Parshu Shrestha
[First published in: CET Journal (Autumn Issue), Volume II, no. 2. (2010). Page no. 64-66.]
- Introduction
The idea of subjective impressions in creation and judgment of arts is related to aestheticism, which was mainly developed in the late Victorian era in England. It was a movement against the then Victorian moralities and hypocrisies in an attempt to inspire to seek pleasure instead of morality and utility in art.
Walter Pater (1839-94), regarded as the father of English Aestheticism, was the first person to introduce the views of French aestheticism into Victorian England. He advocated of “the love of art for its own sake” (Abrams, 2004, p. 3). Pater’s aestheticism is impressionistic aestheticism, i.e. he gave importance to subjective impressions of people and things in an artist at the moment of creation.
This article is an analysis of the novel Palpasa Café by Narayan Wagle on the model of Pater’s impressionistic aestheticism. It has analyzed the presence of the idea of subjective impressions in the novel.
It contains 1) Introduction, 2) Pater’s assumptions of Subjective Impressions, 3) Presence of the Idea of Subjective Impressions in the Novel, and 4) Conclusion.
- Pater’s Assumptions of Subjective Impressions
Walter Pater’s ideas regarding subjective impressions expressed in his Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) can be summarized as follows:
- ‘Impression’ of an object along with its beauty is important. A beautiful object produces ‘special impression of beauty or pleasure’.
- A work of art is judged subjectively. Art must give pleasure and exert charm as it excites or surprises the observers.
- Beauty, which is untranslatable, is an order of distinct impressions.
- Art is for Art’s sake. Impressions of an art work may vary from person to person. But art should not be judged for its objective or goal.
- Presence of the Idea of Subjective Impressions in the Novel
- Summary of the Plot
The novel is in double narrative form. The first narrator is a newspaper editor who has written a novel Pulpasa Café. It is the story of Drishya, his artist friend. So the core story is told by Drishya. The novel is just finished, and the editor waits for Drishya in a restaurant. Meanwhile, Drishya is abducted by five unidentified people from his gallery. The novel ends without providing his whereabouts.
Drishya meets Palpasa in Goa. Then, they fall in love. Meanwhile, Drishya goes to his village in trekking with Siddhartha, his former college friend and now an underground Maoist leader, without returning from village, Drishya unexpectedly meets Palpasa on the bus, which falls prey to a bomb explosion caused by Maoists shortly after. Drishya escapes, but Palpasa is killed.
After the mishap, Drishya returns alone and makes a series of paintings. He has also a plan of establishing a resort, Palpasa Café, with a library, an art gallery and internet facilities, at a hillside. But his plan remains incomplete.
- Use of Subjective Impressions in Creation and Judgment of Arts
Drishya is the protagonist as well as the narrator of the novel. So, naturally his action and ideals have dominated the plot of the novel. His artistic creations are also affected by his ideals.
Drishya is a self-declared aesthete, as he says, “If I believe in any ism, it’s aestheticism” (Wagle, 2008, p.80). Therefore, the practice of subjective impressions, which is an indispensable idea of aestheticism, is expected in his manners.
As hoped by the reader, Drishya paints his pictures according to the impressions of objects or people around him. He tries to incorporate his personal inspirations of things. He has his own style of using colors, shade and light. He doesn’t paint an object as it is. Therefore, he paints the Chandragiri Hills “orange” (Wagle, 2008, p. 46) instead of using the usual green color for it.
After Palpasa’s death, Drishya doesn’t see any difference between blood and vermillion. He is intoxicated with bloody impressions. So, he uses color as his “weapon” to fight against his opposite forces. He also mixes the colors according to “the mood” (Wagle, 2008, p. 221).
After the first meeting with Palpasa in Goa, Drishya once accidently reaches Palpasa’s house in Kathmandu. At first, he doesn’t know who the house owner is. He is there in search of a book about painting. He likes the structure and decoration of the house and its garden very much. He especially likes the Buddha statue in the garden. He thinks “… Artists live on a higher plane. They create a separate world, another reality. They conjure characters from their minds” (Wagle, 2008, p. 49). His idea is similar to that of Walter Pater about an artistic genius. For Pater, the artistic genius has the ability of “conceiving humanity in a new and striking way” (Pater, 1873, p. 213). A person who has this genius can create a world happier than the mean world we are living in. He or she can select, change or modify the images according to his or her own imaginative power.
Drishya appreciates the Buddha idol’s eyes, and imagines himself creating the same art. Certainly his present mood would affect his creation of art. He is in illusion, so he admits that the eyes of the Budhha idol would be “crowded with illusions” (Wagle, 2008, p. 49).
When Kapil, Drishya’s friend, asks the meaning of his painting ‘Langtang 1995’, at a get-together party, Drishya suggests him to “go beyond what’s represented and try to feel the mood” (Wagle, 2008, p. 67), i. e. to be subjective. His painting doesn’t represent the real object Langtang, but it has captured just ‘the mood of 95’. Mood is related to mind. It is not always the same. It gets changed in due course of time.
Drishya frequently admits, many times in course of his narration, that his art is impressionistic. Drishya has been very much impressed by his village surroundings. He says he has learnt different skills of his art from natural things like hills, mustard fields, wind, water, etc.
After Palpasa’s death, Drishya goes to Palpasa’s house to meet her grandmother. There, he again sees the same idol of Buddha which had fascinated with its beautiful eyes. This time, he sees no peace in the eyes. He thinks: “If this Buddha were made today, he’d carry a gun in his hands” (Wagle, 2008, p. 191). Definitely, the creator of the Buddha would incorporate his present impression into his creation.
After losing Palpasa, he starts making new paintings named ‘Palpasa Series’. These paintings are “a reflection” of his journey and his sufferings, so he can’t be objective” (Wagle, 2008, p. 212).
After completing the paintings, he puts them in auction in his gallery. When his customers, a Japanese couple, ask him about his way of mixing colors, he replies that he does it “as the mood takes” him. He further says: “The language of color depends on the eye of the viewer. …colors depend on the way you see them” (Wagle, 2008, p. 221).
Drishya admits a relationship between the hills, the seasons and the colors in the painting, and says that his painting carries the impression because he grew up with “the colors the flowers painted the hills” (Wagle, 2008, p. 225).
Palpasa, a fan of Drishya’s paintings, has also many subjective impressions. Drishya’s works seem “romantic” and having “something new” every time (Wagle, 2008, p. 20) to her.
Palpasa is very much charmed by a particular painting named ‘Rain’, in which a long yellow leaf is falling. “The leaf falls and falls but never touches the ground,” Palpasa writes in a letter to Drishya, “I feel like that leaf” (Wagle, 2008, p. 28). The picture represents Palpasa’s unstable mood.
Palpasa thinks that a viewer understands a painting or an art work according to his or her inner state of mind. The same painting might carry different meanings for other viewers. So, she writes to Drishya that the true depths of a painting “lie in the mind of the viewer” (Wagle, 2008, p. 21).
Palpasa also says Drishya’s work has “left its mark” (Wagle, 2008, p. 24) on her. She tries to know Drishya through the pages of his book because she believes that “Words can be a mirror of the self” (Wagle, 2008, p. 25).
- Conclusion
The study shows that the idea of subjective impressions is boldly present in the novel. The way Drishya is influenced by the surroundings and his style of including his personal impressions or inspirations in his creations support it. His manners support his words. He is a self-declared aesthete who believes in aestheticism and practices subjective impressions.
References
Abrams, M. H. (2004). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Bangalore: Prism Books.
Pater, W. (2007, July 05). Studies in the History of the Renaissance. The Victorian Web. http://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/ Victorian/authors/ pater/ index. Html
Wagle, N. (2008). Palpasa Café. B.Sangraula, Trans.). Kathmandu: Nepalaya.
(Parshu Shrestha (1981) teaches English at SOS Hermann Gmeiner Secondary School Itahari and Vishwa Adarsha College, Itahari, Sunsari.)