“Life is ups and downs, light and shade, sun and cloud, opposites and opposites! Even the van belonging to Our der dam’ Dumb Friends’ League! Hell, the dumb are barking! Damme, you need salt to season salt-water fish! Take anything and you will find the oppoite! Banerrji, imagination boggles at the contrasts I have indexed for reference purposes! Example, man-woman, honesty-dishonesty, day-night, perfume-stink, saints-swine. I have been working very hard old feller. If I cannot leave anything to posterity, I should like to leave the fellers this self-realised medico-philosophical conclusion as to Life. Life is contrast!”
This truly was one of my favorite passages of the novel. A lot of times it does take the negative to illuminate the positive, or the experiencing or exposing of one factor to shed light on the opposing factor. I think this theme can be seen in many instances in the novels which we have read so far in this class, as well as in life in general. For instance, we probably never appreciated the simple or straight-forward writing styles of some of the other authors we have read until our encounter with the complex of Joyce or outright bizarre of Desani.
Also, I think this passage helps to serve as a contrast to much of what is occurring in the majority of the novel. Much of this work does seem nothing more than purely nonsensical, but there are a few select passages, such as this one, with truly interesting and insightful interjections, which we also might not have paid such close attention to or appreciated so much if it weren’t for the remaining rather unintelligible passages serving as contrast.
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I think Desani, like Joyce, is attempting to portray his state of mind, and both authors do this in an unconventional ways that tie us up in allusions and complicated language. I think Joyce would agree that, “Life is contrast.” Both of their protagonists seem to embrace the grimy aspects of their experience and consider those experiences just as or more important than the rosy ones. I think works like that of Joyce and Desani could have been more enjoyable then they were to many of us this semester, but appreciating these novels comes with lots of work. What we were able to deduce from these complex novels certainly advanced our understanding of themes of this course on colonial education. I can say I got through Portrait, and I can say I enjoyed it, but I’m not so sure I can say I understood it.
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