Fools rush in...

Deviating for a while from the topic of post colonial literature, I thought of drawing your attention to the SLAM 2010, a literary seminar held at the idyllic University of Peradeniya. The SLAM 2010 was organised by the Student Welfare Society, Faculty of Arts together with Readers without Borders.

On conclusion of the seminar, what struck me was the famous old adage "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread". Before coming back to the SLAM 2010 with its mysterious acronym, it is pertinent to find out how this famous line came into being.

The maxim "Fools rush where angels fear to tread" was first written by Alexander Pope in his poem An Essay on Criticism, albeit it has now been widely used in diverse contexts.

An Essay on Criticism is one of the major poems by Alexander Pope (1688-1744). Although the poem's title suggests a deep analysis, it is, in fact, a compilation of Pope's reading of different "ancients". It is obvious that the poem addresses not writer, reader but critic. The metre of the poem is what known as heroic couplets.

Though the poem was written in 1709, it appeared in 1711. One can learn from Pope's correspondence that most of Pope's ideas were originally in prose form since 1706 and the poem, a verse essay was written in the Horatian mode and primarily deals with how writers and critics should behave in a literary commerce of the day. The poem contains good criticisms and advice besides Pope's ideas on the subject.

In the opening couplets, Pope enunciates the idea that the bad criticism causes more harm than bad writing. However, he stresses the point that literature needs criticism for its own advancement:

'Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill

Appear in Writing or in Judging ill,

But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' Offence,

To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense:

Some few in that, but Numbers err in this,

Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss;

A Fool might once himself alone expose,

Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose (1-8)

Pope highlights critics' common faults, e.g., settling for easy and cliché rhymes:

And ten low Words oft creep in one dull Line,

While they ring round the same unvary'd Chimes,

With sure Returns of still expected Rhymes.

Where-e'er you find the cooling Western Breeze,

In the next Line, it whispers thro' the Trees;

If Chrystal Streams with pleasing Murmurs creep,

The Reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with Sleep.. . . (347-353)

Part II of An Essay on Criticism includes with a famous couplet:

A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:

The spring of Pieria in Macedonia is sacred to the Muses and the first line of the couplet is often misquoted as "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".

Part II of the couplet is also the origin of the famous line:

To err is human, to forgive divine.

The line "Fools Rush in Where Angels Fear to Tread" which is from Part III of the poem has become part of the popular lexicon.

SLAM 2010

The SLAM 2010 offered among other things a window of opportunity to look into the culture of academic seminars in Sri Lanka and the content that goes into them. The pertinent issue is the role of the University in this particular context.

A university is supposed to produce knowledge and the academic's role is definitely to do research and to contribute to the existing body of knowledge. Students' role is manifold and they should also seek knowledge and engage constantly in intellectual discussions aiming at exploring gray areas in their chosen fields of studies.

On the first day of the SLAM, in the morning sessions, Writers Ameena Hussein and Aiyathurai Santhan were featured and briefly discussed their contribution to the growing cannon of Sri Lankan writings in English. Although the quality, content and prosody of their writings drastically vary from writer to writer and from one literary production to other, the new literati's contribution is somewhat substantial.

However, the issue remains whether these literati, albeit some of them are capable and gifted, would be able to reach international literary market and carve a niche in a fiercely competitive environment.

Among the fundamental prerequisites for such an enlightened movement, draw a line between fiction and faction, respecting fundamentals of language such as grammar and syntax, writings in conformity with the prosody of a given language whether it is Sinhalese, Tamil or English and adhering to the fundamental norms of publishing are of paramount importance.

The session titled "Post -War Sri Lankan Literature: Where to? Where from?", was a thought provoking session. The fundamental issues such as the very existence of post-war literature and whether the literati are aware of the contentious issues associated with a protracted conflict which lasted for three bloody decades were discussed.

So far the contribution to the Post-War Literature in Sri Lanka, particularly, in literature in English is minuscule. The issues such the fundamental dynamics of the conflict, politicising the core issues and the aptness of the terminologies associated with the conflict have been, so far, dealt partially or completely left out by the literati, particularly, in English.

The use of term 'Post-war literature' is polemical in a way that it would reinforce some of the much politicised issues of the conflict. In my opinion, since major war had not been waged between two nations, the term 'Post-War Literature' is misleading and inappropriate. It should be rather "Post-Conflict Literature".