Re[2]: Nanduri Subbarao in his own words on Yenki pATalu
Rao Veluri (rveluri@smtpgate.anl.gov)
Wed, 26 Feb 97 14:49:06 CST
Sri Sreenivas Nagulapalli on 2/24/97 3:35 PM
makes an interesting (funny or not so funny) observation
while responding to Sri Ari Sitaramayya's post that
mentioned about Mahatma Gandhi's loin cloth and his caste.
[snip snip snip]
"---Besides, if we start reading literally, we lose all
the beauty, charm and grace of many expressions that bring
liveliness to the language.---"
As a physicist pretending to be still practicing, beauty,
charm strangeness, flavor, etc., are simply the quantum
numbers associated with some of the 'elementary' particles.
As such, one must literally read them, not just read them;
-- and, I mean it literally!
"---Some funny or not so funny instances I recall are:
1. Women feeling they are being put down whenever someone
uses "mankind" word! ---"
There is a lot of historical 'baggage' associated with
this word 'mankind.'
First of all, hostile and malisious opinions about women
and serious misogynistic writings almost tending to be
lunatic prattle was not the prerogative of the ancient
Sanskrit poets and the midieval Telugu poets.
In the west, starting with Aristophanes, Aristotle, Theophrastus,
Tertullian, Petronius, Cato the Censor, William Shakespeare,
Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Jonathan Swift, Chaucer,
Tolstoy, Hemingway, Shaw and many many more of the
decorated literary stalwarts,-- including James Thurber
the humorist, (and not a good cartoonist,)have written
poetry, prose, novels and essays condemning women!
The most formidable organized campaign against women
was conducted by the Church for over a thousand years.
Saint John Chrysotom was the early ringleader!
Now, man is the generic term for 'mankind.' In the sixth century,
even this was questioned. A bishop at the Council of Macon
argued that woman can not be included under the general
description man. Ironically, some seventh century ironists
excluded woman from salvation, since "Christ died to redeem
man." In 1850, the English law known as Lord Brougham's Act,
decreed that " words importing the masculine gender shall
always include women, except where otherwise stated." This was
not intended as a reparation, but only ot clear up the legal
ambiguities.
It was also alleged that the Council of Macon was
responsible to decree that women have no souls. Ten centuries
later the secular attitude was a little more cautious:
"The souls of women are so small,
That some believe they've none at all."
The American Catholic hierarchy, until the Baltimore
Catechism, taught that Eve was solely responsible for
the fall of man. There were several demeaning and
demonic versions of the creation of Eve by God!
I would give only a few quotes from some of
the famous writers.
First from Bill Shakespeare, in Cymbeline.
"............................Could I find out
The woman's part in me! For there is no motion
That tends to vice in man............( and it
goes on and on ) .... I'll write against them,
Detest them, curse them: yet 'tis greater skill
In a true hate....."
Then it's Burke:
Edmund Burke says that 'a woman is but an animal
not of the highest order.'
Look at the heroines of Papa Hemingway. They
either destroy or destroyed. Mrs. Macomber shoots her
husband, Catharine Barkley is killed off in child birth,
and only the sexually impotent narrator in 'The Sun
also Rises,' is safe from Lady Brett a self-declared
bitch who leads her three lovers to ruin.
One should read Thurber's short story "The Unicorn in
the garden," to understand his insidious impingements
on the feminine sensibility. ( It is a very short story;
I will post it later!)
"---2. Men feeling they are treated "unfairly" when women
are described as "fairer sex"! ---"
The phrase 'fairer sex' was used by the ancients and
even by some moderners, not as a hearty praise but
very condescendingly.
What can I say! In literature, sometimes letter of the
spirit and spirit of the letter confuse common folks
like me!
This post is absurdly too long. I should quit.
Regards.
Venkateswara Rao Veluri