'In Praise of Shadows'
I once had a teacher who said she decides on a book to buy or read by simply walking around the shelves and randomly picking one that speaks to her. Back then I wondered, how a book would speak to you if you haven't read it. But I was intrigued by the idea and ever since kept an eye out for books that 'spoke to me'. So I never restricted myself to any genre feeling that I would miss out on something if I did. Instead, I loved coming across books rather serendipitously. There will be something about it that catches your attention - the title or the cover page or what someone thought about it. Like a hint from the universe, unveilng a secret that I was finally ready for.
One such book that I came across recently is 'In Praise of Shadows' by the Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. I saw it on Ms. Lipi's Instagram story and the title caught my eye. Shadows are not something we notice, let alone praise. But it is that something that we tend to ignore, in spite of its importance in adding depth and beauty to everything around us. It lies forgotten despite its ubiquity, like the air we breath or the sky over heads.
I got myself the book on Audible. So I listened, rather than read it. There are some parts of the book that do sound like an old man's rant. Like the cloying thing that our grandparents' generation does when they don't like how different our lives are compared to theirs and glorify bygone times. But it all made sense. While it is natural for anybody to feel that things were better in the past, I was troubled by the allusion to how the modern day conveniences cater exclusively to the youth. It reminded me how I have seen my parents and their peers struggle with almost everything we have taken for granted or comes naturally to our generation. It was a painful reminder of the fact that we are indifferent to the needs of a large chunk of people, in pretty much everything we do.
I think he touches upon the contrasting ideologies of the west and the east, in an attempt to account for this thoughtless misdeed. He reasons that 'we lost out on the poetry of life because the Western idea of progress was imposed on us'. Maybe it was another inevitable consequence of colonization. Foreign rule hindered the organic growth of our civilizations and we fell prey to imitating the West. This is best illustrated in -
““Japanese paper gives us a certain feeling of warmth, of calm and repose… Western paper turns away the light, while our paper seems to take it in, to envelop it gently, like the soft surface of a first snowfall. It gives off no sound when it is crumpled or folded, it is quiet and pliant to the touch as the leaf of a tree.” ”
This rather poetic description of something as mundane as paper gave me goosebumps. Tanziaki retains this somber elegance throughout his writing.
What this essay-length book focuses mainly on is the subtle, elusive mystery woven by shadows. He sounds almost reverential as he tries to capture the palpable spell of light and shadow. Tanziaki writes - "We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates… Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty."
This assertion reinforces the universal idea of duality. Nothing can exist by itself. It is the shadows that give light 'a complexion of life'. Without it, light is a mere void. The shadows are what adds the element of delight to all. It is in line with the idea of celebrating imperfections when the author points out the Japanese preferring 'pensive luster to shallow brilliance' and the 'sheen of antiquity'. The years of having conceded to human touch is the secret to this refined aesthetic. And like Tanziaki points out, there is a sort of peace and repose in honoring this simplicity.