Yesterday someone was asking why I prefer fictions to non-fictions. She asked if it is fantasy that I look for, do i try to run away from reality. To tell the truth, I was caught off-guard. It actually is a truth. Books always give me a way to move around in a different world. But I didnt see it as 'running away' atleast not until she said so. It was something I didnt want to agree to. I'd rather have agreed if she had used the word 'escape' and not 'run-away'. I replied that its not fantasy of the fiction that fascinates me, its the creativity of the author, the ability to create characters, world, situations in his book. Yet when I read "The Kite Maker", I felt it ring like reality, no make-believe world there and that fascinated me more.
It is a sad story. So I was told. So I found. But actually it is much more than just a sad story.
Here are aome thoughts that I found in the book.
And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too. [Page - 48]
It is difficult to know which is harder, to think everyone means what they say or to think nobody means what they say. To decide who means and who does not is probably the hardest. Yet this should be the way. Isn't it? How do these people react when they discover the superficial world around them? Do they break down or do they too get drowned. Is it possible to live genuinely when everything around you is superficial? For Hassan it was. He moved away, or rather was moved away, far way and finally farther away. But what happens when moving away is not one of the options? Or may be such people don't exist, are not let to exist.
Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the VOLUME knob on life.
Silence is pushing the OFF button. Shutting it down. All of it. [Page - 315]
This gives a new perspective to "silence". I never thought it this way. I may have been wrong. We do sometimes shut down our windows. Pull their shutters down. In some way or the other everyone does that till we need that sunlight again, till we want to feel the wind again. But not forever, not forever. Yet do you think it can happen that we just forget that shutters can be up again?
7 comments:
People who mean everything what they say and those who mean nothing of it ... the extremes - previously I used to get an odd feeling with any such discussions ... now I observe a rather comfortable recognition of a pure fiction ... all is obvious gray .. the shades vary - location to location, person to person, time to time, situation to situation, second to second ...
Hmmm, the challenge to live genuinely when 'everything' around you is superficial - again an extremist situation... given the amazing power of human mind to forget and get over our mistakes - or even worse, justify them with an incorrect yet concrete sense of proud .. I am not sure if even a bleak sense of guilt is actually possible in today's world for many of our acts- this was what stroked me most in the book - next only to Hassan's innocence -it was Amir's inability to forget 'it' ... I'm not saying that it was too gr8 or that it would never be the case with with me or any1 in particular .. but yes I feel nowadays life's more inclined to the likes of movie 'Momento' - we may conveniently forget in the next moment any heinous/unfair act and continue to live happily FOREVER as if nothing happened - life's so ruthlessly fast nowadays ... for good... or for bad ... to answer may not be as easy as it initially appears ...
Oh yes, for the challenge -'to live genuinely' is acknowledged and judged only by one's own conscience - which, as I remarked, is no more based on a persistent memory nowadays...
People who mean everything what they say and those who mean nothing of it ... the extremes
Yes i was speaking about the extremes. For two reasons 1)the extremes define the boundaries. And unless the boundaries are defined we cannot start disccussing. 2) the middle path first of all doesnt have clear definition and then again unless we get the clear picture of what we are talking about how can we discuss.
I guess you agree with both of these points.
pure fiction ... all is obvious gray .. the shades vary - location to location, person to person, time to time, situation to situation, second to second ...
pure fiction ??? How can you be so sure. nobody can certainly prove the absence of either type of the person.
the varying shades of gray : you certainly put tht into a very generalized thing. I wasnt talking about generalization.
given the amazing power of human mind to forget and get over our mistakes - or even worse, justify them with an incorrect yet concrete sense of proud - first of all, living superficially is not a 'mistake'. mistakes are not deliberate. I agree given a number of situations many people choose to live superficially. But that cannot be called mistake. that is a choice. Amir's act was also a choice.
You have pointed out a very important thing here. I cannot agree whole-heartedly to it. If seriously each and every human being had lost their conscience nobody would have written/read or for the matter appreciated the book we are talking about.
It is impossible that a person remains totally inaffected by something that has happened in his life irrespective of whether it has been done unto him or by him. He may find justifications to get over it - but to totally ignore or forget it is impossible. Momentpo, I believe states perfectly what an important role memory plays in our world, Surely nobody lives a life like that. Or for an instance take a look at the movie, "Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind". How much can ou forget and for how long. Life is not a series of unrelated events. They are all linked. You break one, the whole chain breaks.
As for conscience being based on persistent memory, if there is no memeory, there is no conscience.
How much one's act is heavy on one's conscience is dependent not on the ability to forget but on the basis of the development of his conscience.
There are a hundred things that you do not want to do. Murder may be one of them but if you do that to save yourself, your conscience will justify you. You dont need to forget it.
pure fiction ??? How can you be so sure. nobody can certainly prove the absence of either type of the person.
Ofcourse - the agnosticism, proof of presence or absence is not possible - this itself is an absolute statement albeit :D
the varying shades of gray : you certainly put tht into a very generalized thing. I wasnt talking about generalization.
Oh yes, the generalization includes the mass - the majority of population - you were talking about extremes... true...
mistake vs choice
Alrite ... I perceive mistakes as choices which we regret later ... deliberate decisions which bring us results worse than our expectations... Amir did NOT know that his first choice would effectively lead to what happened.. ofcourse owing to his subsequent choices as well.. they were not mistakes coz then he knew exactly what was to happen and how ...
It is impossible that a person remains totally inaffected by something that has happened in his life irrespective of whether it has been done unto him or by him. He may find justifications to get over it - but to totally ignore or forget it is impossible.
This is precisely what's been refuted in memento - for an abnormal person indeed ... but again his abnormality was in the extreme of always being so ... I referred to the signs of such behavior in people around us - to 'some incidents' ... It is a generic - non-personal observation which does not refer to you or myself or our friends rt now Moon... but say - for a student: a simple act of cheating in campus - gettin a job... for a service/business person: frauds in taxes - earnin money and comforts... for a reckless truck driver: the last highway accident when he didn't bother to look back who all died ..
and YES I do believe that 'Many' (NOT all) people in these situations live most of the rest of their lives irrespective of these events/acts ....they are happy and concerned only with what their conscience acknowledges ... I believe that persons DO live genuinely(as in guilt free) today- even after committing crimes coz their conscience does not recognize those acts as crimes! and the people around them don't know!.. Assuming myself into such a situation - I found it to be genuine enough .. It might be debatable... but coming back to the idea of agnosticism - it can't be proved that such persons don't exist at all :D ...
so u already read this one! I have been planning on it since a long time but haven't done so yet. have heard a lot about it so won't miss it!
Really Anki, the question your friend posed caught me off guard too.. I would have given the exact reply that you did... but what she asked makes so much sense... run away and escape - aren't they the same thing?
books open up a world for you that you would probably have not seen or experienced. You leave your own world and while in the pages of the book, get away from your world... isn't that escape? you try and drown your worries and tensions... isn't that running away?
@Ritu
A must read! And try 'a thousand splendid suns' too (by the same author)
@Anks
Actually, I had the same thought. In a way yes, escape and running away are more or less same.
However I don't know why, the term 'escape' gives an indication temporary respite, from where you can come back but 'run-away' is more or less like never to come back.
If you ask me, running away from reality is like losing your hold on reality forever but escape is like fleeting away for a few moments.
That is the only reason i would have preferred using escape rather than run-away.
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