Orlando by Virginal Woolf

 Orlando is a mind bending, time bending, beliefs bending saga. There is no stone un-turned which questions traditions, the societal setup. The entire societal setup from the way the poor static people, to poor nomads, to rich static people, to rich nomads the books attempt at gathering the entire gamut of the societal setup is unprecedented in all the books I have read to date. Time flies in seconds and at times it does not move at all. Time is tamed by the author. She moves it at her own will. The poor and the rich are contrasted. None are spared. Orlando gets bored with the lives of the poor as much as the lives of the rich. Yes, there are times that the author finds it difficult to move along and in that situation she move the character to the ancestral home. It is like a launchpad to launch the character to the next chapter/level.

Gender is played with. Gender which plays a main character in our societal setup is toyed with. The chairs, the tables, the animals, wild and domesticated all find their place in the novel. All find their place and time. Man, woman, boy, girl, animals, plants all are living beings. The human societal setup with the clear distinction between the male and female functions are made fun of. The stereotypes are made fun of. The various issues in the stereotypes are brought out beautifully. How the male dominated society has bound the female capabilities are elucidated beautifully by just comparing the dress each one wears.

Sometimes it appears that she wants the answers to many of her queries very fast. Sometimes she answers but does not explain further. Sometimes she explains many of the situations a bit more. This might be intentional. The evolution of the society in over 300 years is also a character in the novel. There are places of rapid ascent and reaching a crescendo. But, she does not loosen the grip on the reader. She gradually loosens her grip as any musician would do after reaching a crescendo.

A recommended read when the reader wants his time to go slow. Not recommended for speed reading.

Three(The only) pillars of life

Job, society and sex are the summations of the problems in life. Are they problems or they themselves signify life? Can life be reduced to those three words? I believe todays lives of people are the summation of their actions and interactions with those three pillars. Oh, you give a damn to what I think, ha, alright. I still have to proceed with my train of thoughts here. So, do we have the definition of life here? I think so. This definition will define the lives of the 99.99 percent of people. If you give a thought to your calender of events from your waking up today and waking up the next day, you will agree with me. In our childhood we see our parents to the same thing. We continue to do so and the same will be taken up by our offsprings. How many times has your child told that when I grow up I will buy "this" or I will do "that". The priorities regarding the three pillars are already set. As time goes by people who do match their "plans" or "wishes" do continue to lead a mundane life by framing incremental improvements to their existing "stable" setups. People who lose it down the line, become the scum by accepting defeat or try to take huge leaps with bizzare ideas joining the mundane lot or hang somewhere in between based on the success/failure of their ventures.

Let us take the job factor. What is a job? Is the point of job to make money only? Is it to get acceptance in the society? Is it to lead a succesful sexual intent? Why is it that everybody should do a job? Human mind cannot do the same job with the same interest even in the second time. Let it be an iteration of science experiment. Why do we do it? Is it because we know only that Job? Is it because we are not "interested" in the next one? Is it because the other job is hard? Is it because we have an inferiority or superior complex of doing a particular job? Why do we do it? How many people in the world can tell they love their jobs? How many people have the capability of doing other jobs than whatever they are doing now? How many people will be given an opportnity of doing their dream jobs which changes every day, every hour or every minute? Will the world sustain such?

Society, Wow, I have yet to find a more encompassing word leaving "dark energy" which can have a thuderous blow to any dictionary maker. The word society is complicated just because of the number of humans on this planet. When humans just ate what they grew and lived as small herds moving around for favorible habitats this was not much of a concern. Now a days the societal setups collapse for the most idiotic reasons. A wrong, leaky tax collection system can bring down one of the oldest societies, un-believable. How much do we know about societies? Do we have the time to change the thought cycle of the individual components of the society. Is the society really representing the collection of individuals and their thoughts? Is the society forcing the individuals to be so and so? Is it individuals making the society or society making individuals. Which process is correct. Is the society, a lab, for the filthy rich? Is the democrati societal the most nearest to the perfect society?


Does the act of sex in the human society means reproduction only? Is it a human psyche which is not researched in detail? This is one psyche available in all human beings, ofcourse, with varied degrees of importance given to it. But it is acommon trait available in all. Is it an act of releasing unwanted energy. Is it what humans are born to do and the other two pillars only facilitate it. Lot of researches have told that this particular trait is very important. But no study has told that changing this trait is possible or they have not explained the consequences of such an act, society wide.

What a remarkable cycle these three pillars represent. They form a totally self sustained cycle which just gobbles up any changes introduced into this system and make those changes vanish ever so smoothly leaving the researcher in an endless loop.

You knew all this, ......hmmm...., Ok,...So,...Go on with "life"......