I dedicate my 100th blog to some of the greatest creators of all time; writers whose works have affected me deeply - not just in opening my heart to the deepest emotions, but also opening my mind to the greatest sense of wonder.
Enid Blyton, thank you. You are where it all started! My entire childhood lives in the world you have created; from flying off in a Wishing Chair to exciting adventures in an Enchanted Wood; from the best of fun in Toyland with Noddy and Big Ears to the best of friends at St. Clare’s and Malory Towers; to of course the greatest of mystery and adventure with everyone from Barney and the Secret Seven to the Famous Five and the Five Find-Outers.
P. G. Wodehouse, thank you. Your wit and humour remain untouched; your command of the English language remains unsurpassed till date. On my worst day, I can still pick up a PGW and be laughing in moments. From the mad capers of Tales of St. Austin’s (which is, I think, my first PGW) through the wildly improbable situations of the dapper Bertie Wooster and his highly ingenious valet Jeeves, to the comically ridiculous world of Blandings Castle and Lord Emsworth … you continue to dispel the darkness in this world.
Agatha Christie, thank you. You invited me in to a perfect world, steeped in old English charm, took me through old mansions and quaint villages … and then, you revealed a murder so mysterious, I couldn’t even begin to choose from the countless suspects! Starting and ending at Styles, from the Mysterious Affair to Curtain, Hercule Poirot remains one of my favourite detectives of all time.
Arthur C. Clarke, thank you. You are the highest that a human mind has reached in the world of science fiction. You have taken me to worlds beyond the realm of imaginable possibilities and made my head spin with the wonders that may or may not be Out There. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the first science fiction I ever read, and my world has never been the same since then, as I have travelled stars and galaxies through Space and Time.
Ray Bradbury, thank you. The extent of your imagination, the creation of far and distant worlds, and through it all, the sheer poetry in the rich and varied stories that are, at heart, about all of us - your writing has held me enthralled as it has moved from the apocalyptic Martian Chronicles through the beautiful Dandelion Wine to the horrifically fantastical Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Charles Dickens, thank you. Words cannot express how much in awe I am of your writing. The Pickwick Papers has made me laugh, A Christmas Carol has made me feel so good and A Tale of Two Cities has made me cry; with always just the perfect word you have crafted memorable people with unforgettable life stories.
Rabindranath Tagore, thank you. Music, painting, theatre, writing - you have created brilliant gems of works in all. Your writing has ranged from poetry to novels to short stories to memoirs. The beauty of Gitanjali, the pathos of The Postmaster, the tragic beauty of Thakurda … your poetic genius lifts simple, everyday events into a realm of literary brilliance, and I am constantly amazed by the creative heart that places the strength of human dignity above all the petty joys and sorrows of this world.
Thank you, also, to some Japanese writers I have discovered more recently … Yukio Mishima, Haruki Murakami, Yasunari Kawabata, Murasaki Shikibu, Natsume Soseki, Kobo Abe … I thank you for introducing me to a beautiful world that actually exists, and of which I sadly had very little knowledge; a world that is at once very old and very new, where the drama of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion co-exists with the existentialism of Woman in the Dunes; where the simplicity of The Old Capital offsets the fantasy of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World; and where the tale of one man in Kokoro carries as much power as the epic saga of The Tale of Genji.
(There are many other writers whose magic has influenced me; the haunting poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, the tragic beauty of Oscar Wilde, the surreal creativity of Philip K. Dick, the far reaching worlds of Jules Verne, the quirky fiction of Douglas Adams … all the names cannot be recounted in one sitting!) - But these are the writers I have grown up with, and whose words continue to create the world I live in. These are the writers who have made me what I am today. And for that, I say to them, thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment