Poe’s satire of Blackwood’s, whether affectionate or unfriendly, can be attributed to his general envy of literary success, which equally lead him to pen less than sensible things about figures such as Longfellow and Hawthorne. Poe would have given his eye teeth to write for a magazine such as Blackwood's: a publication of unparalleled literary standards, which paid its contributors ten guineas a sheet. Far from being just another hack, Maginn was a lively Tory Irishman, who alternatively wrote doggerel, drinking songs, and libellous reviews; and treatise on Latin verse and essays on Shakespeare: a disparity reconciled, for example, in his translation of verses from The Beggar's Opera into Latin. "The Man in the Bell" is (as far as we know) the only "sensation tale" which he ever wrote, and the piece is itself a rather jolly pastiche.

 Maginn’s writing has rarely been studied for its own sake, and no scholar has yet followed a rather promising lead: his resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe, and his potential influence upon Poe's writing. Both were very educated men who, whether freely or involuntarily, ended up writing for commercial literary markets. Quite who their readers were, and what they wanted or needed, was not entirely certain to early nineteenth century writers, and Maginn and Poe resemble pioneering figures, striving at a literary frontier. Both were innovators and experimentalists who produced a wide range of writing, but neither were ultimately successful as men of letters. Both were well acquainted with poverty, both died prematurely, in their forties, and it was widely assumed that alcohol had contributed to both writers’ deaths. Although Poe sympathised with America's Whigs, and Maginn was emphatically a Tory, both appear politically reactionary when compared to the contexts in which they wrote. Maginn opposed Catholic emancipation and Poe (allegedly) disliked abolitionism. Both were ostensibly outsiders in their respective literary spheres: Maginn was an Irishman in Edinburgh and London, and Poe was a Southerner (by upbringing) in Philadelphia and New York. Yet both were familiar with working-class culture and had a high regard for the reading public, and both can be described as conservatives who considered the bourgeoisie to be distasteful.

The apparent disreputability of both men did not endear them to many nineteenth century readers. Poe had repeatedly antagonised the American literati, and after his death he was widely portrayed as unbalanced and intemperate, not least by his malevolent “literary executor” Rufus Griswold. Maginn had equally annoyed many prominent British public figures and he had died leaving his family in poverty. The late-Victorian scholar Margaret Oliphant would contend that his biography is “not deserving” to be “written at any length” and that “it is almost immoral to be sorry for him.”

There were some significant dissimilarities between both writers. Maginn acquired a reputation as a “rollicking jig of an Irishman,” whilst Poe was, in his own words, “not ‘of the merry mood’.” Poe’s writing enjoys a considerable popularly amongst modern readers, whilst no new edition of Maginn’s work has been published since 1933. Poe’s posthumous reputation was salvaged from Griswold’s smears by a range of champions, including Walt Whitman, Charles Baudelaire, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Maginn, however, was less fortunate in his posthumous defenders.

For many years after his death, “William Maginn” was largely the creation of the Irish-American author and journalist Robert Shelton Mackenzie, whose editions of the Miscellaneous Writings of the Late Dr. Maginn (1857) feature so many misattributions that they ironically affirm the post-modern philosopher Michel Foucault’s definition of the author as a concept used to impose meaning upon literature. Under the misapprehension that he was anthologising Maginn’s writing, the bumbling Mackenzie gathered together poems, articles, and stories which had been published anonymously in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine and Fraser’s Magazine by Thomas Hamilton, John Gibson Lockhart, William Maginn, Henry Thomson, David Moir, Robert Macnish, Percival Weldon Banks, and Francis Mahony. It was not until the twentieth century that scholars such as Miriam Thrall, Alan Lang Strout and Ralph M. Wardle began to untangle the mess which Mackenzie had made. Incidentally, Mackenzie had a talent for misattributing texts, and he penned an editorial for the Philadelphia Press in 1864 which, disastrously for him, assumed that Poe had written a poem called “The Fire Fiend” (the piece in question was a hoax perpetrated by the minor writer C.D. Gardette). Two of Maginn’s subsequent biographers, Margaret Oliphant and Miriam Thrall, were openly and rather prudishly unappreciative of his satirical writing: Oliphant despaired of Maginn’s disregard for “decency and good manners”; whilst Thrall found some of his work “revolting.” Although Poe’s writing has a greater popular appeal than that of Maginn, the latter’s posthumous reputation suffered a decline which was more unfortunate than deserved.

For a writer who aspired to keep originality “always in view,” Poe would be dismayed by the number of literary sources which successive readers have identified as influences for his writing. In Poe and the British Magazine Tradition (1969), the scholar Michael Allen cites Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey, Edward Bulwer Lytton, and John Wilson’s “Christopher North” as examples of such sources, whilst the literary critic Terence Whalen has recently identified the obscure Southern writer Lucian Minor and the mathematician Charles Babbage as further influences. One does not wish, however, to accord William Maginn an equivalent importance and liken him to the secret ingredient mentioned within one of Mackenzie’s footnotes to Maginn’s Miscellaneous Writings:

Long after Odoherty’s time, Guinness’s Dublin porter came into note in rivalry with “London Stout.” The story goes that Guinness had no great note until the full body of one particular brewing attracted the attention of those who malt. On cleaning out the vat, there were found the bones and part of the dress of one of the workmen, who had been missing for some weeks…

This dissertation does not aspire to discover Maginn’s literary remains swirling at the bottom of Poe’s creative mind. Indeed, Maginn is only mentioned once in Allen’s book, and Poe may not even have been aware of Maginn’s existence. Poe may have known of several of Maginn’s works but, as the Blackwood’s writers typically conformed to a common style, he may not have been certain that they were written by the same person and nor may he have been particularly interested in their authorship. In an April 1835 letter to his proprietor Thomas W. White, Poe cites four examples of popular British magazine pieces including Maginn’s “Man in the Bell,” and he refers to the authorship of the other three whilst only categorising Maginn’s tale as “the “Man in the Bell” of Blackwood”…

[To be continued. Ed.]

The Times has a nice article on Philip Larkin's famous poem, 'This Be The Verse'. You know the one, the rude one. It goes like this:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had,

And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn,

By fools in old-style hats and coats,

Who half the time were soppy-stern,

And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don't have any kids yourself.

The Times asked writers at the Cheltenham Literary Festival if they agreed. Some good answers:

Kate Muir

Your parents do affect you, even when they're dead and gone. I am fatherless myself now - well, it happens to most people eventually - but I became fascinated by the stories of three of my Scottish friends who lost fathers at an early age, and the extraordinary drive and ambition the absence seemed to cause. Those three boys became a millionaire banker, a newspaper editor and a TV executive.

It holds true in politics, too. Bill Clinton, whose father died before he was born, once said: “I had the feeling that I had to live for two people, and that if I did well enough somehow I could make up for the life he should have had.”

You need only look at the abandoned Barack Obama to see the pattern continue.

A.N. Wilson

Isn't it interesting that this whingeing, self-pitying doggerel of a childless old drunk became the anthem of our age? It certainly did. Quiz your average Briton between the ages of 25 and 50 and these will be the only lines they know. All the real bores you meet start moaning about their parents sooner or later and quote, or misquote, pathetic old Larks.

But why take him as your guide for life? For most of us - certainly for me - the lines are completely untrue. I owe almost everything to my very far from perfect mother and father, and if, as an adolescent, I found some of their ways annoying, the years brought forgiveness.

The ending of Larkin's poem - “Get out as quickly as you can / and don't have any kids yourself” - is the clue to its vacuous absurdity. It is when you have children of your own that you begin to understand your parents. So for me, as for most people, the lyric would be truer if it were rewritten as: “They tuck you up, your mum and dad”. Mine did, and read me bedtime stories, and now they are gone, I miss them.

What do you reckon? I think Larkin's poem is kind of lovely - beautiful in the first two lines of the last stanza, but not elsewhere - although teenage in its lashing-out, which is reflected in the rollicking nursery-rhyme-like rhythm (except in those two lines). It's only one side of the coin though, and that is perhaps down to his unhappy childhood, which some of the other writers talk about in the article.

Perhaps the poem's endurance in readers' memories is due to the fact that anyone can superimpose themselves and their parents and their kids onto it and find some measure of truth in "they may not mean to but they do," while still remembering that those things are outweighed by unconditional love.

Perhaps "Hello words" is the fifth blog of me, after three Persian blogs and an English one. Now I'm writing in four blogs and "Persian mevlana" 's website where you can find a lot of information about iranian espiritual poet; "Mowlana"... .

English and Farsi website: http://www.persianmevlan.ir/
Farsi blog:http://www.universityit.blogfa.com/
Farsi blog: http://www.greateacher.blogfa.com/

*********

I'm Ahmadreza Tavassoli who was born on 17th april 1990 in Iran and now I'm studying "English Literature" in the Guilan University. Perhaps "Hello words" helps me to communicate with other people without any borders and limitations .... .

The homework assignment is an exam style question but because it's still early on in the course we can take our time with it.  Having said that, I am going to keep it to a length that I can manage, as with the philosophy essays, so that I have a good idea about how much to write in the exam.

Here's a condensed version of the sheet given.

============

ESSAY -- Exam section A Question A (on a part of the novel)

The particular focus in this part of the exam is Assessment Objective 2 (see end): analysis of

• form (eg it is a work of fiction, a romance, a social comedy, a family saga, etc)
• structure (eg what is revealed, when? why?)
• language (eg type of language given to different characters, descriptions characters, questions, exclamations, irony ....)

Therefore in your essay you should at some point consider all 3 of these bullet points.

Choose ONE of the following questions

1. Write about the ways Austen opens the story in chapter 1.
2. Write about the ways Austen ends the story in chapter 61.
3. How does Austen tell the story in chapter 19?
4. What method does Austen use to develop the characters in Pride and Prejudice?

========================

I've chosen question two and made a start of some notes and quotations from the final chapter and found it quite interesting because Austen moves from the third person narrative into telling the story from what seems to be her own point of view.

Assessment Objective 2

AO2 - Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which structure, form and language shape meanings in literary texts

Also look up the specific AO for Pride and Prejudice.

This doesn't mean you'll be reading progressively briefer entries as I turn on my computer for ever shorter spans of time, because it turns out I really meant exactly what I said (oddly enough): my laptop battery won't charge.  But it does, thankfully, stay at a constant 26% charged state when I keep it plugged in, i.e. it doesn't drain.  It's a rather strange problem.

At any rate.  This entry was going to be one complaining about how if I were only an IHS student I would have a four-day weekend and if I were only a Cornell student I would have a five-day weekend, but because I'm both I now have a three-day weekend-- but then my mom chided me for failing to enumerate my blessings.  So perhaps I'll do that instead, because enumeration = lists!  Which are fun and easy, like calculus.

1. The weather we've been enjoying lately is exactly what autumn should be: sunny and dry and crisp and temperatures peaking at about 70 degrees.  I passed two other people just today taking photos of the supreme autumnosity of their surroundings.  I knew the feeling.  Some things just demand to be photographed, and crimson trees against bright blue skies are very high on that list (which also includes babies, kittens, and sunsets...).

(Photo from the 6th-- so I'm not lying about the bright blue skies.  Really.)

2. I got, er, a pretty good grade on my math prelim.  But the mean score was a 90, so I'm not bragging.

3. Not gonna lie, we had a fairly hilarious English class yesterday.  It basically consisted of a 35-minute digression on funny midterm report comments like "Bursts into song in the middle of class" and the classic and detestable "A pleasure to have in class," plus college essays and being overachievers and the AP exam, followed by ten minutes of writing down delicious six-syllable words like "vituperation," even though that's actually five syllables.

Still not gonna lie-- that sentence was a lot shorter before I went back and added a huge and unnecessary chunk in the middle.  I'm in an excruciatingly verbose mood today.  It's probably because I haven't blogged in a few days and now feel compelled to release a flood of words.  Or because I've been translating the Aeneid, where every sentence is about eight lines and has "and" (in some form or another) at least six times.

4. This reminds me, because this style of writing is exactly what is impossible to do on a 500-word college essay: my self-imposed week-long hiatus on college stuff is now over as of, er, Tuesday.  Time to work on supplements!

But seriously, I'm kind of glad I got such a substantial chunk of the application out of the way before October.  Although I'll probably have to do it all again in December.  Hm.  Maybe life still sucks.

5. BUT I had an awesome sandwich for lunch today!

I should trademark that phrase and start a restaurant: Awesome Sandwich!  (With the exclamation point!)

6.  You know what else was hilarious yesterday?  Latin.  I think the entire class may call for a "You wish you were cool enough for Latin" entry á la this, but the only people in it would be Maddie and me, which... isn't a lot.  For now, at any rate, here is a quote from a couple days ago...

Me demonstrating pronunciation of "ö" in German: "Ich möchte..."

Maddie: "Oh, does that mean like 'murder'?"

Me: "... No, it means 'I would like.'"

... And one from yesterday itself:

Maddie: "Oh my god-- CEREAL!"

7. I just realized this entry is exactly like my last one in spirit, except with numbers.  And this is what my blog shall be like until I get constant and dependable internet access.

Indian popular or mainstream cinema mostly panders to the frivolous when it comes to themes and treatment. The allegation, particularly from those who believe cinema as a serious art form, often is that it caters largely to the lowest common denominator when it comes to creativity, a few exceptions here and there notwithstanding.

The allegation may well be true, but the fact remains that this opium of the masses in India is the only popular art form which attracts a frenzy incomparable to any other mass media. Quite expectedly, most of the books written on Hindi cinema, referred to as Bollywood across the world, too end up as celebrity-chasing hagiographies or coffee table books, though there have been honorable exceptions, including some illuminating analyses by the likes of B D Garga, Chidananda Dasgupta, Ashish Nandy, Sudhir Kakar, Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Ravi Vasudevan.

M K Raghavendra’s Seduced by the Familiar: Narration and Meaning in Indian Popular Cinema (Oxford University Press) falls in the category of exceptions. Raghavendra’s writings more often than not have focused on deconstruction of cinema from the sociological point of view. Examples that this are galore in Deep Focus, the academic film journal of which he was the founder-editor, and in many other publications. And this book is no different.

Raghavendra selects some iconic Hindi films made over the years for his analyse,

through which he has sought to offer a fresh perspective to look at them – as a tool that continually soaks in the socio-political situation of the country and in turn offers a commentary on it. And what he has done makes quite an absorbing read, though for the reader, it remains a niggling question whether the sub-text that Raghavendra has read in a particular film was consciously co-opted into the script by the filmmaker or not. It is more likely that it has been mostly a case of sub-conscious co-option, but nevertheless the reading of the sub-text makes the book a highly-interesting read.

The Bangalore-based academic has chosen the films for deconstruction quite carefully. They are more often than not path-breaking films in the Hindi film industry, for either their commercial success or their content that sought to break new ground despite firmly remaining within the parameters of the so-called mainstream formulae. From Mehboob Khan’s Andaz (1949) to Bimal Roy’s Devdas (1955), and from Suraj Barjatya’s Hum Aapke Hai Koun..! (1994) to Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (2006), Raghavendra scans a vast list of highly-successful Hindi films to offer his arguments. And to put things in a global perspective, he studies the traits of Hindi films of various periods with the cinema made in Hollywood at the same time, contrasting and comparing the trends.

Raghavendra states quite clearly at the very beginning of the book that academic study of Indian cinema has become highly difficult in present-day India because of what he calls a “vast gap” that has opened up between the academic critics and the lay spectator. But he refused to pander to the whims of this majority chunk – as most of the market-savvy chronicler of the story of Bollywood tend to do – and dives headlong into his core strength area of academic analyses.

The author admits that trying to even list out the traits of popular cinema could be a hazardous exercise because “what the critic notices usually depends on his or her agenda”. And he also makes it clear that his study of a film is focused on its narration from the point of view of representation of space, time and logic.

Some of the analyses offered in the book – of films made by the likes of early filmmakers like Baburao Painter, Franz Osten and Ardeshir Irani to recent filmmakers like Ramesh Sippy, quite fascinating to read if one is interested in reading more into popular Hindi cinema going beyond its primary role to entertain the masses. For example, it says that Khan’s Andaz, made just after India attained its independence, makes an attempt to provide the image of a modern India, even though it by itself does not have any historical marker to contextualise it in those terms. Or in Mahal, it argues that Ashok Kumar’s and his characters belonging to the legal professions suggests that they belong to the ruling class and the fact that the former was reincarnation of an earlier ruler suggests that the ruling class of independent India are just a continuation of the class during British India.

Divided into decade-wise chapters, the book argues that mainstream Hindi cinema is able to permeate the farthest corners of India because it follows an idiom in which all localised references are avoided so that everybody can connect with the characterisations through specific melodramatic and generalised societal traits.

Seduced… makes a highly-intelligent reading. It is definitely not a book for readers who look for the frivolous, but it is certainly a must read for anyone who is well-versed about and loves mainstream Indian cinema.

(Seduced by the Familiar; by M K Raghavendra; OUP; Price Rs 695; pp 362)

 (An abridged version of the review was carried in Sakaal Times, www.sakaaltimes.com, 10-10-2008)

... source

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Dickens writes in the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities as he paints a picture of life in England and France. The year is late 1775, and Jarvis Lorry travels from London to Paris on a secret mission for his employer, Tellson’s Bank. Joining him on his journey is Lucie Manette, a 17-year-old woman who is stunned to learn that her father, Doctor Alexandre Manette, is alive and has recently been released after having been secretly imprisoned in Paris for 18 years.

When Mr. Lorry and Lucie arrive in Paris, they find the Doctor’s former servant, Ernest Defarge, caring for the him. Defarge now runs a wine-shop with his wife in the poverty-stricken quarter of Saint Antoine. Defarge takes Mr. Lorry and Lucie to the garret room where he is keeping Doctor Manette, warning them that the Doctor’s years in prison have greatly changed him. Thin and pale, Doctor Manette sits at a shoemaker’s bench intently making shoes. He barely responds to questions from Defarge and Mr. Lorry, but when Lucie approaches him, he remembers his wife and begins to weep. Lucie comforts him, and that night Mr. Lorry and Lucie take him to England.

Five years later, the porter for Tellson’s Bank, Jerry Cruncher, takes a message to Mr. Lorry who is at a courthouse. Mr. Lorry has been called as a witness for the trial of Charles Darnay, a Frenchman accused of being a spy for France and the United States. Also at the trial are Doctor Manette and Lucie, who are witnesses for the prosecution. Doctor Manette has fully recovered and has formed a close bond with his daughter.

If found guilty of treason, Darnay will suffer a gruesome death, and the testimony of an acquaintance, John Barsad, and a former servant, Roger Cly, seems sure to result in a guilty verdict. Questions from Darnay’s attorney, Mr. Stryver, indicate that Cly and Barsad are the real spies, but the turning point in the trial occurs when Sydney Carton, Stryver’s assistant, points out that Carton and Darnay look alike enough to be doubles. This revelation throws into doubt a positive identification of Darnay as the person seen passing secrets, and the court acquits Darnay.

After the trial, Darnay, Carton, and Stryver begin spending time at the Manette home, obviously attracted to Lucie’s beauty and kind nature. Stryver decides to propose to her, but is dissuaded by Mr. Lorry. Carton confesses his love to Lucie, but does not propose, knowing that his drunken and apathetic way of life is not worthy of her. However, he vows that he would gladly give his life to save a life she loved, and Lucie is moved by his sincerity and devotion. Eventually, it is Darnay whose love Lucie returns, and the two marry with Doctor Manette’s uneasy blessing. While the couple is on their honeymoon, the Doctor suffers a nine-day relapse of his mental incapacity and believes he is making shoes in prison again.

Meanwhile, the situation in France grows worse. Signs of unrest become evident when Darnay’s cruel and unfeeling uncle, the Marquis St. Evrémonde, is murdered in his bed after running down a child with his carriage in the Paris streets. Although Darnay inherits the title and the estate, he has renounced all ties to his brutal family and works instead in England as a tutor of French language and literature.

The revolution erupts with full force in July 1789 with the storming of the Bastille. The Defarges are at the center of the revolutionary movement and lead the people in a wave of violence and destruction.By 1792, the revolutionaries have taken control of France and are imprisoning and killing anyone they view as an enemy of the state. Darnay receives a letter from the Evrémonde steward, who has been captured and who begs Darnay to come to France to save him. Feeling a sense of duty to his servant and not fully realizing the danger awaiting him, Darnay departs for France. Once he reaches Paris, though, revolutionaries take him to La Force prison “in secret,” with no way of contacting anyone and with little hope of a trial.

Doctor Manette, Lucie, and Lucie’s daughter soon arrive in Paris and join Mr. Lorry who is at Tellson’s Paris office. Doctor Manette’s status as a former prisoner of the Bastille gives him a heroic status with the revolutionaries and enables him to find out what has happened to his son-in-law. He uses his influence to get a trial for Darnay, and Doctor Manette’s powerful testimony at the trial frees his son-in-law. Hours after being reunited with his wife and daughter, however, the revolutionaries again arrest Darnay, based on the accusations of the Defarges.

The next day, Darnay is tried again. This time, the Defarges produce a letter written years earlier by Doctor Manette in prison condemning all Evrémondes for the murder of Madame Defarge’s family and for imprisoning the Doctor. Based on this evidence, the court sentences Darnay to death and Doctor Manette, devastated by what has happened, reverts to his prior state of dementia.

Unknown to the Manette and Darnay family, Sydney Carton has arrived in Paris and learns of Darnay’s fate. He also hears of a plot contrived to send Lucie and her daughter to the guillotine. Determined to save their lives, he enlists the help of a prison spy to enter the prison where the revolutionaries are holding Darnay. He enters Darnay’s cell, changes clothes with him, drugs him, and has Darnay taken out of the prison in his place. No one questions either man’s identity because of the similarities in their features. As Mr. Lorry shepherds Doctor Manette, Darnay, Lucie, and young Lucie out of France, Carton goes to the guillotine, strengthened and comforted by the knowledge that his sacrifice has saved the woman he loves and her family.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known!"

2. A Tale of Two Cities Summary: Major Characters
... The major characters in this famous novel of Charles Dickens!

3. NationMaster.com Encyclopedia: Sydney Carton
... Read and study the character of Sydney Carton!

4. Teaching A Tale of Two Cities
... John L. Colle on how to teach this famous novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens!

5. David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page
... Dedicated to bringing the genius of Dickens to a new generation of readers!

6. Dickens Fast Facts
... Charles Dickens' full name, date and place of birth, etc!

7. Tale of Two Cities: Literary Masterpieces
... 1980 version starring Chris Sarandon as both Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay!

8. A Tale of Two Cities (Masterpiece Theatre, 1989) (1991)
... 1989 (1991) version starring James Wilby as Sydney Carton!

"This race and this country and this life produced me, he said. I shall express myself as I am." -- James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

September 7, 2006
Sydney Carton

Re-reading Tale of 2 Cities right now - and this passage struck me.

When his host followed him out on the staircase with a candle, to light him down the stairs, the day was coldly looking in through its grimy windows. When he got out of the house, the air was cold and sad, the dull sky overcast, the river dark and dim, the whole scene like a lifeless desert. And wreaths of dust were spinning round and round before the morning blast, as if the desert-sand had risen far away, and the first spray of it in its advance had begun to overwhelm the city.

Waste forces within him, and a desert all around, this man stood still on his way across a silent terrace, and saw for a moment, lying in the wilderness before him, a mirage of honourable ambition, self-denial and perseverance. In the fair city of this vision, there were airy galleries from which the loves and graces looked upon him, gardens in which the fruits of life hung ripening, waters of Hope that sparkled in his sight. A moment, and it was gone. Climbing to a high chamber in a well of houses, he threw himself down in his clothes on a neglected bed, and its pillow was wet with wasted tears.

Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning himself to let it eat him away.

"the air was cold and sad" ....

The other lesson was communication and culture.  In this we watched other peoples presentation and part of a DVD about feral children, which for me was quite interesting but not, perhaps, for the reasons it was shown.  I am now left thinking that either I have missed something or that I should simply enjoy the passing of time?

We moved over in philosophy last week and start Samuel Coleridge in English next week.  Have the terms been changed and the syllabus is still on the same time?

I found it odd, especially so in an office full of English Literature professors. You'd figure that someone would want a copy, book-sale, or donation at the library, ah well bonus for me.

Just picked "The Debt to Pleasure" by John Lanchester.

I'm enjoying it so far. But back to the subject at hand.

I was thinking, as someone who is a connoisseur of books, I am not in the habit of leaving a book behind intentionally. I'll always find someone who is interested in it, or at the least head on over to the used bookstore for a few dollars off of my next purchase.

I've misplaced a few books in my time. I know the one I wish I could get back was a copy of Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. I grabbed that from my cousin's library out in L.A. and when on my way to the airport, I left it on the seat next to me in the train. Sigh, bonus for someone else I guess.

Being "recalled to life" is a major theme throughout A Tale of Two Cities. In fact, Dickens toyed with the idea of titling the book Recalled to Life.

Dr. Manette's release from the Bastille, Charles Darnay's release after the trial for treason, and his later escape from the French prison, are examples of this theme. Also, Roger Cly's fake burial and Jerry Cruncher's nocturnal occupation as a 'resurrection man' follow this theme.

Sydney Carton, on his way to the guillotine, envisions himself 'recalled to life' in the person of the Darnay's future son.

As Carton is contemplating his eminent sacrifice he finds peace in the passage from John 11:25-26:

"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."

A Tale of Two Cities - Published in weekly parts Apr 1859 - Nov 1859

... source

The year is 1775 and Dr. Manette, imprisoned unjustly 18 years ago, has been released from the Bastille prison in Paris. His daughter, Lucie, who had thought he was dead, and Jarvis Lorry, an agent for Tellson's Bank, which has offices in London and Paris, bring him to England.

Skip ahead 5 years to 1780. Frenchman Charles Darnay is on trial for treason, accused of passing English secrets to the French and Americans during the American Revolution. He is acquitted when eyewitnesses prove unreliable partly because of Darnay's resemblance to barrister Sydney Carton.

In the years leading up to the fall of the Bastille in 1789 Darnay, Carton, and Stryver all fall in love with Lucie Manette. Carton, an irresponsible and unambitious character who drinks too much, tells Lucie that she has inspired him to think how his life could have been better and that he would make any sacrifice for her. Stryver, Carton's barrister friend, is persuaded against asking for Lucie's hand by Mr. Lorry, now a close friend to the Manettes. Lucie marries Darnay and they have a daughter.

Meanwhile, in France, Darnay's uncle the Marquis St. Evremonde is murdered in his bed for crimes committed against the people. Charles has told Dr. Manette of his relationship to the French aristocracy, but no one else.

By 1792 the revolution has escalated in France. Mr. Lorry receives a letter at Tellson's Bank addressed to the Marquis St. Evremonde whom no one seems to know. Darnay sees the letter and tells Lorry that he knows the Marquis and will deliver it. The letter is from a friend, Gabelle, wrongfully imprisoned in Paris and asked the Marquis (Darnay) for help. Knowing that the trip will be dangerous, Charles feels compelled to go and help his friend. He leaves for France without telling anyone the real reason.

On the road to Paris, Darnay (St Evremonde) is recognized by the mob and taken to prison in Paris. Mr. Lorry, in Paris on business, is joined by Dr. Manette, Lucie, Miss Pross, and later, Sydney Carton.

Dr. Manette has influence over the citizens due to his imprisonment in the Bastille and is able to have Darnay released but he is retaken the next day on a charge by the Defarges and is sentenced to death within 24 hours.

Sydney Carton has influence on one of the jailers and is able to enter the cell, drug Darnay, exchange clothes, and have the jailer remove Darnay, leaving Carton to die in his stead.

On the guillotine Carton peacefully declares

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

... source

Sydney Carton proves the most dynamic character in A Tale of Two Cities. He first appears as a lazy, alcoholic attorney who cannot muster even the smallest amount of interest in his own life. He describes his existence as a supreme waste of life and takes every opportunity to declare that he cares for nothing and no one. But the reader senses, even in the initial chapters of the novel, that Carton in fact feels something that he perhaps cannot articulate. In his conversation with the recently acquitted Charles Darnay, Carton's comments about Lucie Manette, while bitter and sardonic, betray his interest in, and budding feelings for, the gentle girl. Eventually, Carton reaches a point where he can admit his feelings to Lucie herself. Before Lucie weds Darnay, Carton professes his love to her, though he still persists in seeing himself as essentially worthless. This scene marks a vital transition for Carton and lays the foundation for the supreme sacrifice that he makes at the novel's end.

Carton's death has provided much material for scholars and critics of Dickens's novel. Some readers consider it the inevitable conclusion to a work obsessed with the themes of redemption and resurrection. According to this interpretation, Carton becomes a Christ-like figure, a selfless martyr whose death enables the happiness of his beloved and ensures his own immortality. Other readers, however, question the ultimate significance of Carton's final act. They argue that since Carton initially places little value on his existence, the sacrifice of his life proves relatively easy. However, Dickens's frequent use in his text of other resurrection imagery—his motifs of wine and blood, for example—suggests that he did intend for Carton's death to be redemptive, whether or not it ultimately appears so to the reader. As Carton goes to the guillotine, the narrator tells us that he envisions a beautiful, idyllic Paris “rising from the abyss” and sees “the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.” Just as the apocalyptic violence of the revolution precedes a new society's birth, perhaps it is only in the sacrifice of his life that Carton can establish his life's great worth.

Sydney Carton - An insolent, indifferent, and alcoholic attorney who works with Stryver. Carton has no real prospects in life and doesn't seem to be in pursuit of any. He does, however, love Lucie, and his feelings for her eventually transform him into a man of profound merit. At first the polar opposite of Darnay, in the end Carton morally surpasses the man to whom he bears a striking physical resemblance.

Sydney Carton is a significant character in the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. He is a shrewd young Englishman and sometime junior to his fellow barrister C.J. Stryver. In the novel, he is seen to be a drunkard, indulged in self-pity because of his wasted life, and has a strong unrequited love for Lucie Manette.

Role in novel

Carton is first encountered as barrister in the trial of Charles Darnay, a young Frenchman to whom he bears a strong resemblance. Carton defends Darnay against charges of treason towards the English government. During the trial, Carton notices Lucie Manette, who is forced to testify against Darnay along with her father, Dr. Manette. Carton becomes enamored of her and jealous of Darnay because of the sympathy she has for him.

Afterwards, Carton visits his friend and colleague C.J. Stryver, who had also defended Darnay during his trial. He spends the night doing paperwork and drinking with Stryver. Stryver boasts about being the more successful of the two, but in reality it is Carton who is the brain behind him, while Stryver merely lives off Carton's labor and craft. Carton shows regret for the fact that he has wasted much of his life drinking. He attempts to rationalize this unsatisfying state of affairs with the excuse that he has already tried to change his ways, but proven himself incapable of the great effort that would take. He one day reveals this to Lucie Manette, and also tells her that he would be willing to do anything for her if it would ensure the well-being of her or any of the ones she loves.

Carton's next significant appearance is in France, after the French Revolution has taken place and the Reign of Terror begun. Charles Darnay had left England for France on behalf of a friend in distress, but Darnay had been arrested because he was a member of a notorious family of French aristocrats, the Evrémondes. Lucie Manette (now Darnay's wife), their child, Dr. Manette, and Miss Pross, followed Darnay to France shortly after hearing of his departure, which he had kept a secret. Shortly after arriving, Darnay was arrested and put on trial, but was later released with the help of Dr. Manette. He is arrested again, though, when he is denounced by Madame Defarge, a vindictive Frenchwoman who bears a grudge against the Evrémondes for having harmed her family, and her husband Ernest Defarge, who had found an important piece of information: a letter that Dr. Manette had written describing the actions of Darnay's aristocratic family. In a way, Dr. Manette had unintentionally used his influence as a former Bastille prisoner to have Darnay acquitted of charges against the French Republic. Darnay is convicted soon after and sentenced to be guillotined the following day.

Carton arrives in France just before this second trial has taken place. He confronts a man called John Barsad, who had testified against Darnay in his first trial. Carton threatens to reveal that he knows Barsad is a spy for the British government unless Barsad agrees to help Carton rescue Darnay, assuming he will be convicted; Barsad agrees to do so. That night, Carton wanders the streets, meditating on what will take place the following morning. During this time, he visits the wine shop of Madame Defarge and Ernest Defarge, where he hears of Madame Defarge's plan to have Darnay's entire family killed. He returns to Mr. Lorry's residence and warns him of this, telling him to leave France with the others tomorrow. He also tells him that he would like to visit Darnay before his execution, and for him and the others to wait in their carriage outside the prison until Carton returns.

The next morning, Carton visits Darnay in his cell and tells him to trade clothes with him; as the two are very much alike in appearance, he believes Darnay could escape the cell disguised as himself. As Darnay is not compliant, Carton drugs him, using chemicals which he had bought the previous night, and makes the exchange of wardrobe. He then tells Barsad, who had waited for him at the prison, to escort Darnay to his carriage, and to tell the prison guards that Carton had suffered a fainting spell.

Sydney Carton soon after dies in place of Charles Darnay. It is said that if, before his death, his thoughts could have been heard, and had they been prophetic, they would have included such incidents as Mr. Defarge and John Barsad being later sentenced to the guillotine themselves, and a future child of Charles and Lucie Darnay being named after him. The words of the last of these thoughts are very famous:

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

Sydney Carton (character in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities)
Frederick Barnard, English Illistrator c.1895
Hand coloured vignette engraving 8 1/2 x 10 x in

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

Sydney Carton (the character in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities) ascending the steps to the gallows, having willfully taken the place of the man who married the only woman he every loved. He saved her father before from the same fate back in England; and now he gives his life to save her husband in Paris.  A brilliant legal mind, a lost melancholy soul, uttering the closing lines to one of the most remarkable stories ever penned.

December 9th, 2007 Headsman

"A Tale of Two Cities," set in two European cities torn by war, Charles Dickens paradoxically introduces his story, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,...in short, the period was nothing like the present, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree for comparison only." In fact, the author negatively introduces specific characters, giving them an obscured identity. First portrayed as a shy, young man, Sydney Carton, constantly suffering debasing comments made by his ostensibly intelligent co-worker, seems unable to overcome his pre-determined life of unhappiness. Ironically, the `jackal' finally began to feel alive upon his choice to sacrifice his life to the Guillotine. Probably the most obvious character transformation was that of Sydney Carton as, ultimately, preconceived notions prove to have been deceiving, as the character began to exhibit another facet of true personality.

Young Sydney Carton, associate of Mr. Stryver, appears quite glum upon his introduction at the `Old Bailey'. "Mr. Carton, who had so long sat looking at the ceiling of the court, changed neither in place nor his attitude, even in this excitement. This one man sat leaning back...his hands in his pockets, and his eyes on the ceiling as they had been all day. Something especially reckless in his demeanor, not only gave him a disreputable look, but so diminished the strong resemblance he undoubtedly bore to the prisoner." Due to being unsocial and pessimistic, Carton is familiar with leading a life of solitude. However, while his expression and attitude may have not allowed him to seem an observant man, he took in more of the details of the seen than he appear to take in. In fact, he was the first man to see Lucy Manette's head droop upon her father's breast. Nevertheless, Sydney Carton is the `jackal' in everything he is involved in, and it seems he always will be.

In spite of Sydney Carton's negative outlook, while he once cared for no one, he acts courageously upon his meeting with Miss Manette, the "golden doll." He is confident that he could never receive the same affection from her that he feels toward her. Yet, Carton reaches a point where he can admit his feelings to Lucie herself. " If it is possible, Miss Manette, that you could have returned the love of the man than you see before you--self-flung away, wasted, drunken, poor creature of misuse as you know him to be--he would have been conscious this day and hour, in spite of his happiness, that he would bring you to misery, bring you to sorrow and repentance, blight you, disgrace you, pull you down with me." Carton professes his love sincere to her, though he still persists in seeing himself as essentially worthless. However, this intense love becomes the sole factor of Lucy Manette's happiness. Clearly, Sydney Carton is capable of feeling deep, immense, and tragic love that others cannot see. This scene marks a vital transition for Carton and lays the foundation for the supreme sacrifice that he makes at the novel's end.

Thereafter, Sydney Carton continues to display a new facet of his personality. Upon his declaration to Miss Lucy Manette, Carton ventures farther away from his `jackal' mentality, as he nobly travels to Paris to act on his pledge to Lucie, where he vows, "I would embrace any sacrifice for you and to those dear to you." Carton truly exhibits his new personality while playing "a hand at cards." Keen on winning the hand, and thus being aided by Mr. Barsad in his mission to free the innocent Charles Darnay, husband of Lucie Manette, Carton states, "Inference clear as day in this region of suspicion, that Mr. Barsad, still in the pay of the aristocratic English government, is the spy of Pitt, the treacherous foe of the Republican crouching in its bosom, the English traitor and agent of all mischief so much spoken of and so hard to find. That's a card not to be beaten." In controlling this `card', Carton gains access to the prison where Charles Darnay is held, and he intends to take advantage of this opportunity.

The Birds Fall Down is an ambitious novel whose force is towards demonstrating the inevitability of the upheaval in Russian society that came in 1917. It's based on a true story that Rebecca West first heard when she was very young from Ford Madox Ford, whose sister married a Russian refugee. As befit to spy fiction, the opening paragraph, which Francine Prose deems as the model that both catches readers' attention and affords informative nuances, is beautifully written and poised in the flow. It doesn't ease one's forebodings. It sets the probing tone for the rest of the book in a heavily charged atmosphere: There are secrets everywhere from the very first pages.

"Presently she heard the click of the french window which opened on the entrance, and she set down her embroidery and prepared to eavesdrop. For the last year or so everybody in the house had been eavesdropping whenever they had a chance." [1]

One summer during the turn of the century, 18-years-old Laura Rowan is about to accompany her mother Tania, who is Russian, to visit her mother's father, Count Nikolai Nikolaievitch Diakonov, who lives with his sick wife in exile in Paris. Laura's father, one Edward Rowan, Member of the Parliament, a philanderer disguised in propriety (secret again), is opposed to the trip. About 18 months ago the Count has been unfairly banished by the Tsar on suspicion of treachery. The charge is obviously ungrounded because he has been subjected to a conspiracy. To better tender her grandmother's sickness, of which the gravity is a secret to the old Count, Laura is deputed to take her grandfather to the seaside resort.

Count Diakonov's ruminations on why he was exiled, in what ways the French are decadent, how to hunt the mountain cock are just mere overture compared to the conversation in tandem. On the train to the rural in northern France, the girl and the old man are joined by Chubinov, an old friend but now a terrorist, who warns him of his danger. Hence begins a monstrous conversation, uttered rather than spoken, that spans over 100 pages as the Count and Chubinov revile each other one minute only to reminisce together fondly in the next. This exchange of diatribes becomes so hypnotic but persistence of which would be rewarding to understand the novel, because all vital shifts and revelations---what domestic clutters has forayed into an insidious plot---take place during this conversation.

Before the train journey is over, it becomes evident that the virtuoso terrorist, whose charm Chubinov has attracted to, and the amicable oddball of a police spy, who has been the mainstay of the Count's old age, are one. The person is a double agent whose ingenious justification of his position is that he's performing both an act and its negation to achieve a Hegelian* union of opposites. The two organizations involved in this novel---Tsardom and reactionary---will begin to perish in their self-doubt.

The strength of The Birds Fall Down, despite its density and inaccessibility, lies in the fact that West understands treachery every bit as fully as she understands loyalty. She perceives reality as being shifting and endless treacherous shoals, like a moving train on which the key confrontation of the book takes place.

_________________________

*Hegelian dialectic, usually presented a threefold manner, was stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus as comprising three dialectical stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction, an antithesis which contradicts or negates the thesis, and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis. This model is named after Hegel but he himself never used such a formulation and denounced such ways of thinking. Rather it is due to Fichte. Hegel himself preferred the term Aufhebung, variously translated into English as "sublation" or "overcoming," to conceive of the working of the dialectic. Roughly, the term indicates preserving the useful portion of an idea, thing, society, etc., while moving beyond its limitations. Jacques Derrida's preferred French translation of the term was relever.

Daniel Lak sees India as “Asia’s America”. In other words, what he means is that India is emerging as a superpower in the new global scenario. Lak’s idea about the new India of 21^st century is nothing new, with authorities on governance, politics and economics coming up with similar predictions. But Lak, in his new book, India Express: The Future of a New Superpower (Penguin Viking), comes up with a set of well-argued theories to put meat to the idea of India becoming this new, improved version of “America”.

Lak, who worked in India and then in Nepal as a journalist with BBC for nearly two decades, starts off with the story of a street-side “press wallah” in Chennai, and how he took loans from his well-off clients to educate his two sons, and then jumps into the socio-political and economic cauldron to sieve out an image of India that is on its way to becoming a superpower.

But Lak’s vision of an India as a superpower is not of a military one. “Superpower is really a heady word. It conjures up notions of the US and the old Soviet Union, with fleets of ships, missiles, nuclear weapons, and going and taking over countries and places. In my book, people will find a new kind of superpower, one that has liberal values and a lot of good for the world, and one that is involved not only in the military aspects of a superpower but also in aspects like climate change, AIDS-HIV, global trade rules.”

Lak’s experience of working in the region as a professional journalist during a period when India started its journey towards economic liberalisation obviously has helped in seeing and putting things in a perspective – which is why he is convinced that the latest meltdown of several American financial institutions has suddenly increase the importance quotient of countries like India, China, Brazil and Russia in the global scenario.

But why call India a potential “America” and not a country that can have its own identity of being a superpower? Lak has his argument ready, “America is hugely multicultural, and every faith practiced by the mankind is found in America like it is in India. India in a way invented this sort of multiculturalism which gives it a head start in the superpower business - because if you can live with great diversity within your borders, you have a stronger player in the wider world, you have a more nuanced and subtle approach to the complexities that are coming up in the world.” And then, there are similarities between the two nations in spheres of Freedom of the Press, Fundamental Rights and the rule of law, he says. “The countries are not dissimilar in that sense.”

The India-US civil nuclear deal is a marker of India’s growing importance in the world arena, he says. “In 1998, the US was the loudest voice denouncing India for the N-tests. The reality now is that the US government not only has accepted these tests but also basically rewrote the whole non-proliferation regime to keep India on board. It is a pragmatic move, because if they had ignored reality it would not have done any good to the international non-proliferation regime,” he says.

However, Lak is against any comparison between India and China, though many tend to do that because of the virtual growth competition the two countries are into. “India is a democracy. In China the all-powerful state forced factories down the throat of the people at huge costs of social and population dislocation and environmental degradation. India has managed to check some of the excesses that happened in China. It is impossible to compare India with China, which, with its 94 per cent Han Chinese population, overwhelmingly comprises one linguistic group. There is no connection with the distant past except for some lines given in schools through Communism. In India people are aware of their regional history, their family history,” he says, adding, “China is a bad model to compare.”

According to Lak, poverty and corruption are the major impediments in India’s growth story. And to overcome them, his prescription is to India is to go truly federal. “The power needs to be devolved, and we need to have state governments just like state government in US, where they can raise their own money, through bond issues, income tax, etc., leaving to the Centre the big things like defence, economic policy, international relations, health, education. Look at Canada, Switzerland and Germany – these are federal states with maximum authority devolved from the national government,” he says debunking the theory that India would break up if power is devolved.

And of course, India’s neighbourhood, he says, is a problem. “Pakistan continues to lurch from crisis to crisis, but it always has. It is a tough neighbourhood but there are tougher ones. What is really needed is that Indian diplomacy needs to get better. I think India needs people like (Foreign Secretary) Shyam Saran who is an ideal example of how Indian diplomats should be – a modern, forward looking, good patriotic Indian. I am sure India’s neighbours would like to come on board for a real slice of the pie if they are treated better by the Indian diplomacy.”

Lak is impressed by the rise of coalition governments at the Centre, which he says is a sign of growing maturity of Indian democracy in the sense that it has led to devolution of power from the Centre. And no, coalition politics has not acted as an impediment to India’s growth story. “De facto, India’s regions and states are getting more authority through these small, state, regional or ethnicity-based parties. Under the coalition governments that have been there almost uninterrupted since 1996, some of the greatest economic strides have been made by India. If you have only two huge national parties that traded power regardless of what is their raison d‘etre, it would have been harder to push the diverse, responsive, interesting agenda than it is under a coalition government,” he says.

But ultimately, it is India’s people who are its greatest assets, though their strength comes from having to tackle a difficult life everyday, Lak stresses. “To be an Indian, you have to be one of the world’s best problem solvers because you tackle such a difficult life every day. From your kid’s education to medical facilities to basic amenities, in all spheres of your daily life you need to have a strength of character to move on.”

(An abridged version was published in Sakaal Times, www.sakaaltimes.com, 04-10-2008)

And the complete interview with Lak, taken on 29-09-2008, on the basis of which this piece was written:

Do you think India is on its way to becoming a superpower?

This is a book I wrote for people in the world who might not know what is going on in India right now, and you have to grab their attention. If you are in India, India is the centre of the universe, but if you are living outside, India is among the many countries which are vibrant, so I wanted to grab their attention by arguing that not only India among the most important in the world by it is on its way to becoming one of the top countries if it is not one already.

We are seeing confirmation of this already, with this month the entire American system, the basis for its success, the Wall Street, capitalism is at risk, and countries like India, China, Brazil, Russia are all the more important than they were a month ago.

Superpower is really a heady word, it conjures up notions of the US, the old Soviet Union with fleets of ships, missiles, nuclear weapons, going and taking over countries and places. In the book, people will find a new kind superpower one that has liberal values and good for the world, and one that is involved not only in the military aspects of a superpower but in other aspects like climate change, AIDS-HIV, global trade rules – in all of this India is an important player.

But there are a lot of complexities, contradictions involved…and why call an Asian America?

When the wider world reads the book, the sense that I am conveying to them ….America is by no means a unitary state, it is hugely multicultural, and every faith practiced by the mankind is found in America as well as India, whereas a place like China is less diverse. America has Hollywood projected to the world. What I say in the book is that India in a way invented this sort of multiculturalism which gave it a head start in the superpower business, because if you can live with great diversity within your borders, you have a stronger player in the wider world, you have a more nuanced and subtle approach to the complexities that are coming up in the world. India plays a great role in multilateral issues now, as compared to ten years ago when it was only about Kashmir. Now India is involved in everything, it is the leading nation in the UN Peacekeeping Force, has one of the most respected peacekeeping forces in the world, I think in the coming years that is going to be almost as important as having an Army that can crush challenges in various parts of the world, being used to use the legal and other levers on multilateral issues.

I say Asia’s America because of a number of reasons - Freedom of the Press, Fundamental Rights, and rule of law…the countries are not dissimilar in that sense. And also, there are lots and lots of examples of rule of law breaking down, the press not doing its duty or being stifled somehow in both countries; it just helps to prove the rule that these are the most important aspect of a superpower. It is a liberal superpower.

Do you think the N-deal is also recognition of India’s growing importance?

Yes. I remember in 1998 when I was in India, the US was the loudest voice denouncing India for the N-Tests, and saying it could never get its way if they proceeded down the track and they had to roll back everything. The reality is that the US government not only accepted these tests but basically rewrote the whole non-proliferation regime to keep India on board. It is a pragmatic move, because if they had ignored reality like they did with Israel’s n-weapons outside the non-proliferation regime while trusting them nonetheless, it would not have done any good to the international non-proliferation regime. If you look at it, apart from Iraq and Afghanistan, this deal is the only significant thing done by the Bush administration has done at international level. It is a farsighted and interesting move.

You say that within India, the coalition governments are a sign of maturity of the Indian democracy. But don’t you think sometimes their goals overtake issues of national importance, the whole growth path?

I am not saying that coalitions prove that Indian is a mature democracy, but what has happening through coalition is that there has been devolution of central power through the growth of regional parties which has not happened since the British left India. De facto, India’s regions and states are getting more authority through these small, state, regional or linguistic-based parties. You have to remember that under the coalition governments in India which has been there almost uninterrupted since 1996, some of the greatest economic strides have been made by India, the continual opening up the economy has gone on. If you have two huge national parties that traded power regardless of what is their raison d’etre, it would have been harder to push the diverse responsive, interesting agenda than it is under a coalition government. Plus some of the skills being developed by some of the MPs and their staff are quite impressive due to this devolution of power. Political skills that run the US are quite similar, and though it is a two-party system their, each of the parties have hundred different thinking streams within them – from far right to far left, amply reflected in the ongoing presidential election.

Do you think there is a need for two strong national parties to lead the coalition at the centre as they have a pan-Indian presence?

Obviously that is the reality across the world. Minus some of the history of the Congress party and some of the Hinduvta of the BJP, the parties are mainstream, both of them, roughly similar and compete on various aspects of public policy. But just because we have two parties which aim for national dominance, that does not mean that is the national state of affairs. What has happened is that in Congress, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty either ceases to mean much for the younger people because history being more and more distant for them – and India is a young country – at the same time, BJP’s historic grievances would they continue to mean significance to the people, maybe, maybe not. Both would have to compete on developmental issues and growth of jobs. Eight per cent economic growth is necessary for growth of jobs, to keep up with population growth. I think both parties are following suit as both have young leaders and they are capable of governing pragmatically.

What about the contradiction of two Indias – the rural left behind in the growth pattern?

It’s a democracy, and there has to be a lot of give and take. It is not China where the all-powerful state forcing factories down the throat of the people at huge costs of huge social and population dislocation and environmental degradation. India has managed to check some of the excesses that have happened in China. Yes, poverty is huge challenge, and yes there is a rural-urban divide. But a lot of urban areas – Bangalore, Hyderabad – are doing very well, and so are some rural areas. And while I am not quite up to it about what happened to Tatas in West Bengal, let’s not forget it’s West Bengal, it’s a state with huge amount of social activism by the Left and around it.

Do you feel there are some traits of China which India should follow in the quest for development?

Comparing India with US is possible, but not with China, as it is 94 per cent Han Chinese, overwhelmingly one linguistic group. Ethnically, people are different but those differences have been submerged by Communism. There is no connection with the distant past except for some lines given in schools through Communism. In India people are aware of their regional history, their family history.

But Indian Diaspora can take a few lessons from the Chinese Diaspora, how they have taken interest in the country’s development. Ten years ago, Indian Diaspora had no interest in their country, but now it has, but in China’s huge FDI, is all thanks to Chinese Diaspora. Maybe the two Diasporas can have an annual meeting! China is a bad model to compare as it is unique model where the state did industrialization when it wanted to through one policy, but just to do that they had to kill 70-80 million of their own people through Mao’s policies. Until Deng Xiaoping came in, nobody wanted to be a China. Even now, because of lack of a free press, not much is known about China, though we saw what they are capable of when they hosted the Olympics. I don’t think India would want to do much with China apart from trade. I love this talk of this railway line coming down from Lhasa to India. I think they have solved all their differences since the 1962 war.

What about corruption in India?

It is a huge impediment in the growth path. But it used to be worse. The Press was more involved and had more money to take on issues, now vernacular journalism has come up, quality has improved, and corruption exposure is probably number one that readers like. But the state is a little too powerful here even now. That is what I say in this book, the power need to be devolved a little more beyond coalition governments. We need to have state governments in India just like state government in US, where they can raise their own money, through bond issues, income tax, leaving to the centre the big things like defence, economic policy, international relations, health, and education. Look at US, Canada, Switzerland, Germany – these are federal states with maximum authority devolved from the national government. There is no threat of India breaking up. Delhi has got to give up some of its powers. It is better to have a de jure thing than just coalition governments.

India's Middle Class is the largest in the world, but it is often accused of not being involved enough, and becoming more and more consumerist...

In the modern world, we cannot be too dismissive of consumption because economy is driven by consumption. It is going to be remarkable when it takes off in a big way in India. Consumption does not being one is being consumerist and does not take care of social issues. Things in India like developing a food industry that really delivers decent food to all the people and allow people in the value chain is going to vastly improve the situation to be many more people. Modernization of agriculture is going to happen because the middle class is going to demand a regular and quality food supply that is known in every advanced economy. And as for the consumption of cars, electronic equipment, that’s how the world works. I have a whole chapter devoted to social entrepreneurs. The two developments need to go hand in hand.

What about India’s neighbourhood?

It’s a big problem, Pakistan continues to lurch from crisis to crisis, but it always has. Neighboughood can be an impediment, but look at it this way – Nepal has the hydroelectric potential that India can benefit from, Bangladesh has natural gas and hydrocarbon reserves need to general clean electricity here. It is a tough neighbourhood but there are tougher ones. What is really needed is that Indian diplomacy needs to get better. Some of the smartest people in India today are working with companies like ONGC or Infosys – you are talking to some of the smartest people in the world, and in the next room you talk to some from South Block and they are a bunch of sticky types that are prickly about you got to respect my country. It should be the same first category kind in both rooms. I think India needs people like Shyam Saran who is an ideal example of how Indian diplomats should be – modern, forward looking, good patriotic Indian. Satish Mehta, now off to LA from Toronto, people like that – those who know how to mix the deals. India needs to take a more leadership role in the neighbourhood. Gujral had a good relationship with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Canada and Mexico prosper because of their ties with US, Bangladeshis, Sri Lanka, Nepal are calm neighbours. I am sure they would like to come on board for a real slice of the pie if they are treated better by Indian diplomacy. As they say in Nepal, we border Bihar and UP. If we border TN and Karnataka, Maharashtra that would have been a different story! To be an Indian, you have to be one of the world’s best problem solvers because you tackle such a difficult life every day. Getting kid’s education, daily life you need strength of character...

Love's Growth

I scarce believe my love to be so pure
As I had thought it was,
Because it doth endure
Vicissitude, and season, as the grass ;
Methinks I lied all winter, when I swore
My love was infinite, if spring make it more.

But if this medicine, love, which cures all sorrow
With more, not only be no quintessence,
But mix'd of all stuffs, vexing soul, or sense,
And of the sun his active vigour borrow,
Love’s not so pure, and abstract as they use
To say, which have no mistress but their Muse ;
But as all else, being elemented too,
Love sometimes would contemplate, sometimes do.

And yet no greater, but more eminent,
Love by the spring is grown ;
As in the firmament
Stars by the sun are not enlarged, but shown,
Gentle love deeds, as blossoms on a bough,
From love's awakened root do bud out now.

If, as in water stirr'd more circles be
Produced by one, love such additions take,
Those like so many spheres but one heaven make,
For they are all concentric unto thee ;
And though each spring do add to love new heat,
As princes do in times of action get
New taxes, and remit them not in peace,
No winter shall abate this spring’s increase.

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Here are some definitions to help understand the poem a bit better:

Vicissitude: changeability
Quintessence: the absolute essence of a substance
Elemented: made up of more than one element
Spheres: planets

I should think very much that this poem is awesome. My other favorite John Donne poems are The Good Morrow, Lovers' Infiniteness, A Fever, Death Be Not Proud, Batter My Heart, and A Hymn to God the Father.

Although let's think about this. They scuttle, they're hairy, they eat their wives- there's already a lot for them to deal with.

What justification vindictiveness?

Yet if I Google my brain for spider memories the guilt synapses compete for attention.

There is really only one spider story.

It's the one about the enormous black shadow on the carpet, illuminated by the televisual rays of a John Hughes film, when you were 12. The sheer shocking size and black hairiness of it, that scared the living daylights out of the whole family. The Benny Hill transference of the beast in a cup and post-card, after it concealed itself behind a chair. Or maybe the drowning or crushing of its threatening presence.

Some people will have a special Black Widow tale, or maybe an encounter with a weird kid who kept tarantulas. Most know never to initiate a chat on the subject in the company of anyone who has lived in a hot country. They'll rain all over any anecdote you may have, unless you can pull up your trouser leg and draw a gasp from the crowd.

Surprisingly, my salient arachnid moments seem to be joined together by a cobwebby thread of emotion and these are they:

The Innocent:

At some age under 10, my father made me a bunk bed out of wood, that had a desk and draws under it. It was magnificent. It was also very close to the ceiling, bringing me closer to the creatures that therein dwell.

One night, traumatised by the sighting of such a fellow, I called for my mother, who seemed unwilling to negotiate the bunk-bed ladder and embuggerance of hastening its swift exit. I proceeded to launch into a full Gwyneth. Two minutes later she was looking it in the eye and grappling with a glass.

Everything seemed to happen very quickly. A distracting squeal (me), a bodged lunge (mother) and an ill-advised side-step (spider) conspired to make the operation a failure.

I had caused a death for the sake of a night's sleep- a fact that had not escaped my mother, over whom I had exerted my powerful, murderous influence.

In the event, I did not sleep that night or for some nights to come.

This might have had something to do with the nuns at my Convent school, whispering 'Be sure your sins will find