YOU’RE ON THE 87th FLOOR, AND SOMETHING’S TERRIBLY WRONG BY ADAM MAYBLUM

YOU’RE ON THE 87th FLOOR, AND SOMETHING’S TERRIBLY WRONG 

BY ADAM MAYBLUM 

Adam Mayblum enjoyed the storms that rumbled off the Atlantic. As they lashed his windows and strafed the steel beams, Adam would scoff: You think that’s power? I’m on the 87th floor of the World Trade Center. That’s power. 

During the worst storms, the cords on his window shades would appear to sway a few inches, but it was an illusion. They actually hung straight, held steady by gravity. It was the tower that swayed, to absorb the weather. 

When Adam felt the first rumble Tuesday morning, he glanced at the cords. They were oscillating like a pendulum, 3 feet in either direction. 

He shot from his desk, turning his back on breakfast and e-mails to face the Statue of Liberty. Outside, pieces of paper fluttered through the air, “gently,” he would say later, “on a breeze.” He looked down at the tiny people staring up at him from 876 feet below and offered them a New York retort: 

“What’re you looking at?” 

They were looking at terrorists ripping apart the World Trade Center. 

It was 8:45 a.m., and American Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles, had just torn into the north side of Adam’s building, the trade center’s north tower. At 9:03, United Flight 175 would strike the south tower. At 9:50 a.m., the south tower would collapse. The north tower would follow at 10:28. 

Adam Mayblum would find out all that much later …………………….

PALANQUIN BEARERS BY SAROJINI NAIDU

PALANQUIN BEARERS BY SAROJINI NAIDU 

Lightly, O lightly we bear her along, 

She sways like a flower in the wind of our song; 

She skims like a bird on the foam of a stream, 

She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream. 

Gaily, O gaily we glide and we sing, 

We bear her along like a pearl on a string. 

Softly, O softly we bear her along, 

She hangs like a star in the dew of our song; 

She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide, 

She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride. 

Lightly, O lightly we glide and we sing, 

We bear her along like a pearl on a string.

Appreciation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Appreciation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 

The essential story of “Pride and Prejudice” is precisely that – pride and prejudice and how these two can come as a serious barrier in deep, intimate love. 

The story involves 4 sisters and with 4 suitors. And each sister and her suitor, has a particular difficulty. The main couple here is Elizabeth and Darcy. 

The conflicts came from both outside and also inside. It is the 4 stories of 4 different couples reflecting the variety of ways in which barriers are set up to stop the fulfillment of love, by society and by our own lack of self knowledge. 

So, the plot goes in a variety of twists, leading to a climax that had to be happy. 

The prime barriers highlighted are pride and prejudice, the title of novel itself. 

Pride does not allow us to reveal beyond a point. Prejudice is common in life, where we make a judgment of a person that is contrary to fact. Yet what conquers finally is that quality that alone can break such barriers, ultimately and that is LOVE. 

The novel shows that in all the ways that actually happen in real life and which Austen had observed. 

She technically crafted it with beauty, clarity and especially with sympathetic humor and great depth of feeling too. It is her greatest work, and also the most celebrated, precisely for all these qualities presented in a beautifully integrated way.

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Appreciation of Gulliver Travels by by Jonathan Swift

Appreciation of Gulliver Travels by Jonathan Swift

Gulliver’s Travels is the story of one Mr Lemuel Gulliver, a strange fantasy story. 

It strikes as very real and a statement of the world around, and gives a total clarity about how the world really is and even the fact that we all know it. But, we hide it from ourselves, limiting ourselves, blinding ourselves and living a debased life and not even knowing that we are living such a worthless life. 

Now, how does a sensitive, knowledgeable, fully experienced person, who knows the world, not as a complicated thing, but utterly obviously, SHOW such a world? 

To show it like a normal story, would be in a way not effective, and even insulting,. The one great tool is satire. 

The satire in this is not personally harsh. It would have been harsh, dark, and depressing, had the author been affected by the world he is showing. 

But the main point is that the author finds the world actually ridiculously trivial, and idiotic. 

And he shows 4 aspects of the world as 4 voyages. 

In the first voyage, Gulliver reaches the land of Lilliputs, The people there are very energetic, hard working, planned men, but they are devoid of any purpose, and their being Lilliputs, tiny people, makes the point openly and almost idiotically clear. 

It is as if the world of Lilliput is precisely that - a small world, and you cannot take it seriously, even if put under arrest by them, even when they admire you, even when they use your services in stupid wars, that world is too stupid to take seriously and yes, it IS our world!! That is the satire!! 

The next voyage Gulliver undertakes is the opposite now. He goes to the world of giants, who are powerful, but only physically so and in no other way. 

They are bestial, cheap, and indulgent. 

The third voyage Gulliver travels is to a land where people are using their brains for studies and researches but with no purpose and no meaning whats ever. 

The final voyage is to a place where the beings are beautiful, but they are not humans, but noble horses, and here Gulliver shows the nobility of beings by showing horses, not men!! 

But men too live in this world. They are called Yahoos, and they are enslaved by the noble horses. The yahoos are dull, stupid and cannot create or manage anything with deeper values. 

With this satire, fantasy, and detached themes which reflect starkly our world, Gulliver finished his life purpose. 

Satirizing on a grand plane, he shows the world for what exactly it is and thus indirectly, this book, is a reminder of our follies, of our idiocy, lack of meaningful goals, and it stands as a message of how to be, by showing mainly how we are and how, thus we should NOT be. 

It reaches the noble soul deep within the reader and thinker, in all of us, the person in us, who really asks in innocence, disbelief and wonder- what is this world? And finds only evil, stupidity and chains. 

Gulliver travels takes him on a height of liberation, by directing the MIND of the reader, that forces the reader, while deeply entertaining him, to look within and without and reach the level of proper, natural human nobility. 

By that detached satire, and lack of sadness and tragedy and by its very ruthlessness and cutting theme and presentation, Gulliver goads us, but as a laughter, to BE human and to reach human grandeur. 

No wonder, this book has never gone out of print for centuries and has become a legendary work of art and stands in the hall of fame of the greatest and most inspiring and liberating books ever written, but with deep sage like sympathy, wisdom, clarity, humbleness and simplicity.

WHAT IS THE MEANING, SIGNIFICANCE AND THE POWER OF LITERATURE?

WHAT IS THE MEANING, SIGNIFICANCE AND THE POWER OF LITERATURE? 

A great writer SHOWS the world and people in a deeper way. 

Normally, most people in the world at large, given the limitations imposed by societal pressures, do not have the inner resources to observe life and the world, on a deeper, clearer and more meaningful level. 

By default, people live out their psychologies with a complicated and unresolved mixture of whatever they were influenced by and absorbed. 

They miss out on a life that can be and ought to be, the kind that is lived with a great clarity, joy, meaning and power. 

Here comes the power of a great writer in any era. He shows stories with a greater level of observation and that is why, usually, they do reach a good audience too and in the syllabi of educational programs. 

They REACH the people and take them on a higher level. This has been, in fact, the way by which mankind slowly has developed till now and would develop in the future too!! 

The observations that a great writer makes are of the characters’ psychologies and the social, political, and cultural realities he is living in. 

He also gives the philosophical truth about life as such. A LOT is conveyed with a story and that is why it is so deeply entertaining, if studied with focus and care. 

In our selections, as examples, William Blake’s “Tyger” takes the reader to really wonder about existence, life, reality and other worlds AS SUCH. 

“Twelfth Night” by Shakespeare gives that joy of living lightly, and also shows that one person is not different from another. We usually differentiate people based on some narrow divisions of class, gender, position etc. Shakespeare shows directly and powerfully that these do not count, as each person is a real human being and not a stereotype. 

Reading “Gulliver’s Travels” really makes this silly world small and makes the so called “big bad world” almost look harmless by its sheer triviality and smallness. The reader himself becomes a giant like the hero. The reader realizes more consciously that one need not be so stupid and, by that very realization, rises to the level of Swift!! 

With Jane Austen’s, “Pride and Prejudice”, the reader is made more aware of how we all create barriers between us in love, and much more. 

With “The Importance of Being Earnest”, the reader becomes very intelligently satirical, and really sees the world with great cutting and laughing criticism, while retaining his lightheartedness!! 

All this and MUCH MORE is experienced with great stories of great writers simply because the great writer writes with greater depth of observation. People normally do not observe so much, since they live out their lives mechanically, as we said earlier. 

A writer is both influenced and influences the world and the reader is made aware of both. 

We should keep in mind that a great writer is not a superman or God. He too is a normal human being, living in a culture and usually having absorbed the limitations of that culture and also the positive points in that culture. 

But, at the same time, a great writer is superior in his observations and very powerful too!! He is able to, to a good extent, transcends his culture, thinks on his own and showcases a great originality, meaning and universality in his works. 

Now, when a reader reads a great writer, he takes in both, and both these aspects are useful, in a deep way, for him. 

He learns directly about cultures and that is great knowledge of History learnt in a direct way, as if he is going back in time. Also, he sees how that writer had risen above his culture and commented on it through a story. 

He learns both and benefits in a great many ways. He realizes that a person need not be limited by his culture and he sees the impact the writer made in the world, 

ALL this comes as a great experience!! 

A great writer also reflects on the culture and in his own unique way, brings out both the good points and the negative points in terms of philosophical truth. 

As has been already stated, a writer is critical of the world, with his greater ethical outlook and sense of truth and powers of observation. 

This helps the reader to be critical himself and develops the reader’s powers of observation and judging immensely. 

A great writer is both an artist and a philosopher and he is as much a human being as anyone, but with great insight, both as an artist and as a philosopher. 

We must remember that a great writer is both telling the truth and living the truth. So, obviously he will have many different shades, aspects, conflicts too within him and all this gets seen. This is not a negative point. By thus giving the gift of showing his naked soul, the reader sees his own soul, both, those aspects which match his own soul and even those that do not. 

He is made AWARE!! And. any psychologist will tell you, self- awareness is everything!! 

A great writer indirectly shows and makes known, with stark reality both what makes a human being and what limits the human being. 

Because the great writer is so vulnerable and revealing about his own real self, the reader is able to see fully and clearly, what gives strength and solidity to a human being and what is limiting him. He is able to reach great perfection, happiness, stability, self confidence and natural self reverence in his own life. 

Reading of many great writers makes the world known, as a whole - the past and hence the present and also the future, in a prophetic way. 

Because a reader usually reads many great writers, the great value given by each great writer, is multiplied hundred fold with hundred books!! 

Life becomes too clear to such a reader and he becomes, almost without knowing and just by reading, very comfortable on a very high level of energy, joy and clarity. 

Great writers teach, not by lectures but in an incredible way- by stories, poems and essays that are concrete experiences!! Just imagine the gift you get from a great writer. You do not have to do anything, only read and enjoy and experience a story. You get so much KNOWLEDGE, POWER, MEANING, JOY AND STABILITY THAT COMES FROM KNOWING LIFE FULLY!! 

A great writer gifts the power of great living to the reader!! 

The reader experiences the world in stark strokes – the whole social, political and psychological worlds. 

Reading many authors, he stands on a mountain top and sweeps the whole world with a single glance!! 

The avid reader is finally able to work out in his daily living, with great love and fire, his own first hand outlook on life, and that enables him to live a life of beauty and grandeur as a philosopher himself! 

All this and much more would come to the reader, by reading great writers. That is the reason why we have written this book and why we want to introduce, in a very deep way, hundreds of great works by great writers. 

The reader will have a deeper appreciation of all the above points after he has been introduced to the six great works and writers in this volume – 1 

Then, he can make a plan of reading the 6 works with perfection and surely take his life to a higher level of confidence, perfection, happiness and energy!! 

HAPPY DISCOVERY!!