03Books! Books! Books! There is no end to knowledge. All you need to dois flip through the pages to get that extra dose of infotainment. So sim-ply read on...

■ SURVIVAL GAMES, ANIMAL PLANET,3.00 PM: Various species of animalsliving in wild and ferocious junglesdevelop unique strategies and tac-tics to survive and thrive.

1281: During Kublai Khan's second invasion ofJapan his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vesselsdisappeared in a typhoon near Japan.

1862: Bombay High Court was established.

1880: The Cologne Cathedral inCologne, Germany was completedafter 632 years of rebuilding. Itbegan in 1248.

1888: John Logie Baird, Scottishinventor and father of the television,was born in Helensburgh, Scotland.

1888: A patent for the electric meter was grant-

ed to Oliver B Shallenberger.

1945: It was announced by US President Trumanthat Japan had surrendered unconditionally. The

surrender ended World War II.

1947: Pakistan became independentfrom British rule.

1947: Author Danielle Steel wasborn in NYC, New York.

1971: Bahrain proclaimed independ-ence after 110 years of British rule.

1980: People for Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA) was incorporated.

■ SCIENCE ICONS, DISCOVERY SCIENCE,5.00 PM: The host follows a numberof scientists and researchers as theyseek to answer some of the most fun-damental questions about science.

■ INDIA'S WILDEST, NAT GEO WILD, 7.00PM: A Bengal tiger traverses his ter-ritory on a quest to find a suitablemate.

■ WILDLIFE: ANIMALS GONE WILD, NA-TIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL, 8.00PM: Nature’s wildest animals showhow each triumph of survival is atreacherous one as the threat of newdangers is always present.

■ PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ATWORLD'S END, &FLIX, 3.45 PM: Cap-tain Barbossa, Will Turner andElizabeth Swann must save JackSparrow and form an alliance withthe pirates around the world tofight against the East India Com-pany.

■ THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD, STARMOVIES, 6.23 PM: Michael Bryce, aprotection agent, is tasked withprotecting Darius Kincaid, one of

MOVIES ON TVTELEVISION

THISDAY THAT

YEAR

MUST DOMUST SEEAUGUST14, 2019

the world’s most famous assassins.

■ THE TERMINATOR, MNX, 6.50 PM:A cyborg assassin is sent back intime to kill Sarah, a waitress, in abid to stop her son who will wagea long war against his enemy inthe future unless the course of his-tory is altered.

1. ‘Coraline’ by Neil Gaiman2. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee3. ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ by J R R Tolkien 4. ‘ The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran5. ‘Shampoo Planet’ by Douglas Coupland6. ‘Following the Equator: A JourneyAround the World’ by Mark Twain

ANSWERS

Which book has this quote? 1. “Fairy tales are more than true: notbecause they tell us that dragons exist,but because they tell us that dragonscan be beaten.”

2. “Until I feared I would lose it, I neverloved to read. One does not love breathing.”

3. “All we have to decide is what to dowith the time that is given us.”

4. “You talk when you cease to be atpeace with your thoughts.”

5. “Remember: the time you feel lonelyis the time you most need to be by your-self. Life’s cruelest irony.”

6. “Truth is stranger than fiction, but itis because Fiction is obliged to stick topossibilities; Truth isn’t.”

BOOKS

The late J D Salingeris giving in to thedigital revolution.Longtime Salingerpublisher Little,Brown and Companyhas announced that

for the first time, the entirety ofSalinger’s published work, including ‘TheCatcher and the Rye’, will be available ase-books after August 13, 2019. AP

THE BOOKSHITTING

THE NEWS

1

Israel’s NationalLibrary has acquireda batch of previouslyunseen manuscriptsbelonging to authorFranz Kafka after alengthy legal saga.The library show-

cased the newly-obtained Kafka manu-scripts, diaries and letters after theirarrival from Switzerland. AP

2

Fans of French liter-ary giant MarcelProust will soon havethe chance to readnine novellas fromearly in his careerthat were unearthedlast year. The nine

texts by the author of ‘Swann’s Way’ wereoriginally to be part of his first book, ‘LesPlaisirs et les Jours’ (‘Pleasures andDays’), a collection of poems and shortstories published in 1896. AFP

3

AUTHORS OF INDIA

Manu S Pillai

The best-selling author, also a historian,is known for his debut non-fiction ‘TheIvory Throne: Chronicles of the House

of Travancore’ which won the SahityaAkademi Yuva Puraskar in 2017. His nexttwo, ‘Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khiljito Shivaji’ and ‘The Courtesan, the Mahatmaand the Italian Brahmin: Tales from IndianHistory’ have also been bestsellers.

TONI MORRISONThe first African Americanwoman to win the NobelPrize in literature, in 1993,Morrison was the author of11 novels as well aschildren’s books and essaycollections

Nobel laureate Toni Morri-son, a pioneer and reign-ing giant of modern lit-erature, passed away onAugust 5, 2019. Her imag-

inative power in ‘Beloved’, ‘Song ofSolomon’ and other works trans-formed American letters by drama-tising the pursuit of freedom withinthe boundaries of race.

Few authors rose in such rapid,spectacular style. She was nearly 40when her first novel, ‘The Bluest Eye’,was published. By her early 60s, afterjust six novels, she had become thefirst black woman to receive the No-bel literature prize – for her ‘vision-ary force’ and for delving into ‘lan-guage itself – a language she wantedto liberate from categories of blackand white. In 2012, Barack Obamaawarded her a Presidential Medal ofFreedom.

“Her writing was not just beautifulbut meaningful – a challenge to ourconscience and a call to greater em-pathy,” Obama wrote on his Facebook

page. He added, “She was as good astoryteller, as captivating, in personas she was on the page.”

Morrison helped raise Americanmulticulturalism to the world stageand helped uncensor her country’spast, unearthing the lives of the un-known and the unwanted, those shewould call “the unfree at the heart ofthe democratic experiment”.

In her novels, history (black histo-ry) was a trove of poetry, tragedy, love,adventure and good old gossip,whether in small-town Ohio in ‘Sula’or big-city Harlem in ‘Jazz’.

She regarded race as a social con-struct, and through language, found-ed the better world her characters suf-fered to attain. Morrison wove every-thing from African literature and slavefolklore to the Bible and Gabriel Gar-cia Marquez into the most diverse yetharmonious of literary communities.

“Narrative has never been merelyentertainment for me,” she said in herNobel lecture. “It is, I believe, one ofthe principal ways in which we absorb

knowledge.”Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize

for ‘Beloved’, she was one of the bookworld’s most regal presences, withher expanse of graying dreadlocks;her dark, discerning eyes; and warm,theatrical voice that was able to low-er itself to a mysterious growl or riseto a humourous falsetto. “That hand-some and perceptive lady,” JamesBaldwin called her.

Her admirers were countless –from fellow authors, college studentsand working people to former presi-dents, like Barack Obama and BillClinton, to celebrities like Oprah Win-frey. They all idolised Morrison. EXTRACTED FROM AN NYT FEATURE

ON WRITING“A writer’s life and work are

not a gift to mankind; they are itsnecessity.” (From ‘The Source of Self-Regard’ 2019)

ON IDENTITY“We die. That may be the meaning oflife. But we do language. That may bethe measure of our lives.” (From herNobel lecture, 1993)

FROM HER NOVELS“Freeing yourself was one thing. Claimingownership of that freed self wasanother.” (‘Beloved’ 1987)

THE L

EGAC

Y OF

THE READING LIST

THE BLUESTEYE (1970)Follows a yearin the life ofPecolaBreedlove, ayoung AfricanAmerican girlliving in the 1930s who developsa hatred for her skin and eyecolour, and prays for blue eyes.

SULA (1973)Chronicles theintertwinedlives of twogirls living in ablack communi-ty in Ohio (US).The protago-nists, Nel and Sula come fromopposite kinds of families andlead very different ways of life.

SONG OFSOLOMON(1977)Explores com-plicated ques-tions such aswhether we canever know whattruth is, the pursuit of wealth,and the tensions between free-dom and slavery.

What we couldlearn from theNobel laureate

Author Harini Srinivasan reflects onhow there is much to gain from readingToni Morrison’s expansive repertoire

T he first time I heard of a writer named ToniMorrison was in 1993, when she was awardedthe Nobel Prize for Literature, the first

woman African-American author to win the covetedprize. The name stuck, but it was not until years laterthat I read her work. Powerful, piercing and with a rawperspective: her work opened a new world for me.

Morrison told tales — suppressed and unspoken — ofblack women, for the black people, bringing them intomainstream American literature. Seems all too simpletoday, but that was certainly not the case back then.She had been through alot in her life – poverty,racism, pressures thatshe faced as a singleparent in the ‘60s.Facing these challengesand an extremely hos-tile environment fromthe largely white liter-ary establishment, shemade a mark – providinga voice to the margin-alised and disenfran-chised and in the process, becoming a role model forAfrican American women across all walks of life.

Why would an author who wrote predominantlyabout her own experience and her people be relevantto us in a continent half a world away, one could ask?

It is in Morrison’s own words that we can find theanswer to this question. She said, “What was drivingme to write was the silence, so many stories untoldand unexamined.” In a land like ours, where thereare many diverse groups, some with a voice, somemarginalised and oppressed, one can find in thesilence, many untold stories. Her writing, and indeedher entire life, gives us the strength and thecourage to explore those untold stories and bringout the inner lives of these disenfranchised groupsinto the mainstream.

On the occasion of Rakshabandhan, Times NIE youth reporters tell uswhich fictional book character would they want for a sibling

JANE BENNETI would love to have theeldest daughter of Mrand Mrs Bennet ofLongbourn, inHertfordshire, from thebook ‘Pride andPrejudice’. I look up toher. She is an intelligent

woman who always looks for the best in everyone.She preferred optimism to cynicism and believed insecond chances. She would be thebest eldest sister, with her wisdom,poise and courage to help us be thebest versions of ourselves. KRISHA SETHI, class XII, Bhavan

Vidyalaya, Panchkula

DOBBY He is the bravesthouse-elf in thewizarding world,and his friendshipwith Harry Pottermakes him anideal choice. Likemost siblings(especially the

elder ones), Dobby is fiercely loyal and over-protective when it came to keeping Harrysafe. Like when he redecorated the Dursleys’kitchen with cake; hid Harry’spersonal post and almost gothim expelled from Hogwarts!His ways may not be perfect,but his intentions were pure.AJITA SINGH, Class 11, DelhiPublic School Ruby Park, Kolkata

BEEBee, from ‘Where’d YouGo Bernadette’ wouldmake an amazing sister.She is brazen, fearlessand knows just how tosee through people’s dis-guises. Moreover, sheknows how to have fun

and loves her mother, Bernadette, unconditionally. Ithink the two of us could have some great timestogether, travelling to different placesof the world, trying out new food andmore. Antarctica would be so muchfun with her, as she is not scared totake on scary adventures. ARUSHA GOMBER, class X, GEARInnovative Intl School, Bengaluru

MY BOOK SIBLING

How to writeHere are some essential tips fromthe iconic advertiser, ad guru andauthor David Ogilvy

1Read the Roman-Raphaelsonbook on writing. Read it three

times.

2Write the way you talk.Naturally.

3Use short words, short sen-tences and short paragraphs.

4Never use jargon words likereconceptualise, demassifica-

tion, attitudinally, judgmentally.

5Never write more than twopages on any subject.

6Check your quotations.

7Never send a letter or a memoon the day you write it. Read it

aloud the next morning — and thenedit it.

8 If it is something important, geta colleague to improve it.

FROM THE BOOK ‘THE UNPUBLISHED DAVID OGILVY’

MASTERCLASS

Harini Srinivasan is an ex-civil servantand the bestselling writer of ‘TheCurse of Anuganga’, ‘Ek ConfusingLove Story’ and ‘The Wizard Tales -Adventures of Bun-Bun’

Image:www.manuspillai.com

REMEMBER HER WORDS