tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post2938456757751821895..comments2024-03-28T22:51:28.222+05:30Comments on The Middle Stage: The art of oratory, and the great speeches of modern IndiaChandrahashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07483080477755487202noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-32860383400758152282007-08-16T14:12:00.000+05:302007-08-16T14:12:00.000+05:30I am amazed, I am beyond amazed, that no-one has s...I am amazed, I am beyond amazed, that no-one has seen fit to mention the most rousing speech in fictional history. <BR/><BR/>I am referring, of course, to Gussie Fink-Nottle's appearance at Market Snodsbury Grammar School. I think he'd fit in well between Karamazov and Andre-Louis Moreau.Cheshire Cathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463645065346922684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-62544452089354410302007-08-16T11:07:00.000+05:302007-08-16T11:07:00.000+05:30Space Bar - Absolutely. A great deal can be found....Space Bar - Absolutely. A great deal can be found.<BR/><BR/>A memorable line by a character in Indian fiction that will serve quite well to begin is the single nonsensical refrain, with variations, of Sadat Hasan Manto's lunatic Toba Tek Singh:<BR/><I>Uper the gur gur the annexe the bay dhyana the mung the dal of the laltain</I>. <BR/><BR/>The partition of India has traumatised Toba Tek Singh, and now he lives in a country of one: "There, behind barbed wire, on one side, lay India and behind more barbed wire, on the other side, lay Pakistan. In between, on a bit of earth which had no name, lay Toba Tek Singh.<BR/><BR/>One thing to think about here is that paradoxically it is often with first-person narrations, rather than with characters speaking from time to time in a third-person narration, that we get the sense of a very real person "speaking" because we get used to his or her tone. <BR/><BR/>Here, for instance, is the beautiful opening paragraph of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's <I>Indira</I> (1873): it takes only two or three sentences before we begin to "hear" the unmistakable voice of the protagonist, agitated, resentful, and plaintive:<BR/><BR/>"At last I was going to my husband's home. I was nearly nineteen but I had not yet lived with my husband's family. The reason: my father was wealthy, my father-in-law was not. Shortly after my marriage my father-in-law had sent for me, but my father did not let me go. He sent a message saying, 'My son-in-law must first learn to make money, otherwise how will he maintain my daughter?' My husband was then twenty years old. Hurt by these words he took a vow that he would earn enough to support his family. There were no railroads in those days and the journey to the west was a hazardous one. He made this difficult journey on foot without any money and reached Punjab. Someone who can do that can also earn money. He made a lot of money and sent it home but did not return for seven or eight years, nor did he keep in touch with me. I used to be miserable and angry. How much money does one need. I felt annoyed with my parents for having mentioned money at all. Is money greater than my happiness?"<BR/><BR/>But as I said, including something like this would involve bending the rules.Chandrahashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07483080477755487202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-53175382684398882832007-08-15T14:05:00.000+05:302007-08-15T14:05:00.000+05:30Yes, I was thinking of The Grand Inquisitor chapte...Yes, I was thinking of The Grand Inquisitor chapter; I was also thinking of (and this is a pet, low-borw hobby horse of mine!)<I>Scaramouche</I> in which Andre-Louis Moreau, at the start of the French Revolution, is induced to make a few rousing speeches. These run for three or four pages and are very interesting to read; Sabatini wrote the book in 1926 but set it in the thick of the French Revolution.<BR/><BR/>I was also thinking of the speeches that are described, but not made, in fiction. Like the speeches that Claudius was supposed to have made, that are now lost, but are reconstructed as descriptions in <I>I, Claudius</I> and <I>Claudius the God</I>. This would be analogous to the poems that Ka is supposed ot have written that the narrator of <I>Snow</I> describes in great detail. It's an idea I find exciting.<BR/><BR/>You're right, one would have to set out the rules exactly, but there's still much that can be found that will make for rewarding reading. Don't you think?Space Barhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08251329008160756254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-79770422456001415612007-08-15T13:54:00.000+05:302007-08-15T13:54:00.000+05:30Space Bar - That's a brilliant idea. You're quite ...Space Bar - That's a brilliant idea. You're quite correct: often fictional speeches are mouthpieces for sitations outside the work - indeed situations from which the work itself derives.<BR/><BR/>There is however to my mind a conceptual difficulty involved in preparing an anthology of fictional speeches. That is: what exactly is a fictional "speech"? Is it only something that a character is shown to have said, and opened and closed by quote marks? Or does a story told in the first-person also qualify as a speech?<BR/><BR/>Also, just as remarks made by the characters in a certain context have a relevance outside that context, so can those made by the narrators. I'm thinking for instance of the highly entertaining digressions by the narrator of Fakir Mohan Senapati's <I>Six Acres And A Third</I>, which advance a pointed critique of social hypocrisy and British bullying. But technically these are not "speeches".<BR/><BR/>I think then than an anthology of fictional speeches would have to lay down the rules very precisely for what can and cannot be included, and at the same time in doing so it would be forced to leave out some very rich and germane material on a technicality. Even so it's an idea well worth thinking about, especially since it knocks down the spurious idea that fiction is somehow less "relevant" than reportage or non-fiction.<BR/><BR/>The best-known speech in fiction is probably Ivan Karamazov's long and impassioned speech in the chapter called "The Grand Inquisitor" in Dostoevsky's <I>The Brothers Karamazov</I>. Dostoevsky was very good at dramatising contending viewpoints through different characters without showing his own hand or his leanings - this is what Mikhail Bakhtin called his "polyphony". <BR/><BR/>But in other novels the best speeches are usually reserved for the character whose view is that that the writer himself wishes to advance. Let me have a think about what great fictional speeches I've come across in Indian novels.Chandrahashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07483080477755487202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-82048715105919012892007-08-15T12:10:00.000+05:302007-08-15T12:10:00.000+05:30I love speeches! Just finished reading the Penguin...I love speeches! Just finished reading the Penguin Book of Twentieth Century Protest (http://www.amazon.ca/Penguin-Book-Twentieth-Century-Protest/dp/0670870528/ref=sr_1_9/701-1053400-5037119?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187159883&sr=1-9) and much fun it was too.<BR/><BR/>Was wondering why no one thinks of anthologising fictional speeches. Sometimes they are mouthpieces for situations outside the fiction and very interesting to read. I'm guessing these guys haven't either. <BR/><BR/>Come to think of it, <I>can</I> you think of any great fictional speeches in Indian writing?Space Barhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08251329008160756254noreply@blogger.com