Golden Peacock - Thoughts and Perspectives

Me and literature

Personal benefits from literature

Whenever I think back to the people I have been grateful to in some way in my life, the face of Teacher Shwe Tan, who first taught me to adopt the habit of reading, comes to mind. As the summer school holidays of 1905 drew near, the temperature was rising day by day. As the students (and teachers too) grew restless and reluctant to study, our eighth-grade teacher, Teacher Shwe Tan, put down his textbooks and began to preach the benefits of reading. Some of the older students complained that they would die if they had to read more books every night, even though they were bored (he was a teacher who was very much respected and feared, but he did not dare to say it directly). Teacher Shwe Tan replied that every lesson was not boring, He said that English novels are very enjoyable and a great help in English studies.

How I first met Charles Dickens

At that time, I was sixteen years old, but I had never read a single book except for Columbus and Robinson Crusoe, which I had studied as a class. Columbus was not a novel, but a biography of a real person. At the end of the teacher's speech, the students asked where they could get English novels and what kind of novels they should read. Teacher Shwe Tan said that he had a collection of novels by famous English writers such as Scott and Dickens , and they could borrow one from each. Finally, when the school was over, four or five students who wanted to borrow books went to the teacher's house and borrowed one by one. I got a great novel called Burma by Rudge by Dickens.

I can only read it pretending.

During the 45-day school closure, I was able to open a thick, thick novel in front of my parents and pretend to read it. My parents, who were sixteen (8) years old, were very proud to see me, the youngest student in the whole group, and still able to read a thick English book. In fact, I, who was only an (8) grader, could not understand more than the old man in Dickens's Barnabas (7) listening to the sound of a pipe smoking while listening to the sound of a bell. Even a dictionary was no help in such a distant text.

You should make reading a habit.

When the school reopened and the books were returned, the teacher asked each of them what they understood from their books. There were only those who did not understand like me, and no one could read them with pleasure. Then the teacher concluded by saying that these great novels were too difficult for 8th graders, so they should start with easier ones, and that they should try to develop a reading habit by any means.

I found the taste.

One day, while visiting a very close friend's house, I came across a book of Pathi stories translated into English and borrowed it without hesitation. This kind of story is not a novel, but a story, so it is not difficult to understand. At the age of 16-17, when I was a child who fantasized about things like kanari, kanara, garu, and naga, reading Pathi stories was as exciting as the proverbs of a betel nut. I read it day and night. During this time, my parents also praised me, saying, "My son is studying hard," but I didn't know how to eat, how to cook, or how to walk. I was addicted to it until I got sick. Pathi stories are not for adults, Even if it is said that it is only for children, men and women who have never read fairy tales and become adults have not fully experienced the fantasy that young people should experience, so in a way, they have failed to become human. Since people have their own age-appropriate pleasures, adults who have never played the game of chess, the game of chess, and the game of chess should not have been worthy of being children. (Sadly, more than half of the games we enjoyed as children have disappeared in this era.) If children play, they will lose their minds.

Step by step

Thanks to the repeated reading of Pathi stories, I developed a passion for reading novels and became the first in my class to excel in English. My classmates, who had previously been “train-pushed,” saw my rapid progress and began to ask me questions and seek my advice. From that year on, I never stopped reading, and I expanded my horizons from novels to newspapers, magazines, and books called “literature.”

There is also good.

In 1914, after I had become bored with my field clerkship and had been laid off from my job at the billiard table, it was thanks to reading that I remembered to try my hand at writing. I thought I was the only government employee who had been laid off from his job and had been laid off from his job, so I thought that this behavior was also the result of reading novels. If I wrote well, I wanted to be promoted, and I was afraid of losing my job. But I did not want to be promoted, and I did not think that field clerkship was worth it, so on the day of my leave, I went to play billiards in Sagaing City (with U Lu Kalay, the Mandalay Municipal Revenue Officer). These things also seem to be the result of reading novels (good and bad aside).

How to become a writer

In November 1914, I began to think that it would be better to become a novelist instead of pursuing other careers. I had no experience in writing. After reading so many novels, I decided to try to come up with a novel of my own. This is where the novel “Rang Gyi Aung” came into being and flourished. In other words, my becoming a writer was the result of reading so many novels.

Stylish tone

Just as there are different styles of walking, gestures, and body language , so there are different styles of writing. Some writers do not seem to understand the importance of this. It is true that a certain style develops in those who write a lot, but it is also possible to develop a good and neat style by practicing. In sports such as tennis, golf, and badminton, champions learn from teachers how to hold the racket, how to raise their hands, how to move their bodies, etc., so in writing, they learn the syntax and punctuation of words by the example of a good teacher. In this case, a teacher cannot teach them, but they must memorize the text of a good writer by reading it repeatedly and making it enjoyable in their minds.

Teacher Makko Lae

Since I became a reader, I have read English books more than Burmese books. In fact, at that time, there were not even three or four years of Burmese books for pleasure. Of all the English books I have read, the style of writing that has stuck in my mind is Lord Mackay. This writer does not write in one line or in a random way, but is neat and tidy, like the “Kandan Ko Took’s Jin” children. (When we were children, Kandan Ko Took’s Jin was famous in the game of gin. In the gin circle where children played gin, if it was a piece of art, you could tell just by looking at it.) Because Makkay’s writings were stuck in my head, I did not memorize them deliberately, but I could recite many passages. How many times have I been so impressed that I can tell immediately by just looking at a single sentence that this writing is either by Makka Lay or by his style. Since I read most English and write in Burmese, it is difficult to say whose style it is. However, what I have noticed is that the style (like handwriting) is consistent regardless of the language. Whether it is English or Burmese, a person’s handwriting is the same. I think the same thing will happen with style. My students, Thawta Swe, Ngwe U Daung, etc., find good information in my writing (whether it is my own sour fish or sour nature), so I am convinced (whether or not) that Makka Lay’s style has been transmitted from Makka Lay’s English. Some of Makkaw's sentences gave me goosebumps, and I would be happy if someone could tell me that they had a boner in their spine, just like a chicken's egg.

I am satisfied with my life.

I sometimes wonder what kind of person I would be if I had not been a reader. In fact, I would have worked my way up through the ranks of government, like many others, and now I am a retired citizen. My biological father, who had a hard time finding a job, was sometimes proud of his writing, but he was generally not satisfied. As for me (although I was a Catholic in the Japanese era when it was impossible to make a living with a pen), I have never felt any regret when I look at those who have served with me and become important people. The important people who are important and pensioners often say, "The sword is not sharp enough to cut them," but I have never felt so dissatisfied with my own situation. Although there is no one to support me, I am content with my life without anyone to support me. The benefits of a good novel

The question is, what are some of the things that make you better than others because you have read good novels? While it is said that the qualities such as growth, leadership, moral virtue, spreading the good name, and skillful management are due to karma, intelligence, and diligence, the naive children also think that the creatures