This is a unique birthday gift I received a week ahead of the day, and truly cherish it. 20,000 views of this blog, I mean. When I started it, I thought it might interest one or two stray visitors, but I was wrong. Being wrong never felt so good. Also proves I am getting a bit spiritual, like wishing for things that are virtual rather than real.
I wanted to write about authors and their names and what they might suggest. Wilde, for instance, sounds wild, and unbounded by convention. He was one of the best comic writers of his century, and his quotes can be peppered into any conversation and win you brownie points.
Dickens' name turned into unexpected expressions like 'What the dickens' which may not befit the man who wrote some classics like The Tale of Two Cities and a lot more. Why the dickens his name got chosen for this honuor, no one can tell.
Homer has now been immortalised in a comic series by the name Simpsons, as the guy who epitomises (mostly) what is wrong with the world, and like the Common Man of Laxman, is always interesting.
What is the worth of a Wordsworth today? Poetry as an art form is almost dead, and may not survive another century. So we may have to fall back on the 19th century poets mostly Keats, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth types forever.
You probably need a name like Baldacci to succeed in the cut-throat world of global fiction stakes, but a Bhagat will do in the Indian bestseller space.
Also, the male domination continues, though the black and white distinctions of yore are being replaced by Shades of Grey (pun intended).
Well, more on this theme in a sequel.
I wanted to write about authors and their names and what they might suggest. Wilde, for instance, sounds wild, and unbounded by convention. He was one of the best comic writers of his century, and his quotes can be peppered into any conversation and win you brownie points.
Dickens' name turned into unexpected expressions like 'What the dickens' which may not befit the man who wrote some classics like The Tale of Two Cities and a lot more. Why the dickens his name got chosen for this honuor, no one can tell.
Homer has now been immortalised in a comic series by the name Simpsons, as the guy who epitomises (mostly) what is wrong with the world, and like the Common Man of Laxman, is always interesting.
What is the worth of a Wordsworth today? Poetry as an art form is almost dead, and may not survive another century. So we may have to fall back on the 19th century poets mostly Keats, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth types forever.
You probably need a name like Baldacci to succeed in the cut-throat world of global fiction stakes, but a Bhagat will do in the Indian bestseller space.
Also, the male domination continues, though the black and white distinctions of yore are being replaced by Shades of Grey (pun intended).
Well, more on this theme in a sequel.
