Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, writing this blog as a part of thinking activity which is given by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad. This blog will contain about 

An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro

An Artist of the Floating World (1986) is a novel by British author Kazuo Ishiguro. It is set in post-WW II Japan and is narrated by Masuji Ono, an ageing painter, who looks back on his life and how he has lived it. He notices how his once great reputation has faltered since the war and how attitudes towards him and his paintings have changed. The chief conflict deals with Ono's need to accept responsibility for his past actions, rendered politically suspect in the context of post-War Japan. The novel ends with the narrator expressing good will for the young white-collar workers on the streets at lunchbreak. The novel also deals with the role of people in a rapidly changing political environment and with the assumption and denial of guilt.

1. 'Lantern' appears 34 times in the novel. Even on the cover page, the image of lanterns is displayed. What is the significance of Lantern in the novel?

Lantern appears thirty four times in the novel and on the cover page we can see here. Ono's teacher Mori-San uses lantern again and again in the novel as he always add lantern into his each paintings.  the importance of lantern is to giving careful attention to small moments and details in the physical world. Symbolize an outlook on life which prizes small details and everyday moments above the ideological concerns of nationalists or commercial concerns of businesspeople. It is an old-fashioned, aesthetically focused, and more traditional way of viewing the world.

2. Write in brief a review of the film based on the novel

A Japanese movie by Kazuki Watanbe .The artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into WW II. In this movie we find that how camera is moving and tried to stay faithful to the narrative technique of novel and that is the point I feel is strong.

Even the music has played a vital role into it. And it tells also it’s story in between the main story’s flow. Another thing is that movie helped us to understand the technique of navel and the story too. Because the novel’s story has many characters to remember but when we watch movie we can get in a easy way and also can remember

3. Debate on the Uses of Art / Artist (Five perspectives: 1. Art for the sake of art - aesthetic delight, 2. Art for Earning Money / Business purpose, 3. Art for Nationalism / Imperialism - Art for the propaganda of Government Power, 4. Art for the Poor / Marxism, and 5. No need of art and artist (Masuji's father's approach)

4. What is the relevance of this novel is our times?

Ninteen Eighty - Four

Nineteen Eighty - four by George Orwell

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, Writing this blog as a part of an activity for the novel Ninteen Eighty - Four. It is assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad. In the teacher's blog asked the questions like,

What is a dystopian fiction? Is '1984' a dystopian fiction?

What according to you is the central theme of this novel?

What do you understand by the term 'Orwellian'?

Write in brief about 'Newspeak' - and refer to Orwell & Pinter's essays

Now, We will see this session as per according these questions. I am going to deal with a dystopian fiction, Ninteen Eighty - four a dystopian fiction, central theme of this novel, the term 'Orwellian', a brief about 'Newspeak', essays of Orwell's & Pinter's.  

George Orwell

What is a dystopian fiction? Is '1984' a dystopian fiction? and the central theme of this novel.

Basically the theme of 1984 by George Orwell is to warn readers of the dangers of totalitarianism. The central focus of the book is to convey the extreme level of control and power possible under a truly totalitarian rule. It explores how such a governmental system would impact society and the people who live in it. 1984 is a dystopian novella by George Orwell published in 1949, which follows the life of Winston Smith, a low ranking member of 'the Party', who is frustrated by the omnipresent eyes of the party, and its ominous ruler Big Brother. 'Big Brother' controls every aspect of people's lives.

The video is about 'How to recognize a dystopia'. which is helping us to better understanding of Dystopia.   

What do you understand by the term 'Orwellian'?

Etymology of the Word Orwellian

The word Orwellian is a reference to George Orwell and the novel 1984, which is set in a futuristic totalitarian government. This word is similar to words like Kafkaesque Machiavellian Dickensian, and more which are adjectives that stem from a particular author and their worldview.  

Big Brother represent
Big Brother represents the totalitarian government of Oceania, which is controlled by the Party and therefore synonymous with it. Winston learns in Goldstein's book that Big Brother is not a real person but an invention of the Party that functions as a focus for the people's feelings of reverence and fear.

Write in brief about 'Newspeak' - and refer to Orwell & Pinter's essays

Waiting for Godot by Sameul Barclay Beckett

The play : Waiting for Godot

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, writing this blog as a part of thinking activity which is given by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad for the chapter of ‘Waiting for Godot’. In this we have to answer some questions in our blog.

Samuel Beckett

So, let’s have a look to the answers,

1) In both Acts, evening falls into night and moon rises. How would you like to interpret this ‘coming of night and moon’ when actually they are waiting for Godot?

In the play ‘Waiting for Godot’ there is two acts. And both acts are ending with the same time of ‘coming of night and moon’. In the play our both major characters are waiting for ‘Godot’ at evening time.

Coming of night and moon symbolizing the peace or rest. Here we can say that now both the characters are tired of waiting so they can have peace while act of waiting. Another thing is that when moon rise the day set so the hopelessness of waiting can be seen here as day is gone in a same way. 

2) The director feels the setting with some debris. Can you read any meaning in the contours of debris in the setting of the play?

The image of debris of ukrain that now a days it facing this same situation of war.

This play ‘Waiting for Godot’ is written after WW2 so it was the time when all the things were destroyed so by this setting of the Debris might director of the movie has used this setting purposely.

Another observation is like, director has used the debris to show destroyed aspect. The movie’s theme is all absurdity and nothingness. So one can say that this is the theme of human life too and destroyed aspect of life of thinking.

Debris can be symbol like, it seems that the fight or war can not give anything to human excepting this kind of useless things. And how people were thinking and how they were having the absurdity after war situation in their mind.  

3) Do you agree: “The play (Waiting for Godot), we agreed, was a positive play, not negative, not pessimistic. As I saw it, with my blood and skin and eyes, the philosophy is: 'No matter what— atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, anything—life goes on. You can kill yourself, but you can't kill life." ? (Source: E.G. Marshal said so - he played Vladimir in original Broadway production 1950s)

4) Do you think that the obedience of Lucky is extremely irritating and nauseatic? Even when the master Pozzo is blind, he obediently hands the whip in his hand. Do you think that such a capacity of slavishness is unbelievable?

Yes, the character of Lucky is biting me in his every act which he is doing. It seems to me like extreme irritating character when I see his slavishness ideology. By portraying this character might, Beckett is trying to show us the proper situation of people in different contexts. He is secondly major character but by his character, the play is getting the very unique idea of slavishness itself.

In first act of the play, the Pozzo and Lucky comes and there is the interesting act going on when Pozzo tell to Lucky to ‘think’ and there is the idea come out that Thinking is terrible.

Again they arrive in the second act, and Pozzo become blind and Lucky become dumb. Pozzo cannot see now still Lucky obediently hands the whip in his hand. And it is the unbearable to see. 

5) Do you think that plays like this can better be ‘read’ than ‘viewed’ as it requires a lot of thinking on the part of readers, while viewing, the torrent of dialogues does not give ample time and space to ‘think’? Or is it that the audio-visuals help in better understanding of the play?

Whenever we think about movie screening of any play or literary texts. Firstly we have to be careful to it’s faithfulness towards original one. Other side it helps us to understand in better way and also time consuming way to get familiar to any texts or story.

If we talk about this text Waiting for Godot. The movie adaptation itself it is hard to catch the dialogues and it seems like bored way. The chain of dialogues is going constant so the viewer or audience can not have time to catch those dialogues at a time. In the movie screening it seems more comic rather than serious one. When we read the play it seems like something serious going on between the all characters and their conversations.

6) Which of the following sequence you liked the most:

(i) Vladimir – Estragon killing time in questions and conversations while waiting

(ii) Pozzo – Lucky episode in both acts

The whole play is all about conversation rather than any of actions. When we watch the faithful version of the movie it starts with the conversation of Vladimir and Estragon (in the novel)with the setting of tree, (in the movie) with the setting of tree and debris. And they both are doing conversation, it seems like comic but it has many philosophies in it.

Meanwhile there are two characters added and they are, Pozzo and Lucky. One is master and another is slave of that master. So from those characters Beckett very well given idea or concept of mastery and slavery. Let’s have a look the Pozzo’s dialogues.  

POZZO: 

(terrifying voice). I am Pozzo! (Silence.) Pozzo! (Silence.) Does that name mean nothing to you? (Silence.) I say does that name mean nothing to you?  

POZZO: 

(halting). You are human beings none the less. (He puts on his glasses.) As far as one can see. (He takes off his glasses.) Of the same species as myself. (He bursts into an enormous laugh.) Of the same species as Pozzo! Made in God's image!

THANK YOU!

The play 'Breath' by Samuel Buckett

Interpretation Challenge & and Shooting a Video : Samuel Buckett's 'Breath'

Hello, I am  Emisha Ravani, writing this blog while studying the Absurdity and Samuel Buckett's 'Waiting for Godot', as a part of the activity. Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad Sir given to us, to make a video for the play 'Breath'. And also interpret it by our own sense of interpretation.  

Samuel Beckett

The absurdist genre of literature arose in the 1950s and 1960s, prompted by post-war disillusionment. This genre focus on mainly Existentialism. The mode of most “Absurdity Plays” is “Tragicomedy”. When human existence lacks meaning or purpose and communication breaks down. We largely find the cyclical structure in this genre. As we see the structure of “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett.

“In a universe that is suddenly deprived of illusions and of light , man feels a stranger. …This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, truly constitutes the feeling of Absurdity.” – The French philosopher, Albert Camus.

So let's have a look to video first,

The Picturization of the play : 

The interpretation of the video :

In the video, I used an effect of fading at the starting and ending part of the video. In the theater they use the curtains to fading effect. Here as we use the cinematography language so we can use various effects to convert the physical effect into the digital effects.

Secondly, I took the dry leaves as littered or dead plant material. When crop grows it rise from the soil and it’s leaves will be destroyed in the soil again. This process is general process of every leaf of the tree. Still it live very generously without thinking  how long it survive. In the same we rise from the soil and the five elements ‘Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space’. We will be destroyed in these things. As Existentialism insist that during this “Nothingness” we should survive like these leaves survive.

The sound effect plays a vital role in the video. Might it makes the video horrible somehow.  

The Script of the play : 

CURTAIN Up

1. Faint light on stage littered with miscellaneous rubbish. Hold about five seconds.

2. Faint brief cry and immediately inspiration and slow increase of light together reaching maximum - together in about ten seconds. Silence and hold for about five seconds.

3. Expiration and slow decrease of light together reaching minimum together (light as in 1) in about ten seconds and immediately cry as before. Silence and hold about five seconds.

Rubbish. No verticals, all scattered and lying. Cry. Instant of recorded vagitus. Important that two cries be identical, switching on and off strictly synchronized light and breath. Breath. Amplified recording.

CURTAIN Down

It was a greatly interesting activity to do. Many new things and new experience, I learnt a lot form this activity. Generally I edit many videos but this time I edit something new which have already a script so quite unique to do. I uploaded it at my you tube platform too.  

THANK YOU !