literary dissertation on ‘Disgrace’ I was introduced to the various other finer points which I could not understand on my own. The most notable point was that of an intellectual man whose intellect is stifled. This is something which I observed in his another book ‘Waiting for Barbarians’ as well. JMC is a South-African by nationality and ‘Disgrace’ is set in post-apartheid South Africa. The book echoes of the impact of the new political conditions in South Africa. In his other book ‘Waiting for Barbarians’, yet again JMC explores the relationship between a man and government. After reading ‘Disgrace’ I could not help wondering whether the disgrace was implied at the political status of SA in the year 1999.
A lot of authors have their protagonists with similar kind of traits and the story is then built around them. A JMC lead is a sort of a misfit. David Lurie in ‘Disgrace’ is a professor of Romantic Poetry but he teaches ‘Communication Skills’ in the University of Cape Town, the magistrate in ‘Waiting for Barbarians’ is a man of intellectual choice and sensibilities yet he is working for a tyrannical empire. It would appear to me that these are reflections of Mr. JMC himself. JMC is notorious for his reclusiveness. He did not turn up to receive booker prizes for ‘Disgrace’ and also for ‘Life and Times of Michael K’. So much so, that for a noble acceptance speech Mr.JMC narrated an elliptical story (whose meaning and significance still eludes me). The story is titled ‘He and His man’- I think it is quite self-explanatory.
May be Mr.JMC sees himself as a misfit in the world which is around him? My guess on Mr. JMC’s personality was bolstered when I read his semi-autobiographical book ‘Youth’. The most startling point of the book being its honesty and as usual a language drained out of adjectives or floweriness of any kind.
It is the misfit-syndrome of Mr. JMC gives him a great power as an author. His books have a profound impact on the reader but they always keep you detached. You can ‘admire’ a JMC novel but you can never ‘fall in love’ with it. His detachment with almost everything in his book allows him to be honest and impartial. In ‘Youth’ (although the memoir is slightly fictionalized) the awkwardness of JMC, his inability to carry out small talks or for that matter to be with a women who can inflame his passion is visible and very honest.
JMC has a very interesting take on physical relations as well. He sees the activity as a basic human need. Be it David Lurie in ‘Disgrace’ or the magistrate in ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ their physical activities are driven by very primal instincts and often there is a deep sense of shame after the act is finished.
Sometimes I’m tempted to put myself in the shoes of a famous writer and think like them and I always think that they should show off their skill with an extravaganza of words, like a rich man throwing a grand party. I cannot imagine how someone like JMC be so mercilessly exacting with words but then I remember Sachin Tendulkar, instead of going down the track and smashing the bowler for a boundary he stays at the crease and played a little paddle sweep – the result is just as favorable and beautiful.
I believe that somewhere his perfect language brings out a great loneliness in the characters. He does not adorn the solitude with despairing words but his portrayal of a man of stifled intellect, a misfit brings out a deep sense of isolation. When I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s books I feel the same sense of solitude but then its solitude of different kind – it is about a person away from his motherland and finding his feet in an alien culture. In Ang Lee’s much acclaimed ‘Brokeback Mountain’ the vast landscapes bring out the loneliness of the two protagonists but again their alienation is sexual. But with JMC, the sense of isolation is very personal and sad. His ability of evoke a feeling is very subtle and polished.
A deviation from his normal themes of man versus government, or the fall of man from a stature can be found in his book ‘Youth’. In this book we see the early JMC, just out of college and struggling as an author – he finds his own poetry worthless and chooses prose. His early realizations on art and its inception in human mind are quite moving, in his own self-apologetic and dry manner he takes us through his tryst as a writer.
An interesting question that came to my mind while writing this piece is that can someone like JMC inspire a budding writer? And the answer which I found was NO. I believe an amateur writer would be far more impressed by the flowery language and the fragrant adjectives, JMC is not meant to be for inspiration, I think that it is impossible to reach his level of detachment and honesty when you are writing (and that too about yourself).
I have long believed that there is a silent man which resides in all of us (no gender biasness intended when I use the word ‘man’). He is the person who is standing on the bylines and is watching every act of ours – he does not speak a lot but he is observing everything. He knows what is right, he knows what is wrong. He is honest, impartial and critical. For me, that person is JMC is that silent man, not only it matches with his persona in real life but somewhere in his books as well he is that silent man – enduring everything quietly, being perfectly honest and deprived of all the nonsensical emotions.
