One needs to understand that both classical and romantic understanding have to exist together! A huge split has occurred in the world because of our misconstruing the entire concept.  When I say world, it not only means the outer world. One also needs to understand the fact that one can’t exist without the other.

Now that you have an idea as to what the two kinds of human understanding are, I would like to delve deeper into the topic. I would like to put forth my thoughts on the subject.

God and abstract ideas are the only entities that defy the laws of human understanding. We associate human beings with their corresponding forms and the first thing that strikes a person when talking about another is his appearance. So that would correspond to romantic understanding. We,  human beings exist such that we give importance first to the romantic side and not the classical one. I don’t think people can deny the fact. What, I can hear you asking, happens to blind people then? Simple. They hear a person’s voice and judge him which again falls under romantic understanding. But human beings must see to that they don’t become slaves to their sense organs. The sense organs, which help boost  romantic understanding, may delude a person and make life miserable. Rather than controlling the organs, man, in the name of intellect, gets controlled by them. A man deluded by the sense organs and in turn, by the romantic form, starts leading a hypocritical life.

Abstract ideas like quality and value, on the other hand are classical. You don’t associate pictures to such ideas. The same can be said of God. (By proclaiming so, I wish to make clear that I am not an atheist or an agnostic) I wouldn’t go to the extent of giving a shape to Him. He’s above all that, in my opinion! The point is, why make God another victim of romantic understanding by associating Him with images?

Is it hypocritical to give importance to romantic forms? No, not all. If the sentence were “Is it hypocritical to give importance to romantic forms alone?”, the answer would be a big yes.  As I had mentioned previously, there should be a right mixture of classical and romantic understanding. Humans at first glance, undoubtedly get attracted by the forms. By this, I don’t mean to say one needs to shun romantic understanding at all, because he/she can’t. That’s the way the mind works.

Let’s take for example, the case of books. Supposing a normal person is made to choose between two books. One, Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte or Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. What do you think the average person would go for? Twilight, undoubtedly. Why do you think comics make it big? Or why do you think a normal person has an aptitude for languages and not for other subjects like Science and Maths? Blame it on romantic understanding! In all these cases, the human mind gets attracted by creativity! One is likely to pick up a fantasy fiction novel when compared to a serious novel! I am speaking about a normal person here. I am likely to pick Bronte or Camus or Balzac or any damned author. (Why do I say damned? These people failed to look at the romantic side of human understanding.) I might as well stop with this example because I were to continue talking about books, you might get bored at some point.

Thousands of years ago, primitive men made the best use of romantic understanding. They associated romantic understanding with religion to make people get interested in God. They created images  and sculptures of Him and created parables so people would get acquainted better with their religion. By stating this, I don’t mean to say such parables are fictitious. They may have been true but I personally think the contribution of primitive men to religion must have a special mention here.

Would I call myself the classical kind or the romantic kind? I can’t say! If I were to say that I fall under the former category, that would sound hypocritical because I happen to be a Homo sapien who’s no different from others. I wouldn’t vouch for the latter too, because then again, your intellect gets controlled by the sense organs that pave the way for romantic understanding. When I say romantic, I mean things like creative pursuits. The main basis of art, poetry and literature is romantic understanding. I am perhaps 80% classical and 20% romantic. I don’t have a clue what makes me say so. It might be perversion. Or I might be 60% classical and 40% romantic. But then wait, how can I rely on my thoughts alone to come to a conclusion? Even if I were to consider myself as an intellectual, wouldn’t the stream of thoughts lead me astray by being transient? Is there another medium with which a person can think clearly without getting digressed? Some medium that helps us hold on to our thoughts? This , in my opinion, is the biggest problem with classical understanding. When you get inundated by thoughts, the intellect gets challenged even more, which ultimately results in more thoughts, more views. It’s a bootstrapping problem. You view a thing in various angles and this only exacerbates matters. One second you are happy with the thought that you think suits the thing best but the next moment, before you even know what’s happening, the thought gets transcended to another. When that thought isn’t satisfying, you move on, coming back to square one in the end. You absolutely have no idea why you thought of the problem in the first place. You start thinking about something and end up finding out something else. Romantic understanding seems much better. But I don’t wish to sacrifice my intellect. Even if classical understanding helps me understand nothing, I will only be too happy to stick to it. Now, what’s the thershold of classical understanding? Fanaticism. Insecurity. The feeling of being lost.. but in what? In oneself, maybe! Just like the way one clings to a religion. I wouldn’t call it insanity. To be insane you need to be sane first. How does one measure sanity? Or rather, what is sanity? What does one do in order to be sane? What do you get as a result of fanatic Classical understanding? Sanity in the insane world. Your intellect won’t tell you if you are sane or insane. How can it when you are lost in yourself? The others can’t, too, because they are too busy worrying about your non-existent romantic thinking that their intellect gets attacked by thoughts of jealousy.  So, insanity and sanity are to be understood the other way round when they are spoken.

According to Robert Pirsig, there are two forms of understanding, as we have been discussing all along. According to my hypothesis, the classical and romantic understanding are themselves divided further;  radical classical and romantic understanding and conservative classical and romantic understanding. Radical classical understanding and radical romantic understanding produce non-conformists and Conservative classical understanding and conservative romantic understanding, conformists. People falling under the category, radical classical and romantic understanding, are fanatics, true to the name. I trust you would have got an idea by now.

Your thoughts on the subject are appreciated! If you have any questions as regards my hypothesis, have your say by commenting! But let’s not get too much radical or conservative!

PS: Fo your convenience,  I have uploaded the article  as a pdf on Scribd. Happy reading!

JANUARY 2009

I wanted to become an internet entrepreneur all right. But what do I do first? How do I begin? I started thinking. My cousin Narayanan and I were talking about the internet industry in general when he asked how I liked the idea of starting a magazine in print. He would help me with the marketing and all that. I thought why not but who had the time? I was a final year engineering student who had no resources nor the experience to start something big. Worse, I didn’t have an exposure to the outside world.  I was just another social media enthusiast who wanted to make it big in the internet world. I wasn’t sure if the idea would out for me. An earlier idea of a group blogging venture had not worked out so I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I was confused. I had big connections on the internet world, yes, but that alone wouldn’t suffice.

The day my cousin told me about the idea, I started thinking like crazy. To put it frankly, I was confused. I had to outweigh the positives and negatives. Coming to a conclusion isn’t an easy task when you are super overwhelmed. I knew I had a lot of contacts online, so why not make the most of it? Why not start a digital magazine instead of a magazine in print? After about thinking a LOT, I cut down my options to two. One, start a digital magazine for technology enthusiasts and two, a digital magazine for writers. The very same day, I mailed my social contacts and some of my folks asking them which would be a better idea. Their responses overwhelmed me. I had sent the mail to about 20-25 people and most of them responded. They made me ask a lot of questions and helped me find the inspiration within. Thanks a million, folks, for the support and encouragement you have showering me with! I wouldn’t be where I am if it weren’t for your consistent feedback and wishes.Well, I had finally made a decision. I was going to start a digital magazine for aspiring writers.  Having made the decision, I started approaching bloggers and aspiring writers the same month asking them if they will be interested to write for the magazine. Goes without saying that I got an awesome response.

FEBRUARY AND MARCH 2009

Frankly speaking, I had none to support me. I am talking as regards real work. Soothing words from people did help me, yes, but I did all the work myself that at point I wanted to back away. This was getting too much. I had violent mood swings. Worse, my final year project was going on. I was not going to ignore my academics and start concentrating on this.  But I wouldn’t let the fire die down no matter what. I worked whenever I had the time.  I had to bring the dream to reality no matter what. I was going to win. There was no doubt about it. I wouldn’t let people talk behind my back.

APRIL 2009

By now, I was sure that the magazine would be released in May, after my exams got over. The pdf version of the magazine was also ready. But who would design it? I only knew to write and edit. Not design. That was not my cup of tea. Whom would I approach? Worse, who would do it for free?  I wasn’t sure if this work out at all. I don’t know when or how I approached Cheth but he immediately agreed to help me. I was floating on cloud nine. Why, I would have been the happiest Homo sapien alive if my happiness scale were tested with a meter.

A particular incident that happened the same month perturbed me to an extent but I kept Nietzsche’s saying, “That which does not destroy me makes me stronger“, in mind.

I booked the domain name and hosted it on my dreamhost account, in the third week of April.

MAY 2009

I had my university exams in the second week of May. Thankfully, my university exams got over by 9th! So, I started working from 10th. I had chosen Joomla as the CMS. But when I started working on it, I found it too difficult to customise. I couldn’t install the theme. Simultaneously Chethan was working on the design. I had given him an idea as to how the layout should look. I was not sure when the magazine would be launched. I nearly lost hope. I couldn’t customise the template I had chosen and experienced technical errors to the nth degree. By the third week, I was determined to launch the magazine on 22nd of the same month. I dabbled my time  trying to customise the template, googling the errors and eating and sleeping at odd hours. Things were exacerbated by the fact that my internet connection didn’t work for 2 days. Life was truly hellish. I was desperate.

Cheth attached the magazine in his mail and it was love at first sight.

I reverted to WordPress when Joomla wouldn’t let me experiment with it. My hunt for a theme that could function as a CMS came to an end when I set my eyes on Oulipo. If I were to say that I loved it, it would be an understatement. I customised the theme and decided to give Issuu a try to give my magazine a complete look. It worked perfectly.

I, Writer, India’s first literary digital magazine for aspiring writers was launched on May 22nd, 2009 at 07:30

What more can I ask for? I, for one, don’t value success in terms of materialistic pursuits. Self-satisfaction matters the most to me.I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who’s been with me all along. I would especially like to thank all my Twitter Peeps for their awe-inspiring support. Thanks a million for everything, Tweeps!

JUNE 2009

The next issue of I, the Writer is getting ready and we have had a fantabulous response so far. Check @ithewriter on Twitter for more updates and don’t forget to subscribe to the official blog.