Literary creations: Critics and ceremonies

Some years ago, a friend of mine, a professor of literary studies, introduced the works of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 -1860). The book Essays and Aphorisms is still with me. Turning the pages he made me go through the series of notes written about Books and Writing. From time to time I take this book out of the shelf and go through the notes.

At a time when the local literary and cultural activities are in full swing, as they say albeit my ignorance, some of these notes may be of value and thence become points to ponder. There are quite a number of literary cum creative awards and competitions lined up for September.

The foremost point of attention is drawn towards the Cultural Affairs Ministry where the literary festival is scheduled to be held towards the end of September, awarding prizes for the best books written in the previous year. This has been the age old tradition handed down the years from the late 1950s. As usual it’s more a state galore than the festival of the general public to my mind.

In certain ways the public becomes aware of what a particular state ministry is scheduled to function as a patron unit of arts and culture. The mere announcement of the state awards may not look too attractive, for it had had bouquets and brickbats over the years. The writer of this column too had severe brickbats for being the recipient of the State Poetry Award, sometime ago.

I was not disturbed for I knew the trends and nuances of the literary tenor of the country. So let us now consider as cited by me earlier some verdict of Schopenhauer. In the first instance Schopenhauer: ‘Writers can be divided into meteors, planets and fixed stars. The first produce a momentary effect; you gaze up, cry, ‘look’ and then they vanish for ever.

The second, the moving stars, endure for much longer. By virtue of their proximity they often shine more brightly than the fixed stars, which the ignorant mistake them for. But they too must soon vacate their place, they shine moreover only with a borrowed light and their sphere of influence is limited to their own fellow travellers (their contemporaries).

‘The third alone are unchanging, stand firm in the firmament shine by their own light and influence all ages equally, in that – their aspect does not alter when our point of view alters since they have no parallel. Unlike the others, they do not belong to one system (nation) alone; they belong to the universe. But it is precisely because they are so high that their light usually takes so many years to reach the years of dwellers on earth;’

I wonder how many could give a sensitive insight to what Schopenhauer states. Over the years we have observed the creative processes and thence the end products of these three types.

The literary critics are those who discern the value of these three types, the meteors, planets and fixed stars. I wonder how many critics embark properly on this matter. The tiff between the creator and the critic continues, in our literary scene. As such what Schopenhauer underlines will be of immense worth to concentrate. I once asked the late professor Ediriweera Sarachchadnra whether we have good literary critics in our country, who could help us ascertain the value of a work of a creative writer. The instant response was a smile, and then he said:

“Well I don’t think we have trained aesthetic judges, who have earned a reputation for being valuers instead we have segmented scholars, who are linguists, grammarians and literary historians aware of the various stages in the evolution. Other than that I have not seen any active aesthetic judgment being passed.”

I must say that at the particular moment of my enquiring I was puzzled but I later learned that he was profound in his observation. The trend continues to be the same.

This may be the eternal struggle that exists. As for me the literary judgments as commented in Sarachchandra’s work Sahitya Vidyava could be rediscovered as a starting point. He seems to underline one serious point which has similarities to those of Schopenhauer. The similarities being the varying types of creators. The stereotype has to be evaded, instead new values be reset.

Constantly the question is raised whether the usual competition of varying types among human groups will ever foster and elevate the aesthetic sense of creativity. Creativity is manifold and the likes and dislikes of which is an individualistic approach. Out of a heap of books a committee of judges may select what they please as preferable. Is this a compatible selection?

The response on the part of Schopenhauer is sensitive. He says: “A book can never be more than a reproduction of the thoughts of its author. The value of these thoughts lies either in the material that is in what he has thought upon, or in the form i.e. the way in which the material is treated, that is in what he has thought upon it.”

Schopenhauer exemplifies his stream of thoughts further:

‘The actual life of a thought lasts only until it reaches the point of speech: there it petrifies and is henceforth dead but indestructible, like the petrified planets and animals of prehistory. As soon as our thinking has found words it ceases to be sincere or at bottom serious. When it begins to exist for others it ceases to live in us, just as the child sees itself from its mother when it enters into its own existence.”

These thoughts which come as insights to aesthetic judgments take various shades of social meanings.

They may be accepted or respected as literary promotion has come to stay as a marketing force. Most creative artistes wish to see their works being promoted. But the fact remains whether they could be promoted via competitions packed with monetary gains, commercialized ceremonies and pseudo literary gatherings devoid of much of a human significance.

I am taught by my own self search that creativity is a higher form of expression, while the ceremonial forms on the same are banal and futile. As such I try my best to avoid these ceremonial literary functions as a humble human being.

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