Saturday, June 1, 2013

Misusing Literary Gifts

To be a writer is not always easy. Kurt Vonnegut, a major american author of the twentieth century who combined social commentary with science fiction, and talked much about his own experiences as a prisoner of war in world war two, once had a job writing for a sports publication.

He was assigned the task of writing about a famous racehorse which had broken free, and jumped over a fence while trying to run away. Vonnegut sat and stared at his typwwriter ( a primitive form of word processor without a computer attached, in which what one types is immediately printed out on something called "paper") all day, without producing a single word. Finally, about quitting time, he typed out "the fucking horse jumped over the fucking fence."

IN sri lanka, that remote nation in the southern part of the world, a meteorologist got himself into hot water by misusing his literary gifts. He was in charge of assigning names to cyclones, much like names are given to hurricanes in the northern western hemisphere.

After giving the matter some thought, the weather man decided to name the approaching cyclone after a famous fourth century sri lankan king, which to him seened most appropiate, considering the strength of the gathering storm.

However, a public outcry ensued. This fourth century king had been a most productive ruler, having instigated and overseen the construction of a network of canals which facilitated transportation and allowed for a greatly increased food crop yield, which was credited with saving the nation, and bringing prosperity to all.

Because of this, the king has since been revered as a god. It seems sri lankans regarded a cyclone as a destructive evil, and considered it insultingly inappropiate to name it afte such a cherished historical figure. The meteorologist instantly apologized for his oversight, and promplty renamed the storm, after some evil demon from days of yore.

No comments:

Post a Comment