Hamlet By William Shakespeare

Hamlet By William Shakespeare
               …My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

Besides being one of the most powerful tragedies of English literature, Hamlet has also been one of the oft-cited works in philosophy, psychology and fiction. From being the absurd hero of Albert Camus’s philosophy, to being the Oedipus of Freudian psychoanalytics, Hamlet has played more parts without The Tragedy of Hamlet than he has played within.

The reader is immediately put in the state of discomfort by Shakespeare when he begins the play with an apparition appearing before soldiers. Then the plot unravels and we come to know how Claudius, the current King of Denmark seemed to have murdered his brother and married his wife Gertrude. The apparition is none other than King Hamlet who has been slain so mischievously. His son Hamlet is immediately put in conflict by the apparition when he is charged to execute Claudius’s murder to avenge his father’s.

The text, it seems to me, does not accentuate how Hamlet proceeds to execute his dead father's will, but why he is hesitant and conflicted while doing so. While psychoanalytical theories have attributed this to Oedipus’s complex in Hamlet, and search for the absurd in text would point us to its meta-theatrical nature, I think these layers in themselves is what makes hamlet a tale that has stuck in literature for such a long time. The pause between intention and action seems to be more interesting to me than the action itself. Shakespeare’s work is rife with irony, sarcasm and metaphors. Hamlet is not a difficult read, but interpreting the meaning of metaphors could be trying at some points.

I can safely recommend Hamlet to any general reader.

The Castle (Das Schloss) by Franz Kafka

The Castle (Das Schloss) by Franz Kafka
…they’re not intended to detect mistakes in the vulgar sense of the word, since there are no mistakes,

It will not go unnoticed, by a reader who has had a chance to consume one of Kafka’s other works such as The Trial or The metamorphosis, that the subtitle is incomplete and the reader is likely to understand the analogue when he or she reads The Castle by Kafka. The castle is the story of a man called K( immediately seen similar to the protaganist of The Trial) who is a stranger(to the backdrop) that comes to a village on being recruited as a land surveyor. As the story unfolds, or in this case, becomes thicker with layers of oppression, bureaucracy and aloofness, K , who seemed to be quite assertive at first, slowly becomes part of the illusion of the castle.

As is noted in the English translation published by Oxford, it would be too narrow to just consider the work as an example of ‘Kafkaesque’ texts. The castle is more clear, even somewhat more hopeful (though this can be my own perception) than The Trial and Metamorphosis. In this work, the protagonist seems to be capable of love and is able to assert his feelings over his then context, even if only incidentally. Kafka’s writing is coherent, but full of puzzles and intentionally fallacious logic that actively engages the reader in his work. The constancy of man’s struggle with a higher form or object , in both negating the form or cherishing it, is imbued in the reader as he turns the pages and sure enough, as is true with all the works of Kafka that I’ve read, he or she is given no real comfort or closure. This superiority of an ambiguous authority figure, which may or may not have real control, is demonstrated to be obvious or natural and all other ways of living are deemed unnatural or unthinkable.

Kafka, through his pen, has once again succeeded, even with a partial work, to create a world that at first is difficult to even comprehend but slowly becomes threateningly obvious.

The castle is a must read for readers who can bear to live without closure.

The myth of Sisyphus & other essays – by Albert Camus

The myth of Sisyphus & other essays – by Albert Camus

     …for nothing is vanity to him except the hope of another life.

In a universe where existence of God is doubtful, and one finds no reason to live the most important question to answer can only be- why must not one commit suicide? Albert Camus’s ‘The myth of Sisyphus’ attempts to answer this question by first accepting the meaninglessness and disconnectedness of man and his reality and then dwelling on the reasons and paradigms of why man can and possibly should choose not to kill himself amidst such a world.

Camus attempts to define what he calls ‘the absurd’ as a quasi- adjective that he later uses to define elements such as absurd art, absurd literature and absurd man through the description and analysis of characters such as Don Juan, one of the greatest known lovers of fiction, Dostoevsky’s Kirilov and Kafka’s Joseph K. The myth of Sisyphus itself comes near the end as the apotheosis to the analyses. Albert Camus’ writing is quite passionate and still logical, though I cannot say for sure how much of the quality of the work was lost in translation. Camus’s ideas are themselves not easy to comprehend, but his attempt to present the same idea from different perspectives in order to exposit his philosophy is not only commendable but also quite artful. The reader should have basic ideas related to the literary references Camus makes in his work. Reading Kafka, Dostoevsky, and the myth of Sisyphus itself would go a long way in painting a cohesive picture of Camus' philosophy in the mind of the reader.

In the other essays, Camus has beautifully described cities such as Algiers and Oran. The description is quite vivid and one can almost feel transported to the places he describes.

I recommend this work to those who have already read one of Camus’ other works and want to delve deeper into his philosophy. This work probably would not be very interesting to a general reader.

Best Russian Short Stories- Edited by Thomas Seltzer

Best Russian short stories- Edited by Thomas Seltzer

   …I am not in the position to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of winning the superfluous.

I believe that the subtitle, a quote from Pushkin’s ‘The Queen of Spades’, depicts what the Russian literature is all about- veracity, simplicity and revelation of the basic nature of human. Through his meticulously selected compilation of short stories from some of the most acclaimed Russian writers, Thomas Seltzer is able to put this visceral sense of Russian style across to the readers. From the romance of Pushkin to the simplicity of Tolstoy to the innovation and economy of Chekov- everything is quite apparent in this compilation. It would be impossible to say whether or not these short stories are the ‘best’ Russian short stories and also treat these as a single work while critiquing them. I think the best way, although a long one, would be to take up the task author-wise.

Pushkin’s ‘The queen of spades’ stands on the cusp of romance and realism of Russian literature. His characters are able to lie to themselves and accentuate the base nature of greed hidden in the quasi love of the story. ‘The cloak’ by Gogol is no ordinary story, and yet, it has the most ordinary plot that hauls characters, fixated between ennui, poverty and plainness, against a preternatural backdrop. Gogol is able to create his own world of drudgery, reality, bureaucracy and a certain almost hidden sense of grotesqueness. Turgenev’s ‘The district doctor’ is a beautiful work of Russian realism that depicts the conflict between profession and love while at the same time creating an image of love caused by the absence of it. Dostoevsky through his work ‘The Christmas Tree and the wedding’ has once again been able to achieve the same magnitude of extraordinary poignancy as ‘Crime and Punishment’ is able to bring about. His truth is adorned with nothing. It is stark naked, showing human emotions for what they are. Tolstoy’s sketch of the old man who is wrongfully convicted of a crime in ‘God sees the truth, but waits’ emanates the futility of indignation and superiority of moral actions. It almost betrays his own doubt regarding the justness of God, although this could very well be my own perception(for Tolstoy had firm faith in Christianity). Saltykov’s tale ‘How a Muzhik fed two officials’ is quite allegorical and though I believe that it is not the best example of Russian realism, it shines as a glorious example of satire in Russian literature. Though Muzhik has no obligation – either professional or moral- to server the officers, he does so gratefully like it is his nature. This sort of image brings a strong sense of absurdity in mind and when one puts this absurdity with the reality of serfdom, one is amazed by how much the system didn’t make sense. I am partial to Socrates and because he is the protagonist in Korolenko’s work ‘The shades, a phantasy’, which has quite magnificent imagery, I don’t think I am able to critique his work neutrally. I found his work to be disproportionately unlike any other Russian works that I’ve read and still without a doubt one of the most significant ones. Socrates, in my mind, in a not a hero but a ‘gadfly’ as the author puts it- who prevents us from dozing off into the slumber of ignorance and groupthink. Garshin’s ‘The signal’ is again a simple sketch that shows the Russian society as it was from the perspective of a track-walker. It is without any charms and purpose and I feel it somehow, although not perfectly, achieves the pity evoking quality of Dostoevsky.

All of three Chekov’s works are brilliant and ‘inventive’ as Seltzer himself describes when introducing the compilation. His economy of words and simplicity are exemplary. No doubt he is one of the most acclaimed short story writers of the world. From the futility of material after attainment of knowledge presented in ‘The bet’ to the elements of misery that emanate from a simple letter of a child in ‘Vanka’ to the never told lack of self-image a lady in ‘The darling’- Chekov’s brilliance shines in brevity and plots of his tales. The magic of the little girl’s utterance of “Tiu Tiu, Mamochka!” in Sologub’s work ‘Hide and seek’ evokes a heart rending feeling that is unlike sadness or pity. Its sweetness is a mixture of tears and joy. Potapenko’s ‘Dethroned’ presents an insignificant and laughable picture of aristocracy through the depiction of competition between two ladies in the backdrop of servility and pseudo-loyalty of a ladies tailor. S.T. Semyonov is able to present the Russian poor through the glass of his own eyes. His tale portrays sacrifice as a simple unsaid thing for the poor, quite different from how the men of means see it. Gorky’s works ‘One autumn night’ and ‘ Her lover’ are brazen and do not shy away from the unsaid elements of the society. Andreyev’s ‘Lazarus’ is a philosophical work more than a literary one- ‘In the eyes of the infinite wisdom and folly are the same, for infinite knows them not’. This work is one of my favorite stories, if not the favorite, in this compilation. It addresses the question “what is death?” and hints at questions “What is God?” without the sophistry that often comes with these questions. Artzybashev’s work ‘The revolutionist’ tries to capture the same zeal as Doestovsky’s ‘Crime and punishment’ and partially succeeds in it. Kuprin’s work ‘The Outrage’ treats the grave subject of pogrom(religious persecution of Jews) in a light way but succeeds as a story with a flavor that doesn’t care about morality and tries to intentionally stick to a fallacious flow of logic. I really enjoyed reading this story.

All in all, this compilation is a must read for all those who want to be acquainted with some of the most acclaimed Russian short story writers. The pithy introduction to this work by Seltzer is a cherry on the top and is best read after the work instead of before it.