Value of Art (die Kunst) in Goethe's "Faust"

WAGNER: Ach, Gott! die Kunst ist lang;

und kurtz ist unser Leben.
Mir wird, bei meinem kritischen Bestreben,
doch oft in Kopf und Busen bang.
Wie schwer Sind nicht die Mittel zu erwerben,
durch die man zu den Quellen steigt!
Und eh' man nur den halben Weg erreicht,
muss wohl ein armer Teufel sterben.


English translation by Bayard Taylor.

WAGNER: The rhetor's art is long,
and life, alas! is fleeting.
Yet, often, when my critic-duties meeting,
in head and heart I know something's wrong.
How hard it is to compass the assistance
whereby one rises to the source!
And yet, before they've travelled half the course,
must most poor fellows quit existence.

Farcical Tennis Matches in Classic Films

In Jacques Tati's Classic Comedy "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" (1953), Monsieur Hulot buys a tennis racket & the saleswoman shows some whimsical moves with it. Armed with it, Monsieur Hulot starts to play with women & dumbfounds them with his unique serve, which is unreturnable (like Pete Sampras' who was unique in serving aces even on his second serve.) Frustrated, the women retire & men arrive to play him. They are also flummoxed by his unimaginable serve!

In Michaelangelo Antonioni's first English (1966) film "Blow Up", at the end of the film, the photographer hero of the film comes upon some people who are miming playing a tennis match, without a ball! After watching them sometime, he is also drawn into their surreal world by running after & retrieving an imaginary ball hit out of court!

Mr. Dombey & Mr. Soames Forsyte - A Study in Contrasts

In Dickens' "Dombey & Son", the rich Mr. Dombey wants his son to inherit his business & carry on the name. But the boy dies early. His sister, Florence, loves her father, but is rebuffed by him. After the death of his wife, Mr.Dombey marries again but his wife elopes. He also loses his wealth. But Florence, married to Walter, socially inferior, traces out her father & looks after him lovingly.

In Galsworthy's "The Forsyte Saga", the rich Soames marries Irene, but treats her as his property & wants a son from her. Irene leaves him & marries his cousin Jolyon. Soames marries again & has an only daughter Fluer. But when Fluer grows up, she falls in love (unknowingly) with Irene's son Jon. Because of the family feud & following Jon's unwillingness to hurt his mother, Fleur marries Michael Mont, without passion. 

So in Dickens' book, Mr. Dombey realises his daughter Florence's love for him & lives happily with her. But Soames' daughter Fleur has to give up her true love Jon, just because he is Irene's son, whose mother left Soames.

Yasujiro Ozu's own "Teen Kanya"

"Teen Kanya" (1961) was the omnibus film based on three Rabindranath Stories made by Satyajit Ray to commemorate Tagore's birth centenary.

The first story, "The Post Master" deals with Ratan, a little village girl, who is the household help of the village postmaster. The second story has Manimalika, a rich man's wife, who is utterly obsessed with jewels & ornaments. The third story has the  hoydenish Mrinmoyee, entrapping the most educated man hailing from her village as her husband.

In Ozu's first colour film, "Equinox Flower" (1958), the three daughters are contrasted in character, attitudes, & action: Fumiko has left home to live with her lover, Yukiko stays at home dutifully with her inn keeper mother, & Setsuko tricks her father into letting her marry the man of her choice. (From "Ozu & the Poetics of Cinema" by David Bordwell.)

The difference between Ray & Ozu is that Ray has picked three females of different age & social status (in different Tagore stories) whereas Ozu's three women belong to the same age group & similar social status.

Shankara's "Neti, Neti" applied to Films & Cricket

As Jane Austen would say, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that" Indians are crazy about Films & Cricket. But they undergo an identity crisis when talking about these passions. The following have to  be emphasised when talking about Films.

1. They are not the Producer to talk about the money made by the film.

2. They are not the Director to remark on how the film had to be made.

3. They are not the actors to decide on how it had to be acted.

They are only the Viewers who pay to watch the film & presumably enjoy it. Period.

In the case of Cricket, again,

1.They are not the Selectors to comment on the team selection.

2.They are not the Captain to remark on the tactics on the field.

3.They are not the Coaches to brief the players.

They are only Viewers who pay to go to the stadium (or watch on TV) to enjoy the game & nothing else! Period.

So instead of wearing the masks of others, holding fast to our identity as viewers only will help us to enjoy the film or the game as Shankara advised against identifying with the body or senses but identify as the soul, in order to obtain Self-Realisation.

This is also the starting point of both Ramana Maharshi & Sophie Amundsen. Whereas Ramana Maharshi went on to become a realised soul after asking himself "Nan Yaar?" (Who am I? in Tamil), Sophie Amundsen, a fictional 14 year Norwegian schoolgirl, received a mail asking "Who are you?" in Jostein Gaarder's best selling book on Western Philosophy, disguised as a Detective Novel, & got an interesting course on the subject.

Living on Alms as a Spiritual Discipline

This was widely practiced around the world, regardless of the religion being followed. In Hinduism, it was called "Uncha Vritti" & probably the most well-known practitioner was none other than the great composer Saint Tyagaraja. In fact even the Lord Shiva, after whom Tyagaraja was named, was pictured practising the same in "Bhikshatana Shiva" a painting in the Vijayanagar style, found in Lepakshi, 16th Century. (Vijayanagara Paintings by C. Sivaramamurti).

In Jainism, the Thirthankaras followed it.

The last thirthankara, Lord Mahavira, was said to accept alms only under six conditions.

1. The donor should be a princess.

2. Her head should be shaven.

3. Her ankles should be shackled.

4. She should be fasting.

5. She should offer boiled lentils with one of her feet inside & the other outside the house.

6. She should have tears in her eyes.

As Chandanbala (600 B. C.), a born princess, fallen on hard times, satisfied all these conditions, Lord Mahavira accepted alms from her. Later she became his disciple & founder of the nuns (Sadhvis) order in Jainism.

In a startling similarity in Christianity, St. Clare (1194-1253) who was one of the first followers of  the famed St.Francis of Assisi, was the daughter of a Count, who said she would marry only Jesus Christ. She was permitted to start the order of "Poor Clares" a sisterhood whose credo was living only on Alms, manual labour, coarse clothing, no footwear, vegetarianism & sleeping on the bare floor.

Incidentally, Elizabeth Gaskell has written a short story on them called "The Poor Claire". The society at that time supported them & highly venerated them.

Even the present Belur Math, head of the Ramakrishna order had its humble beginnings in the Baranagore Math, where Swami Vivekananda & his fellow direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, lived on alms.