Posts

QUESTIONING OKONKWO'S HEROISM

Image
Not particularly conflicted about the idea of Idris Elba playing Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart." I mean, it would be such a shame if the director(s) and/or cast choose to mess it up, but another remake can always suffice. Regardless, a great literary work will always remain a masterpiece. But to argue for or against Okonkwo being a hero is to delve into ancient Greek mythology and to familiarise oneself with terms such as Harmatia, Hubris, Peripeteia etc. In Aristotle's "Poetics", while comparing Poetry (literature) to life's imitation he admits that Tragedy in verse drama is superior to Comedy in the same genre (I will come back to why Aristotle preferred Tragedy over Comedy). While juxtaposing some of the protagonists from great literary works of Tragedy over the years ranging from "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles to Chinua Achebe's "Thing Fall Apart", one cannot help but notice a similar pattern amongst these main cha...
Post a Comment
Read more

A GLIMPSE INTO MY FATHER

Image
My fondest memory of my father pertains to the role he played in a life-altering event which occurred about fifteen years back. The series of events which transpired on that day still play out in my head like it was yesterday: I had returned from school on that fateful day, did my homework and rushed downstairs to quickly wash my school uniform and proceed to play with some other kids. I was barely ten minutes into our favourite game of Ikpo Oga when Egodi, our downstairs neighbour, came aggressively to ask me why I had spread clothes on the rope that her mother had just bought for their family to use. Knowing who Egodi was and how she had earned her infamous nickname, Kiliwi, I mentioned that I would take it down so she could eat the rope. I quickly made my way to the backyard to retrieve my school uniform from the rope. But what happened afterwards... everything happened so quickly under a few seconds... the blows that landed on my head... coupled with how quickly I fell to the groun...
1 comment
Read more
Image
 A juxtaposition of a post versus the comment.   I meant to type a similar comment under the said post only to realise that someone else beat me to it. Oppenheimer could be compared to some of Leo Tolstoy, Wole Soyinka's works or an extremely abstract artwork that is difficult to comprehend at first, but once we can crack it, what we feel is ultimate satisfaction, an eureka moment of triumph that washes away almost immediately. The movie Barbie, conversely, could be likened to the writings of Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, Buchi Emecheta, Charles Dickens or a seemingly simple-looking artwork that we comprehend almost immediately. However, the deep-rooted meaning starts to unfold gradually as time passes. Sometimes, the intended deep messages adorned by simplicity live with us for a lifetime. The most important aspect of any form of art, in my opinion, is its didactic meaning, that is, the powerful message and the strong force of emotion that that art leaves behind for its ...
Post a Comment
Read more