Short and Simple Annals

Lot of people dislike short stories. But I on the other hand loves to read short stories. For me Somerset Maugham's collection of short stories are the greatest. Who could forget The short story classics like Guy De Maupesant, O'Henry etc.In the Literary Blog The Elegant Variation a blogger defends short stories.

To me, the short story differs from the novel in the way that, say, a watercolor differs from an oil, or a concerto differs from a symphony. Each form is telling a story, but the medium chosen by the artist informs (thank you, Mcluhan) the message. Obviously, an author doesn't choose to write a short story instead of a novel because it's shorter. She writes it because the shorter form suggests something different about the objectives of the narrative than does the longer form. For me, the short story generally conveys an existential situation, rather than a fully-fledged narrative plot. Of course things happen within the pages of a compelling short story, sometimes startling things, reversals of character,of fortune.

Fiction for Class XII

I saw a beautiful reference to the merits of reading fiction in web.

Aristotle claimed that poetry—he meant the epics of Homer and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, which we would now call fiction—is a more serious business than history. History, he argued, tells us only what has happened, whereas fiction tells us what can happen, which can stretch our moral imaginations and give us insights into ourselves and other people.

Reading fiction always facinated me right from my child hood.Unfornutely this habit wanes in the present generation.In our present curriculam of studies class X and class XII students are not aware of the rich heritage of books the languages have. why not fiction was introduced to class X and class XII in both english and reginal language? Jayakanthan in tamil and some beautiful classic like Jane Austin be introduced to them. This will help them in future to cultivate reading habits for them. When they took a mindblogging and streneous carrer, this habit may help them relax a little at times of stress.

"a poem will travel in time and space, and last beyond the moment of its conception."

A beautiful discription

Somerset Maugham never disappointed me. i was and am an ardant fan of his short stories. I happened to read his collection of short stories again. A beautiful page from his short story.

"On each bank of the river were mangroves and nipah palm, and behind them the dense green of forests. In the distance stretched blue mountains, range upon range, as far as the eye could see.She had no sense of confinement nor gloom, but rather of openness and wide spaces where the exultant fancy could wander with delight.The green glittered in sunshine and the sky was blith and cheerful. the gracious land seemed to offer her a smiling welcome."

-- a passage from short story "The Force Of Circumstance" by Somerset Maugham.

Read the full story:

Massacare by Maoists

Web dunia has posted an interesting article in tamil about massacre of 76 jawans by Maoists. The article was well analysed. But the underlying sympathy to Maoists is unnecessary.Corruption,misrule and greed of politicians as well as multinational corporations are responsible for the current state of affairs.In the name of sympathising with the tribal people justifying the resurgence of Maoists is not acceptable. One can not replace an evil with another evil. IF and When Maoists took control of Delhi(Indian intelligence agency predicted it to happen by 2050) There won't be any MIDDLE CLASS.They will be destroyed and wiped out.Rich class would have flown away by that time.The development and intelligentsia is beyond the understanding of present crop of Maoists leaders.What happened in china when Mao Took over and Pol Pot regime in Cambodia are recent history . In the name of cultural revolution Red guards displaced Millions of people from their home resulting in chaos and economic disarray through out china.In Cambodia POLPOT nearly WIPED OUT millions of them with out a trace.

Arundhati Roy in her article on Maoist massacre completely sided with the cause of mock courts and annihilation. In a well written article she exposed the nexus P.Chidambaram had with the mining mafia and land graping in the name of development.I completely agree with her views but her solution to the problem is not agreeable to me. we must find a way democratically not by police goons or maoists massacre.