It was in fact a twofold blessing for me to meet the two finest English poets of our times that evening. We had frank and informal talk about poetry, literature, act of writings and writers in Pakistan. Though, despite all my endeavours, I had terribly failed in organising a lecture by him at the Academy. I explained to him the unavoidable reasons for not being able to do so, and rendered my apologies, which he graciously accepted. I felt that he was as eager to meet me, as I was to meet him -- and that is the true sign of a great writer: he makes you feel great.
I reached his lecture at the Quaid-i-Azam University late. A faculty member of the university had already presented a detailed article on his writings. I heaved a sigh of relief that I hadn’t missed his lecture. I sat in one corner of the hall. He noticed me, and while standing up to deliver his lecture, he nodded to acknowledge my arrival. He had written a piece of prose to read to the students of literature in Pakistan.
He repeated the point that literature is not made of ideas but words. “It is the inner luminescence of being and the keen observation of images that formulate the raw material for an artistic creation.”
In between the lecture he narrated an anecdote involving Stephene Mallarme and Dakar, where the former had said to the latter, “Literature is made of words”, and that it is primarily concerned with words as a painter is concerned with colours -- and to become a good writer one needs to be a great reader. He then quoted Confucius, Ezra Pound, Eliot, Virginia Wolf and Conrad.
I felt as if a swift flow of scholarly downpour was engulfing me, as if I was being transported into the companies of great literary masters.
He referred to Eliot’s theory of tradition and individual talent, and made a point that a writer needs to be well-versed in the tradition of literature in which he intends to write – “Originality is not something that comes in isolation. It is a sequence of tradition. It is the mysterious selection of words which a writer cherishes during his reading of the great masters that constitute his distinct style. As far as the inspiration of writing is concerned, it is inner luminescence of being which a writer transfers into his writings.”
He also referred to the execution test which he applied to the young writers who shared their writings with him.
Further, he talked about the mediocrity in every field, including literature and arts. He mentioned the collection of English poems written by American soldiers who served during the war in Afghanistan which were aggrandised in a quality US newspaper, and sarcastically thanked the American soldiers for writing poems on their experience during the Afghan war.
He repeated the point that literature is not made of ideas but words. “It is the inner luminescence of being and the keen observation of images that formulate the raw material for an artistic creation.”
He also talked about how he got the ideas about his novels and characters. He said that he started a novel from a character living near the Equator and ended it in Amazon.
“Originality is not something that comes in isolation. It is a sequence of tradition. It is the mysterious selection of words which a writer cherishes during his reading of the great masters that constitute his distinct style. As far as the inspiration of writing is concerned, it is inner luminescence of being which a writer transfers into his writings.”
The relationship of music and paintings with literature was inalienable for Ghose. Equally well-crafted was his reference to the setting and backgrounds of his novels which according to him seem foreign but are in fact from Punjab. He explained how his occasional visits to Pakistan had provided him the storehouse of images to work on. He said that the difference between good and bad poetry is originality, and originality is the revival of something classical.
He also explained the myth about his name -- which is in fact ‘Ghose’ in Urdu than Ghose.
Talking about his days in Bombay, he recalled how his family migrated to the UK, the hardships he faced at the start of his career as a teacher and a writer, and how he was invited to be professor of English at the University of Texas on the basis of a simple literary application composed by him.
He concluded, “The sense of incompleteness is the asset of a great writer. Even after writing great works for literature a great writer feels that his masterpiece is yet to come. As Virginia Wolf after writing her masterpiece Light House got the idea of her another masterpiece. So nothing is absolute in literature and the incessant search is the fate of a writer.”