Women Poets Session — Oct 23, 2020

 The theme announced for this month's poetry session was Women Poets. As it turned out Louise Glück (the surname rhymes with click) was announced on Oct 8, 2020 as the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. She is only the third woman poet to get the prize, the first being Gabriela Mistral in 1945, and the second, Wisława Szymborska in 1996. 

Louise Glück was cited for ‘for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal’ – Photo by Katherine Wolkoff

Isolated by necessity since the Covid-19 virus struck, we have been forced for six months to have our gatherings on the Web, with only occasional glimpses of each other. We are longing to meet surrounded by birds and trees. Shoba has invited us to her little piece of forest in the heart of the metro as soon as the virus is defeated:

The women showed up for the session in dangle earrings in various styles. Shoba is wearing silver bidri craft earrings that come from Hyderabad. You can see below adornments worn by some others:

Saras

Devika

The six novels for reading next year have been nominated and accepted; three are by women authors and three by men, and they suitably alternate between long 500-page novels and shorter ones that are like novellas. Coetzee's novel Disgrace is slated for the November reading, and the last session of the year in December will be happy or humorous poems. The custom has been that people dress up in costumes in the holiday season to make the observer a bit giddy. 

Readers recalled the general air of slight madness that animates the group. Geeta did not realise it when she joined, and KumKum said Gopa certainly did not bargain for the December reading in 2019 when everyone came in madcap costumes. It was such fun, said Devika. Aren't you glad we did those crazy things when we could still meet, asked KumKum? Devika said we continue in the same vein even now. KumKum said even Joe wanted to wear a pirate-style dangle earrings when he heard the women were going to sporting such ornaments today. Devika suggested KumKum could give her bangle for Joe to hang from his ears! The longer the better some women say, others don't favour such earrings, yet show them off on occasions like this. Devika said this is total women-talk and Joe does not have to tune in.

We have missed the feasts for a number of birthdays this months. Kavita, the youngest member celebrates her fiftieth on Oct 24, for Devika Oct was her sixtieth and for Joe it was his eighty-first. Devika said not to worry, when the coronavirus is defeated we will make up for all the missed feasts! We miss the coffee with which sessions used to begin when we met at the Yacht Club. 

Geeta had many colours of kumkum and used to apply it with a cigarette butt. Zakia joined and wished birthday greetings to Joe and Devika and offered Durga Puja wishes. KumKum said the Bengali association in Kochi is delivering the puja feast in boxes to the homes of all the senior people – the younger members may pick it up from the premises. Devika jokingly said she will come and visit when the bhog is delivered, if she is alerted.

Kavita briefly appeared before she had to disappear for a visit to Aluva with her sister-in-law. Everyone wished her. Geetha showed up on Zoom and displayed her long earrings. 

Zoom pic of the gathering

Joseph Heller – Catch-22, Sep 25, 2020

 

Written as a satire on war, questioning the pieties spouted patriotically by politicians and generals to urge soldiers on to heroic fighting, this novel was based on the experiences of the author who was a bombardier in a bomber squadron based in Corsica during World War II. The anti-hero is John Yossarian, also a bombardier, whose war-time perch was lying flat in the nose of a B-25 Mitchell bomber, aiming bombs at targets while the plane was piloted over enemy targets enveloped in dangerous flak (anti-aircraft fire).

Mitchell B-25 bomber – about 10,000 were built, 40 are still flying

In another peace-time perch he could also be found naked up a tree at the air-base contemplating who was trying to kill him. He was convinced everyone, most especially the commanding officers and generals, were out to get him. The number of missions to be flown before rotating the airmen back home was continually increased to win laurels for the commanding officers. 

The airman could escape the Sisyphean toil of flying ever more bombing missions if he was declared insane. But he could not ask for a mental evaluation to determine whether he was fit to fly, for such an attempt to avoid dangerous missions would prove the airman's sanity, since: 

“... concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.”

That was the Catch-22, a catchphrase that has entered the English language. Catch-22 occurs at points in the novel, to explain a paradox caused by applying a rule; every such problem has a solution which is contradicted by the problem itself.

The novel has lots of repetitions and nobody will say it is elegantly written. It is a collection of episodes with no real story-line to thread its progress. All one can sense is that Yossarian is getting increasingly desperate, and more and more paranoid, seeing enemies everywhere bent on snuffing him out:

   "They're trying to kill me," Yossarian told [Clevinger] calmly. 

   "No one's trying to kill you," Clevinger cried. 

   "Then why are they shooting at me?" Yossarian asked.

   "They're shooting at everyone," Clevinger answered …

As the number of missions keep increasing Yossarian takes evasive action: he alters the line of bombing on maps; he presents himself naked at a medal ceremony; he marches backward; etc. For a generation yet to come of age during the Vietnam War, the novel made eminent sense, justifying evading the military draft, burning draft papers, and even desertion, as being superior to an immoral war. Orr with his survival technique of ditching his plane in the sea and paddling to Sweden in a life-raft with survival techniques he'd practiced becomes the active antidote to Catch-22.

Readers meeting on Zoom for the Catch-22 session