Sunday 27 January 2019

ගිරි මුදුන මගේ නිවහන - සුනිල් විජේසිරිවර්ධන


2017 වසරේ අප රට සියළු සම්මාන උදෙසා නිර්දේශ ව, ඉන් එකක් ජයග්‍රහණය ට ද සමත් ( ඒ ගොඩගේ හෝ රාජ්‍ය සාහිත්‍ය සම්මාන යන දෙකෙන් එකකි ), සුනිල් විජේසිරිවර්ධනයන්ගේ "ගිරි මුදුන මගේ නිවහන" නම් වූ කාව්‍ය සංග්‍රහය කියවීමි.

කෘතිය ඇරඹෙන්නේ කියවිය යුතුම ආරේ පෙරවදනකිනි. එනම් අප කවියා මුළු හැත්තෑව දශයකම රුසියාවේ අධ්හ්‍යයන කටයුතු කරමින් සිටින අතර තමන් අත් දුටු රුසියාවේ සංස්කෘතික පොහොසත් කම පිළිබන්ධවය. තැනෙක හී මෙසේ කියයි;
"සාමාන්‍ය පාසලක 7-8 වසරේ සාමාන්‍ය දරුවෙකුට සම්භාව්‍ය කවියන්ගේ කවි තිහ හතලිහක්වත් කට පාඩමින් කීමට හැකියාව තිබිණ." (පෙරවදන viii පිටුව )

එවන් වටපිටාවකින් අප කවියා 1981 මෙහි සම්ප්‍රාප්ත වන විට මෙහි "සංස්කෘතීක කාන්තාරයකට" ගොඩ බස් බවත්, ඒ හේතුවෙන් ම යම් "ජීවන අරගලයකට" නතු වූ බවත් හේ පවසයි (පෙරවදන xii පිටුව ).

අනතුරුව ධර්මසිරි රාජපක්ෂ, දයාසේන ගුණසේන ආදි කවීන්ගේ නිර්මාණ භාවිතාවෙන් තමන් විසූ අනුරාධපුරයේ තරුණ පර්ශදයන් හා සක්‍රීය වූ අයුරුත්, ජනතා සංස්කෘතික කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය හා අමනාප වූ ජවිපෙ ට බියෙන් අනුරපුර හැර කොළඹ විසුමට පැමිණි වගත් කියවේ. මේ පොතේ පෙරවදනේ ම ගත යුත්තක් ඇත.

මෙහි ඇත්තේ 2014-2016 යන තුන් වසර තුල කවියා ගේ නිර්මාණයන් ය. හේ ආකෘතිය හා තේමා ඔස්සේ තම කවි කොටස් අටක ට බෙදා ඇත. ඉන් සමහර කවි, මා මෙතෙක් කියවූ ඉහළ ම ස්ථරයේ නිර්මාණ ය - අනෙක් වා සාර්ථක ද යන්න අපැහැදිලිය.

මට මේ කවි පොත රසවත් ම කවි පංති දෙක "අදිසි මානය" නම් කොටසේ එන "අනෙක් කාලය I" සහ "අනෙක් කාලය II " යන කවි පංතීන් දෙකය.ඒවා මා මෙතෙක් රස විඳි නන්දන වීරසිංහ, ලාල් හෑගොඩ, ලක්ෂාන්ත අතුකෝරාල යන කවීන්ගේ ඉහළ ම නිර්මාණ සමඟ එක පෙළට තිබිය හැකිය ( ඒවා අතික්‍රමණය කිරීමට තරම් ද විය හැක -ඒ සඳහා ඒ සියළු කවි නැවත කියවා වැඩිමනක් කිව යුතුය ). එහි පළමු කොටසේ අයෙක් වැවක් අසබඩ තනියම කල් ගෙවන, ජීවිතය භුක්ති විඳින අයුරක් අඟවයි.

"ළවල්ලේ තවම නොසිඳුණු
දිය කඩිත්තක් අස කුඩා මිනිසෙක් හැර
ඇසි දිසි මානයේ සිටින්නෝ
දිය හෙබ සරන මල් කොරලිය
ක්‍රී ක්‍රී හඬන පලා ගිරවුන් ය
ඉරටු පා මත වැනෙන කොරවක් පැටවුන් ය
ඈත දියඹේ සුදු රුවල් සරි පාවෙන
පෙලිකන් කුරුල්ලන් ය..."

මෙහි එන පරිසර වැනුම සවසක තිසා වැව් කණ්ඩියේ සුළඟකින් මුසපත් ව "මේ කාලය නොගෙවී සැමදා මෙතන විසිය හැකිනම්" නම් යන සිතුවෙල්ලෙන් මා එහි කෙටි නිවාඩුවකට ගිය කල විඳීම මතකයට නගයි.

"හැල්මේ දුව එන මරුත් කොලු
වාපි සුවඳ පතුරා පෙනහළු පුරා
සසිනිඳු අතින් පිරිමදියි වත
පාවි යයි මතක සිත
කොහිදෝ අන් ලොවක මායිම් කරා..."

එකල කාලය ඒ වැව් පරිසයටම  ආවේණික බව කවිය වරින් වර කියන්නේ,

"කාලය ගලන්නේ
ගණනයක් නිනව්වක් නැතිවයි
වෑ කන්දෙන් ඔබ ලොව පෑ කටු
මේ මානයේ නොදුවයි"

දීර්ඝ කාලයක් රුසියාවේ වාසය කොට හේ නැවත එන්නේ පරිසරය වෙනස් වූ තිසා වැව් ඉසව්වකට ය.

"වෑ කන්ද දෙදරවා
වාපි කාල රිද්මය පුපුරවන
මිලිටරි බූට් හඬ අතරින්
ඉන් ඔබ ගිනියම්ව දැවෙන ලොව
මරු විකලෙන් දුවන පෑ කටු රැගත්
සිහියක් පතක් නැති නගරුන්
වැව් කුස තුළැට උදයෙම කඩා වැද
රිය ගොස පතුරමින්, දුම් කවුළු වගුරමින්
ප්ලාස්ටික්, ඉටි වහන් වසුරු මෙන් හලමින්
නැගූ දල වියරු කම්පන ගිගිරුමෙන්
ක්ලාන්ත වූ වාපි ගැහැනිය
හුදකලා මේ යාමෙත් ගොම්මන්
තවම සිහි එළවා නොගත්තී..
බිහිසුණු නිහඬබව! ලැගුම් අතරැද කුරුල්ලන්
අවට තුරු නිවෙස්වල?"

ඉතින් මට නම් පිටු අටක් පුරා දිවෙන මේ කවි පංති පමණක් ම වුව මේ කාව්‍ය සංග්‍රහයේ වටිනාකම මිණීමට ප්‍රමාණවත් ය. එහෙත් මෙහි තව රසවත් කවි එමට ය. "වසත් සමර" නම් වූ කොටසේ සෝවියට් දේශය, එහි කවීන් සහ එහි බිඳවැටුම් අලලා නිර්මිත කවි පංති හතර වෙසෙසින් සඳහන් කල යුතුය. "නොහමුවූ ඇය" කවි පංතිය ද කාලයක් මතක තියෙනා ආරේ ලයාන්විත කවි පංතියකි.

එනමුදු මෙහි එන හයිකූ හෝ ඉන් ආභාෂයෙන් ලියවී ඇති ආරේ කවි වලින් බොහෝමයක් මා සිත් ගත්තේ නැත. පෙර කී ආරේ මා වඩාත් රස විඳි නැවත නැවත අනාගතයේ ද රස විඳින කවි පංති අහුරක් මේ සංග්‍රහයේ තිබුන ද සමස්ත වශයෙන් කෘතිය පුරාවට ම මා රස විඳි කවි හමු නොවූ බවකි සැබෑව - එහෙත් එය පෞද්ගලික රසාඥ්ඥතාව මත විය හැක්කකි.


මෙතරම් නිමාවකින් යුත් කාව්‍ය සංග්‍රහයක් ප්‍රකාශ කල විදර්ශන ප්‍රකාශකයන් ප්‍රශංසාවට බඳු විය යුතුය.

Saturday 26 January 2019

The Vendor of Sweets - R.K. Narayan

Read R.K. Narayan's "The Vendor of Sweets" - it is the first book I've completed for 2019, and the third book by the author I've read (after "The Bachelor of Arts" and "Swami and Friends").

Again, the story is based on the character from Malgudi, Jagan, a confectioner, but for a change it touches on the subject of the relationship between aging parents and modern children - and this was first published in 1967. It cannot be ruled out that Narayan may have just learnt of Hippie life and free love, being in fashion back then in the U.S.A. For, here he touches the subject of free love, in a fashion that could be imagined from an Indian perspective, by way of Mali - Jagan's son - who goes to the U.S.A. to realise him ambition.

The novel, which unfolds on the twin story lines - one that of the strained relationship between the father and the son, and the other of life in Malgudi for the confectioner - takes a twist a little more than two thirds of the book. As Jagan reminisces on his past love life, the narration goes to a long tale. The novel in effect is more than just a story of a spoiled son and his naive, old fashioned, stubborn father from here on. Essentially the novel takes a subtle existential bent as Jagan takes some big decisions as he steps into his sexagenarian years. While the subtle philosophical bent is appreciable, it cannot be denied that details of the customs and the thought patterns of rural life are the major attractions of this book. The details of Jagan's time with his wife, and the role that a South Indian wife is expected to play is presented, realistically here.

It cannot be denied that the book ends with a less than optimal ending - leaving the story open ended. This is a relative disappointment of the novel, while it suggests a more philosophical ending too.

The characters in the book are fairly well composed especially that of the protagonist, Jagan. The irony of his behaviour, the somewhat harmless hypocrisy and mule like defiance when challenged in a corner paints a vivid real life like character, and this character is the central focus of the novel. All other characters live around it, and while the completeness of these other characters is less than that of Jagan, they have been developed adequately to make the novel a success.

In essence this novel has many a charm for the reader with its immersed argumentative globs on such a variety of subjects - East vs. West; Father-Son relationship; rural communal living; strait jacketed behaviour of the older generation; lack of respect for those more knowledgeable about life than youth, deception by religious belief to name a few. These keeps the reader glued to the book, as does Narayan's simple writing style.

I read the book as it is part of the school syllabus for English Literature and I may be called upon to help out my son on the subject, in the coming days. But within the few pages, I became a virtual resident of Malgudi once again, and it only Jagan's reminisces of a love that was ( breaking the flow, as it were ) that made me end my virtual stay. Recommended for anyone who has enjoyed the Malgudi experience.

Wednesday 23 January 2019

The Top 20 - 2018

OK; At last I am done sorting out my Top 20 albums for 2018. Here's the Top 20, and also why another 20 or so albums didn't make it to that bunch of winners.



R&B
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The Hits: There are two R&B albums, with both promising to be top ten material on the early days I started listening to them. However, "Midnight hour" started to feel a tad monotonous upon repeated listens, despite the quality of the music, hence it just makes it inside the top 20.
Meshelle Ndegeocello's stellar album with some lovely covers of Prince, Sade, Tina Turner and TLC among others managed to impress me on repeated listens and hence is near the top.

The Misses: The only other R&B highlight that I listened to was Janelle Monae's "Dirty Computer". It just missed the top 20, despite the strong similarities of Prince that its sound has. There is even a track which starts like "kiss".


Alternate/ Adult-Alternate / Rock
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(typically my favourite genre)
The Hits:
a.The alternate and adult alternative artistes that I have loved over the years make appearances, but not in the top ten. Alice in Chains and the Smashing Pumpkins have good records to show up in the top 20, while "A Perfect Circle" , although different from their previous efforts, has its charm to show up just below the top 10 ( and if only 2019 will see a new Tool album).
Further it was refreshing to listen a strong consistent album by The Breeders after a long while. Loved "walking with a killer" and "Blues in Acropolis". And the ideal running length for an album is 30 minutes and a bit, I feel, in the present times.
In previous years, Paul Weller has featured at the tail end of the top 20, if that. But his largely acoustic effort of 2018, is a charming album, and is featured high in top ten.
b. The Brit-Rock Band Snow Patrol effort impressed me a lot on repeated listens, although on initial listens I didn't think it'll last through the year. It did well to feature higher than my typical favourites such as Alice in Chains.
c. Their dead pan style being an attraction with me, Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett continues to do well as in the previous years. Love the Kurt Vile album in particular with its extended tracks.
The Misses:
a. Dave Matthews Band's album "Come Tomorrow", although a good listen doesn't impress to the level of "Big Whiskey...", "Busted Stuff" or "Under the table and dreaming" - and hence misses the top 20. Dave may just be running out of ideas too, I suspect. They had a similar dilemma at the time of Everyday and Stand up; they came out out all winners with the Grammy nominated Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King. Let's see if they can repeat that feat.
The new Stone Temple Pilots with its new vocalist and the hard rock veterans Judas Priest have slipped out of the Top 20. The former has a few elegant tracks, and the new vocalist matches Weiland's style, but it isn't enough to push it higher, The rather impressive stoner rock album "The Sciences" by Sleep too slips out of the top 20.
Mark Knopfler was another drop out, although traditionally I've liked his records - goes to show that too much of a thing is not good; besides he seems to have run out of ideas.
b. Suede missed out, as did the Eels, although both albums have several strong tracks. The Eels album has its moment, but certain tracks sounds like a rehash of others at times, and hence finds itself out of reckoning.
The new Manic Street Preachers album, "Resistance is futile" sounds good initially but the arena rock just becomes a little monotonous and hence misses the top 20.
c. Other stalwarts who didn't make enough impression to hang on in the the top 20 are Paul McCartney, Simple Minds and Lenny Kravitz ( the latter has failed to impress me repeatedly).
d. A big disappointment was Jack White's "Boarding House Reach". Yet, it is hoped that the self indulgent meandering album is a temporary getaway for the artiste, for he is one of Rocks' future hopes too. Besides there maybe those who actually enjoy this self-indulgent album.

Indie-Rock/Indie-Alternative
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a. Lots of Indie-rock artistes this time, more than ever before, and thanks a lot to the Face Book music Group "Music Buffs" for introducing a lot of them with their respective albums ( Parquet Courts, Stephen Malkmus, Beach House, The Voidz and Amen Dunes ). If you look at the Top Ten, it is quite obvious that they have been the winners this year. In my part of the world, the chances of us discovering these indie artistes are remote, and as such, the role this group plays in introducing us to these albums cannot be stressed enough.
b. Stumbled upon the Ty Segall album, through the high praise it received from most year end charts and that was one hell of a record.
c. The Arctic Monkeys album was a slow builder, and by the year end made enough impression to be in top 15.

The Misses:
a.) The Good, the Bad and the Queen as well the Gorillaz didn't make it to the top 20. A double failure for a musician I truly admire - Damon Albarn.

Industrial Rock
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Hits: Nine Inch Nails haven't been one of my favourites over the years. For all the nihilistic charm that the industrial rock sound carries, I've found the drums too predictable and the vocal delivery not to my taste. But this year, Mr. Trent Reznor's David Bowie inspiration tweaked the equation to such a degree, that I love their effort. So much so, "God Break Down the Door", must be my favourite track of 2018.

Rap
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The Misses: There are zero Rap albums in the top 20, although I did listen to one album - The Cypress Hill album.

Electronic
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Hits: I honestly felt Moby hit a kind come back with his album of 2018. But then I realise that the rest of the world has hardly taken notice of his album, although AMG recognized it as one of the most important Electronic albums of 2018.

Saturday 5 January 2019

The Beggar Maid : Stories of Flo and Rose - Alice Munro


Reading one short collection by Alice Munro per year, over the last two or three years has become akin to an annual date with the gracious lady from Ontario. Back in 2014, I read "Runaway" ( or rather listened ) on being introduced to her by a fellow reader, and since then I've been reading one Munro book per year - "Dance of the Happy Shades" ( December, 2015), "Lives of girls and women" ( December, 2016) and "Something I've been meaning to tell you"  ( December, 2017) - and the last three were read in the sequence of their publication. As such 2018 was the year of the book in caption, my fifth Munro read. This book can possibly be grouped under the categories of  both short stories and also a novel. All ten stories in this collection are centered around Rose, and her step mother, Flo. Rose's family is a poverty stricken one from Ontario, and she, as best as she could tries to breakaway from the bleakness that West Hanratty, Ontario burdens her with.  She succeeds with many self-inflicted failures upon herself, and one can't get away from the notion that the ghosts of her roots are someway or the other to be blamed.

Rose wins a scholarship to the local University, where a rich man who is also an intellectual falls in love with her. They marry, they have a child together, they separate and go their own ways. Their daughter grows up, Rose's search for love and security makes her adventurous, restless and desperate. Rose tries many jobs. Flo grows old and becomes forgetful and difficult to live with. She is taken to a home for the aged, as she literally wastes away alone in her old house - which by that time has become an eye sore, in a neighbourhood which has changed over the years. No, these summaries don't serve as spoilers, for it is the close views for each of these episodes complimented by the visceral moods that enrich these stories - and these moods and views can only be grasped by reading the book.

It is a moot point as to how these stories, despite their continuous main characters don't somehow make the reader feel as if she is reading a novel. It could well be that the reader is so used to associating short stories with  Munro, that she finds appropriating these stories to a novel,  an exercise that she fights an inner revolt against. But there is also the feel that we have periodic close focus followed by a long absence, and then a close focus again on another period. And by its closure we don't know the fate of most of these characters - and hence we see "pieces of lives" of the main characters, without they quite composing a whole - not even where the main characters of Flo and Rose are concerned.

In conclusion, it is always a pleasure to return to Munro at the end of the year, akin to looking forward for a vacation at the end of a tiring year. Occasionally this pleasure falls during a family trip, and it is bliss.

Looking forward to my next blissful episode of  Alice Munro in her own world in Ontario.

Friday 4 January 2019

Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari



I read a book, that was like no other. It was a book that makes
one rethink about almost everything about Man, that one has ever known - or thought one knew. ( To date this will be automatic choice if I am to be marooned in an island with just one book. )Not stopping there it makes you rethink about nature, the religions, the philosophies and what is identified as good and what is identified as bad. I repeat, I read a book that was like no other. And if I had read no other books in 2018, but this book, I would've settled for it. I learn now, that there is so much hype about this book - there's this notion that one needs to read this book just for the hype it has created. Well, I strongly disagree. I was not aware of the intensity of the hype, until I was told a few days back. But this is a book that needs to be read by a modern man or woman, with the capacity to read it in its entirety.

The book broadly looks at the three revolutions that we, Homo Sapiens have triggered: Cognitive ( 70000 years ago), agricultural revolution ( 12000 years back) ,and the much more recent 500 year old Scientific one. The author discusses many topics under these broad eras, but with more emphasis on the latter era.

He shows how an animal no special than any other, in fact inferior than the more confident animals - the ones who knew their place in the scheme of things - managed to outwit ( not always intentionally ), the other animals over their one gift - their language, their ability to make up things which aren't there, to create myths, which collectively led to what he terms as cognitive revolution. At the earlier stages he cannot stress the importance of gossip as a means of us getting us kick started with our language.

"...ever since the Cognitive Revolution Homo sapiens has been able to revise its behaviour rapidly in accordance with changing needs. This opened a fast lane of cultural evolution, bypassing the traffic jams of genetic evolution. Speeding down this fast lane, Homo sapiens soon far outstripped all other human and animal species in its ability to cooperate."

He explores and questions the consequences  on nature due to the homo sapiens and discloses our track record which is downright bad. If we believed that man over the last five hundred years destroyed most of earth, well, think again. He was always a destroyer of nature ( but then what is nature ?  That too is discussed in the scheme of things ).

The second part looks at the Agricultural Revolution, and it is interesting to read that man may actually have opted for a raw deal when he settled down and planted his food crops.

"The Agricultural Revolution certainly enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but the extra food did not translate into a better diet or more leisure.... The average farmer worked harder than the average forager, and got a worse diet in return. The Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud ... The culprits were a handful of plant species, including wheat, rice and potatoes. These plants domesticated Homo sapiens, rather than vice versa."

It further discusses the "happiness is around the corner" delusion and the belief that hard work is way to that oasis. Harari, predicts that given the context the Neanderthals were happier than us.

Since the agricultural revolution, the gaps in our biological deficiencies have been fulfilled by imagined orders and devised scripts which  led to mass networks of cooperation. A Special chapter is reserved to elaborate on the unfairness and lack of neutrality of these networks, be it based on skin colour, caste, gender and sexuality. The most interesting discussion to me was the question on what is Natural vs. what is Unnatural.

"In truth, our concepts ‘natural’ and unnatural’ are taken not from biology, but from Christian theology. The theological meaning of ‘natural’ is ‘in accordance with the intentions of the God who created nature’. Christian theologians argued that God created the human body, intending each limb and organ to serve a particular purpose. If we use our limbs and organs for the purpose envisioned by God, then it is a natural activity. To use them differently  than God intends is unnatural. But evolution has no purpose. Organs have not evolved with a purpose, and the way they are used is in constant flux. There is not a single organ in the human body that only does the job its prototype did when it first appeared hundreds of millions of years ago. Organs evolve to perform a particular function, but once they exist, they can be adapted for other usages as well." 

In essence this applies to everything from ability of flying of winged beings to homo-sexuality.

While the first two parts, each comprising of four chapters, are on cognitive revolution and agricultural revolution respectively, the next part is on the unification of humankind. It starts with how sometime back there existed in this planet multiple worlds of human existence.

"Around 10.000 BC our planet contained many thousands of them. By 2000 BC, their numbers had dwindled to the hundreds, or at most a few thousand. By AD 1450, their numbers had declined even more drastically. At that time, just prior to the age of European exploration, earth still contained a significant number of dwarf worlds such as Tasmania. But close to 90 per cent of humans lived in a single mega-world: the world of Afro-Asia. Most of Asia, most of Europe, and most of Africa (including substantial chunks of sub-Saharan Africa) were already connected by significant cultural, political and economic ties."

The chapter starts with the account of when  this unification took place, to today, where there is only "one world" for all practical purposes. Towards this end the role played by merchants, conquerers and prophets is of paramount importance. There is a very revealing chapter on how money played a big part in ths unification, on how the Chrisitans and the Muslims who saw not eye to eye, still agreed upon the belief of money.

It explores the role played by various empires in unification of humans. In recent times no where else is this more apparent than in India.
"...the modern Indian state is a child of the British Empire. The British killed, injured and persecuted the inhabitants of the subcontinent, but they also united a bewildering mosaic of warring kingdoms, principalities and tribes, creating a shared national consciousness and a country that functioned more or less as a single political unit."
The chapter concludes  discussing how the New Global Empire is inevitable.

The next chapter discusses religion and how it contributed towards this unification. It recognizes that polytheists were inherently more tolerant than monotheists.

"Polytheism is inherently open-minded, and rarely persecutes ‘heretics’ and ‘infidels’."
Even when polytheists conquered huge empires, they did not try to convert their subjects."
The discussion doesn't spare the cruelties carried out in the name of religion.
"...the polytheistic Romans killed no more than a few thousand Christians. In contrast, over the course of the next 1,500 years, Christians slaughtered Christians by the millions to defend slightly different interpretations of the religion of love and compassion."
I couldn't help but detect the subtle inference that Judaism ( possibly the author's belief by birth ) is but a local monotheism, and it never had a missionary past unlike all other monotheist religions - a case I found hard to argue against.

It discusses Buddhism under the category of the law of nature.The gist of Buddism that is presented here is so concise and contains its core, that it introduces the faith to those who are not familiar with it.

"Gautama’s insight was that no matter what the mind experiences, it usually reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction. When the mind experiences something distasteful it craves to be rid of the irritation. When the mind experiences something pleasant, it craves that the pleasure will remain and will intensify. Therefore, the mind is always dissatisfied and restless. This is very clear when we experience unpleasant things, such as pain. As long as the pain continues, we are dissatisfied and do all we can to avoid it. Yet even when we experience pleasant things we are never content. We either fear that the pleasure might disappear, or we hope that it will intensify. People dream for years about finding love but are rarely satisfied when they find it. Some become anxious that their partner will leave; others feel that they have settled cheaply, and could have found someone better. And we all know people who manage to do both."
The chapter gives a prominent space to "worship of man" - new religions, based on the natural law, and he includes humanisms here. The author doesn't hesitate to call liberalism, communism, capitalism, nationalism and Nazism religions, despite their adherents' dislike to recognised as creeds.

"Like Buddhists, Communists believed in a superhuman order of natural and immutable laws that should guide human actions. Whereas Buddhists believe that the law of nature was discovered by Siddhartha Gautama, Communists believed that the law of nature was discovered by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin."
 Something that I found very interesting was the fundamental of monotheism in such humanist beliefs such as Communism and Liberalism.

The liberal belief in the free and sacred nature of each individual is a direct legacy of the traditional Christian belief in free and eternal individual souls.
 The idea that all humans are equal is a revamped version of the monotheist conviction that all souls are equal before God.
And the irony is that the only humanism that has broken out from traditional monotheism is Nazism! And the aim of Nazism human progressive evolution. While the Nazi belief in a superior race has since been debunked, that was due to more recent science. As per the knowledge available in 1933, Nazism was even scientific !!


The fourth section begins with a comparison of the changes that took place over the last five hundred years. While the comparisons are many, the following should be good as an indication of the level of changes that this period has brought.

"In 1873, Jules Verne could imagine that Phileas Fogg, a wealthy British adventurer, might just be able to make it around the world in eighty days. Today anyone with a middle-class income can safely and easily circumnavigate the globe in just forty-eight hours."
It stresses on how modern science doesn't fear to admit ignorance, the method of attempting to formulate new knowledge using a mathematical model, and how not being content with theory alone, how it uses the knowledge so gleaned for furthering its ends - as a power.

"Pre-modern traditions of knowledge such as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Confucianism asserted that everything that is important to know about the world was already known."

"Modern-day science is a unique tradition of knowledge, inasmuch as it openly admits collective ignorance regarding the most important questions."
It goes on to elaborate that it is the utility of knowledge that is of import, for no knowledge or theory 100% accurate.This knowledge has developed to such a level that a-mortality is being suggested by 2050, under the Gilgamesh project.

The ideas being suggested from hereon becomes that much more interesting as they reach relative more recent times. One of the questions he attempts to answer is why is it that it was in Europe and not in China that the Industrial revolution took place ? Harari suggests that the secret lies in that Europe had started behaving with a scientific and a capitalist bent even before they had any technological advances under their belt. And the bitter truth is that their mindset of conquest, was instrumental in financing these advances. It is usually the insights that Harari provides which make this book so valuable. He suggests that whereas the Europeans admitted to their ignorance an their thirst for expanding their vistas, the other civilizations were so complacent and minding their own business that they didn't realise that their days were numbered, "even when the wolf was at the door". He takes the case of Cortez and the Aztecs as an example. In essence the build up of the scientific discipline an imperial project.

The Capitalist Creed: The comparison of how the muslim world ran out of steam in the race for conquest against that of Europe  is due to the latters' belief in credit and investments - and the resulting fair sharing of the spoils, the author shows. I could even draw a parallel of this modern Sri Lankan politics - why a certain political party is favoured by certain segments of the business world  despite the proven incompetency its leadership has shown, against the other party which showed rapid development during its tenure, is that the former allows the spoils to be shared by a larger segment of the community. All the other cries ( democracy !! Thief - thief !! ) are largely eye wash I feel ).

"Capital trickles away from dictatorial states that fail to defend private individuals and their property. Instead, it flows into states upholding the rule of law and private property."
Harari takes the case of the Dutch merchants to elaborate on this home truth. The beauty of this work is is provides these insights while giving us the succession of incidents that follows - the rise of the English, the Opium wars and the economic truth so important today - your credit rating. The British investors were willing to take risks, because they knew their majesty's army could be trusted to safe guard their interests if the foreign debtors refused to pay.

The last few chapters are on the wheels of industry and how once the science and the art of successful conversion of energy was learnt, it has opened up the world for a permanent revolution. These chapters are presented with sufficient facts, enough insight yet with enough human emotional elements to make the book readable, without the reader getting tired.  It is this skill - this fine balance, which works to make this book such an amazing work. For example, how the big nations learnt that "Imperial Retirement" was due, shows so much astute statesmanship in hindsight one could say. Harari uses the case of Britain and the U.S.S.R. as examples.

Another thing is the healthy mix of the optimism that the narration carries without disregarding the negative effects too. For example, note the following sentence:

"For real peace is not the mere absence of war. Real peace is the implausibility of war."

Harari then goes on to show that the world has always had wars and despite the power of the states to annihilate others and even itself, that we are currently experiences the most peaceful of times.

"The Nobel Peace Prize to end all peace prizes should have been given to Robert Oppenheimer and his fellow architects of the atomic bomb. Nuclear weapons have turned war between superpowers into collective suicide, and made it impossible to seek world domination by force of arms."

Chapter 19, discusses if we can live happily ever after, and how even the third world countries are better off than they ever were before. It also discusses what is happiness, where is happiness and how it can be found. Harari returns to Buddhist teachings at this point, although he concedes that the path as taught by the Buddha is seldom followed, and practical difficulties it offers. Yet, there is almoest a grudging admission, that the teaching per se has an essence of truth in it.

Yet for all the advancement mentioned, the book ends with an ominous note for homo sapiens as the new experiments in DNA and bionic life makes one wonder what homo sapiens want - the question being "What do we want to want?"

I spent a many sessions of half hour to one hour with this book, and the book which I took to my hands glistening in white, has changed colour to a dusty shade of white by the time I was done.
I finished towards the second week of December I think and took another two weeks writing this review - and I know I haven't justice to this book. And I will cherish my soiled book, hopefully for many years to come, and many returns to it. In 2019, I hope to read its sequel, Homo Deus.