kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 8, 2019 14:50:50 GMT -8
My first inclination was to create a new thread on Kipling's book of short stories, "Plain Tales From the Hills." But given my love of Kipling and his great output, I thought better of it and have created the "Rudyard Kipling" thread.
For my first entry, I will recommend "Plain Tales From the Hills." This volume of short stories was one of the first books which Kipling published. And while the stories are set in various Indian locales, (especially Simla, the summer capital of the British Raj) they are much more than "stories about India." In fact, they are a wonderful compilation of character studies which use India as a unifying theme. From the foolish Subaltern to the sly Mrs. Hauksbee we are introduced to an array of eternal characters making their way through life, but this time with an Indian tint.
They may not be Kipling's greatest works, but they are still Kipling which means the prose is better than that of 99% of other famous writers. What I find particularly amazing is that a young man of 21 could even observe the subtleties of human nature on display in some of the stories.
For anyone who has interest in short stories, the British Raj and good writing, I suggest you take a look at "Plain Tales From the Hills" by Rudyard Kipling.
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Post by timothylane on Aug 8, 2019 16:42:23 GMT -8
I've read a modest amount of Kipling, and as far as I can tell from the listing in wikipedia, none of it comes from this collection. Apparently there's a lot of juvenile humor (he was 21 when it came out), or so they say.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 8, 2019 17:06:52 GMT -8
He overuses a device whereby during the story he appears to be reminded of another story which is similar, like "I recall one Colonel who was caught in a similarly compromising situation, but that is another story."
But that is a small price to pay for the joy of reading Kipling.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 8, 2019 19:27:40 GMT -8
it would help enormously if you would always provide a link to the book in question. Luckily I found it's available for f ree on Gutenberg. |
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 8, 2019 20:03:30 GMT -8
Sorry, I forgot to do that as I was called to supper.
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Post by artraveler on Aug 8, 2019 20:10:26 GMT -8
I suppose my favorite Kipling is Tommy. I have read some of his short stories and enjoyed them. And the Man Would Be King is a great movie, Sean Connery and Michael Caine is IMHO the best adaption of Kipling to the screen.
Kipling is one of the best examples of how good and how bad the Raj was for India, but without his poetry and stories we would understand so much less of Asia in the latter part of the 19th century. In much the same way Churchill does the same for the 20th century.
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Post by timothylane on Aug 8, 2019 20:49:08 GMT -8
I think we read "Tommy" in senior English, along with "Gunga Din" (of course) and "If" (a favorite of Jose Antonio Primo De Rivera, interestingly). I had read Kim in 8th or 9th grade. Later I read a scattering of stories and poems, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (which I'll probably list as my favorite) and many of his colonial/military poems -- including one I recommended in the poetry section at ST. I had read "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" as a kid.
By the way, our term "pundit" comes from a native term for Indian spies such as Kim.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 8, 2019 21:00:05 GMT -8
It has been my understanding that our word pundit comes from "pandit" which is Hindi (I blv) for a Hindu scholar. A number of the early Indian Congress Party leaders had their names prefaced with pandit.
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Post by timothylane on Aug 9, 2019 5:55:16 GMT -8
A lot of these spies were scholars, I think. We're talking about people who had their own primitive version of a pedometer so they could measure distances between places.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 9, 2019 9:17:06 GMT -8
As soon as I finish sinking the Lusitania (if I get that far), I'll try some Plain Tales From the Hills. I've read some of his short stories but can't imagine I've read them all. Thanks for bringing this excellent author to our attention. A-'Kipling we will go.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 9, 2019 11:41:32 GMT -8
In case anyone is interested, the link will take the reader to information about the city of Simla. This is the city in which Kipling situates most of the stories in his "Plain Tales From the Hills." It was the summer capital of British India and therefore well known to anyone with an interest in the history of the British Raj.
If you look at the list of famous people from Simla, you will see that Kipling based the character Stickland on one of the men in the list.
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Post by timothylane on Aug 9, 2019 12:24:46 GMT -8
Of course, the name that interested me was that of the dam buster Guy Gibson. I don't recall Brickhill going much into his background. Grant McCormick included a recent history of the raid in one of his e-book drops, and at some point I intended to read it. Maybe that will discuss Gibson's Indian past.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 12, 2020 21:03:52 GMT -8
The link is to a very nice piece on Kipling. One sees that we could use him today. Even in his own time, the intellectuals despised him, no doubt because he was right in his views about civilization and the way the world was going. And of course, there is the fact that deviants, such as Oscar Wilde, sneer at those not as perverted as themselves. Misery loves company. Roger Kimball does Kipling justice in this article. Kipling |
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Post by artraveler on Jul 13, 2020 4:41:29 GMT -8
Nice article Kipling has slipped into culture in curious ways.
In the Marines and I think also the Navy there are two tidbits of IF
If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs---perhaps you don't understand the true nature of the problem
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout
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