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Re: Nabokov's famous formulation about literature ...
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I¹ve always taken VN¹s reference to the ³Cry Wolf² story as a misleading
tease in defining literature¹s duplicitous origins. Aesop¹s fable itself
(circa 600BC) starts with the boy lying twice and then being ignored and
eaten when a real wolf appears. Indeed, Aesop concludes with the telling
generalization:
Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie
once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.
This sits quite uncomfortably with
'Listen, sir, Literature was not born the day a boy ran out screaming 'Wolf!
Wolf!' with a huge brown creature in hot pursuit. It was born when that boy
shouted 'Wolf! Wolf!' and there was no wolf at all!' ²
Taking the Aesopica as ³literature,² we have a strange narratival
time-reversal: the founding example followed by its negation. Further, the
author, far from exploiting literature¹s power, nay, delight in deceiving,
warns of the fatal dangers of confusing truth and falsehood.
I¹m also puzzled by one of Khademul Islam¹s implications. Bengali readers
will certainly be as acquainted as Western readers with the ³Cry Wolf²
fable, possibly more so! In ironic fact, there¹s plausible evidence that the
original oral sources for Aesop¹s fables were Indian story-tellers (e.g.,
the Sanskrit Panchatantra). The interactions of shared folk-motifs are
complex and, of course, disputed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop%27s_Fables#Translation_and_transmission
We do know that the Greek Aesopica, as collected by Barbrius, was translated
by the Indian philosopher Syntipas circa 100BC. Had he not done so, the
fables may well have been lost to the West! The Greek originals having been
lost, what we have now are Greek translations from Syntipas¹s Syriac
translations from the Greek. I leave the implications of this to
translationologists.
It¹s a moot point whether Shahaduz Zaman needs to elaborate on or mention
the source of his VN quotation. Khademul Islams asks patronizingly ³What
will average Bengali readers make of it?² What sort of question is THAT? Not
one that VN or his disciples would ask? The quote makes sense on its own (or
it doesn¹t!), and it would be rather anti-Nabokovian to expect a short
story to carry over-explicit messages on the role and mechanisms of
literature. Let¹s leave some glossage to future Zamanian scholars.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 26/09/2008 22:35, "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
>
> http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=56614
>
> On Shahaduz Zaman
> Khademul Islam
>
>
>
> Ibrahim Buksh's Circus and Other Stories by Shahaduz Zaman (translated by
> Sonia Amin), Dhaka: UPL; 2008.
>
> Shahaduz Zaman is a Bengali writer, well regarded especially for his short
> stories. He has a doctorate in medical anthropology and teaches at BRAC
> University. He has written widely on the subject in both English and
> Bengali--I remember reading a Bengali daily's Eid issue where he published an
> engrossing ethnographic piece on our hospital culture. His dissertation and
> training has meant that a degree of native medical folklore and knowledge has
> seeped into his fiction, which has given them a texture and atmosphere unusual
> in Bengali short stories. In this collection of eight of his short stories in
> English translation being reviewed here, for instance, 'Clara Linden in
> Nijkolmohona' gives us examples of folk songs of midwives and those sung
> during pregnancy:
>
> [ ... ]
>
> It can also lead him into dubious areas. In the story 'Paper Plane,' a man on
> a bridge at night comes up to the narrator (unreliable, of course!) and says,
> ³ 'Listen, sir, Literature was not born the day a boy ran out screaming 'Wolf!
> Wolf!' with a huge brown creature in hot pursuit. It was born when that boy
> shouted 'Wolf! Wolf!' and there was no wolf at all!' ² The above is actually
> Nabokov's famous formulation about literature and the necessary duplicity of
> the artist. While the erudite reader of English literary criticism may
> recognize and resonate to the words, one has to wonder: What about average
> readers reading the story in the original Bangla, who are very likely unaware
> of the deeper reaches of Nabokov's conception of art and the creative process?
> What are they to make of it? If unexplained (and I don't have the original
> Bangla with me), then it's in danger of being merely an acquired pose, an
> affectation of deep thought. Or perhaps in postmodernism it doesn't matter, in
> which case the issue is moot...
>
> [ ... ]
> Khademul Islam is literary editor, The Daily Star.
>
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