Friday, June 7, 2002

This week we have featured three important essays by writer and activist Arundhati Roy. (1) (2) (3)  I have started reading her book The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize, sold six million copies, and has been translated into forty languages.

Contributing editor Don Steehler first introduced me her writings a week ago.  He emailed me the following note this morning.

Timothy, I noticed that you've featured Arundhati Roy. Good. The caliber of her thinking and writing reminds me of Voltaire. As an example, here's a short excerpt from her The End of Imagination :

If you're not (religious), then look at it this way. This world of ours is four thousand, six hundred million years old. It could end in an afternoon.

For comparison, here's an excerpt from Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary (Man, General Reflection on):

It needs twenty years to lead man from the plant state in which he is within his mother 's womb, and the pure animal state which is the lot of his early childhood, to the state when the maturity of the reason begins to appear. It has needed thirty centuries to learn a little about his structure. It would need eternity to learn something about his soul. It takes an instant to kill him.

Thank you Don, I think we can all learn from this modern wise woman. Here is a link to an interview with Arundhati Roy  in the April 2001 issue of The Progressive Magazine, and more information here: Arundhati Roy