That's The Way

This post is about

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, and more particularly, his Nobel lecture.

Click for Lecture

That's his lecture in text form. There is also a video version on there, but I read the text instead. I don't know why, maybe because I'm crazy.

He truly amazes me with the amount of knowledge he has and the amount of reading he has done. 90% of the references he made was never seen before by me, further substantiating my ignorance. (But of cause I shrieked like one of those teenage girls catching sight of Zac Efron when he made a reference to Catcher In The Rye.)

But most importantly, the message he sent out in his lecture rang loud and clear in my head. Seeing that it is likely none of you would read the lecture, and the lack of writing capability on my part, I will paste his conclusion here.

"For all his pessimism, Stig Dagerman's phrase about the fundamental paradox of the writer, unsatisfied because he cannot communicate with those who are hungry—whether for nourishment or for knowledge—touches on the greatest truth. Literacy and the struggle against hunger are connected, closely interdependent. One cannot succeed without the other. Both of them require, indeed urge, us to act. So that in this third millennium, which has only just begun, no child on our shared planet, regardless of gender or language or religion, shall be abandoned to hunger or ignorance, or turned away from the feast. This child carries within him the future of our human race. In the words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, a very long time ago, the kingdom belongs to a child."

Perhaps the only thing I do not agree with him on is that he believes poverty and illiteracy should be eliminated by the end of the millennium, whereas I believe it should be achieved much, much sooner. Perhaps in my lifetime.

But nevertheless, the message is clear. "No child on our shared planet, regardless of gender or language or religion, shall be abandoned to hunger or ignorance."

Similarly, I too, feel a sense of un-satisfaction, knowing that the people that this message should get across to, will never read this. Time and again, I have wrote about ignorance and how it shouldn't exist, knowing damn well that what I wrote would make no difference, as the truly ignorant have long ago ceased visiting my blog. Despite my ignorance, I am very aware of that fact.


Perhaps my next post should be about Paris Hilton or Jay Chou. Or I should write stories using pop culture or materialistic things as metaphors to get my point across. I'll think about it.


TY