Language

I am returning to the blog after a long time. Hope you will forgive me.  I had lost interest in it. It happens. Language is like a tattoo on your skin, it is a chip in your brain, an irritation on your tongue. You dream in it, you long to say something in it.

  

The Concept of Time

The flow of time is not often unidirectional. It flows backwards as well. It does not mean that time can be rewound and made to tick once more from the beginning. It does not mean that we can reenact the past. It does imply that time is haunted by an ordeal. We often find time reversed even when we are moving forward. We return, we repeat and we relive. But this return, this repetition, this reliving is not to same as when we experience it. Time is neither extracted from the past nor temporalized from the present. There is no primordial time to which we can return. Often primordial time can be comprehended through clock time of our everyday habits. If time is just counting hours and minutes then it is a mere representation, not an actuality.

Literature 

Literature is nothing but confession where the writer confesses and then asks for forgiveness. Whether it is Chaucer, Hemingway, Kafka or any of the modern deracinated writers from Africa or Asia, it is always the same thing—this is my fault, forgive me! I want to tell you this is my fault, forgive me! If you do not confess and have a gung ho bravado of finding fault with others no one will proclaim you, no one will announce you. All proclamations and announcements are made from New York or London. It’s all so very depressing and yet compelling. We are compelled as blood brothers to protect the terrible audacity, this dark sanctity, of the writer speaking to us.

Using computers and distributed networks

computers and distributed networks

With the introduction of graphic user interface (GUI) the simple computer machine of yesterday has become then intelligent system capable of performing multiple and complicated tasks. It can now use multimedia, access the World Wide Web, import visuals, graphs and images from across the globe. Today fresh graduates are expected to perform many tasks based on their computer expertise, tasks which were once the domain of web statisticians or graphic programmers.

The electronic mail has had a deep impact on modern communications especially within organizations connected to business and technology. Don Tapscott in The Digital Economy (1995) says that emails have changes the way organizations conduct business. Emails are used for cooperative research, planning and international business. List servers are used to develop resources for professional development.

The speed of the Internet in business technology has created more pressure on the professional to develop research and communication skills. Employers want to access relevant information with speed and accuracy. Graduates at universities are increasingly using www to write electronic documents and provide persuasive assignments. The level of submitted assignments at universities is radically different from those submitted two decades ago.

There have been lots of unforeseen effects from the Internet as well. State governments and organizations are constantly conducting surveillance of private spaces and censoring them to preserve the status quo. As individual accessibility of the Internet grows the issues connected to conflict and change need better management. Today young graduates who let the Internet do everything for them, require more focused writing, research skills, theoretical understanding of systems and critical thinking skills.

Online Groups

Today we find online groups or communities based on a particular interest growing on the Internet. It would be interesting to investigate an online community and write about is web presence. It is possible to find web communities through particular interest categorization such as sports (cricket, baseball, and soccer), trading (eBay) or social networking (Facebook, mixi, Twitter). It is also possible to use a medium to locate communities such as P2P (peer-to-peer) , file sharing, MSN, Google, ICQ, Chat, Skype, newsgroups, blogs, MUDs, virtual worlds, magazines, alternate news sources, magazines, linked websites (webrings).  

The computer has been instrumental in connecting us to the work. Powerful networks based on the digital technologies have had a deep influence on every aspect of life ranging from business and politics to education and industry. The PC has divided the world into those who use it and those who do not. There have been complaints about the negative effects of computer communication especially connected to the emerging trajectories of exploitation and social alienation. Those who profit by the digital media try to promote its efficacious benefits, while those who do not complain of its evils.

Reading For The Stylistics Class

SHAKESPEARE’S STYLE

Shakespeare is seen as the master of the blank verse. His rhetoric may be faulty and his logic passé but he still remains an impressionistic writer of human character and desires. He may not understand race and ethnicity the way we understand now, but he does carry the imprint of the Elizabethan society complete with its faults and prejudices. His is a world of linguistic freedom when language is fresh and alive with new possibilities. Though Shakespeare began with declamatory speeches he soon adapted the convention of his days to suit his own needs. Soon we get soliloquies, metaphorical poetry and blank verse. He could experiment with blank verse, free verse or poetry with dexterity that no one, except Chaucer had done before. His is a society of nobility, gentry, yeomanry and the poor. In Shakespeare the nobility spoke blank verse or unrhymed iambic pentameter which consists of 5 iambs per line where every second syllable is accented. We do not have to go to the court scene where Portia outwits everyone and gets Bassanio’s friend Antonio freed from the unkind grips of moneylender Shylock. Early in the play we get a glimpse of her sharp-wit and eloquence. In Act I Scene 2 Portia tells her waiting maid Nerissa, that she is “aweary of this great world.” Nerissa advises her to be happy with just enough and to follow this advice, to which Portia replies,

‘If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree: such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband. O me, the word 'choose!' I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse none?’ (Merchant of Venice, Act I Scene 2)

Obviously Portia’s feminine and argumentative style suits her position as a rich, beautiful and intelligent speaker. She is going to masquerade as lawyer Balthazar and get Antonio free in a dramatic reinterpretation of the agreement. However here the sentence structure begins with a simple diction but becomes increasingly complex as she enters arguments. Right in the beginning she uses 2 verbs, repeats one and thereby shows action. Her prose is dynamic and based on western rational discourse. She begins with and ‘if’ clause which is closely subordinated to the subsequent main clause. Portia’s ability to subordinate clauses can be seen as an evidence of her sharp mind and rational temper. She uses powerful rhetorical devices such as a zeugma with double grammatical implication. The main clause of the first sentence is a condensed version of two clauses. It suppresses the verb “had been” but still keeps the balance –chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages [had been] princes palaces. She uses rhetoric to win over an argument by sheer eloquence. Though Portia is quick-witted, intelligent and beautiful, some scholars she her as cruelly-directed towards the moneylender Shylock. Wolf Mankowitz calls her a “cold, snobbish little bitch” while Harold Bloom sees her as anti-Semitic and philistine settling for the “glittering gold digger Bassanio” (Bloom 1986b). Bloom resents her for expressing the anti-Semitism of the Elizabethan society, something equivalent to being a “Nazi sympathizer” as if the Jews were “decedents of Satan, rather than of Abraham.” He blames Shakespeare for creating the image of Shylock who has done “great harm in the world (Bloom, 2008 xi). Whatever be the nature of reactive criticism, Shakespeare’s blank verse suits the temper and needs of his Christian heroine in the play. A few examples from continental and American literary texts would clear up the fog of literary abstraction that is often found in theorizing about literature.

JANE AUSTEN’S STYLE

JANE AUSTEN

Jane Austen’s style is both graceful and sardonic. Her style marks the transition from neo-classicism to romanticism. The neo-classical style is clear and precise, ideally suited to the subject matter. Imagination had yet to displace reason and the mimetic was still there in the midst of the expressive. Jane Austen’s novel Emma (1815) is an excellent example of the use of different styles to suit the personality and the emotional condition of her characters. Dialogues from chapters 4 and 13 dealing with Emma’s dislike for yeomanry and Mr. Knightley’s confession of love to Emma are good examples of the different styles Jane Austen uses to communicate her vision of the novel.

In the first section Austen makes Emma Woodhouse dislike young Robert Martin just because he is a yeoman possess the Abbey Mill Farm. He is quite well-educated and writes good English. He is a perfect match for Harriet but Emma does not think so. The social classes in England during the early nineteenth century were quite integrated and it was not uncommon for a farmer to marry into aristocracy. But marrying above one’s social class always led to strife and problems. By showing Emma’s snobbishness, Austen is highlighting Emma’s shortcoming. Her snobbery is based on false principles.

‘That may be, and I may have seen him fifty times, but without having any idea of his name. A young farmer, whether on horseback or on foot, is the very last sort of person to raise my curiosity. The yeomanry are precisely the order of people with whom I feel I can have nothing to do. A degree or two lower, and a creditable appearance might interest me; I might hope to be useful to their families in some way or other. But a farmer can need none of my help, and is, therefore, in one sense, as much above my notice as in every other he is below it’ (Austen, 1996 30).

Undoubtedly it is the prose of a woman using hurried and argumentative sentences trying to convince Harriet not to marry Mr. Martin as he is a yeoman. Jane Austen shows that her heroine is immature, conceited and snobbish and is out of touch with the social and political reality of the times.

Some critics have complained that Austen did not take account of the political events of her time that were introducing great social changes in England. Arnold Hauser in Social History of Art tells us that though Austen’s characters were “rooted in social reality” the writer did not place them in situations where they could “solve or interpret” social problems (Hauser, 1951 825-26). But the situation of Emma and Mr. Martin shows that Austen was concerned about new aspirations of the yeoman class. The farmer occupied an important position is English class feeling and only the stupid would have looked down on him. Mr. Knightley sees Mr. Martin as a friend and calls him “a gentleman farmer.” His rise in social hierarchy was certain during a time when the French Revolution was in the making. England escaped social unrest as not only it enjoyed freedom and parliamentary government but had abolished the caste differences between nobility and commoners. Both joined hands together to conduct business and intermarry.

Emma’s statement is both contrived and dreadful. She is snobbish which arises from her self-love. She is also unkind, impulsive and brutal. She assumes that since Mr. Martin is a farmer he is illiterate. But his reading choice seems to be superior to Harriet’s. Emma admits that she would not have noticed a man like Mr. Martin. He was not low class enough for her to help but low class enough not to associate with. This shows her snobbishness. She can be charitable to the lower classes if they fit her estimation of poverty.

Mr. Knightley in Chapter 13 expresses his utter confusion through dashes and half formed sentences:

‘As a friend!’—repeated Mr. Knightley.—‘Emma, that I fear is a word—No, I have no wish—Stay, yes, why should I hesitate?—I have gone too far already for concealment.—Emma, I accept your offer—Extraordinary as it may seem, I accept it, and refer myself to you as a friend.—Tell me, then, have I no chance of ever succeeding?’

He stopped in his earnestness to look the question, and the expression of his eyes overpowered her.

"My dearest Emma,’ said he, ‘for dearest you will always be, whatever the event of this hour's conversation, my dearest, most beloved Emma—tell me at once. Say ‘No,’ if it is to be said.’—She could really say nothing.—‘You are silent,’ he cried, with great animation; ‘absolutely silent! at present I ask no more.’

Obviously an analysis of style finally attempts to evaluate the control a writer exercises over his theme, structure and character. We are assessing the writer’s dexterity, his erudition, his use of allusions, his understatements, his inter-textuality, symbolism and wordplay to create his vision and surprise us. If for example a writer follows a specific style but lacks the ability to suit the needs of the situation, it is possible to conclude that his control over his material and style is rather inadequate. However lack of change in style may be a deliberate attempt to reveal his central vision.

Security

The word security means the quality or state of being secure.  It therefore implies freedom from danger, fear or anxiety. Security can be understood on many different levels such as individual, group, regional, national or global. If we understand security on these five levels we can understand the way security agreements are made and executed.

Individual Security

Individual security implies protection from physical and psychological harm. If an individual feels fear or anxiety due to one reason or the other, this threatens his sense of security, his sense of safety. The UN Declaration of Human Rights mentions that all peoples are entitled to the ‘security of the person.’ This is easier said than done. How do we ensure individual security? Usually, individual security is protected by the laws of the nation and includes punishment of crimes, such as murder, theft, and coercion. Individual security also implies the attainment of basic needs such as food, home and job. Many people see individual security as achieving a high standard of living.

                                                          

Group Security

Just as an individual wants to feel secure, so does a group. However a group goes further—it wants to secure itself from discrimination. An individual can be mistreated due to his religious, ethnic or national background, but when this happens to an entire group it acquires the meaning of discrimination. Discrimination can become more obvious if an entire group is discriminated on the basis of some affiliation or identity. A group can easily organize itself and mobilize its members to fight any kind of discrimination. Therefore group security implies safety to its identity as a group.. If we wish to ensure the security of a group we must make laws that do not discriminate either in letter or in spirit.

Regional Security

Regional security involves a region that can be either a part of a nation or a sub-continent—such as the Kashmir region or the Asian region. Regional security implies security of the region in terms of its economic interests and rights. Regional groups might want to protect their regional resources by preventing mass immigration or migration. The might wish to maintain a certain standard of living by upgrading group security to a regional security.

National Security

The most important and contentious aspect of security is on the national level. The nation state invariably sees itself as the sole protector of individual, group and regional securities. By providing agricultural subsidies or imposing tariffs on manufactured good a nation attempts to protect a region or a group from becoming unstable.