What is Literature?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

-         The Rock, T.S. Eliot

Yesterday, quite by chance, I came across my late Jethu’s favourite quotation. My father's elder brother was “inordinately” fond of it. Or so I thought. At that time, to a college-going student like me, it suggested an attitude of quiet despair with the state of things – be it with the nation, the world, or with mankind even.

“But such a posture will surely win you the Nobel Prize!”, I’d tell myself cynically. “The critics will simply love it and lap it up!”

Of course I was wrong. I usually am, you see. More often than not, Old Man Time has had to patiently explain the true import of Literature to yours truly. But better late than never. Today, decades later, I have come to realize that Literature at its best is nothing less than distilled philosophy.  It holds up a mirror to life, one which does not flatter to deceive. Rather it reflects a very unflattering picture, warts and all. Only so that we may introspect; and come away wiser from the experience.

Wisdom, therefore, is the goal of all knowledge. When Bacon observed that some books “are to be chewed and digested”, he was referring precisely to those texts which provided this “wisdom”. And how right he was! There are some books which are simply unforgettable, leaving an indelible impression on our minds; lines which haunt us, pursue us for the rest of our lives and evoke emotions that are “too deep for tears”:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

-         Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19–28

This one is my personal favourite. I don’t know about you. But these lines resonate with me. Just like Eliot’s. Both seem to give expression to what a lot of us have, at some time or the other, experienced in our daily lives. In a very real sense, we “live” these emotions and therefore can instantly identify with them. Our minds are infused by their wisdom. Thus we may hope to become better men.  

Knowledge without wisdom, however, is dangerous. “Drink deep or taste not the Pierian Spring”, it has been observed. Without wisdom, knowledge is but of little consequence. Knowledge inherently makes us proud that we have learned so much; that is why we need wisdom, to temper that pride with humility; humility that we know very little; and that we still have a lot to know and learn. If knowledge is the flour then wisdom is the bread. We eat the prepared bread, not the loose flour. Wisdom to the soul is like water to the desert, rightly observes a famous maxim. One must forever remain a student of life to be truly wise.

But wisdom is found in quiet places; places where solitude is a quiet visitor; places suited for reflection, introspection and mental deliberation. But does our modern lifestyle allow that kind of quiet slow-paced life? Not really. Today, we are all in a rat race that shows no sign of ending. None of us have any “time to spare”. We are always “busy” doing a whole lot of things; things that unfortunately do not take us far down the road to wisdom and consequent intellectual emancipation. And yet, ironically, we are in the midst of an information explosion. We are inundated by an information-deluge telling us precisely…nothing.

Today the longevity of information and knowledge is about as much as the latest update on your Facebook page. In this age of “use-and-throw”, surrounded by the ephemeral, reading a book in order to gather wisdom is oh-so-boring. Instead, we hear about “speed reading”, “fast-reading”, “skimming”, “meta-guiding” and what have you – all geared towards enabling us to “read” a considerable chunk of information/text in the shortest possible time. Today, happily, we are all highly informed and “knowledgeable. But not the wiser in any real sense because of that. We need to get our priorities right. And fast. Time waits for no man. And the clock has been ticking away for some time now.

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

    

All is not yet lost. It is still within our grasp. But do not delay. Else…