Hey Maugham, what the Dickens?

I had been reading ‘A tale of two cities’ as an e-book on my mobile (hope Mr. Charles doesn’t turn in his grave). But then I went and bought a real book – Of Human Bondage. The temptation of holding a book and reading it (kind of like having a cake and eating it too) was too great for me to resist. Thus I began reading two great books at the same time.

The styles of two authors cannot be more different. Maugham is extremely descriptive and the book is often described as an ‘autobiographical novel’. The characters are so alive since they are written from life. I could really relate to Philip, maybe not his tempestuous, obsessive love, but his shyness, love of reading, obstinacy and vanity. Then again, I found the book very similar to ‘The Razor’s Edge’.

On the other hand, Dickens is full of satiric humor, that is at the same time very thought provoking. I do not think I have understood all that is implied in the book or that I will after a second or third reading. Each sentence seems to have been written after a lot of thought and deliberation. The book makes me feel like I have been sleeping all these years (this is my first Dickens) and makes me want to read all of his books.

In ‘Of Human Bondage’, Mr. Maugham writes,

… there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action. In France you get freedom of action: you can do what you like and nobody bothers, but you must think like everybody else. In Germany you must do what everybody else does, but you may think as you choose. … But in England you get neither: you’re ground down by convention. You can’t think as you like and you can’t act as you like. That’s because it’s a Democratic nation. I expect America’s worse.

Makes you really wonder about India if the ‘land of the free’ is so restrictive, or wonder about France and Germany.

The Bookstore

Over the ages, the bookstore has always played a central role in shaping the human society. The place has a certain charm about it. Really when you stop to think about it, you realize that all human activities have been, are and will be associated with the bookstore. A place of desire (when you see a book that you really want) and wonder (when you see its price). But the bookstore also has a soul, only you may have to search for it. Take yesterday for example, I went to this great bookstore (quite near the college too), and saw ‘Of Human Bondage’ which I’ve always wanted to read. When I looked at the price I was literally shocked - Rs. 508. Hmmm… how can I ever square it off with my conscience? But I was in luck yesterday, I found a low cost edition of the same book (after a lot of (soul?) searching) for Rs. 120 which I can explain to my conscience. So that’s my story - the soul of a bookstore.

hmmm... maybe I should go out more often and go some place other than a bookstore or a library.

ps. I haven’t started the book yet. Been reading ‘Tale of Two Cities’, my first ‘Dickens’. Still, better late than never.

Depression

Some made the long drop from the apartment or office window; some took it quietly in two-car garages with the motor running; some used the native tradition of the Colt or Smith & Wesson; those well-constructed implements that end insomnia, terminate remorse, cure cancer, avoid bankruptcy, and blast an exit from intolerable positions by the pressure of a finger; those admirable american instruments so easily carried, so sure of effect, so well designed to end the american dream when it becomes a nightmare, their only drawback is the mess they leave for relatives to clean up

These are from 'To have and have not' by Ernest Hemingway, I guess it is to be expected from an author who later does the same thing, but this time uses a shotgun. I was trying to figure out which was the most depressing literature I've read, I guess it has to be 'Love' by Toni Morrisson (even though there were quite a few close contenders like 'Mrs. Dolloway', 'Catcher in the rye' and it even beat 'Desperation' by Stephen King). 'Love' is about a dying resort town and the two women who live there, but really the book is about depression.

Proof

'Proof' is one of the best movies I've watched recently. The movie is about this great mathematician who goes a little crazy and dies. Now his daughter, Gweneth Paltrow, brings out a notebook containing a proof on some theorem on 'prime numbers'. But no one would believe that she did actually write the proof. The best thing about the movie is it doesn't become trite or over simplified. What I mean is that usually when there is a movie on a technical topic, they just show a bunch of formulae or when they show a hacker, he types a lot of stuff on the keyboard and hey presto the security system is breached. The only complaint I have is in the choice of 'prime numbers', aren't there hundreds of important unproved theorems in mathematics? Its always prime numbers in movies take 'PI' another excellent movie but still its on 'prime numbers'. I guess that is the most accessible mathematical conundrum that everyone can identify