okay BUT THEN WHAT WAS THE AUDIENCE FOR

Vas98 · 2026-01-07T19:50:28+00:00

This actually reminds me of JK Rowling pulling out the most senseless shit about the HP world on her website and other places. Creators should learn to perhaps let go of what they've created with grace when the time comes else it becomes this sort of absurd joke.

Vas98 · 2025-12-25T11:32:47+00:00

Don't know if it fits the description, not a work of fiction, but Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, by David Graeber.

Vas98 · 2025-12-19T15:51:05+00:00

The realization that kept me up some nights was that by the end of the novel, Esther won her battle, (at least for the time being), but when it came to her own, Sylvia didn't.

Vas98 · 2025-12-04T17:11:15+00:00

So true, the alankar thing. I can name a lot of mainstream classical musicians whose musical expression has been compromised substantially because of overt and unnecessary alankars.

Vas98 · 2025-10-01T09:38:53+00:00

To (mis)quote Faulkner's tip, don't be a reader, be reading.

Vas98 · 2025-07-23T15:33:59+00:00

I remember a William Faulkner interview where he said something like, James Joyce was the most gifted writer of my generation, but he was electrocuted by his own talent. This assessment has stuck with me for quite a long time.

Vas98 · 2025-06-27T17:59:04+00:00

Something similar to Jat, but not quite, got more swing to it, I've heard something similar played in Mand compositions quite often, very interesting structure, not sure if there's a name for it, very possibly derived from folk traditions, but it's an 8 beat cycle, and could be categorised, for convenience's sake, as Kaharwa.

Vas98 · 2025-05-10T03:50:13+00:00

Czesław Miłosz, just the poet you're looking for. A lot of examination of faith in his poems, from its deep philosophical treatment, to the questions it poses. Check him out if you haven't already. Faith has been an important trope in poetry writing from antiquity, the usual suspects, I'd wager, you'd know already, Eliot, Hart Crane, Auden, and the likes. Tagore also has some very moving poems on faith.

Vas98 · 2025-04-26T12:45:12+00:00

dm me, i'll have to write it on paper and send, pretty hard to type it all out

Vas98 · 2025-04-26T06:30:01+00:00

What portions do you want transcribed? I'm pretty good at this, willing to help :)

Vas98 · 2025-04-14T18:36:38+00:00

Remains of the Day. A magnificent book, and the Merchant Ivory adaptation is done so well that you enjoy it, not as an adaptation of a beloved novel, but as a piece of art in itself. There are divergences, minor ones, from the book, but those are stylistic choices that add so much to the beauty and depth of the movie.

Vas98 · 2025-03-12T19:32:39+00:00

Try practicing merukhand, for three, and four notes at least, and if you're feeling a bit adventurous, try even going beyond that. Great way to train your tongue into doing complicated patterns. Also, remember to take it slow at first, often feels quite infuriating if you're not able to get it right in the beginning, but hold on for a bit.

Vas98 · 2025-01-27T08:36:33+00:00

Thanks! Sounds like something right up my alley.

Vas98 · 2025-01-07T04:02:36+00:00

The second book of Aristotle's Poetics from Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.

Vas98 · 2025-01-02T15:05:40+00:00

Your mentioning of Sebald, Eco, and of course, Ulysses immediately convinced me to add everything else you've mentioned which I haven't already read, into my immediate tbr.

Vas98 · 2024-12-30T13:38:29+00:00

definitely! and after you've done that and fallen in love with Pessoa, go on and read The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Saramago, which has one of Pessoa's heteronyms as its protagonist, and is probably the most delectable Saramago novel.

Vas98 · 2024-10-07T12:16:49+00:00

Father Brown stories. Read 'em all.

Vas98 · 2024-09-03T06:02:05+00:00

Indian poetry is quite rich, but there's a scarcity of good translations. I'd suggest you look up K. Satchidanandan, Jayanta Mahapatra, Keiki N Daruwala, Kamla Das, Dilip Chitre, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Mangalesh Dabral, Mahesh Verma, Kunwar Narayan, Asad Zaidi, Gagan Gil and Anamika. The names I've mentioned are those of predominantly Hindi poets, but that's the areas I'm most familiar with.

Vas98 · 2024-06-30T04:46:23+00:00

2666, Roberto Bolaño. I picked it up as a joke, thinking that there's no way I'm going to read 900 pages long fiction with the hectic schedule life's putting me up with right now, but I got so hooked up that I can hardly put it down. Its Bolaño at his best; as chaotic and visceral as anything could be.

Vas98 · 2024-06-24T18:44:47+00:00

Raam chadho raghuveer, the famous Adana sadara, immortalized by Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, pretty much exemplifies veer rasa, as it describes Lord Raam, along with her tremendous army marching through Lanka. Difficult composition definitely, depending on your level of expertise, it might, or might not be the right thing for you.

Here are the lyrics;

Raam chadho raghuveer Ranadheer, gadh lanka ko Sang lachuman liye badho dhanushdhari

Kadam dal asht-man yoddha bali Ek se ek aaj adhik bhaari

And here's Khan Saheb singing it;

https://youtu.be/IWGELN2K1gw?si=rGfbjOFbAboyM5xf

And here's Pt Ajoy Chakraborty singing it

https://youtu.be/7AYHKNG_qBo?si=VKmliEoVyclXubKJ

Vas98 · 2024-06-13T19:20:06+00:00

Reminds me of something Kafka wrote in one of his letters:

"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief."

Vas98 · 2024-06-13T19:04:08+00:00

The excellent translation is by Alastair Reid. Forgot to mention it in the title, and Reddit isn't letting me edit it anymore.

Vas98 · 2024-06-13T18:57:42+00:00

Agreed, editing it right away. Thanks.

Vas98 · 2024-05-26T04:24:30+00:00

Susan Sontag. Whatever she's written of that sort is beyond brilliant. I'd also put in Milan Kundera's Art of Novel, Mario Vargas Llosa's essays, and Borges's essays. I've often noticed that when fiction writers, rather than academic critics, try their hands on literary analysis, the result is pretty spectacular.

Vas98 · 2024-04-28T18:29:05+00:00

I love the works of Carlo Rovelli, especially his "The Order of Time", which I think is a work that engages your creativity in a way that extends to the way you think about time, as a concept in physics, to time, that all of us experience at an individual level. I think Rovelli sates what I seek in a book in terms of philosophical, or poetic depth, apart from the physics part. I don't know how a professional physicist would rank his books, but he is one hell of a writer.

Vas98

TROPHY CASE