tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post6522797320912882548..comments2024-03-27T14:57:37.031+05:30Comments on Jabberwock: On the road in the USSRJabberwockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-11462054322540966442007-12-13T00:09:00.000+05:302007-12-13T00:09:00.000+05:30Great piece, and ur comment touches upon why i lik...Great piece, and ur comment touches upon why i like ur blog so much-the sensitivity to poetic rather than literal truth:)Preyas Hathihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06680109457042414613noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-82497030124408938412007-12-04T16:57:00.000+05:302007-12-04T16:57:00.000+05:30theidiot: welcome back - good to see you here agai...theidiot: welcome back - good to see you here again! And thanks for the wishes. <BR/><BR/>About Kapuscinski and those two Slate articles (neither of which I had read before incidentally)...as you might guess from my own bias towards good fiction over good non-fiction, I'm more interested in poetic truths than in literal fact. And so, predictably, I find myself nodding in agreement much more while reading the O'Rourke piece than the Shafer one. Shafer writes, <I>If Kapuściński regularly mashes up the observed (journalism) with the imagined (fiction), how certain can we be of our abilities to separate the two while reading?</I> The thing is, I'm not sure that any of us can ever really have that ability anyway - it reeks too much of a convenient "this DID happen, therefore it's true; that DIDN'T happen, therefore it's false" way of thinking, and I'm not comfortable with that. Because beyond a point these things just aren't verifiable and you have to reach instead for the things that are genuine possibilities (and which therefore illumniate something about a certain place or time period) rather than the things that can be set in stone as definitely having taken place. Of course, it's a judgement call, so there are always bound to be ambiguities... <BR/><BR/>Incidentally I also don't get the naiveté that allows some people to think of an autobiography or biography (even the ones that are written honestly) as "factual" in some overarching sense, when they necessarily reflect the sensibilities, perspectives and biases of the authors.<BR/><BR/>All this said, I can understand your disillusionment about reading the Kapuscinski, feeling very strongly about it as a <I>completely factual, journalistic account</I> and then finding out about the made-up stuff. The reaction must vary from reader to reader, I suppose.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-21479923631522409362007-12-04T16:03:00.000+05:302007-12-04T16:03:00.000+05:30Unconnected to this post, but still want to know.....Unconnected to this post, but still want to know...<BR/><BR/>Do you think any less of Kapuscinski despite the surge of criticism about him in recent times? <BR/>www.slate.com/id/2158315<BR/><BR/>i remember reading Imperium while on a long road trip and somehow it completely shook me up. it put some ideas in my head which i find difficult to shake off even now...<BR/><BR/>for a while i was pissed that the book which i thought was all factual now has a question mark on it especially as regards the facts. because that they were facts was a very important aspect of its influence on me. <BR/><BR/>took me a while to come to the current conclusion that why should influences be only real? this (www.slate.com/id/2158496/)spirited defence not withstanding the idea of literary license in non fiction writing is still unpalatable. guess i have to blame my sketchy journalistic background for that. <BR/><BR/>anyway, been a while since i have been around these parts. congratulations on your wedding and nice to see more of your articles in MSM.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-84952184458433208362007-11-30T18:30:00.000+05:302007-11-30T18:30:00.000+05:30In a way with all the walls down- the world is les...In a way with all the walls down- the world is less exciting.A. Monrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08729231998246387751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-62062822853567344522007-11-30T03:26:00.000+05:302007-11-30T03:26:00.000+05:30Seems like a nice read. Reminded me a lot of the M...Seems like a nice read. Reminded me a lot of the Motorcycle diaries, albeit minus the clash of ideologies and the results of the discovery.ArSENikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09772597502937491090noreply@blogger.com