u/Glittering_Quote_581

>Premise:

McKenna suggests that the rapid cognitive evolution in primates, along with 3x brain size growth, could only have come from co-evolving with psilocybin mushrooms, which boosted abilities like cognition, language, cooperation and libido.

This led to shamanism, and Mother Goddess worship, a Partnership society where sexes lived equally. The Dominator society of Indo-Europeans however, wrecked this way of life, and imposed its own hierarchical patriarchal monotheistic values, diminishing the role of Mother Goddess and Plants/hallucinogens in favor of a technical mind.

Author contends that model has dominated till date globally, and is responsible for the modern crises of human isolation, nature destruction, strange addictions and a ego-boosted human.

>Why did I read this?

• First heard this theory in some Joe Rogan clip. Thought it was cuckoo...then after reading about the RV (Soma being most revered after Indra & Agni) and articles like this, I began to wonder if there is some sense in this theory or not. Specifically, about the role of hallucinogens in ancient religions.
• Recently watched the amazing show Common Side Effects. Wouldn't be surprised if it was directly inspired by this book.
• Thought it'd be a fun trip to explore a now discredited theory, but didn't expect other great ideas in the book!

>Book is in 4 parts:

A) Paradise: Talks about African Eden, Mother Goddess cults, and mushroom use.

B) Paradise Lost: Conquest by Indo-Europeans Dominator ideology, led to original shamanist hallucinogens being lost, and with it, went the reverence for the feminine, Nature, oneness, egalitarianism... in favor of patriarchy, war, technical progress. Other drug substitutes were sought.

C) Hell: Modern drug use and abuse. Tea, coffee, sugar, chocolate, TV - all harmful addictions, yet legal. All ego-boosting rather than ego-dissolving.

D) Paradise Regained - Current synthetic drugs; Govt-Mafia nexus; Hope lies in some plant hallucinogens still in use (ayahuasca), and DMT. A manifesto for legalizing plant hallucinogens, and a call to revisit the Archaic Shamanic worship of Gaia/Mother Goddess.

>Major Ideas from the book:

• I've circled the important sections from the Book in the Index in this post. Have mentioned only a few ideas here:
• Human-Plant co-evolution being responsible for brain dvlpt. in hominids, language, religion, and cooperation
• African Eden: mother goddess worship begins. Partnership model evolves, spreads globally. But Indo-Europeans succeeded in imposing their antithesis, and we live with that culture till date - suppressing the feminine, boosting the ego, ignoring nature. {Ref. Riane Eisler's book "The Chalice and the Blade", my next planned read}
• Historical evidence and Mythical references to use of hallucinogens, from West Africa to Anatolia to India (using multiple illustrations from Indian, Catalhoyuk, Tassili, Minoan civilizations). Then the substitution/removal of these OG drugs. (Alcohol, Opium, Hemp etc.) The 4-step decay process is intriguing.
• Modern drugs - history of tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar, opium, tobacco and then to synthetic drugs : very fascinating overview and also, shows the role of govts in choosing to (il)legalize selective drugs.
• Modernity is reflected in this drug war: alcohol vs cannabis. Dominator vs Partnership. Why society tolerates the ego-boosting, feminine-suppressing alcohol over all other mushroom drugs - should point to something wrong with the current zeitgeist.
• Coffee and tea (+sugar, classified as food) are the only 2 drugs allowed by the industrialists, for they keep the labor force active and energetic.
• Finally, an overview of modern field of psycho-pharmacology, and a proposal to legalize plant hallucinogens. A call to using nature's tools to appreciate nature herself, and counter the modernity malaise.

>Concluding thoughts:

• The Title of the book says "Plants, Drugs & Human Evolution". Even if the stoned ape theory is largely discredited today, the book still makes for a fascinating read and arguments against modern drugs specifically, and modernity's hierarchical/reductionist thinking in general. For that alone, I'd recommend everyone to give this book a chance.
• I've never tried hard drugs, so can't speak for the experience author has revered so much, but other addictions I fully agree with - sugar, tea, coffee, TV etc. Moderation is the key, but just thinking about how these new substances gained cultural significance so quickly, globally, is really mind-boggling.

>>Thinking about my own nation's addiction to Chai - It wasn't even there 200 years ago! So, I do accept the argument for massive biological and cultural impact of certain substances. Can popular use of DMT/mushrooms be as revolutionary as chai or sugar or TV/Social media? Only time will tell.

• The only parts I disagree with are of course, the now discredited Stoned Ape Theory, and Overemphasis on using hallucinogens as the Only way to reconnect with nature: when have shortcuts worked out in the long run? No panacea exists I feel, but careful experiences should be encouraged.

This was a very enjoyable read. Human bio-cultural evolution, Dominator vs Partnership societies, archaeology, myth, history of drugs, role of govts, and modern drug abuse - many topics covered seamlessly and well written. Unputdownable for me!

>Rating: 8/10 {-2 for the now irrelevant stoned ape theory, and the DMT shortcut proposed. Rest is quite good. Now then, onto Riane Eisler!}

>>Quite a popular book - have you read it? Any idea/drug you'd agree with?

>Premise:

McKenna suggests that the rapid cognitive evolution in primates, along with 3x brain size growth, could only have come from co-evolving with psilocybin mushrooms, which boosted abilities like cognition, language, cooperation and libido.

This led to shamanism, and Mother Goddess worship, a Partnership society where sexes lived equally. The Dominator society of Indo-Europeans however, wrecked this way of life, and imposed its own hierarchical patriarchal monotheistic values, diminishing the role of Mother Goddess and Plants/hallucinogens in favor of a technical mind.

Author contends that model has dominated till date globally, and is responsible for the modern crises of human isolation, nature destruction, strange addictions and a ego-boosted human.

>Why did I read this?

• First heard this theory in some Joe Rogan clip. Thought it was cuckoo...then after reading about the RV (Soma being most revered after Indra & Agni) and articles like this, I began to wonder if there is some sense in this theory or not. Specifically, about the role of hallucinogens in ancient religions.
• Recently watched the amazing show Common Side Effects. Wouldn't be surprised if it was directly inspired by this book.
• Thought it'd be a fun trip to explore a now discredited theory, but didn't expect other great ideas in the book!

>Book is in 4 parts:

A) Paradise: Talks about African Eden, Mother Goddess cults, and mushroom use.

B) Paradise Lost: Conquest by Indo-Europeans Dominator ideology, led to original shamanist hallucinogens being lost, and with it, went the reverence for the feminine, Nature, oneness, egalitarianism... in favor of patriarchy, war, technical progress. Other drug substitutes were sought.

C) Hell: Modern drug use and abuse. Tea, coffee, sugar, chocolate, TV - all harmful addictions, yet legal. All ego-boosting rather than ego-dissolving.

D) Paradise Regained - Current synthetic drugs; Govt-Mafia nexus; Hope lies in some plant hallucinogens still in use (ayahuasca), and DMT. A manifesto for legalizing plant hallucinogens, and a call to revisit the Archaic Shamanic worship of Gaia/Mother Goddess.

>Major Ideas from the book:

• I've circled the important sections from the Book in the Index.☝️ Have mentioned only a few ideas here:
• Human-Plant co-evolution being responsible for brain dvlpt. in hominids, language, religion, and cooperation
• African Eden: mother goddess worship begins. Partnership model evolves, spreads globally. But Indo-Europeans succeeded in imposing their antithesis, and we live with that culture till date - suppressing the feminine, boosting the ego, ignoring nature. {Ref. Riane Eisler's book "The Chalice and the Blade", my next planned read}
• Historical evidence and Mythical references to use of hallucinogens, from West Africa to Anatolia to India (using multiple illustrations from Indian, Catalhoyuk, Tassili, Minoan civilizations). Then the substitution/removal of these OG drugs. (Alcohol, Opium, Hemp etc.) The 4-step decay process is intriguing.
• Modern drugs - history of tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar, opium, tobacco and then to synthetic drugs : very fascinating overview and also, shows the role of govts in choosing to (il)legalize selective drugs.
• Modernity is reflected in this drug war: alcohol vs cannabis. Dominator vs Partnership. Why society tolerates the ego-boosting, feminine-suppressing alcohol over all other mushroom drugs - should point to something wrong with the current zeitgeist.
• Coffee and tea (+sugar, classified as food) are the only 2 drugs allowed by the industrialists, for they keep the labor force active and energetic.
• Finally, an overview of modern field of psycho-pharmacology, and a proposal to legalize plant hallucinogens. A call to using nature's tools to appreciate nature herself, and counter the modernity malaise.

>Concluding thoughts:

• The Title of the book says "Plants, Drugs & Human Evolution". Even if the stoned ape theory is largely discredited today, the book still makes for a fascinating read and arguments against modern drugs specifically, and modernity's hierarchical/reductionist thinking in general. For that alone, I'd recommend everyone to give this book a chance.
• I've never tried hard drugs, so can't speak for the experience author has revered so much, but other addictions I fully agree with - sugar, tea, coffee, TV etc. Moderation is the key, but just thinking about how these new substances gained cultural significance so quickly, globally, is really mind-boggling.

>>Think about our addiction to Chai- It wasn't even there 200 years ago! So, I do accept the argument for massive biological and cultural impact of certain substances. Can popular use of DMT/mushrooms be as revolutionary as chai or sugar or TV/Social media? Only time will tell.

• The only parts I disagree with are of course, the now discredited Stoned Ape Theory, and Overemphasis on using hallucinogens as the Only way to reconnect with nature: when have shortcuts worked out in the long run? No panacea exists I feel, but careful experiences should be encouraged.

This was a very enjoyable read. Human bio-cultural evolution, Dominator vs Partnership societies, archaeology, myth, history of drugs, role of govts, and modern drug abuse - many topics covered seamlessly and well written. Unputdownable for me!

>Rating: 8/10 {-2 for the now irrelevant stoned ape theory, and the DMT shortcut proposed. Rest is quite good. Now then, onto Riane Eisler!}

>>Quite a popular book - have you read it? Any idea/drug you'd agree with?

>Premise:

McKenna suggests that the rapid cognitive evolution in primates, along with 3x brain size growth, could only have come from co-evolving with psilocybin mushrooms, which boosted abilities like cognition, language, cooperation and libido.

This led to shamanism, and Mother Goddess worship, a Partnership society where sexes lived equally. The Dominator society of Indo-Europeans however, wrecked this way of life, and imposed its own hierarchical patriarchal monotheistic values, diminishing the role of Mother Goddess and Plants/hallucinogens in favor of a technical mind.

Author contends that model has dominated till date globally, and is responsible for the modern crises of human isolation, nature destruction, strange addictions and a ego-boosted human.

>Why did I read this?

• First heard this theory in some Joe Rogan clip. Thought it was cuckoo...then after reading about the RV (Soma being most revered after Indra & Agni) and articles like this, I began to wonder if there is some sense in this theory or not. Specifically, about the role of hallucinogens in ancient religions.
• Recently watched the amazing show Common Side Effects. Wouldn't be surprised if it was directly inspired by this book.
• Thought it'd be a fun trip to explore a now discredited theory, but didn't expect other great ideas in the book!

>Book is in 4 parts:

A) Paradise: Talks about African Eden, Mother Goddess cults, and mushroom use.

B) Paradise Lost: Conquest by Indo-Europeans Dominator ideology, led to original shamanist hallucinogens being lost, and with it, went the reverence for the feminine, Nature, oneness, egalitarianism... in favor of patriarchy, war, technical progress. Other drug substitutes were sought.

C) Hell: Modern drug use and abuse. Tea, coffee, sugar, chocolate, TV - all harmful addictions, yet legal. All ego-boosting rather than ego-dissolving.

D) Paradise Regained - Current synthetic drugs; Govt-Mafia nexus; Hope lies in some plant hallucinogens still in use (ayahuasca), and DMT. A manifesto for legalizing plant hallucinogens, and a call to revisit the Archaic Shamanic worship of Gaia/Mother Goddess.

>Major Ideas from the book:

• I've circled the important sections from the Book in the Index.☝️ Have mentioned only a few ideas here:
• Human-Plant co-evolution being responsible for brain dvlpt. in hominids, language, religion, and cooperation
• African Eden: mother goddess worship begins. Partnership model evolves, spreads globally. But Indo-Europeans succeeded in imposing their antithesis, and we live with that culture till date - suppressing the feminine, boosting the ego, ignoring nature. {Ref. Riane Eisler's book "The Chalice and the Blade", my next planned read}
• Historical evidence and Mythical references to use of hallucinogens, from West Africa to Anatolia to India (using multiple illustrations from Indian, Catalhoyuk, Tassili, Minoan civilizations). Then the substitution/removal of these OG drugs. (Alcohol, Opium, Hemp etc.) The 4-step decay process is intriguing.
• Modern drugs - history of tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar, opium, tobacco and then to synthetic drugs : very fascinating overview and also, shows the role of govts in choosing to (il)legalize selective drugs.
• Modernity is reflected in this drug war: alcohol vs cannabis. Dominator vs Partnership. Why society tolerates the ego-boosting, feminine-suppressing alcohol over all other mushroom drugs - should point to something wrong with the current zeitgeist.
• Coffee and tea (+sugar, classified as food) are the only 2 drugs allowed by the industrialists, for they keep the labor force active and energetic.
• Finally, an overview of modern field of psycho-pharmacology, and a proposal to legalize plant hallucinogens. A call to using nature's tools to appreciate nature herself, and counter the modernity malaise.

>Concluding thoughts:

• The Title of the book says "Plants, Drugs & Human Evolution". Even if the stoned ape theory is largely discredited today, the book still makes for a fascinating read and arguments against modern drugs specifically, and modernity's hierarchical/reductionist thinking in general. For that alone, I'd recommend everyone to give this book a chance.
• I've never tried hard drugs, so can't speak for the experience author has revered so much, but other addictions I fully agree with - sugar, tea, coffee, TV etc. Moderation is the key, but just thinking about how these new substances gained cultural significance so quickly, globally, is really mind-boggling.

>>Think about our addiction to Chai- It wasn't even there 200 years ago! So, I do accept the argument for massive biological and cultural impact of certain substances. Can popular use of DMT/mushrooms be as revolutionary as chai or sugar or TV/Social media? Only time will tell.

• The only parts I disagree with are of course, the now discredited Stoned Ape Theory, and Overemphasis on using hallucinogens as the Only way to reconnect with nature: when have shortcuts worked out in the long run? No panacea exists I feel, but careful experiences should be encouraged.

This was a very enjoyable read. Human bio-cultural evolution, Dominator vs Partnership societies, archaeology, myth, history of drugs, role of govts, and modern drug abuse - many topics covered seamlessly and well written. Unputdownable for me!

>Rating: 8/10 {-2 for the now irrelevant stoned ape theory, and the DMT shortcut proposed. Rest is quite good. Now then, onto Riane Eisler!}

>>Quite a popular book - have you read it? Any idea/drug you'd agree with?

>Premise: Nine Lives, Nine Ways of Life, from the Indian subcontinent. Told like short biographies, each chapter focuses on a unique Philosophy, and yet, 9 is a big enough sample size to represent Indian diversity, suffering and solutions.

>The ♾️ 9️⃣:

1) 🤍Prasanna mata ji: A Jain Nun's quest for Sallekhana @ Sravanbelagola, Karnataka

• Young woman, oversaw some 40 Sallekhanas!

2) 👹Haridas: A Kunnur Prison warden partime God (Theyyam Dancer) who's a Dalit. @ Kerala

• Theyyam dances tell stories about caste discrimination - didn't know that. Like Adi Shankaracharya vs Shiva's family : Pottan Theyyam.

3) 💃Rani: Devadasi. @ Belgaum,Karnataka

• from temple dancers to prostitutes. This one's a very dark chapter.

4) 🖼️Pabuji bards: Mohan Bhopa @ Pabusar, Rajasthan

• The Phad/painting is almost as sacred as an Idol. Tell tales including Pabuji stealing camels from Ravana's Lanka.

5) ☪️Red Fairy: Sindh sufis. @ Sindh

• Wahabi Islam a major threat to this way of life.

6) ☸️The Monk who Killed - Passang @ Dharamsala, HP

• Tibet vs China struggle, Pasang fought against China, then against Pakistan in 1971 for India!

7) 👐Maker of idols - SriKanda @ Tanjore,Tamil Nadu

• A Brahmin sculpting tradition, where they believe the sculptor=mother shilpashastra=father, and the idols=children.

8) 🩸Manisha Maa Bhairavi. @ Tarapith, Bengal.

• Tantra tradition, oddly being similar yet antithesis of Vedic sacrifices.

9) Song of blind Minstrel: Singing Philosophers @ Shantiniketan, Bengal

• Bauls of Bengal: Spiritual Skeptics and Humanists!
• Kanai and Devdas: The Blind saving the Sighted. Amazing story.

>What I liked:

• extremely simple writing style
• incredibly resilient people 🙌
• made me appreciate Indian diversity even more, even though the sufferings also stem from the same society, so each chapter ended with me being frustrated yet amazed.
• didn't know at all about Bauls of Bengal. Probably closest to my crazy!
• a bit of witty humor too: "Wahabi money being used for pagan dances". "The Blind helping the Sighted", "Bihar MLAs being criminals"...And ofcourse, "Camels from Ravana's Lanka!"

>What I didn't like:

• Some stories can be haunting. But necessary to know. They're, unfortunately, the reality for MANY Indians. Just a heads up.
• Pics/portraits/sketches of these people would have been cherry on top.

>Conclusion:

Dalrymple explains the philosophy of each person in simple terms, along with their life story and some questions that we the readers would also love to ask. "Isn't Sallekhana just suicide?" Or "as a sculptor of Goddess idols, don't you sometimes feel uncomfortable?" Or "Isn't the current youth attracted more to Bollywood songs than your Phads?". It makes for a very realistic, somber conversation. No nonsense.

Just an overall nice collection of Indian-ness, or Indian-mess - for the trials of these people are quite depressing, but their Struggles and Solutions are worthy of documenting.

>⭐Rating: 9/10 (9/9 for the people, -1 for the reasons stated above) >>Planning to read Djinns next. Any of Dalrymple's books to your liking?

>Premise: Nine Lives, Nine Ways of Life, from the Indian subcontinent. Told like short biographies, each chapter focuses on a unique Philosophy, and yet, 9 is a big enough sample size to represent Indian diversity, suffering and solutions.

>The ♾️ 9️⃣:

1) 🤍Prasanna mata ji: A Jain Nun's quest for Sallekhana @ Sravanbelagola, Karnataka

• Young woman, oversaw some 40 Sallekhanas!

2) 👹Haridas: A Kunnur Prison warden partime God (Theyyam Dancer) who's a Dalit. @ Kerala

• Theyyam dances tell stories about caste discrimination - didn't know that. Like Adi Shankaracharya vs Shiva's family : Pottan Theyyam.

3) 💃Rani: Devadasi. @ Belgaum,Karnataka

• from temple dancers to prostitutes. This one's a very dark chapter.

4) 🖼️Pabuji bards: Mohan Bhopa @ Pabusar, Rajasthan

• The Phad/painting is almost as sacred as an Idol. Tell tales including Pabuji stealing camels from Ravana's Lanka.

5) ☪️Red Fairy: Sindh sufis. @ Sindh

• Wahabi Islam a major threat to this way of life.

6) ☸️The Monk who Killed - Passang @ Dharamsala, HP

• Tibet vs China struggle, Pasang fought against China, then against Pakistan in 1971 for India!

7) 👐Maker of idols - SriKanda @ Tanjore,Tamil Nadu

• A Brahmin sculpting tradition, where they believe the sculptor=mother shilpashastra=father, and the idols=children.

8) 🩸Manisha Maa Bhairavi. @ Tarapith, Bengal.

• Tantra tradition, oddly being similar yet antithesis of Vedic sacrifices.

9) Song of blind Minstrel: Singing Philosophers @ Shantiniketan, Bengal

• Bauls of Bengal: Spiritual Skeptics and Humanists!
• Kanai and Devdas: The Blind saving the Sighted. Amazing story.

>What I liked:

• extremely simple writing style
• incredibly resilient people 🙌
• made me appreciate Indian diversity even more, even though the sufferings also stem from the same society, so each chapter ended with me being frustrated yet amazed.
• didn't know at all about Bauls of Bengal. Probably closest to my crazy!
• a bit of witty humor too: "Wahabi money being used for pagan dances". "The Blind helping the Sighted", "Bihar MLAs being criminals"...And ofcourse, "Camels from Ravana's Lanka!"

>What I didn't like:

• Some stories can be haunting. But necessary to know. They're, unfortunately, the reality for MANY Indians. Just a heads up.
• Pics/portraits/sketches of these people would have been cherry on top.

>Conclusion:

Dalrymple explains the philosophy of each person in simple terms, along with their life story and some questions that we the readers would also love to ask. "Isn't Sallekhana just suicide?" Or "as a sculptor of Goddess idols, don't you sometimes feel uncomfortable?" Or "Isn't the current youth attracted more to Bollywood songs than your Phads?". It makes for a very realistic, somber conversation. No nonsense.

Just an overall nice collection of Indian-ness, or Indian-mess - for the trials of these people are quite depressing, but their Struggles and Solutions are worthy of documenting.

>⭐Rating: 9/10 (9/9 for the people, -1 for the reasons stated above) >>Planning to read Djinns next. Any of Dalrymple's books to your liking?

>Premise: Nine Lives, Nine Ways of Life, from the Indian subcontinent. Told like short biographies, each chapter focuses on a unique Philosophy, and yet, 9 is a big enough sample size to represent Indian diversity, suffering and solutions.

>The ♾️ 9️⃣:

1) 🤍Prasanna mata ji: A Jain Nun's quest for Sallekhana @ Sravanbelagola, Karnataka

• Young woman, oversaw some 40 Sallekhanas!

2) 👹Haridas: A Kunnur Prison warden partime God (Theyyam Dancer) who's a Dalit. @ Kerala

• Theyyam dances tell stories about caste discrimination - didn't know that. Like Adi Shankaracharya vs Shiva's family : Pottan Theyyam.

3) 💃Rani: Devadasi. @ Belgaum,Karnataka

• from temple dancers to prostitutes. This one's a very dark chapter.

4) 🖼️Pabuji bards: Mohan Bhopa @ Pabusar, Rajasthan

• The Phad/painting is almost as sacred as an Idol. Tell tales including Pabuji stealing camels from Ravana's Lanka.

5) ☪️Red Fairy: Sindh sufis. @ Sindh

• Wahabi Islam a major threat to this way of life.

6) ☸️The Monk who Killed - Passang @ Dharamsala, HP

• Tibet vs China struggle, Pasang fought against China, then against Pakistan in 1971 for India!

7) 👐Maker of idols - SriKanda @ Tanjore,Tamil Nadu

• A Brahmin sculpting tradition, where they believe the sculptor=mother shilpashastra=father, and the idols=children.

8) 🩸Manisha Maa Bhairavi. @ Tarapith, Bengal.

• Tantra tradition, oddly being similar yet antithesis of Vedic sacrifices.

9) Song of blind Minstrel: Singing Philosophers @ Shantiniketan, Bengal

• Bauls of Bengal: Spiritual Skeptics and Humanists!
• Kanai and Devdas: The Blind saving the Sighted. Amazing story.

>What I liked:

• extremely simple writing style
• incredibly resilient people 🙌
• made me appreciate Indian diversity even more, even though the sufferings also stem from the same society, so each chapter ended with me being frustrated yet amazed.
• didn't know at all about Bauls of Bengal. Probably closest to my crazy!
• a bit of witty humor too: "Wahabi money being used for pagan dances". "The Blind helping the Sighted", "Bihar MLAs being criminals"...And ofcourse, "Camels from Ravana's Lanka!"

>What I didn't like:

• Some stories can be haunting. But necessary to know. They're, unfortunately, the reality for MANY Indians. Just a heads up.
• Pics/portraits/sketches of these people would have been cherry on top.

>Conclusion:

Dalrymple explains the philosophy of each person in simple terms, along with their life story and some questions that we the readers would also love to ask. "Isn't Sallekhana just suicide?" Or "as a sculptor of Goddess idols, don't you sometimes feel uncomfortable?" Or "Isn't the current youth attracted more to Bollywood songs than your Phads?". It makes for a very realistic, somber conversation. No nonsense.

Just an overall nice collection of Indian-ness, or Indian-mess - for the trials of these people are quite depressing, but their Struggles and Solutions are worthy of documenting.

>⭐Rating: 9/10 (9/9 for the people, -1 for the reasons stated above)

>>Planning to read Djinns next. Any of Dalrymple's books to your liking?

Premise: 

Orogenes are people who can harness Earth's power for various purposes. To control them, Guardians train and enslave them. This world is divided into castes and classes, and seasons here are terrible - for the Angry Earth is being exploited by the Ruling Elites.
The story however, begins with the end of this world, by a couple. Why did they do it? And how? Why is the world as it is, and can it be changed for the better? 

♥️What I Loved: 

• Length: It's ~ 1250 pages combined. I found it to be of perfect length, for the scale and depth of this story. Neither too short nor too long. 
• Characters: Very well written. I began liking one character, then shifted to another, then another...And they are enough in number to keep track of. All sculpted quite well. 
• Power System: Earthbending? Orogeny is what it's called, the power to harness Father Earth's Heat. There's one more magic system, but I won't spoil anything, suffice it to say, it's also very well explained*.  
• Structure: The 1st and 3rd book blew me away. In the 1st one we follow 3 characters and timelines - did not see the twist coming at all, and it's done in a genius way. In the 3rd one, we get all the answers, still the book surprised me with even more twists! All throughout the 3 books, the theme of 3 is followed, i.e, 3 alternating narratives. A consistent and enjoyable style. Interspersed with some journal/historic excerpts. 
• Comparison with Mistborn Trilogy:  Read it last year, coincidentally around the same time, so I thought a comparison would be apt. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Jemisin, by the 2nd book - I realised was doing something different. It wasn't following the standard tropes, and the 1st book thoroughly fooled me into thinking it was very similar to Mistborn. (Mistborn here I'm using as a stand-in for common fantasy world building, tropes, arcs). So you have your underdog heroes, a journey, training, big bad villain, unique world building and power system, emotions, lore etc. but Jemisin is playing with the Lore trope very differently than Mistborn. Which I absolutely loved. A lot of similarities too, but those are standard devices. 
• Themes: This is the part that shocked me the most. This was much more...realistic? It's not strictly Fantasy. It's somewhat speculative fiction, sci-fi, adventure, dystopia, myth, romance all mixed in. Themes of Love, War, Friendship, Protection, Parenthood, Greed, Nature vs Humans, Caste, Class, Politics, Critique - yes, it's quite clear what Jemisin wanted to do here. This whole trilogy is a cautionary tale, very, very relevant to our times. That is what distinguishes it from Mistborn for me, and I love it. 
• Writing Style - Simple, clear. Mysterious when it wants it to be, but still elegant. And the narrative structure is brilliant. Very conversational. The neologisms used are also apt : rogga being the "n-word", Stillness being the One Continent, Commless being homeless tribes, Rusting = F*cking 😆. 
• Tropes: All the familiar tropes, and then some. Especially the inversion of Father Sky and Mother Earth: that's new to me. We have here, an Angry Father Earth, and (probably) Mother Life. For this worldbuilding, it makes perfect sense. Another trope played with is Father vs Sons. And also, the villain(s) is unique too - what is it that needs defeating?
• Ending: Just brilliant. Even if you see it coming, the way it's done is amazing. Fully worth reading the trilogy.

 

💔What I didn't like:

• The 2nd book felt a bit slower to me. But it could have been deliberate, for the 3rd one will knock you off! It just bombards you with lore. So not a negative, just a heads up. 
• Some lore and *power origins are, I think, not explained fully. It could be reserved for some sequel/prequel planned, or maybe deliberately left to our common sense, or maybe I just didn't get it. Might need to revisit the 1st one, maybe I skipped something...

🗿Conclusion: 

>Thoroughly enjoyable. I wanted to see why this trilogy is the only one which won 3 consecutive Hugo Awards, and I can say it's definitely prizeworthy. A fantasy story which is heartfelt, expression of real world problems, and told in a  "Planetary Devastation" style - ticked off all the boxes for me. That trope inversion and narrative structure made it a novelty for me. It's the perfect story for YOU.

⭐Rating: 2.56/2.7 (the numbers are relevant to the story, and -0.14 for the above mentioned reasons). 

>I'll update the rating if it turns out I missed something, it's a near perfect speculative fiction trilogy for me. Highly recommended, before Apple TV adapts it (hopefully it does -  the Obelisks and Crystal aesthetics - it'll look absolutely gorgeous! Majestic even.💎)

Premise: 

Orogenes are people who can harness Earth's power for various purposes. To control them, Guardians train and enslave them. This world is divided into castes and classes, and seasons here are terrible - for the Angry Earth is being exploited by the Ruling Elites.
The story however, begins with the end of this world, by a couple. Why did they do it? And how? Why is the world as it is, and can it be changed for the better? 

♥️What I Loved: 

• Length: It's ~ 1250 pages combined. I found it to be of perfect length, for the scale and depth of this story. Neither too short nor too long. 
• Characters: Very well written. I began liking one character, then shifted to another, then another...And they are enough in number to keep track of. All sculpted quite well. 
• Power System: Earthbending? Orogeny is what it's called, the power to harness Father Earth's Heat. There's one more magic system, but I won't spoil anything, suffice it to say, it's also very well explained*.  
• Structure: The 1st and 3rd book blew me away. In the 1st one we follow 3 characters and timelines - did not see the twist coming at all, and it's done in a genius way. In the 3rd one, we get all the answers, still the book surprised me with even more twists! All throughout the 3 books, the theme of 3 is followed, i.e, 3 alternating narratives. A consistent and enjoyable style. Interspersed with some journal/historic excerpts. 
• Comparison with Mistborn Trilogy:  Read it last year, coincidentally around the same time, so I thought a comparison would be apt. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Jemisin, by the 2nd book - I realised was doing something different. It wasn't following the standard tropes, and the 1st book thoroughly fooled me into thinking it was very similar to Mistborn. (Mistborn here I'm using as a stand-in for common fantasy world building, tropes, arcs). So you have your underdog heroes, a journey, training, big bad villain, unique world building and power system, emotions, lore etc. but Jemisin is playing with the Lore trope very differently than Mistborn. Which I absolutely loved. A lot of similarities too, but those are standard devices. 
• Themes: This is the part that shocked me the most. This was much more...realistic? It's not strictly Fantasy. It's somewhat speculative fiction, sci-fi, adventure, dystopia, myth, romance all mixed in. Themes of Love, War, Friendship, Protection, Parenthood, Greed, Nature vs Humans, Caste, Class, Politics, Critique - yes, it's quite clear what Jemisin wanted to do here. This whole trilogy is a cautionary tale, very, very relevant to our times. That is what distinguishes it from Mistborn for me, and I love it. 
• Writing Style - Simple, clear. Mysterious when it wants it to be, but still elegant. And the narrative structure is brilliant. Very conversational. The neologisms used are also apt : rogga being the "n-word", Stillness being the One Continent, Commless being homeless tribes, Rusting = F*cking 😆. 
• Tropes: All the familiar tropes, and then some. Especially the inversion of Father Sky and Mother Earth: that's new to me. We have here, an Angry Father Earth, and (probably) Mother Life. For this worldbuilding, it makes perfect sense. Another trope played with is Father vs Sons. And also, the villain(s) is unique too - what is it that needs defeating?
• Ending: Just brilliant. Even if you see it coming, the way it's done is amazing. Fully worth reading the trilogy.

 

💔What I didn't like:

• The 2nd book felt a bit slower to me. But it could have been deliberate, for the 3rd one will knock you off! It just bombards you with lore. So not a negative, just a heads up. 
• Some lore and *power origins are, I think, not explained fully. It could be reserved for some sequel/prequel planned, or maybe deliberately left to our common sense, or maybe I just didn't get it. Might need to revisit the 1st one, maybe I skipped something...

🗿Conclusion: 

>Thoroughly enjoyable. I wanted to see why this trilogy is the only one which won 3 consecutive Hugo Awards, and I can say it's definitely prizeworthy. A fantasy story which is heartfelt, expression of real world problems, and told in a  "Planetary Devastation" style - ticked off all the boxes for me. That trope inversion and narrative structure made it a novelty for me. It's the perfect story for YOU.

⭐Rating: 2.56/2.7 (the numbers are relevant to the story, and -0.14 for the above mentioned reasons). 

>I'll update the rating if it turns out I missed something, it's a near perfect speculative fiction trilogy for me. Highly recommended, before Apple TV adapts it (hopefully it does -  the Obelisks and Crystal aesthetics - it'll look absolutely gorgeous! Majestic even.💎)

Premise: 

Orogenes are people who can harness Earth's power for various purposes. To control them, Guardians train and enslave them. This world is divided into castes and classes, and seasons here are terrible - for the Angry Earth is being exploited by the Ruling Elites.
The story however, begins with the end of this world, by a couple. Why did they do it? And how? Why is the world as it is, and can it be changed for the better? 

♥️What I Loved: 

• Length: It's ~ 1250 pages combined. I found it to be of perfect length, for the scale and depth of this story. Neither too short nor too long. 
• Characters: Very well written. I began liking one character, then shifted to another, then another...And they are enough in number to keep track of. All sculpted quite well. 
• Power System: Earthbending? Orogeny is what it's called, the power to harness Father Earth's Heat. There's one more magic system, but I won't spoil anything, suffice it to say, it's also very well explained*.  
• Structure: The 1st and 3rd book blew me away. In the 1st one we follow 3 characters and timelines - did not see the twist coming at all, and it's done in a genius way. In the 3rd one, we get all the answers, still the book surprised me with even more twists! All throughout the 3 books, the theme of 3 is followed, i.e, 3 alternating narratives. A consistent and enjoyable style. Interspersed with some journal/historic excerpts. 
• Comparison with Mistborn Trilogy:  Read it last year, coincidentally around the same time, so I thought a comparison would be apt. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Jemisin, by the 2nd book - I realised was doing something different. It wasn't following the standard tropes, and the 1st book thoroughly fooled me into thinking it was very similar to Mistborn. (Mistborn here I'm using as a stand-in for common fantasy world building, tropes, arcs). So you have your underdog heroes, a journey, training, big bad villain, unique world building and power system, emotions, lore etc. but Jemisin is playing with the Lore trope very differently than Mistborn. Which I absolutely loved. A lot of similarities too, but those are standard devices. 
• Themes: This is the part that shocked me the most. This was much more...realistic? It's not strictly Fantasy. It's somewhat speculative fiction, sci-fi, adventure, dystopia, myth, romance all mixed in. Themes of Love, War, Friendship, Protection, Parenthood, Greed, Nature vs Humans, Caste, Class, Politics, Critique - yes, it's quite clear what Jemisin wanted to do here. This whole trilogy is a cautionary tale, very, very relevant to our times. That is what distinguishes it from Mistborn for me, and I love it. 
• Writing Style - Simple, clear. Mysterious when it wants it to be, but still elegant. And the narrative structure is brilliant. Very conversational. The neologisms used are also apt : rogga being the "n-word", Stillness being the One Continent, Commless being homeless tribes, Rusting = F*cking 😆. 
• Tropes: All the familiar tropes, and then some. Especially the inversion of Father Sky and Mother Earth: that's new to me. We have here, an Angry Father Earth, and (probably) Mother Life. For this worldbuilding, it makes perfect sense. Another trope played with is Father vs Sons. And also, the villain(s) is unique too - what is it that needs defeating?
• Ending: Just brilliant. Even if you see it coming, the way it's done is amazing. Fully worth reading the trilogy.

 

💔What I didn't like:

• The 2nd book felt a bit slower to me. But it could have been deliberate, for the 3rd one will knock you off! It just bombards you with lore. So not a negative, just a heads up. 
• Some lore and *power origins are, I think, not explained fully. It could be reserved for some sequel/prequel planned, or maybe deliberately left to our common sense, or maybe I just didn't get it. Might need to revisit the 1st one, maybe I skipped something...

🗿Conclusion: 

>Thoroughly enjoyable. I wanted to see why this trilogy is the only one which won 3 consecutive Hugo Awards, and I can say it's definitely prizeworthy. A fantasy story which is heartfelt, expression of real world problems, and told in a  "Planetary Devastation" style - ticked off all the boxes for me. That trope inversion and narrative structure made it a novelty for me. It's the perfect story for YOU.

⭐Rating: 2.56/2.7 (the numbers are relevant to the story, and -0.14 for the above mentioned reasons). 

>I'll update the rating if it turns out I missed something, it's a near perfect speculative fiction trilogy for me. Highly recommended, before Apple TV adapts it (hopefully it does -  the Obelisks and Crystal aesthetics - it'll look absolutely gorgeous! Majestic even.💎)

> Premise:

John Hersey was a pioneer in non-fiction narrative storytelling - i.e, to tell facts using fictional storytelling methods. This work came out first as an article in 1946!    

It tells the accounts of 6 survivors* of the Hiroshima bombing, from the morning of Aug 6,1945, to their transformed lives 40 years later: 

1. Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto: Chairman of Neighborhood Association.

2. Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura: A tailor's widow who is raising her three children (aged 10,8,5). Her husband had been KIA in Singapore in 1942.

3. Dr. Masakazu Fujii: Owner of a private 30-room hospital.

4. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge: A German Jesuit priest, seeking Japanese acceptance. 

5. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki: Young surgeon at the Red Cross Hospital. 

6. Miss Toshiko Sasaki:   20 yo factory girl buried under books. (Not related to Dr. Sasaki)

>>My thoughts: 

>Words fall short to describe the devastation. Not even the brutal and gruesome details (skin peeling off, leg twisted, babies crushed...). What's even more harrowing is that people didn't even know what hit them - they were theorising absurdities - magnesium bomb, gasoline poured over by B-29s and parachutists... The paranoia was such that some were even scared of a little rain - thinking it was gasoline being poured by the American planes, which could be alighted any instant...

>Incredibly human emotions captured. Mr Tanaka, an old man died while being comforted by Rev. Tanimoto reading from the Bible. Or tea leaves being used to suppress thirst. Or...

>"What is the cleverest animal of all?" Asked by an elder to distract the pained children...and a boy replies - "Hippo!" (Hippo=Kaba in Japanese). The child reasoned that the reverse of BaKa(stupid) must be clever, hence Kaba(hippo) is the cleverest! Sometimes, somehow, innocence survives atrocities. 

>A short book, yet covers the effects of bombing quite holistically - from physical, geographical, political, emotional, biological POVs. 

> Really impressed with the writing style. Never preachy, never complicated. Just a plain reportage. Like a helpless neutral bystander, witnessing. Even the timeline mentions of the Atomic Bomb Tests by various nations comes across as depressing, utmost human folly - without Hersey ever saying so. It's placed there aptly.  You implicitly understand what Hersey was telling without telling. Brilliant. 

>Very surprised to know that some plants/weeds/creepers regrew rapidly at the radioactive sites! Hope rises in most unexpected ways...

>>Some Important terms: 

• Shikata ga nai: Whatever happens, happens. An important lesson. 
• *Hibakusha- Not "survivor", as it's seen as insult to the dead. Those who survived, they understood, it's just chance, luck - that their survival wasn't due to any effort. Hence they chose to be called Hibakusha instead of Survivors, meaning "Bomb-affected Persons". Respect their Respect to the departed 🙏🏻
• I wa jinjutsu = Medicine is art of compassion. Beautiful term.

 

>Fascinating to see how the 6 Hibakusha came out of this disaster. Each found a unique way out of their trauma- Religion, hospitality, hedonism, peace activism, practicing forgiveness... > ...to then facing the bomber on US national TV ...damn. Very shocking indeed. I was disgusted. 

>>Conclusion: 

Really impressed with this masterpiece. Very simplistic writing, yet conveys such heavy emotions with ease. While I'm happy for these 6 bravehearts, I wonder how many accounts did the author have to go through to finalize these 6 only...What happened to the rest? What were their stories? Could any of them perhaps succeed in pacifying the current world? 

I read Hersey's work might soon be adapted as a counter to Nolan's Oppenheimer, which is good, and more relevant, but watching the news after this book is quite depressing : To see people talk so casually about "nuking the enemy"...we learn nothing from history it seems. 

Overall, a very sobering read. Depressing yes, but it's also about hope, remembrance, resilience, respect and humanity. As the book ends with "world's memory getting a little spotty", this will always remain a must read for all for sure. 

>🕊️ Rating: 10/10.  For 196 P̶a̶g̶e̶s̶ Pieces of the Heart. One of the best NF I've ever read.

>TL;DR Review:

This focuses on the inherent beauty of the Chinese scripts(ideograms) and emergent Tang poetry. It's unique, as Chinese characters are a mix of painting and ideas in themselves, so it lends to a very symbolic, subjective, poetic way of writing, which Tang poets exploited to the fullest ability in what's called the lu-shi poetry. Amazing stuff. If you're interested in Non-dualism, or Emptiness, this is a great read. Just to illustrate beauty of Chinese ideograms:

• SUN = 日 ; MOON = 月. Together, they form = 明, which means "bright," "clear," or "light". See how 2 opposites together birth a new meaning? Similarly,

• Person (人) + Tree (木) = Rest (休) {you rest under a tree).

Such economic script is bound to produce a metaphor-heavy literature. I loved learning about this, especially when contrasted with the beauty of our own script- Nagari.

>Who would be interested in this:

Advait Philosophy, Buddhism/Shunyata, Sufi poetry, Poetry in general, Chinese philosophy, Symbols, Scripts, Language, Calligraphy - if you are in any way interested in such topics, this is worth a read. Also, if you've seen this movie - Chang'an: it was a primer for me for this subject, especially Li Bai's character.

>About the Content:

Book is divided into 2 parts:

1️⃣ Chinese Poetic Writing: discusses the intricacies of the script and poem structures via Active Procedures, Passive Procedures and, Images.

2️⃣ Anthology of Tang Poetry: after the above discussion, we can see how various poetic styles differ, in content, rhythm and structure.

>Some stuff I learnt from this book:

• Written Songs ~ Sung Writing
• Poetic language is different from Spoken language
• 3 axes important to understand chinese thought : Full-Void, Yin-Yang, Heaven-Man-Earth
• Synergy among poetry, music, painting, calligraphy
• 2 main schools of thought regarding Chinese cosmological evolution : (Void-->1-->2-->3-->10k). What is the 3rd? Confucius vs Taoist schools, 3rd is just the Median Void/Breath, facilitates Yin-Yang mvmt, OR 3rd is Man itself, imbibed with Heaven+Earth
• Poetry seeks to re-establish Man in Nature, Universe. Always points to the Beyond. Crucial here is the concept of "wen" (文) - which used to mean "strokes", the writing itself a reflection of nature's penmanship left behind, like animal footprints, tree veins or stone marks. Hence, Man seeks to find himself as part of Nature via Script/Poetry/Art!
• Other important concepts are Parallelism, Opposition(of ideas as well as ideograms), Cadence, Rhythm, Numbers...
• Tang Poetry is considered Peak. Before that, 2 main styles dominated: North vs South | Yellow River vs Yangtze River | Peaceful secular agri society regular poems vs Warring sacred irregular poems | Shi Jing vs Chu Ci.
• Removal of the Self from the poem, alluding to subject-object union. Or being one with nature. "Who's the observer?" is a constant theme. As if No-self has written the poem!
• Removal of verbs, pronouns and substitution of full words(with verb) with empty words. Key is, that unlike English, there maybe no connectors between the words in a sentence. Instead of "Moon rises, river is flowing"....it's just "Moon|Rises|River|Flowing". Multiple interpretations are implicit, by nature of the script! Isn't that cool?
• Palindromic poems = Huiwenshi. Just see this. Nuff said. It's possible only due to the uniqueness of chinese script.
• Tang Poetry classification - Modern vs Old. (See diagram)
• Rhythm and meter follows yin-yang opposition always in lu-shi. Very interesting. Also, odd/even terms before/after caesura. Parallelism is also there. Along with evoking "images beyond description"... S-O duality depicted and transcended, spatial within temporal couplets...wow. so much is going on!🥴
• In the 3rd chapter- The Images, author talks about how ancient Chinese poets described the process of poetry as "wen". Very close to "dissolving of dualities*. Amazing stuff.
• Another crucial point the author raised was - "one could ask what good is such regulated poetry? So many rules to follow, and using same metaphors again and again, doesn't it diminish the task of poetry?" I had this question too since the beginning, but I also know it's not so simple. Doesn't all poetry face that issue? So many poems are similar in meter/metaphors evoked...yet poets still find new combos to evoke new feelings, or in a unique way. Same with chinese poetry. (Like a river meeting the sea= dissolution into the infinite, a final goodbye : such a common metaphor, but a great poet knows how and when to use it)
• Jacobson's axes of selection and combination (need to Google later)
• Li Bai vs Du Fu: the greatest Tang poets, and their styles contrast and complement each other very well. Like ☯️, they were best friends, but polar opposites.
• Author analyses 4 poems too. I understood 2 of them, barely. Rest is tough, I'm sadly poor in poetic sensibility and chinese myths/metaphors.
• Have shared some poems with y'all ☝🏻. Wish I could have posted more of these gems.

>>So why did I read this one?

>>Well, for one, Taoism shines through in Tang Poetry, which is sometimes easy to understand as spiritual poems (unity of all things, Void~shunyata/brahman/God). Ideograms are what interested me the most, and to see that chinese poetry fully exploits the polysemiotic nature of its ideograms to convey deep/subtle emotions in an orderly manner, was fascinating. Even if I understood 50-60% of this book, I'm happy I read it.

>How I got interested in this:

>Suggested by a friend. He knows my amateur love for philosophy and language. The chinese script has always seemed like a mountain to me, as I'd imagine for most Indians. Orwell's 1984 directly sent me down the Sapir-Whorf rabbit hole (referring to the purging of dictionaries/Newspeak). ...I tend to believe slightly that Language does shape Cognition. Thanks to this article and this paper about the Alphabet Goddess Mātṛkā, my curiosity grew even more for Chinese Hanzi -What is this strange script? Why is it so different from our Nagari? And does language really affect thinking? How about a script that itself is poetic in nature? The chinese script to me always looked like calligraphy, a piece of art. Have to agree with Cheng calling it therefore, "Ideograms"- characters aren't just phonetic, but convey dynamic ideas artistically.

>>Why so many artists/mangaka from the East? I'd theorised it's because of this unique script - it forces every child to be artistic, at least a bit. Don't know if it's true or not...

>Conclusion:

The author does a brilliant job of explaining the intricacies of Chinese Poetic Writing. If a poetry noob like me can understand ~50% of this book, written in English, by a Chinese-French guy... that's plenty for me! Just shows how universal poetry can be, and how languages can convey meaning across spacetime. Some prior familiarity with Chinese symbolism would have definitely helped, but as a stepping stone, this is a great primer.

>>⭐Rating: 十/十

{十(shi) can mean = 10| position|tenfold|completion|perfection|topmost|A Lot! And if I change its tone, shi➡️shī, then (shī)=诗=Poetry!}

>Would love to know about such books regarding any other script too - Indian or otherwise 🙏🏻

>TL;DR Review:

This focuses on the inherent beauty of the Chinese scripts(ideograms) and emergent Tang poetry. It's unique, as Chinese characters are a mix of painting and ideas in themselves, so it lends to a very symbolic, subjective, poetic way of writing, which Tang poets exploited to the fullest ability in what's called the lu-shi poetry. Amazing stuff. If you're interested in Non-dualism, or Emptiness, this is a great read. Just to illustrate beauty of Chinese ideograms:

• SUN = 日 ; MOON = 月. Together, they form = 明, which means "bright," "clear," or "light". See how 2 opposites together birth a new meaning? Similarly,

• Person (人) + Tree (木) = Rest (休) {you rest under a tree).

Such economic script is bound to produce a metaphor-heavy literature. I loved learning about this, especially when contrasted with the beauty of our own script- Nagari.

>Who would be interested in this:

Advait Philosophy, Buddhism/Shunyata, Sufi poetry, Poetry in general, Chinese philosophy, Symbols, Scripts, Language, Calligraphy - if you are in any way interested in such topics, this is worth a read. Also, if you've seen this movie - Chang'an: it was a primer for me for this subject, especially Li Bai's character.

>About the Content:

Book is divided into 2 parts:

1️⃣ Chinese Poetic Writing: discusses the intricacies of the script and poem structures via Active Procedures, Passive Procedures and, Images.

2️⃣ Anthology of Tang Poetry: after the above discussion, we can see how various poetic styles differ, in content, rhythm and structure.

>Some stuff I learnt from this book:

• Written Songs ~ Sung Writing
• Poetic language is different from Spoken language
• 3 axes important to understand chinese thought : Full-Void, Yin-Yang, Heaven-Man-Earth
• Synergy among poetry, music, painting, calligraphy
• 2 main schools of thought regarding Chinese cosmological evolution : (Void-->1-->2-->3-->10k). What is the 3rd? Confucius vs Taoist schools, 3rd is just the Median Void/Breath, facilitates Yin-Yang mvmt, OR 3rd is Man itself, imbibed with Heaven+Earth
• Poetry seeks to re-establish Man in Nature, Universe. Always points to the Beyond. Crucial here is the concept of "wen" (文) - which used to mean "strokes", the writing itself a reflection of nature's penmanship left behind, like animal footprints, tree veins or stone marks. Hence, Man seeks to find himself as part of Nature via Script/Poetry/Art!
• Other important concepts are Parallelism, Opposition(of ideas as well as ideograms), Cadence, Rhythm, Numbers...
• Tang Poetry is considered Peak. Before that, 2 main styles dominated: North vs South | Yellow River vs Yangtze River | Peaceful secular agri society regular poems vs Warring sacred irregular poems | Shi Jing vs Chu Ci.
• Removal of the Self from the poem, alluding to subject-object union. Or being one with nature. "Who's the observer?" is a constant theme. As if No-self has written the poem!
• Removal of verbs, pronouns and substitution of full words(with verb) with empty words. Key is, that unlike English, there maybe no connectors between the words in a sentence. Instead of "Moon rises, river is flowing"....it's just "Moon|Rises|River|Flowing". Multiple interpretations are implicit, by nature of the script! Isn't that cool?
• Palindromic poems = Huiwenshi. Just see this. Nuff said. It's possible only due to the uniqueness of chinese script.
• Tang Poetry classification - Modern vs Old. (See diagram)
• Rhythm and meter follows yin-yang opposition always in lu-shi. Very interesting. Also, odd/even terms before/after caesura. Parallelism is also there. Along with evoking "images beyond description"... S-O duality depicted and transcended, spatial within temporal couplets...wow. so much is going on!🥴
• In the 3rd chapter- The Images, author talks about how ancient Chinese poets described the process of poetry as "wen". Very close to "dissolving of dualities*. Amazing stuff.
• Another crucial point the author raised was - "one could ask what good is such regulated poetry? So many rules to follow, and using same metaphors again and again, doesn't it diminish the task of poetry?" I had this question too since the beginning, but I also know it's not so simple. Doesn't all poetry face that issue? So many poems are similar in meter/metaphors evoked...yet poets still find new combos to evoke new feelings, or in a unique way. Same with chinese poetry. (Like a river meeting the sea= dissolution into the infinite, a final goodbye : such a common metaphor, but a great poet knows how and when to use it)
• Jacobson's axes of selection and combination (need to Google later)
• Li Bai vs Du Fu: the greatest Tang poets, and their styles contrast and complement each other very well. Like ☯️, they were best friends, but polar opposites.
• Author analyses 4 poems too. I understood 2 of them, barely. Rest is tough, I'm sadly poor in poetic sensibility and chinese myths/metaphors.
• Have shared some poems with y'all ☝🏻. Wish I could have posted more of these gems.

>>So why did I read this one?

>>Well, for one, Taoism shines through in Tang Poetry, which is sometimes easy to understand as spiritual poems (unity of all things, Void~shunyata/brahman/God). Ideograms are what interested me the most, and to see that chinese poetry fully exploits the polysemiotic nature of its ideograms to convey deep/subtle emotions in an orderly manner, was fascinating. Even if I understood 50-60% of this book, I'm happy I read it.

>How I got interested in this:

>Suggested by a friend. He knows my amateur love for philosophy and language. The chinese script has always seemed like a mountain to me, as I'd imagine for most Indians. Orwell's 1984 directly sent me down the Sapir-Whorf rabbit hole (referring to the purging of dictionaries/Newspeak). ...I tend to believe slightly that Language does shape Cognition. Thanks to this article and this paper about the Alphabet Goddess Mātṛkā, my curiosity grew even more for Chinese Hanzi -What is this strange script? Why is it so different from our Nagari? And does language really affect thinking? How about a script that itself is poetic in nature? The chinese script to me always looked like calligraphy, a piece of art. Have to agree with Cheng calling it therefore, "Ideograms"- characters aren't just phonetic, but convey dynamic ideas artistically.

>>Why so many artists/mangaka from the East? I'd theorised it's because of this unique script - it forces every child to be artistic, at least a bit. Don't know if it's true or not...

>Conclusion:

The author does a brilliant job of explaining the intricacies of Chinese Poetic Writing. If a poetry noob like me can understand ~50% of this book, written in English, by a Chinese-French guy... that's plenty for me! Just shows how universal poetry can be, and how languages can convey meaning across spacetime. Some prior familiarity with Chinese symbolism would have definitely helped, but as a stepping stone, this is a great primer.

>>⭐Rating: 十/十

{十(shi) can mean = 10| position|tenfold|completion|perfection|topmost|A Lot! And if I change its tone, shi➡️shī, then (shī)=诗=Poetry!}

>Would love to know about such books regarding any other script too - Indian or otherwise 🙏🏻

>TL;DR Review:

This focuses on the inherent beauty of the Chinese scripts(ideograms) and emergent Tang poetry. It's unique, as Chinese characters are a mix of painting and ideas in themselves, so it lends to a very symbolic, subjective, poetic way of writing, which Tang poets exploited to the fullest ability in what's called the lu-shi poetry. Amazing stuff. If you're interested in Non-dualism, or Emptiness, this is a great read. Just to illustrate beauty of Chinese ideograms:

• SUN = 日 ; MOON = 月. Together, they form = 明, which means "bright," "clear," or "light". See how 2 opposites together birth a new meaning? Similarly,

• Person (人) + Tree (木) = Rest (休) {you rest under a tree).

Such economic script is bound to produce a metaphor-heavy literature. I loved learning about this, especially when contrasted with the beauty of our own script- Nagari.

>Who would be interested in this:

Advait Philosophy, Buddhism/Shunyata, Sufi poetry, Poetry in general, Chinese philosophy, Symbols, Scripts, Language, Calligraphy - if you are in any way interested in such topics, this is worth a read. Also, if you've seen this movie - Chang'an: it was a primer for me for this subject, especially Li Bai's character.

>About the Content:

Book is divided into 2 parts:

1️⃣ Chinese Poetic Writing: discusses the intricacies of the script and poem structures via Active Procedures, Passive Procedures and, Images.

2️⃣ Anthology of Tang Poetry: after the above discussion, we can see how various poetic styles differ, in content, rhythm and structure.

>Some stuff I learnt from this book:

• Written Songs ~ Sung Writing
• Poetic language is different from Spoken language
• 3 axes important to understand chinese thought : Full-Void, Yin-Yang, Heaven-Man-Earth
• Synergy among poetry, music, painting, calligraphy
• 2 main schools of thought regarding Chinese cosmological evolution : (Void-->1-->2-->3-->10k). What is the 3rd? Confucius vs Taoist schools, 3rd is just the Median Void/Breath, facilitates Yin-Yang mvmt, OR 3rd is Man itself, imbibed with Heaven+Earth
• Poetry seeks to re-establish Man in Nature, Universe. Always points to the Beyond. Crucial here is the concept of "wen" (文) - which used to mean "strokes", the writing itself a reflection of nature's penmanship left behind, like animal footprints, tree veins or stone marks. Hence, Man seeks to find himself as part of Nature via Script/Poetry/Art!
• Other important concepts are Parallelism, Opposition(of ideas as well as ideograms), Cadence, Rhythm, Numbers...
• Tang Poetry is considered Peak. Before that, 2 main styles dominated: North vs South | Yellow River vs Yangtze River | Peaceful secular agri society regular poems vs Warring sacred irregular poems | Shi Jing vs Chu Ci.
• Removal of the Self from the poem, alluding to subject-object union. Or being one with nature. "Who's the observer?" is a constant theme. As if No-self has written the poem!
• Removal of verbs, pronouns and substitution of full words(with verb) with empty words. Key is, that unlike English, there maybe no connectors between the words in a sentence. Instead of "Moon rises, river is flowing"....it's just "Moon|Rises|River|Flowing". Multiple interpretations are implicit, by nature of the script! Isn't that cool?
• Palindromic poems = Huiwenshi. Just see this. Nuff said. It's possible only due to the uniqueness of chinese script.
• Tang Poetry classification - Modern vs Old. (See diagram)
• Rhythm and meter follows yin-yang opposition always in lu-shi. Very interesting. Also, odd/even terms before/after caesura. Parallelism is also there. Along with evoking "images beyond description"... S-O duality depicted and transcended, spatial within temporal couplets...wow. so much is going on!🥴
• In the 3rd chapter- The Images, author talks about how ancient Chinese poets described the process of poetry as "wen". Very close to "dissolving of dualities*. Amazing stuff.
• Another crucial point the author raised was - "one could ask what good is such regulated poetry? So many rules to follow, and using same metaphors again and again, doesn't it diminish the task of poetry?" I had this question too since the beginning, but I also know it's not so simple. Doesn't all poetry face that issue? So many poems are similar in meter/metaphors evoked...yet poets still find new combos to evoke new feelings, or in a unique way. Same with chinese poetry. (Like a river meeting the sea= dissolution into the infinite, a final goodbye : such a common metaphor, but a great poet knows how and when to use it)
• Jacobson's axes of selection and combination (need to Google later)
• Li Bai vs Du Fu: the greatest Tang poets, and their styles contrast and complement each other very well. Like ☯️, they were best friends, but polar opposites.
• Author analyses 4 poems too. I understood 2 of them, barely. Rest is tough, I'm sadly poor in poetic sensibility and chinese myths/metaphors.
• Have shared some poems with y'all ☝🏻. Wish I could have posted more of these gems.

>>So why did I read this one?

>>Well, for one, Taoism shines through in Tang Poetry, which is sometimes easy to understand as spiritual poems (unity of all things, Void~shunyata/brahman/God). Ideograms are what interested me the most, and to see that chinese poetry fully exploits the polysemiotic nature of its ideograms to convey deep/subtle emotions in an orderly manner, was fascinating. Even if I understood 50-60% of this book, I'm happy I read it.

>How I got interested in this:

>Suggested by a friend. He knows my amateur love for philosophy and language. The chinese script has always seemed like a mountain to me, as I'd imagine for most Indians. Orwell's 1984 directly sent me down the Sapir-Whorf rabbit hole (referring to the purging of dictionaries/Newspeak). ...I tend to believe slightly that Language does shape Cognition. Thanks to this article and this paper about the Alphabet Goddess Mātṛkā, my curiosity grew even more for Chinese Hanzi -What is this strange script? Why is it so different from our Nagari? And does language really affect thinking? How about a script that itself is poetic in nature? The chinese script to me always looked like calligraphy, a piece of art. Have to agree with Cheng calling it therefore, "Ideograms"- characters aren't just phonetic, but convey dynamic ideas artistically.

>>Why so many artists/mangaka from the East? I'd theorised it's because of this unique script - it forces every child to be artistic, at least a bit. Don't know if it's true or not...

>Conclusion:

The author does a brilliant job of explaining the intricacies of Chinese Poetic Writing. If a poetry noob like me can understand ~50% of this book, written in English, by a Chinese-French guy... that's plenty for me! Just shows how universal poetry can be, and how languages can convey meaning across spacetime. Some prior familiarity with Chinese symbolism would have definitely helped, but as a stepping stone, this is a great primer.

>>⭐Rating: 十/十

{十(shi) can mean = 10| position|tenfold|completion|perfection|topmost|A Lot! And if I change its tone, shi➡️shī, then (shī)=诗=Poetry!}

>Would love to know about such books regarding any other script too - Indian or otherwise 🙏🏻

Full review in the links:

1. Buddha and his Dhamma- BR Ambedkar: Intrigued by Divyakirti Ji's masterclass, I thought I'd read it myself, and was not disappointed at all. Ambedkar sketches a rational bible of buddhism. Editing is a bit rough though.

2. The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood : what an Inception-esque novel! I'd argue it's 4 layers, not 3, but anyways, it's about 2 sisters. One died young, leaving behind the novel named "Blind Assassin". Her sister, who lives to a ripe old age tries to piece together her sister's mysterious death, along with the strange sci-fi novel she left behind. Absolute banger of a slow-burn.

3. Shailendra- Amla Mazumdar Shailendra: A daughter's love lyrics to Bollywood's greatest lyricist: a very fine memoir. Shailendra's songs are like Kabir and Meera's poetry, with a bit of humor too, always the optimist though. Rekindled my love for old Bolly songs...I'm an old soul afterall.

4. ARTHUR & GEORGE - Julian Barnes: Based on the true historical case of George Edalji, a half-Indian convicted of brutal crimes in an English village, and Arthur Conan Doyle steps in to re-examine the case! Reads like a biography+mystery. The ending is awesome too. Really surprised this case happened in reality.

5. Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13.75 - Sue Townsend: A really funny daily diary of a teenager who is way in his head about having the worst luck of all, despite him being extremely talented. Makes you think of your own foolish innocent younger self.

6. देवभाषा - Language of the Immortals: GN Devy - 84 pg masterclass on the paradox of Sanskrit language. Devy as usual, packs so many ideas in such little space. Here he wrestles with the idea of how a language with so few speakers garnered so much prestige, culturally and academically, till date.

7. The Call of Cthulhu - HP Lovecraft: Yes, finally! I've read this short masterpiece of cosmic horror. Man it's so good. Not because of the horror, I think I'm immune to such stories, but the way it's written is beautiful. So realistic! Will be reading more of Lovecraft next.

8. THE BAT - Mary Roberts Rinehart: (The OG Batman!) This whodunnit story is said to have inspired Bob Kane's Batman, so I was intrigued to pick it up. It's a good suspense, the Bat here is a criminal instead of a hero, but the theatrics are very similar. Must read this short classic.

>Any of these to your liking? What was your favourite read of the month?

Full review in the links:

1. Buddha and his Dhamma- BR Ambedkar: Intrigued by Divyakirti Ji's masterclass, I thought I'd read it myself, and was not disappointed at all. Ambedkar sketches a rational bible of buddhism. Editing is a bit rough though.

2. The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood : what an Inception-esque novel! I'd argue it's 4 layers, not 3, but anyways, it's about 2 sisters. One died young, leaving behind the novel named "Blind Assassin". Her sister, who lives to a ripe old age tries to piece together her sister's mysterious death, along with the strange sci-fi novel she left behind. Absolute banger of a slow-burn.

3. Shailendra- Amla Mazumdar Shailendra: A daughter's love lyrics to Bollywood's greatest lyricist: a very fine memoir. Shailendra's songs are like Kabir and Meera's poetry, with a bit of humor too, always the optimist though. Rekindled my love for old Bolly songs...I'm an old soul afterall.

4. ARTHUR & GEORGE - Julian Barnes: Based on the true historical case of George Edalji, a half-Indian convicted of brutal crimes in an English village, and Arthur Conan Doyle steps in to re-examine the case! Reads like a biography+mystery. The ending is awesome too. Really surprised this case happened in reality.

5. Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13.75 - Sue Townsend: A really funny daily diary of a teenager who is way in his head about having the worst luck of all, despite him being extremely talented. Makes you think of your own foolish innocent younger self.

6. देवभाषा - Language of the Immortals: GN Devy - 84 pg masterclass on the paradox of Sanskrit language. Devy as usual, packs so many ideas in such little space. Here he wrestles with the idea of how a language with so few speakers garnered so much prestige, culturally and academically, till date.

7. The Call of Cthulhu - HP Lovecraft: Yes, finally! I've read this short masterpiece of cosmic horror. Man it's so good. Not because of the horror, I think I'm immune to such stories, but the way it's written is beautiful. So realistic! Will be reading more of Lovecraft next.

8. THE BAT - Mary Roberts Rinehart: (The OG Batman!) This whodunnit story is said to have inspired Bob Kane's Batman, so I was intrigued to pick it up. It's a good suspense, the Bat here is a criminal instead of a hero, but the theatrics are very similar. Must read this short classic.

>Any of these to your liking? What was your favourite read of the month?

Full review in the links:

1. Buddha and his Dhamma- BR Ambedkar: Intrigued by Divyakirti Ji's masterclass, I thought I'd read it myself, and was not disappointed at all. Ambedkar sketches a rational bible of buddhism. Editing is a bit rough though.

2. The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood : what an Inception-esque novel! I'd argue it's 4 layers, not 3, but anyways, it's about 2 sisters. One died young, leaving behind the novel named "Blind Assassin". Her sister, who lives to a ripe old age tries to piece together her sister's mysterious death, along with the strange sci-fi novel she left behind. Absolute banger of a slow-burn.

3. Shailendra- Amla Mazumdar Shailendra: A daughter's love lyrics to Bollywood's greatest lyricist: a very fine memoir. Shailendra's songs are like Kabir and Meera's poetry, with a bit of humor too, always the optimist though. Rekindled my love for old Bolly songs...I'm an old soul afterall.

4. ARTHUR & GEORGE - Julian Barnes: Based on the true historical case of George Edalji, a half-Indian convicted of brutal crimes in an English village, and Arthur Conan Doyle steps in to re-examine the case! Reads like a biography+mystery. The ending is awesome too. Really surprised this case happened in reality.

5. Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13.75 - Sue Townsend: A really funny daily diary of a teenager who is way in his head about having the worst luck of all, despite him being extremely talented. Makes you think of your own foolish innocent younger self.

6. देवभाषा - Language of the Immortals: GN Devy - 84 pg masterclass on the paradox of Sanskrit language. Devy as usual, packs so many ideas in such little space. Here he wrestles with the idea of how a language with so few speakers garnered so much prestige, culturally and academically, till date.

7. The Call of Cthulhu - HP Lovecraft: Yes, finally! I've read this short masterpiece of cosmic horror. Man it's so good. Not because of the horror, I think I'm immune to such stories, but the way it's written is beautiful. So realistic! Will be reading more of Lovecraft next.

8. THE BAT - Mary Roberts Rinehart: (The OG Batman!) This whodunnit story is said to have inspired Bob Kane's Batman, so I was intrigued to pick it up. It's a good suspense, the Bat here is a criminal instead of a hero, but the theatrics are very similar. Must read this short classic.

>Any of these to your liking? What was your favourite read of the month?

>Yes, Mary Rinehart's "The Bat"(and the 1930 movie it inspired) is said to have a huge influence on Bob Kane's Batman we know today! Ain't that amazing?

>Premise: 65 years (B)old lady Mrs. Cornelia Van Gorder and her niece Dale, move into an area where the notorious Bat has been recently seen. Detective Anderson is trying to catch this criminal. At the estate are - Cornelia, Dale, maid Lizzie, new gardener Brooks, Dr. Wells & a Japanese butler Billy. Will they survive the Bat's encounter?

>What I loved:

• The Bat is as stealthy as Batman, but here he is a thief and a murderer. Police and underworld both trying to get rid of him = that's the constant XD
• Cornelia is a very interesting character. She isn't scared of this thug! At 65, she's confident she'll beat the hell out of the Bat!
• It's a great suspense+thriller+whodunnit story. I was pleasantly tricked by the end!
• Lizzie's the best XD



>>Rating: 9/10 . Had great fun reading the OG BATMAN. Just one issue was annoying - >!people are too careless with guns!<

>Yes, Mary Rinehart's "The Bat"(and the 1930 movie it inspired) is said to have a huge influence on Bob Kane's Batman we know today! Ain't that amazing?

>Premise: 65 years (B)old lady Mrs. Cornelia Van Gorder and her niece Dale, move into an area where the notorious Bat has been recently seen. Detective Anderson is trying to catch this criminal. At the estate are - Cornelia, Dale, maid Lizzie, new gardener Brooks, Dr. Wells & a Japanese butler Billy. Will they survive the Bat's encounter?

>What I loved:

• The Bat is as stealthy as Batman, but here he is a thief and a murderer. Police and underworld both trying to get rid of him = that's the constant XD
• Cornelia is a very interesting character. She isn't scared of this thug! At 65, she's confident she'll beat the hell out of the Bat!
• It's a great suspense+thriller+whodunnit story. I was pleasantly tricked by the end!
• Lizzie's the best XD



>>Rating: 9/10 . Had great fun reading the OG BATMAN. Just one issue was annoying - >!people are too careless with guns!<

>Like his other works, this short (76pg) yet profound work by India's foremost linguist, Padma Shri GN Devy, probes the fantastic yet paradoxical nature of the Sanskrit language. Here he tries to answer these main questions:

• How does a language with so few speakers continue to fascinate people till date?
• What's so special about this refined language compared to other languages?
• For a language that spread neither by Trade nor Raid, how was it able to structure society so drastically and ~permanently?

>The book is in 2 parts:

1️⃣ False perception & Misguided Debates : discusses the misconceptions around PIE, AMT and Harappan script.

2️⃣ Memory Magic and Language Hegemony : explains beauty and deification of Sanskrit.

>Some interesting things I learnt from this (get ready!) :

• Sir William Jones practically started the PIE theory/movement - calling Sanskrit "more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin...more refined than either". {PIE-Proto-Indo-European being ancestor language}

• What Jones did for Sanskrit, Ellis+Caldwell did for Tamil; German academicians for Kannada...

• Pandit Maitra's pleaded in the Constituent Assembly to make Sanskrit India's official language! His argument is worth reading, even if I disagree with it. But he did get it recognised as a Scheduled Language.

• The remarkable power of Sanskrit is, despite its few users (even historically), it acquired such a high status, and its interaction with regional languages (prakrits) led to evolution of both. That's the pattern of linguistic-cultural evolution that Devy is proposing.

• How interesting that Jones' theory came about the same time of deciphering the Rosetta stone! From 1780s-1920s, science of decipherment was the rage. (Yet Harappa remains a mystery!)

• The Indian Lingo-Dark Age: from IVC (1900 BC) till Ashoka (300BC), ~1600 years of no written scripts...this fact boggles me more than the Void century of One Piece. That's a Void Millennia! How and why did the Harappan script disappear?

• Vedic Period: RigVeda(1500BC) - Yaska(500BC). Yaska was a philologist, with a radical theory that all nouns emerged from verbs! Fascinating!

• small typo I guess at pg43. Should be 13th c. CE instead of BCE. (Written Avestan found in 13th c. CE, spoken since 1000 BCE)

• 20+ meters in Sanskrit vs 5 in English: helped in mnemonics. An ingenious memorisation art boosted Sanskrit's carrying capacity, more than any other language, ever.

• Devy relies on Aurobindo's commentary on the Vedas - in short, that the original rishis deliberately used a very symbolic/cryptic speech, and the grammar was secondary to them...but by the time of Yaska, that deeper knowledge was lost, and only the elaborate mnemonics/grammar/new etymologies remained.

• Losing that spiritual/symbolic meaning led to rise of the opposing Upanishadic thought, and led to Vedanta in a different way. "Upanishads are as useless as the Brahmanas (commentary on the Vedas) for interpreting the original sense of the Vedas."

• Hence, 2 strands of Vedic thought emerged by 6th c.BC - Upanishadic and Scriptural. Symbolism was lost. All that remained by Yaska's time, was a dead corpus, a spiritual-less Vedic language.

• It's this distinction that led to Shruti vs Smriti debate. Vedic rishis became "Seers", Philosophy became "Darshan" ... alluding to the "Unseeable". And the feeling that Vedas were inviolable led to the retrenching of Sanskrit as "Language of the Gods". This deification led to Vedas becoming ahistorical authority on knowledge, and Brahmins to be closest to the Gods (hence @top of caste pyramid).

• It's representing a common theme I guess, that oral tradition might be different from written tradition semantically. And even in the oral tradition, meaning gets morphed from time to time. Lost in Standardization?!

• The worship of Sanskrit as perfection reminds me of Pythagoras' obsession of the natural numbers. (He hated 0, irrational numbers, so much so he had a guy killed for mentioning √2 !)

• 2 oral traditions developed then, a Vedic MANTRA lit. and a non-Vedic SUTA lit. Suta comprised of Puranas, also called the 5th Veda sometimes, but it was more fluid and secular than Shruti.

• how interesting: the Vedas are deemed ahistorical (timeless, authorless) despite having names of rishis in it, whereas the 5th Veda is called Itihasa-Purana (literally Historical Stories), in which authors are credited. Best example is Mahabharat - started as Jaya by Vyasa, then other sutas added verses to it, like Lomaharshana and Vaishampayana etc. The text itself tells how it grew. But due to its immensely popular nature, suta lit too became a ahistorical collective memory. Vyasa became known as Chiranjeevi-Immortal.

• Only the Shastra + Akshara(Linguistics+Poetics) texts were deemed historical, variable. Suta and Mantra texts deemed eternal.

• The cultural habit of assigning older dates to a text, so that it's deemed more authoritative led to this Sanskrit/Vedic hegemony. {A recent example would be the case of Vaimanika-shastra - a 20th c. text claiming to be inspired by Sage Bharadvaja}. I've read the claim about Indian sense of history being ahistorical, eternal, timeless, cyclical. And I do see it around me as well...But to believe it's been like this since millennia is hard to accept - no one tried for a chronological history?! Devy answers it in a different way, that timelessness was considered a virtue. History is seen in philosophical/literary texts, but authorship isn't.

• Vakrokti vs Alamkara: Soul of poetry debate! Vakrokti says it's because of unconventional/suggestive nature of poetry that it impresses us, while Alamkara says it's embellished elements in poetry that lends it beauty.

>>Conclusion:

This is more like a profound essay, with its thesis summarised as "the history of Indianisation of Sanskrit = history of Sanskritisation of India". It's a great analysis, somewhat reasonable considering social history.

Language is also a tool, intentions of people matter. Quite apt to call Sanskrit the language of Immortals, its presence is like that of an invisible God, ever present yet rarely interacted with. Its effects, its literature remain for posterity.

And like most Gods, it too was created and used for social functioning, maybe with good intentions, but has led to a deformed society. Can Sanskrit be blamed for it? Can you separate the art from its artist? Speakers from speech? Sanskrit from Sanskritisation? इति इति.

>>Rating: 10/10. Devy always gives me new ideas to think about.

>Sorry for the long post, it's meant to share my thoughts too, and Devy's books just do that to me. Also, this post (+pics) contains most of the interesting stuff from the book, so one can think twice before buying this pricey book (80pgs~₹300). If you like the stuff I mentioned ☝🏻, go for it.