tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post6750199298389827841..comments2024-03-26T17:11:09.856+05:30Comments on The Middle Stage: On Gyan Prakash's Mumbai FablesChandrahashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07483080477755487202noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-51315264387949432322012-03-13T18:28:09.074+05:302012-03-13T18:28:09.074+05:30"I very much doubt Dhasal has this intention;..."I very much doubt Dhasal has this intention; if anything, this seems like something that Prakash would like Dhasal to say."<br /><br />Chandrahas, I think the word you were looking for is "interpreted". Isn't that the point of any written work - literary, academic or travelogue, and what any original author tries to produce - to interpret and present their view?<br /><br />(The question mark is rhetorical).Varun Yadavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18228580870180091395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-79605535945726476932011-04-19T17:43:24.253+05:302011-04-19T17:43:24.253+05:30I see you tweaked your review. The prerogative and...I see you tweaked your review. The prerogative and power of the blog owner!<br /><br /> You can always find something to criticize if you are looking to. For example, I could surmise that you are a champion of unbridled neo-liberal capitalism who believes that everyone comes to Mumbai to test their entrepreneurial mettle and set up their own multinational companies. But that wouldn't be very useful and may not be accurate.<br /><br />So,you could find a line in the book, as you do, to assert that I am very enthusiastic writing about leftist movements. But, of course, that would have to overlook paragraphs showing their blindness (e.g., their subservience to the Soviet Union, opportunistic endorsement of Shivaji, etc.)<br /><br />Or, you could pick a line about Sudhir Patwardhan, which is there really to only indicate a certain mood that came to surface after communal riots, and hold forth on the pitfalls of the social scientists' interpretation of ART. But then, you would have to ignore what the book says about the materiality of the medium of comic books, or the the medium of mixed and recycled materials that Meera Devidayal uses in her artwork, or the function of the short story form in Manto.<br /><br />I have no argument with you about the general principles of respecting the medium of artworks. I would be interested, however, in your general principles on the medium of historical writing beyond putting certain words in scare quotes.Gyan Prakashnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-4315717078843559322011-04-18T14:42:50.606+05:302011-04-18T14:42:50.606+05:30Not - Very simply, what I meant by my remarks abou...Not - Very simply, what I meant by my remarks about the reading of artworks is that something essential is lost when they are written about without respecting the medium in which they are fashioned. We may speak about the effects of a painting on the observer in a single sentence, but we cannot treat it as if were basically a viewpoint or a hypothesis in an argument without also saying <i>how</i> one feels it does this. This is also a safeguard against the citation of inferior artworks which somehow "make a point" and are therefore useful in ideological arguments. <br /><br />There is presumably a difference between my depiction of a riot and Sudhir Patwardhan's depiction of a riot, else I would be within my rights to ask why it was his painting that was cited and not mine when I, too, was angry about the rupture (to use a word greatly favoured these days in the academy) of the city's social fabric, and can show a work that proves it. Further, very few artworks, on close inspection, prove to assert something as unambiguously as their interpreters sometimes insist they do, and one sign of someone taking the easy route is always when we hear nothing about a work's methods but only something about what it signifies.Chandrahashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07483080477755487202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-12178046003893794472011-04-14T18:29:14.119+05:302011-04-14T18:29:14.119+05:30Provocative review. I must agree with Prakash thou...Provocative review. I must agree with Prakash though as regards Anand and Correa. There was something quite undemocratic about the entire project to discipline Mumbai. The very idea that Mumbai needs a stiff dose of straightening parallels other high modernist projects for instance, the straightening of the Rhine in order to make it less 'chaotic'. Predictably, most of these projects draw sanction from a very narrow, self-consciously modern section of the population and invoke the Protestant horror of waywardness, non-linearity, and unpredictability. <br /><br />I found your criticisms of how Prakash uses art and novels in his book very interesting. Could you elaborate what you meant by 'materiality before meaning', or when you asked what is happening 'inside' the painting?Not-noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-30062129024605215562011-04-10T09:26:17.161+05:302011-04-10T09:26:17.161+05:30Congratulations for cracking the code that I am an...Congratulations for cracking the code that I am an anti-capitalist!<br /><br />No disagreement on Mumbai's extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit and energy, the soaring ambitions of its people. Its what drew millions of migrants, pursuing a dream. Some realize their aspirations. Most do not, but persevere, sustained by the belief aaj nahin to kal. Ideology is a wondrous thing.<br /><br />Regarding Navi Mumbai, I wonder about a "civic idealism" that failed to consult the peasants whose lands were appropriated. By the way, you missed noticing that I am in excellent company in my use of terms like dream and utopia --Mulk Raj Anand entitled his laudatory essay on the New Bombay plan, "Bombay: Planning and Dreaming." <br /><br />Finally, may I reassure you that I know not only about DCR Rule 58, but also Rule 22 and many other DCR rules. As you know, authors are selective in what they include.Gyan Prakashnoreply@blogger.com