Wednesday 1 April 2015

Why Work And Genius Are Recognized Only Years Later?

The greatest novel created in this world to have inspired and transformed every intelligent revolutionary in every continent- God Fly- was written by a lady named Ethel Lilian Voynich who died around 90 years of age, never knowing about the rebellion her work was causing around the globe. It was translated into so many languages around the globe and made everyone who read it a revolutionary but she passed away knowing nothing about it. Such experiences are very common and frequent in the field of literature. So many authors have departed from the world, knowing not the impact their creations are causing around them. There are also so many instances of a writer being totally ignored in his times but reverently read in later years. The classic example is Socrates himself who spoke through Plato. We read Plato's works as classic creations now, but had it been so in the B.C.Sixth Century also, Athenian rulers would not have dared to arrest, prosecute and poison Socrates. Sir. Thomas Moore's Utopia is the final word of such visionary works but he was imprisoned. Had he been read and valued by his contemporaries, he would not have been imprisoned. In modern times, the most neglected writer was the real genius of London, Dr. Johnson. He was a very poor scholar who started a tutorial on the hope that he can live by with tuition fees. Only 'below half a dozen' students went to his tutorial which means a decent three or four, in his biographer James Boswell's words. The neighbouring tuition centres in London run by pea brains were brimming with students. But those three or four students walked straight into history. He used the prefix Dr. only once in his life- on the front cover of his interesting and famous dictionary to which writers still turn for ideas.

[In reply to Linked In discussion: It happens that a work is not understood by his contemporaries, but has evaluated many years later. What mechanisms causing this? Started by Rosarita Morandini]


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