Beyond the Confines of Fiction
As we internalise what we read, we ask questions that we were incapable of mustering before we stumbled upon such texts.
Shaswati Das
09.11.2009
From the Editor
“How are the mighty fallen..”
It’s a line that reflects mockery. Mockery, that society imposes on a father who’s incapacitated when it comes to something as simple as reaching out to his troubled daughter. J.M Coetzee, through “Disgrace”, tells one such tale, which engulfs a father, much self-involved, in a vortex that throws him into his daughter’s seemingly turmoil-ridden existence. Moving far away from this set-up, we visit a black and white existence of a lawyer, with his two children, in the throes of adolescence. He’s a father Harper Lee carved out, to make appear the task of handling a child, effortless. Isn’t it a contrast of sorts, how two authors from two diverse backgrounds brought to light two very different facets of a relationship so commonplace?
We move to similar set-ups, in a time zone, that such authors might fail to identify with; with pressing familial issues that wouldn’t have crossed the mind of the average person, when books were themed according to political and cultural set-ups. Atticus Finch finds himself grappling with a situation that raises questions of morality. But his transition between the professional to the domestic, from the wrong to the right seems quite the humanly impossible thing to David Lurie. Lee and Coetzee, with divergent mindsets have painted with their pens, one fundamental truth – a relationship is perceived in a way that the players in it wish it to be.
Many a times, does one wish that the most complex of issues in the most ordinary of households, would give way to something consequential – something worth crying over. Many a times, does one wish that life remained confined to the 300 odd pages of the text, where all would ultimately fall into place. It’s a thought that seemed to cross my mind as I ran through my bookshelf this evening. How some books fail to let the reader detach themselves from the core issues is something I couldn’t fathom.
I laid focus on the very troubled relationships that most daughters try to come to terms with – that with the man who spells “support” for them. It’s a relationship that daughters try and run away from, to distant universities, to a marriage or to just a vacation, even though the escape is temporary in the last!
We find solace in the cure that the last chapter provides us, in the reassurance of the epilogue. But then, in the reality outside the confines of the jacket covers, which author, so powerful, might like to put us comfortably back into that one term – “Fiction” ?
Shaswati Das
[ratings]
[image courtesy: http://bit.ly/4tl0Wh]
shaswati, well written…but i'd like to mention the 2nd last paragraph. you talk about the girls coming to terms with the man who supports her, and in turns runs off to various options including marriage. isn't the husband another support man for her then?
Hi nikhil !
This article pertains strictly to a father-daughter relationship. In the two books that I've mentioned above – Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and J.M Coetzee's "Disgrace", the relationship between a father and a daughter has been spelt out, either representing tranquility or trouble. My focus has been thus. Now, "marriage" in this case is a form of escapism for the girl,who has, by and large, had a troubled relationship with the father; it has nothing to do with an inherent weakness, which makes her rely on a man.
Hope it's a little clearer now !
hmm…interesting…seems the worldly events move in a circle anyways, you get out of a situation from one place and get into another…anyways, good one shaswati…looking forward to more.
thanks nikhil !
Then again, isn't that what we always call the "circle of life" !! Escapism, is a temporary respite from the abysmal situation you find yourself in today. When a new, less troubled avenue opens up, you lap it up with as much alacrity as you can
Brava!!
thanks