How Can You Participate In World Book Day

World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day, is an annual celebration organized by UNESCO to promote the joys of reading, publishing, and copyright. It takes place on April 23rd each year, a date chosen for its symbolic significance in world literature as it marks the death anniversary of several prominent authors, including William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes.

Participating in World Book Day is a wonderful way to celebrate the joy of reading. Here are some ways you can get involved:

Redeem Book Tokens: If you have received a World Book Day book token, you can redeem it at participating retailers for a free World Book Day book or get a discount on other books during the redemption period.

Attend Events: Check out local libraries, bookstores, and schools for special World Book Day events, which may include readings, author signings, and book-themed activities.

Dress Up: Many schools and communities host costume events where participants dress up as their favorite book characters. It’s a fun way to engage with literature and share your love for a particular story.

Share a Story: UNESCO encourages sharing stories and reading aloud to children for at least 10 minutes every day to foster a love for reading.

Gift a Book: Consider gifting a book to someone, especially children, to encourage reading. It’s a great way to spread the love for books.

Join Online: Participate in online discussions, book clubs, and social media events centered around World Book Day. Share your reading experiences and recommendations with others.

Support Local Bookshops: Visit your local independent bookseller to explore new titles and support the community. Many bookshops participate in World Book Day by hosting events and offering special deals.

Remember, World Book Day is about celebrating books and reading in all forms, so any way you choose to participate will contribute to the global appreciation of literature!

Happy World Book Day 🙂

Paperbacks!

Crafting A Compelling Plot

Crafting a compelling plot is essential for keeping readers engaged. Here are some tips to help you create a satisfying story ending.

Decide What Kind of Ending You Want:

Consider the genre of your story and the impression you want to leave on readers.

Common types of endings include:

Resolved Ending: Neatly ties up all plot threads, leaving no lingering questions. Suitable for romance, standalone stories, and the last book in a series.

Unresolved Ending: Resolves the central conflict but leaves loose threads, intriguing readers about what happens next. Ideal for mid-series books.

Ambiguous Ending: Keeps things open to interpretation, allowing readers to imagine different versions of the end. Often used in horror.

Surprise Ending: Ends with an unexpected twist, but foreshadowing should be present. Great for thrillers and mysteries.

Tied Ending: Brings the story back to the beginning, showing character or world changes. Works well for various story types.

Expanded Ending: Extends beyond the main plot events, often through an epilogue1.

Change and Growth:

Stories thrive on change. Ensure that your characters evolve throughout the plot, facing challenges and learning from them.

Setup and Payoff:

Introduce elements early in the story (setup) and then deliver on them later (payoff). This creates a satisfying sense of completion.

Causality:

Actions should have consequences. Show how character decisions impact the plot, creating a chain of events.

Mystery and Revelation:

Keep readers curious by revealing information gradually. Balance what they know with what remains hidden.

Emotional Balance and Cohesion:

Ensure that the emotional tone aligns with the story’s overall theme. A satisfying ending resonates emotionally with readers.

Remember, a well-structured plot includes elements like the inciting incident, rising action, crisis, climax, falling action, and resolution. These components weave an immersive world that captivates readers until the very end. Happy writing!

A Landmark Piece of American Literature

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852, has been a subject of controversy for its portrayal of African Americans and the institution of slavery. While the novel played a significant role in the anti-slavery movement, it has also been criticized for perpetuating racial stereotypes.

The novel has been scrutinized for creating stereotypes that continue to affect Black Americans. Stowe’s character, Uncle Tom, is seen by some as a symbol of passivity and subservience to white people, which contrasts with her intention of portraying him as a figure of faith and resilience

At the time of its publication, the novel was criticized by some whites who thought Stowe’s portrayal of black characters was too positive, and later by black critics who believed these characters were oversimplified and stereotypical.

The controversy surrounding “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” reflects the evolving understanding of racial representation and the impact of literature on societal views. It remains a significant work for its historical context and its role in shaping American attitudes towards slavery and race

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s research for “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was extensive and multifaceted. She drew from her personal experiences, the stories of formerly enslaved people, and anti-slavery literature.

Stowe was born into a family that held strong abolitionist beliefs. Her experiences and the discussions she had within her community provided a foundation for her understanding of slavery.

Stowe conducted interviews with people who had escaped slavery, gathering firsthand accounts of their experiences.

She used existing anti-slavery literature as part of her research. One significant work she drew from was “American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses,” co-authored by Theodore Dwight Weld and the Grimké sisters.

Through her novel, Stowe aimed to vividly dramatize the experience of slavery and influence the attitudes of her readers towards African Americans and the institution of slavery itself. Her work contributed significantly to the abolitionist movement and remains a landmark piece of American literature.

Santiago & Manolin

The Moon Affects Her As It Does A Woman!

You can never be satisfied with the emotions that Hemingway creates. I remember mentioning to a friend that reading his books are like having an interaction with a very close friend of mine, I don’t even realize that am reading, it’s like him talking to me. Hemingway is my favorite and other writer who comes closer is JD Salinger.

Coming back to this book, in the surface (like sea) we get to read a simple plot which includes the following characters, but when you finish this book and as the thoughts starts pouring in you get to see the Hidden treasures.

The Characters

Santiago The old fishermen whom, the community had taken every chances to put down. Even though he was a skilled fisherman in his prime, now with this age, he was considered to be lost the skills and unlucky. Unlucky because he had gone 84 days without a catch.

Manolin The boy, who learned the skill from Santiago. This kid got a huge respect for Santiago and he believed in the old man. The boy also helps and provide for the old man.

Marlin is a kind of fish, with whom the old man spends several days at the sea to capture it.

The Story

Our old man goes into sea, a solo voyage, to prove his community of fishermen that he is still capable to make a big catch and his skills are as upto date as it was in his prime days. In this endeavor He succeeds or not?

Before I get into the treasure hidden beneath the sea, I must record the connection Hemingway constructs between the Old man and the boy, is something that will stay with me forever, it provide me a greater venue to present examples about some relationships. Same was the case with the character named Catherine from the book ‘A Farewell To Arms’, even though I read this book years back, I still remember how strong a character she was.

Now about the treasures we can find from this subtle story, let us name it under current themes are the followings.

Pain / Suffering

Nothing comes to us easily (most cases). For a fisherman’s worthwhile catch comes from painful physical and mental injuries. Enduring pain that is what it meant to be a fisherman. The old man’s hands are marred with scars, which show us a lifelong struggle with the opponents at the sea.

Samsara

Hemingway, with his narrative audacity throws the thoughts that sea is cruel and beautiful. It gives life and takes it away. Isn’t the case of our lives with ups and downs? The sharks devours marlins, the man catches fish.

Pride & Respect

The old man is pride of his skills and wants recognition for them (each one of us want it right?, so don’t just like it, do comment your thoughts too). On his solo voyage he wished that the boy was with him not only to dispel loneliness but to show the boy that what kind of a man he is and to witness the greatest catch of his life.

Inspirational

I felt it like one of the inspiring story that possibly we could have come across. When all other hopes are set comes the book to give you that boost to kick start and keep going, this one is truly an inspiring read. It is the story of perseverance. Instead defying his streak of bad luck, the old man keeps going out to fish, trying even harder than the previous time. No matter what Santiago is not defeated nor is his spirit broken. Isn’t the shot we all needed to make believe, fall six times rise seven? Indeed it is, you will also connect once you read this story.

Like Jesus bearing his cross, our Old man will carry his mast to and from his skiff day in & out doing what a fisherman are meant to, to set sail and catch fish.

Happy reading!

Josh

Publishing Director

Museum of Innocence – A Study

Orhan Pamuk’s novel The Museum of Innocence (MOI), deciphers the complex Turkish
identity of individual and society which is dwelling between the modernity and values
of Eastern and Western culture. In the novel, Pamuk has brought several narrative layers that depict the postcolonial changes in Istanbul throughout the 1970s to 2000s (Allmer,163). It reflects upon identity issues, turbulent Turkish history, and the influence of European culture (Pang, 2). The study aims to examine the possible meanings of the three major perspectives: heterotopia, Kemal’s infidelity, and the materialistic culture reflected in the novel. Pamuk’s novel ends up forming a curated museum which is a heterotopic place juxtaposing the real and imaginary world. The novel also raises concerns about the portrayal of gender issues (Khamitova, 16). The protagonist, Kemal belongs to a wealthy family from the elite group of the Istanbul community. Kemal narrates about his obsessive and lost love, and how it changed the course of his life along with a detailed description of Istanbul’s life (Yuncu et al. 241). The novel models the narrator using storytelling, his memories, and the use of objects for the description of personal and collective memory (Khamitova, 17). The novel consists of Kemal’s intense monologues and the frantic act of collecting objects (Pang, 3). This novel is a unique work with which Pamuk created a literary and architectural space to coherent rationale for the theme. The literary space in the novel could integrate the theory of Lefebvre’s special triad (Yuncu et al. 244). Thus, the museum acts as a fine exemplar of the explicit architectural correlation with the novel setting (Yuncu et al. 250).

Heteropia

Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia can be used as a tool to understand the
heterotopic quality of Pamuk’s novel and to understand how these spaces create
challenges or resistance in the novel (Ansin, 1). It helps in identifying the features of the selected spaces within the novel. The love story of Kemal and Füsun occurs in the ambient milieu of Istanbul where the traditional values and Westernization oscillate towards the end of the 20th century (Ansin, 1). The novel involves the subjective experience of passionate love and obsession of Kemal the transformative power of the spaces over him with time. With the progress of recollecting his memory, the narrator is making the reader visualize a museum with curated things that reverberate with the backdrop of the story. The tragic death of Füsun devastates Kemal and he tries to find solace in the things he collected over the years (Merwa, 18). The museum is curated with the various belongings of Füsun which act as Kemal’s most personal spaces where he takes shelter. Thus, the Museum of Innocence acts as a space of hope for Kemal, and this literary expression of Foucault’s heterotopia makes the time constant in the museum (Shamla, 28). This space can be witnessed for Kemal’s love story and a reference for Istanbul’s political, cultural, and social events during the time (Sönmez, 1018). Pamuk’s attempt to narrate Kemal’s love story caused the genesis of a novel for the Turkish literary world but contributed to a museum for the global audience. Since the story of
the novel and the museum are the same, Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence acts as a
heterotopic world.

Kemal’s infidelity

The novel ends with Kemal telling the writer Orhan, ‘Let everyone know, I lived a very happy life’ (MOI, 532). This statement makes the reader raise a question to Kemal, ‘Did Füsun ever have a happy life?’ Kemal is engaged to Sibel before meeting Füsun and they represent educated, Western-influenced wealthy people belonging to bourgeois Istanbul. Füsun represents a financially backward girl who lives in a populated dark alleyway which is the less modernized side of Istanbul. On the peripheral layer, MOI talks about Kemal’s memory, passion, love, emotional attachment, and obsession towards Füsun (Dakhil and Zhang, 132). The novel begins with Kemal’s detailing of his sexual encounter with Füsun, which keeps on repeating over the time frame. Kemal’s passion is ruled by his libido and gets stirred by Füsun’s physical attractiveness (Dimitria, 68) and sex outside marriage is still a stigma in the society. Kemal commits emotional and sexual infidelity with Füsun (Rahayu and Khoiri, 1), and with the progress of the novel Kemal ends his relationship with Sibel and seeks Füsun’s reconciliation. MOI is the best example where Pamuk diligently talks about the issues of feminist existentialism such as patriarchy, freedom, objectification, suppression, equal rights, sexual harassment, prostitution, and suicide (Dakhil and Zhang, 132). Füsun expects Kemal to be part of her life but she gets irrevocable pain when he decides to live with Sibel maintaining his social status. Their relationship was more on personal interests and more precisely on Kemal’s sexual satisfaction (Rahayu and Khoiri, 2; Dimitria, 72) which instilled anguish and emotional misery in Füsun. The theory of love
is a concept developed by the existential psychologist Rollo May and Pamuk uses this
love in this novel. Kemal’s love can be defined as the most influential factor in his
infidelity (Rahayu and Khoiri, 5). This novel also urges the reader to instigate the reader to interpret the text concerning the theory of feminism and how the supremacy of a male-dominated society relegated women to mere objects (Dakhil and Zhang, 135).
Pamuk has portrayed Füsun as an example of the victimization of Turkish women in
that era. Through the novel, Füsun undergoes sexual objectification and the sexiest
oppression from the men in her life. In the name of helping Füsun with mathematics,
Kemal had masked her ulterior motives of using her for his sexual fantasies (Dakhil and Zhang, 137). This leaves no room for the care, love, sincerity, and emotional security deserved by Füsun. There exists mutual objectification between Füsun and Feridun. Kemal’s sexual oppression causes him to keep Füsun away from all film opportunities. Feridun took away her opportunity to become a star and this caused pain, frustration, and resentment in Füsun (Dakhil and Zhang, 139). Füsun faced extreme suppression from the patriarchal society in the form of helplessness, vulnerability, unemployment, depression and which caused her suspected death from suicide. The issues faced by Füsun are common to both feminism and existentialism (Dakhil and Zhang, 140). Pamuk intentionally throws questions at the readers to think about the equality and rights of women in Turkish society (MOI, 410).

Pamuk-Kemal collector’s model

According to Pamuk, the novel and the museum are two representations of the same
story (Pamuk, 2008). Kemal has collected most of Füsun’s objects such as earrings,
yellow shoes, a tricycle, ashtrays, cigarette butts, quince grater, etc. over the years between 1975 and 1983 to indemnify her for not being in his life. Pamuk makes the narrator feel proud of his obsessive collection as an expression of his love rather than letting him feel culpability. His love for Füsun is cataloged with several notional objects curated in the museum. These belongings of Füsun are detailed in the bourgeois Istanbul grounds (Allmer, 166). Finally, Kemal makes an exhaustive catalogue of Füsun’s possessions and this in reality leads Pamuk’s novel to be shaped into an architectural project, a museum. Pamuk opened the architectural discourse of The Museum of Innocence at Çukurcuma, Istanbul in 2010. Thus, bringing life to his creative illusion of Kemal’s love. This also reveals Pamuk’s inquisitive approach in carefully considering the novel’s factual reality narrated by Kemal and bringing the encyclopedic quality of the novel into the museum. Beyond the obsession of Kemal over Füsun, this depicts Pamuk’s interest in collecting objects and Pamuk’s model collector shows similitude with the German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s approach to collecting objects (Allmer, 167). Both Pamuk and Benjamin resonate various emotions with respective objects and aid in proving Pamuk’s artistry through the museum. Similar to Füsun’s house, Merhamet apartment symbolizes the collector’s nature of Kemal’s mother and acts as a milieu of materialism. Pamuk’s curated museum practices the Picture Theory of William Mitchell in expressing the images in words (ekphrasis) (Allmer, 169). In MOI, Pamuk explains the theory by providing verbal representation for his images through writing the novel, the reader develops their visual images while reading the novel and curated museum from the textual novel for the reader. The similarity of visual signs in the museum and their contextual elucidation in the museum is termed as anchorage by Barthes in his Rhetoric of the Image (Barthes, 1977 and Ogut, 4). The artifacts act as agency of objects with Kemal’s self-contained memories. These artifacts not only bring in the materialistic culture but also introduce Lyotard’s concepts of ‘Figure and Discourse’ (Ogut, 10). This museum is a representation of Kemal’s nostalgia, his yearning for his past: his childhood memories of his community and country (Yuncu etal. 242)

End notes.

On the first read, the novel seems to talk about the love, passion, resentment, memory, and obsession of Kemal for his lover. But between the textual discourse, Pamuk has written the finest novel which evokes the reader to think about various issues prevalent in the male-dominated society and how it impacts the Turkish women The characters and the events speak for the sensitive socio-political issues and critically question its prevalence. Panuk gives the novelized realism a heterotopic architectural facet. Sexual objectification and suppression are major issues explained through Füsun’s feminist
existential crisis. Pamuk questions the female subordination to the patriarchal authority endemic in Turkish society. Pamuk has explored the possibility of curating Kemal’s love and obsession for Füsun and her materials. With Kemal and Füsun, Pamuk created a literary space as well as an architectural space for his readers. These artifacts remain untouched by the ever-growing modernization occurring in Istanbul and continue to tell their stories to every visitor. The building of the museum diminishes the boundaries between literature and architecture thereby novel getting spatialized and the space gets textualized.

Elaine

Sub-Editor

Two Cups of Tea

He.

The train just pulled into the platform. The next halt may take three hours or even more and that kicked the anxiety in me. I could never afford to miss that evening shot of tea, if I do, then the consequence would be an imaginary headache that can’t be fathomed. We tea lovers make up that, nonsensical diagnosis for our justification for not to miss the cup of nectar.

Then I realised that I don’t have the exact change for the drink. The thought of not having tea for the rest of the day was spreading disturbances into my otherwise calm state of mind. I ignored the urge to drink the tea and stared into my kindle. One paperback copy was having a tiny conversation with my backpack. I couldn’t focus, her dimple was flashing, her red bindi was killing too!

Those green bangles were penetrating my eardrums, I couldn’t resist, my eyes stole a look at her, the way thieves steal in. She was busy searching for coins inside her handbag, I assumed. The rain, those silver drops, they poured down to elevate my desire further.

She.

While I was searching for the coins to get my dose of chai, I noticed him, was he looking at me? The backpack beside him carries a sticker ‘Chai & Biscuits’ confirms it, Wah, even the jacket of the kindle got a beautifully handwritten ‘Chai Love’. Since it is going to be more than a day’s journey on wheels, it would be better to keep company of a Chai Lover + Reader combo, Well how to initiate a conversation. Books are the common ground to connect, aren’t they?

He. She picked her mobile, should I smile at her? Um..

She. Okay, if he looks at me, I am going to smile. There he goes, good he smiled back. Should I ask for the spare book lying beside his backpack? Wouldn’t it be foolish to ask for a book, when a copy of ‘The New Penguin History of the World’ is kept beside me?

He. I handed over the copy to her, the dimple flashed again, I have no description for the feelings, maybe the sensation of a needle from a syringe, or the after effect of rubbing the spirit on to that very spot. The train was picking up the speed, while she handed over a cup of chai to me, I accepted it without any shame! That’s how some love stories begin, with two cups of tea.

Josh

Publishing Director

Fostering Literacy

In my interaction with young parents, I have observed, they often eagerly anticipate the moment when their young children start reading. Reading itself is a journey. There is a difference between children who read, who love to read and who will be lifelong readers. We all fairly know about pre-writing skills. But there is a level zero for reading as well which is known as pre-reading skills.

What are pre-reading skills?

A house needs a solid foundation to sustain for years. Likewise emergent literacy skills or pre-reading skill serve as the groundwork for successful reading.

Here are six important pre-reading skills that are crucial components that pave the way for a child’s reading journey.

1. Phonics awareness: The ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.

2. Vocabulary development: Building a rich vocabulary through exposure to a variety of words and their meanings.

3. Print awareness: General knowledge about print (eg. which is the front of the book and which is the back, how to turn the pages of a book and that the way we read from top to bottom and left to right.)

4. Letter Recognition: Identifying and knowing the names and sounds of letters, which is fundamental for decoding words.

5. Listening Skills: Developing the ability to listen actively, comprehend spoken language, and follow instructions.

6. Narrative Skills: Understanding and constructing simple stories, which lays the foundation for comprehending more complex texts later on.

These skills collectively contribute to a child’s readiness for formal reading instruction and support literacy development.

Examples and activities for each of the six pre-reading skills:

1. Phonemic Awareness:

Example: Play rhyming games to identify words that sound the same.

Activity:Sing nursery rhymes or engage in activities that involve recognizing rhyming words.

2. Vocabulary Development:

Example: Read books with varied vocabulary and discuss meanings.

Activity: Create a word wall with new words encountered during daily activities.

3. Print Awareness:

Example: Point out words in everyday environments (e.g., signs, labels).

Activity: Play “I Spy” with written words, asking the child to find specific words around them.

4. Letter Recognition:

Example:Use alphabet books to familiarize children with letters.

Activity:Play games that involve identifying and matching letters, like alphabet puzzles.

5. Listening Skills:

Example: Listen to and discuss different genres of stories or informational content.

Activity: Ask questions about a story to check comprehension and encourage discussion.

6. Narrative Skills:

Example: Encourage storytelling or re-telling familiar stories.

Activity: Create a simple story together, taking turns adding elements to the plot.

These activities can be adapted based on age and developmental stage, providing a fun and interactive way to enhance pre-reading skills.

Birud

Head – Children Literature

Message from Our Editor-In-Chief

Everyone, most of us, believe in New Year Resolutions— the promises we make to ourselves and to our loved ones. The changes we wish to see, the calm we need to seep into our daily life; don’t we ask and demand too much from ourselves… there is a rush, to do, to be, to achieve, to reach somewhere and we haven’t stopped and taken a pause to ponder over what after that?

If 2023 saw the advent of ChatGPT, AI, and some other innovations this year also has been a stark representation of discontent, instant gratification, booming anxiety, mad rush for everything bling, a long race to show and not to live.

Reading is a personal religion, one does it to nurture, strengthen and know the person one is and not a target list to be completed so that you can put your tongue out to the neighbour — “see I read 80/100 books this year.

Writers take arduous pain, soul searching, losing themselves for hours, days and years into the vagaries of mind, and bring out a universal feeling with their words. If writing is an art reading too is an art one needs to master.

As Harold Bloom says in his book How to Read and Why

“Read deeply, not to believe, not to accept, not to contradict, but to learn to share in that one nature that writes and reads.”

The most soulful and unselfish act that you can do for yourself this year and for many more is Read and learn.

“ For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

Those of you who are aspiring to be a writer, stop aspiring, start writing. Have you read that famous line from David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest

“I do things like get in a taxi and say, “The library, and step on it.”

We all have stories to tell, the ones who begins gets to tell. With this I would like to thank you all for following and believing in Paperbacks Publishing.

Happy New Year

Prachi

Editor-In-Chief

Carl Jung:Life Is As Simple as You Make It

Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst who developed analytical psychology in response to Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis, was born on this day July 26, in the year 1875. Everyone remembers his immutable divide with Sigmund Freud but what one needs to know -initially Freud considered Jung as his young prodigy due to their shared interest in Unconscious. Later, Freud appointed Jung as the President of the International Psychoanalytical Association in 1910. They met in Vienna in 1907 and talked for thirteen hours straight which resulted into one of the best friendships between two pioneers of Psychoanalysis.

Irrespective of their disagreement, when Jung refuted and disputed Freud’s theory of Oedipal Complex and the concept of infantile sexuality, their letters show the immense respect they had for each other (The Freud/Jung Letters: The Correspondence between Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung). Jung agreed with Freud that an individual’s personality is determined by the past and childhood experiences, however he disputed that a lot depends on the future aspirations too. Jung deferred that libido is a psychic energy that also motivates several important roles including sexuality, religion, spirituality, intellectual learning and creativity while Freud believed the role of libido as a source of psychic energy specific to sexual gratification.

“Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar’s gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart through the world. There in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul. “

— Carl Jung (from “New Paths in Psychology”, in Collected Papers on Analytic Psychology, London, 1916)

There is so much more to an individual other than what he has attained in his lifetime, what legacy he has left, it’s all there in the public sphere and you can read several papers on the same. There are certain facets of an individual’s personality that makes him what he is intended for the future as. Sometime back I came across a book on the rituals of artists. And, there in the pages pinned right after Sigmund Freud is Carl Gustav Jung.

In 1922, Carl Jung bought a small piece of land in the village Bollingen, Switzerland and built a two storey stone house on it. The house, later came to be known as Bollingen tower, was built along the shore of the upper basin of Lake Zurich. He didn’t add any luxury to the tower other than two small auxiliary towers, a fire pit outside, no floorboards, or carpets – just a primitive dwelling, his personal retreat. There he spent his time labouring over his work ( which was not possible due to his workaholic life of seeing patient 8-9 hours per day, giving lectures and seminars), taking long walks, chopping woods for the fire and cooking on an oil stove, carrying water from the lake to be boiled for use.

For him his holidays were important, “‘ve realized that somebody who’ tired and needs a rest, and goes on working all the same is a fool.”

His biographer, Ronald Hayman noted, Jung spent “two hours in the morning for his concentrated writing,” post his breakfast which he made with such religiousness and “consisted of coffee, salami, fruits, bread and butter,” and rest of his day he would spend painting, meditating, “replying to the never-ending stream of letters that arrived each day.” Said, “At Bollingen I am in the midst of my true life, I am most deeply myself,” Jung wrote. ” .. I have done without electricity, and tend the fireplace and stove myself. Evenings, I light the old lamps. There is no running water, I pump the water from the well. I chop the wood and cook the food. These simple acts make man simple; and how difficult it is to be simple!”

Yes, simple acts of life make us simple humans and make life much easier. On this note I would take liberty to recommend you further readings:

(Books that people with no psychology background can read and understand)

Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, a Jungian Psychoanalyst

2. Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work by Mason Currey

3. Man and His Symbols- Carl Jung. Jung wrote the first part of the book and the rest was written by his trusted colleagues and each chapter was personally edited by Carl Jung. The best thing about the book is it’s meant to be understood by a layperson.

4. The Portable Jung- C.G. Jung, edited by Joseph Campbell

Prachi

Editor-in-chief

Unfinished Novel

“Nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature and dip into some book now and then.”

The above quote from the book ‘Dead Souls’ is quite relatable. I guess this feeling is mutual among us who adore and adopt books. This book was another marvelous accident, picked as part of the weird reading goal of mine – the goal of reading one book per country around the globe.

The Book : DEAD SOULS

Country : Russia

Author : Nikolay Vasilievich Gogol

Pages : 424

Genre : Politics/ Satire

First published : 1842

Translated by : Robert A Maguire

Publishing House : Penguin Classics

About Gogol

Nickolay Vasilievich Gogol is the founder of Russian Realism. Gogol is adapted pen name which means ‘Golden-eye Duck’. He was born at 31st March 1809 in a town of Velliki Sorochinici, Ukraine, which was a part of the great Russian Empire at that time. It is observed that the inspiration for this novel, The Dead Souls, came from his friend Pushkin; originally imagined as trilogy, modeled upon Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’.

The first part represents the hell; the second part after decades of works was destroyed by Gogol himself. It is also learnt that he became a religious fanatic and burnt the second part of the novel influenced by a priest. Nine days later Gogol died (self-imposed starvation), but luckily some pieces of the manuscripts he had been working on survived. This makes the novel an unfinished work.

Dead Souls – A Poem

Yes, that is what this novel has as a subtitle. This book is the representation of Russian life as a mosaic of strangely intersecting inanities. Gogol mocked, ridiculed and exposed the flaws and foibles of the landowners, mostly rich, stupid and idle, the corrupt bureaucrats who connive with them, the pretty royalties and the hypocrisy of high society and placed them in comic scenes, one after another.

The Plot

The plot of this book is simple, but the narration and detailing make this work an extravagant reading material. Gogol criticizes the owners of the large estates, their life style and habits. In this novel he attempts to display the bureaucracy and feudal organizations in Russia at his time. The lead character Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is described as anti-hero similar to a real-life person, unscrupulous and immoral of nature. He tries to buy dead souls as the collateral to obtain a large loan. In pursuit of this mission he travels across provinces, along with his assistant named Selifan (I liked the name a lot) and meets Manilov (The Kind Manner), Plewkshin (Mr. Spitoon), Sobakievich (Mr. Dog), Nozdayor (Mr. Nostril) and Kovobachka (Mrs. Box). Each meeting with the above-mentioned landlords is super engaging and ultra humorous.

Why buying Dead Souls?

This is exactly where Gogol tightens the rope of sarcasm. It is exposing and a satirical examination of 1800s Russian nobility and society. In post-Napoleonic Russia, land owners owned serfs who worked on lands. A man’s wealth was not only measured by the amount of land he possessed, but also by the number of souls he owned. Chichiko, our proclaimed hero decides to become rich by buying those dead souls. In Russia during those days the census was taken only once in a year of these serfs. Chichikov tries to exploit this by owning souls cheaper and then claims those dead souls as his own. Therefore, it could happen that some of the dead people were still considered to be alive. Chichikov asks the land owners to sell him those dead souls, as they would in return become free of paying the fees for all their dead serfs. The actual intention of Chichikov was to set up an estate in the region where the government was selling cheap land. He needed those dead souls so that he could register them to get a bank loan.

About Translator

This work is translated by Robert A. Maguire, who was the Boris Bakhmeteff Professor Emeritus of Russian studies at Columbia University. His area of specialization, on which he has written widely were the Soviet period and the early nineteenth century. He also received several awards for published works and services to his field of study.

I’m so glad that I could read this book as a part of my reading goal. Even though the work is an unfinished one, this book truly takes us back in time and allows us to experience those glorious vintage stuff and life style of 1840s. As an admirer of history and historical fiction, this takes me through its narration into a time zone which otherwise would have remained like the mystery of black hole.

There is lot of ink left in my pen but I am saving them for another occasion. Happy reading.

Josh

Publishing Director