Victor Hugo in LES MISERABLES said “Books are cold but safe friends” (
not "sure" as given) .{Context “The women said of him, «What a
good-natured bear!» His pleasure consisted in strolling in the fields. He
always took his meals alone, with an open book before him, which he read.
He had a well-selected little library. He loved books; books are cold but
safe friends. In proportion as leisure came to him with fortune, he seemed
to take advantage of it to cultivate his mind. It had been observed that,
ever since his arrival at M. sur M., his language had grown more polished,
more choice, and more gentle with every passing year.}. Books lovers who
had read once kept it on the shelf; library is that; I had written
sometimes back that so many books in those libraries are in dust and cold.
But friends do communicate almost all the time till they part. Who knew?;
they may exchange ,even after death and in punar janma in different names.
On the metaphysical side, Russell developed his famous theory of *logical
atomism*, in which the world is said to consist of a complex of logical
atoms (such as “little patches of colour”) and their properties and
relations. (The theory was crucial for influencing Wittgenstein's theory of
the same name.). On the metaphysical side, Russell developed his famous
theory of *logical atomism*, in which the world is said to consist of a
complex of logical atoms (such as “little patches of colour”) and their
properties and relations. (The theory was crucial for influencing
Wittgenstein's theory of the same name.).As Russell tells us, "Three
passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the
longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the
suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me
hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish,
reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because
it brings ecstasy – ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all
the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next,
because it relieves loneliness – that terrible loneliness in which one
shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold
unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union
of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the
heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and
though it might seem too good for human life, this is what – at last – I
have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to
understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine.
And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which numbers hold
sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love
and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens.
But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain
reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by
oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole
world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life
should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This
has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it
again if the chance were offered to me. (1967, 3–4).
Sulman Rushdie The 75-year-old author, who received death threats from
Iran in the 1980s after his novel The Satanic Verses was published, was
stabbed in the neck and torso as he came on stage to give a talk on
artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institution on 12 August. Until now, the
full extent of Rushdie’s injuries had been unclear. But in an interview
with Spain’s El País
<https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-10-22/andrew-wylie-the-jackal-of-books-amazon-is-like-isis-it-takes-no-prisoners.html>,
Andrew Wylie explained how serious and life-changing the attack had been. “[His
wounds] were profound, but he’s [also] lost the sight of one eye,” said
Wylie. “He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated
because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in
his chest and torso. So, it was a brutal attack.” The agent declined to say
whether Rushdie was still in hospital, saying the most important thing was
that the writer was going to live. Wylie also said he and Rushdie had
talked about the possibility of such an attack in the past. “The principal
danger that he faced so many years after the fatwa was imposed is from a
random person coming out of nowhere and attacking [him],” he said. “So, you
can’t protect against that because it’s totally unexpected and illogical.
It was like John Lennon[’s murder]. Elsewhere in the interview, Wylie said
the world was going through “a very troubled period” – not least in the US.
*“*I think nationalism is on the rise, a sort of fundamentalist right is on
the rise … From Italy to … Europe, Latin America and the US, where … half
the country seems to think that Joe Biden stole the election from Donald
Trump. And they admire this man who is not only completely incompetent and
a liar and a crook, but just a farce. It’s ridiculous.” ( Year 2017) KR
IRS 21123
On Sat, 21 Jan 2023 at 17:13, Chittanandam V R <[email protected]>
wrote:
>
>
> *An Author's woes*
>
> *Was it not Victor Hugo who said:"Books are cold but sure friends"? All
> will not agree to this opinion, *
> *especially some writers of books. *
>
> *You ask Salman Rushdie. He will never agree. So would the thinker
> Bertrand Russell if that question *
> *were put to him. Only these two authors **came to my mind immediately.
> Let us briefly consider as to *
> *what happened to the latter to perhaps hold that view although it did
> not deter him **from writing more *
> *books. *
>
> *Bertrand Russell was a prodigious writer on mathematics, philosophy,
> logic , education, religion, social *
> *and nuclear issues. Scintillating thoughts, **expressed in inimitable
> style, made him a very popular author. *
> *Bouquets were plentiful, but there came brickbats too. Two books, as it
> were, brought **vengeful retaliation *
> *after some years of their publication. One is 'Why I Am Not a
> Christian?' and the other 'Marriage and Morals' . *
>
> *The former book was actually a lecture that Russell gave in1927 to a
> secular society in London. His severe *
> *criticism of Christ irked many believers **and they waited for the
> appropriate time to teach him a lesson or two. *
>
> *During the first world War, Russell gave a series of lectures on how,
> according to him, the war-battered Europe **could be reconstructed. These
> lectures soon appeared in book form and became tremendously popular. **Around
> twelve years later, in1929, there appeared another book captioned 'Marriage
> and Morals' wherein **Russell discussed, in some detail, the various
> aspects of the great institution of marriage in the post-war **context.
> Here he gave expression to several ideas bitterly unsavory to orthodox
> Christians who were once **again terribly annoyed with him. The chance
> for which they waited arrived one decade later when Russell **was
> appointed as Professor of Philosophy in the City College of New York. *
>
> *The city of New York was, so to say, the citadel of the Protestant
> Episcopal Church, the American version of **the British Anglican Church.
> Its bishop fired the first shot. He severely criticised the higher
> education board **for its decision to appoint a person, totally bereft of
> moral sense, as professor of philosophy in a prestigious educational
> institution. That opened a flood gate of accusations. The powerful mayor of
> New York fully **supported the bishop. *
>
> *The matter was dragged to the Court where the smart advocate of the
> plaintiff, who was a lady, described *
> *Russell in the following glowing terms:*
>
> *'lecherous, libidinous, lustful, *
> * venerous,erotomaniac, *
> * aphrodisiac, irreverent, *
> * narrow minded, untruthful*
> * and bereft of moral fibre'*
>
> *The judge too generally endorsed this view. The bishop-mayor-judge trio
> succeeded in rendering Russell *
> *jobless **as a result of which he and his family suffered penury and
> isolation in America. A millionaire came *
> *to their rescue later and, at the end of the second world war, they
> returned to England. *
>
> *When the news of Russell having been selected for the Nobel Prize for
> literature reached America, *
> *one Russell-baiter screamed : "What? Nobel Prize for that beast! "*
>
> *- V.Babusenan*
>
> **********************************************
>
> *Chittanandam*
>
>
>
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