Soupçon I. vi

 Let me explain the title a little. "Soupçon" is a French term, the favourite of the chef community. It refers to that special pinch (eh, 'punch', too) which adds a unique flavour to the concoction 

Our column, which extends that metaphor, is going to be a cornucopia of 'wise saws' about literature (more the varieties, the better), related fields, humanities and the arts. It would be an immense help for those preparing for the NET/SET/JRF kind of competitive examinations. May be, the aspirants might want me to do much more along these lines. Let us see! Yet, for sure, the not-so-literary, non-specialist reader, too, would enjoy these details!

                      Soupçon I. vi                                         Plague Disadvantage: A Career Advantage

If the 1593 "Venus and Adonis" depicted female desire, exactly opposite is the theme of the other long poem that Shakespeare wrote during the plague years. Incidentally, this 1594 poem entitled "The Rape of Lucrece" is absolutely contemporary.

To begin with, it deals with a husband, Collatine, bragging about a beautiful wife's virtue at the Ardea war camp. It triggers the typical male jealousy in Tarquin, the prince cum officer. In other words, the woman's, Lucretia's, reputation for being good, honest, ideal, becomes a class issue.

When Tarquin, who sneaks out of the war just to tempt her so that his ego is satisfied, cannot manage to woo her with her husband's praise, he threatens her that he would kill a slave, set up the dead body next to her in such a way as if she is embracing the slave, and then murder her stating that he killed her because she was lustful and dishonourable. Talk of the Photoshop and the AI generated images in the post-truth era!

The most interesting part of the poem, which uses the 'rhyme royale' stanza that earlier Chaucer, and later Milton loved, is that it proves that 'the personal is political'! Lucrece commits suicide, and her dead body is taken through the streets of Rome. As a result, the Tarquin royal family is banished, and Rome becomes a republic.  Are not there very many contemporary echoes in these unfortunate proceedings? Hence the argument that this comparatively lesser known poem is relevant today!

In other words, the plague infested years indicate a huge 'break' in Shakespeare's career, his growth as an author. He managed to make the calamity in to a gain. The Lucrece theme echoes in many of his later works. In addition to direct allusions, remember, Lady Macbeth tried the Tarquin trick with King Duncan's  assassination? 

It has been argued that "King Lear", too, was penned during yet another plague outbreak. In fact, historians note that when Shakespeare was at his creative best, theaters, which then were considered vicious and vile, often closed. This week, we have tried to establish that Shakespeare, the genius, used the plague predicament, which had been chasing him since his childhood, to become better as an author!

Pratima Agnihotri                                                      Pune

                                                          

The Earth Day

 The Earth! It is the very base of our existence. What we eat, grows there. What we drink, the earth holds in its arms. That is to say, be it food or be it water, the earth donates them to us. 

In addition to these primal gifts, the earth has been paying the cost of man's modernity. Be it most of the metals or the petrol, the earth has been dug by the ever greedy humans, hardly worth being so called!

Yes, in its excessive greed which has surpassed any needs, mankind has wounded the earth the most. To make the 'giddy in its greed' mankind aware, days such as the 'earth day' become the need of the hour! 

Mankind may thus be reminded that the earth is not its sole property. The Earth is the 'equity' mankind must share with the flora and the fauna. In the annihilation of the earth, mankind is literally digging its own grave! Long live the earth so that mankind may lead an enlightened life! The UN deserves everybody's huge thanks for this annual awareness, at least for a day!

Pratima@ Just as the earth has everything to be aware of at least for a day, readers must be sensitised to April 23 as a day of remembrance for Miguel Cervantès, the progenitor of the greatest Don ever, Don Quixote!

Quote of the day:                                                           Every day has to be the Earth Day! We must treat and respect the earth that way! Glory be to the earth, the very base of our existence!

Word of the day: terrestrial                                       The adjective terrestrial means related to the earth.

P.S.: My brother, Pinaki alias Sanju, is in a big way in to the green cause, plantation, seed collection, et al. He has donated in Aai's name a park dedicated to herbal plants for an Ayurvedic college. 

Soupçon I. v

 Let me explain the title a little. "Soupçon" is a French term, the favourite of the chef community. It refers to that special pinch (eh, 'punch', too) which adds a unique flavour to the concoction 

Our column, which extends that metaphor, is going to be a cornucopia of 'wise saws' about literature (more the varieties, the better), related fields, humanities and the arts. It would be an immense help for those preparing for the NET/SET/JRF kind of competitive examinations. May be, the aspirants might want me to do much more along these lines. Let us see! Yet, for sure, the not-so-literary, non-specialist reader, too, would enjoy these details!

                      Soupçon I. v                                                        Of love n longing                                

Shakespeare's answer to the constraining dis-ease and the resultant total closure of the public space was his first ever publication, a pastoral poem of seduction, entitled "Venus and Adonis." It was so widely/wildly circulated, literally 'went viral'  even in a period of private circulation, that a lesser known playwright became a sensation absolutely overnight! Given the patronage system prevalent then, the Earl of Southampton to whom it was dedicated, had every reason to feel special. 

Actually, this narrative poem, full of pastoral images and symbols, is quite steamy. It sure has its moments of high comedy (such as Adonis'  'horse running after a jennet') and it ends tragically (the lovelorn Venus 'weary of the world, away she hies' as Adonis is gored by a boar). Shakespeare may choose to call it "my unpolisht lines", but the six-line-long iambic pentameter stanza with a quartet (rhyming abab) followed by a couplet (cc) thereafter came to be known as the 'Venus and Adonis' stanza, tried by the 'poet's poet', Spenser. 

In Soupçon I. vi, let us explore such tidbits about the other poem Shakespeare attempted around the same time, "The Rape of Lucrece." Suffice it may for the time being to assert that both these long poems echo the structural and thematic patterns of the 'sonnet cycle',  much adored across the world.      

Pratima Agnihotri                                                        Pune

Worlds @ words

 April 23 celebrates books which open for us worlds through words. The occasion deserves this ceremonious celebration. April 23 marks both the birth (given the baptism certificate on April 26) and the death anniversary of  Shakespeare, the ultimate wordsmith in English who, in addition to his great creative output, coined any number of English words still very much in use. No wonder, April 23 is also celebrated as the English language day. 

Actually currently both, books and the publication industry, are facing tough times. Apparently, book exhibitions overflow with countless customers, and books are sold not by dozens, but by tons and quintals. Are these 'real', that is, authentic books though? Most often not. They are the DIY stuff in very many fields. 

May be, in our times invaded by emojis and by reels of all sorts, even such a read, whatever be the platform, hard-bound to Kindle, needs to be tom-tom-ed! Yet do such books energise either the intellect, the heart or the soul of the reader? Hardly! Instead, such DIY books of all sorts encourage the reader to be a passive, nay, brainless consumer of goods that fatten capitalism.

What do true, good, committed books do? Without any overt propaganda/agenda, instead through their own word and narrative powers, they sensitise the reader, they awaken the reader, their words create worlds that expose all the injustices, inequities, imbalances of our ever incomplete existences hankering after possible perfections. 

In today's post-truth(s) era of paid publication of an instant book the AI 'writes', anybody and everybody pretends to be an author so much so that there are many many more writers than there are readers! Hence on this world book day, yet again the need of a conscientious reader in search of a genuine author! Long live authors whose words make worlds! 

Pratima@ Given all such realities, my daily blog and now the "soupçon" are my small little affirmations of words making/un-making/re-making worlds. Believe me though, I read a lot, too. Even the reels I may watch are deeply intellectual. They are never for "entertainment, entertainment, entertainment" alone! 

Quote of the day:                                                          "Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived," asserts Matt Haig. 

Word of the day: bibliophile                                       A bibliophile is an individual who deeply loves, admires, and frequently collects books. The word is made of two units, biblio (books) and phile (love-r). Often referred to as a "book lover" or "bookworm," a bibliophile may focus, explains Cambridge Dictionary, on collecting rare, antique, or beautifully bound editions, though the term generally applies to anyone with a strong passion for reading (and owning) books.

Soupçon I. iv

 Let me explain the title a little. "Soupçon" is a French term, the favourite of the chef community. It refers to that special pinch (eh, 'punch', too) which adds a unique flavour to the concoction 

Our column, which extends that metaphor, is going to be a cornucopia of 'wise saws' about literature (more the varieties, the better), related fields, humanities and the arts. It would be an immense help for those preparing for the NET/SET/JRF kind of competitive examinations. May be, the aspirants might want me to do much more along these lines. Let us see! Yet, for sure, the not-so-literary, non-specialist reader, too, would enjoy these details!

                      Soupçon I. iv                                                 The Dis-ease and the Public Space   

The pandemic that could have almost ruined a nascent career began in August, 1592; peaked circa December, 1592, and was officially declared under control in December, 1593 , though sporadic cases continued till end, 1595!

There was a method in the mad spread of the epidemic. The dominion of death drear moved from the outer parishes to the center of London. As those days, the theatres, such as 'The Rose' and 'The Curtain', were in the Shoreditch area just outside London, when the authorities decided to close public spaces, the theatre world suffered hugely. 

The bubonic plague had claimed some fifteen thousand lives by December, 1592. Something was indeed rotten in the state of England! The bacterium Yersinia pestis which caused the notorious "ring of roses" thrived in the fleas on rats. Given the  terrible stink, it was thought that herbs could heal it. 

The fault was not in the stars, though the planetary alignment of Saturn passing through Cancer and Leo was blamed. With the theatres closed ad infinitum, how to survive, that was the question. In Soupçon I. v, let us find out how Shakespeare rose to the awful occasion 

Pratima Agnihotri                                                       Pune     

Memories

 Generally I do not much vouch for jingoism. Yet I cannot but remember the Pahalgam visuals. Exactly a year ago, when most all indians were in the "God is in His heaven-/ Everything is all right with the world" kind of contented spring mood, out of nowhere emerged terrorists, and opened fire on the handful happily frolicking tourists at Pahalgam! 

The scenes were heart rending, a young bride, for instance, with the wedding mehendi on her palms and the marriage chuda on her wrists, sitting dazedly near her brand new husband's dead body, her hardly two days old marriage forever over. 

Much more moving were the tragic stories narrated by the survivors. Fathers and husbands were brutally bulleted right in front of their children and wives. Two of such suffering families live in the Aranyeshwar area, some two kilometers away from my home! 

Across the whole of India, all of us have such neighbours never known, yet whose intense pain we all experienced deeply. All of us felt anger not only against the jihadi murderers, but also against the shallow sympathisers who rushed to Pahalgam so that would continue unabated the tourist business of the locals, without whose overt or subtle support, such havoc could not have taken place in the first place! 

Well known is the rest of the story, Operation Sindoor, the creepy, crazy politicking over it, the usual headlines, the typical t.v. debates, the same sorry stuff searching the 'breaking news'! Yet just unforgettable are those shots, both by the cruel Ak-47's and by the candid cameras, the hurtful memories! 

Pratima@ True, April 22 is the National Services day, just as it is the World Earth Day, celebrated the same routine way. But, for me, matter memories reflecting 'the tender grace of a day that is dead/will never come back to me.'

Quote of the day:                                                            "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," says Martin Luther King.

Word of the day: terrorism                                         Terrorism is the unlawful use or threat of violence against civilians or governments to induce fear, and achieve political, ideological, or religious goals. It often involves non-state actors targeting non-combatants, though state-sponsored terrorism does exist. 

Soupçon I. iii

 Let me explain the title a little. "Soupçon" is a French term, the favourite of the chef community. It refers to that special pinch (eh, 'punch', too) which adds a unique flavour to the concoction 

Our column, which extends that metaphor,  is going to be a cornucopia of 'wise saws' about literature (more the varieties, the better), related fields, humanities and the arts. It would be an immense help for those preparing for the NET/SET/JRF kind of competitive examinations. May be, the aspirants might want me to do much more along these lines. Let us see! Yet, for sure, the not-so-literary, non-specialist reader, too, would enjoy these details!

                      Soupçon I. iii                                                        Carping Criticism                               By the time, the "dis-ease" decided to turn life topsy-turvy, Shakespeare had arrived enough to invite bitterly biting criticism. Yes, one of the privileged University Wits, Robert Greene, in his "Groats-worth of Wits" (1592), lashes at this 'upstart', a 'crow beautified with our wings ', the "Shake-scene" with 'bombast blank verse', dismissed as 'Johannes factotum', in brief, a Jack of all trades. There is an equally nasty swipe at the 'tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide' reference from Henry VI, Part III.

Yet, given the epidemic, Shakespeare's unmistakable emergence on the cultural scene, which itself suffered a complete closure, was in danger of being wiped out. In the next spoonful of "Soupçon", we shall learn more about the 'dis-ease', how it impacted Shakespeare, and how he negotiated it. As this is the very first week of "Soupçon", let the MCQ questions not appear yet.

Pratima Agnihotri                                                       Pune