Enjoy For Free العشب يغني Formulated By Doris Lessing Presented In Multimedia Book

Grass is Singing is Doris Lessing's first novel, published in, It is a savage and stark indictment of South Africa's apartheid system, It is set in what was formerly Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and concentrates on Rhodesian white culture with its racist and prejudiced attitudes, The system of gross racial injustice dominates both the society and this story,

The novel is told in flashback, At the beginning of chapter one there is a brief news report of the murder of a white woman plus her assailant's arrest and the purported motive for the crime.
The rest of the book details the events leading up to this, with Mary Turner, the victim, as the main character, It is manylayered, the characters being not only individuals in their own right, but also "types" indicating the strata of complex society in South Africa at that time in history.
The local culture is not rich and the humiliating results of poverty are always apparent,

Before the long flashback, however, we have chapter one, which is particularly hard to read, The attitudes by each character, whilst varying in degrees, display such incipient arrogance and complicit acceptance of both the corrupt regime and its hidden implications, that the reader is all too aware that these views are only the tip of the iceberg.
It is a manipulative and exceptionally well crafted piece of writing,

One character, Tony Marston, has recently come from England, He is portrayed as having the typical views of a newcomer to the country, with misguided views of equality, He will soon learn the ways of South Africa, the others think indulgently, And these ways vary from treating the "natives" and yes, an even worse "n" word is also used as less than human, the "masters" having an unwavering conviction of their entitlement to maltreat, bully and beat these workers with a "sjambok", even sometimes until death if they deem it necessary.
Such a sorry event would be

passed off with a shrug, White women were taught from a very early age to live in fear of the natives, that as a group they were untrustworthy, The shades of attitude vary, the other end of the spectrum being that the natives were alright if you knew how to handle them, They knew their place, and the master knew his,

The repugnance felt by modern readers towards this whole spectrum of views is compounded by the fact that these are overt and explicit, This is the system of apartheid, This is the status quo, Far worse lies underneath, and this introductory chapter indicates with hints, veiled expressions, subterfuge and things left unsaid, that there are are additional ugly factors at work, The recently arrived English character is a useful hook for the reader to identify with, at this point, He knows something is badly amiss and hates the arrogance, intolerance and prejudice that he sees in neighbouring farmers such as Charlie Slatter, He also knows that plenty of people in his position give up trying to farm under such conditions, and are viewed by those who stay as not hard enough not up to either the unforgiving land and weather, or the imposed social regime either.


The novel itself does a thorough job of describing how each character has become what they are, Mary and Dick were two sad characters whom the reader sees very early on should never have married, For reasons that become clear on reading the novel, Mary should never have entered the farming community, Dick for his part, was a struggling farmer who wanted a family, but did not know how to choose one, The neighbours variously made successes of their lives, by their own terms, They all had a view of the "homeland" England even though some had never stepped foot in it, having been born in South Africa, And they all had a view of solidarity, of the way things should be, and that they had no connection with the "natives", who came from their "kraal", except as their servants or workers.
They were only concerned with what the natives could do for them, viewing it as their inalienable right,

The book is solidly set in its location, The natural strength and hostility of the South African landscape, the allpervading poverty, the white townships, "ugly little houses stuck anyhow over the veld, that had no relationship with the hard brown African soil and the arching blue sky", the unbearable heat of the corrugated iron and brick houses aggravating the desperations and tensions of the characters, are all conveyed very well.
It is a finely judged and balanced book with a good narrative flow, ahead of its time, written by an author who went on to write exemplary works, So why does it not getstars, Have you perhaps deduced why from this description

There are no black viewpoint characters, Not one. Even Moses, who was arrested in the first chapter, is not fleshed out his actions are merely reported without any comment, insight or indeed any given motivation, The reader has to infer a resentment against the corrupt system, and that Mary is his personal representative of it, We are told that he came from a mission school, just as we were told briefly where the original old servant Samson came from, The author describes as a group where the natives come from, and how far they travel in search of work, Doris Lessing allows them to vary in looks, in attitude to work and other superficial indications, But they are not filled out in anything like as much depth as the white characters,

Dick Turner, one of the more sympathetic white main characters, feels aggrieved, thinking of of the South African government as being "under the influence of nlovers from England.
" And the newcomer Tony Marston, "had the conventionally "progressive" ideas about the colour bar, the superficial progressiveness of the idealist that seldom survives a conflict with selfinterest, "

The author repeatedly castigates her white characters by implication, for lumping all "natives" together, Yet she does precisely that herself in this novel, In addition to the lack of characterisation of nonwhites, Doris Lessing talks about "the genus native", At another point she refers to, "a native, . . conveniently endowed by nature with the ability to walk long distances without feeling fatigue, " Is it deliberate Is it an attempt to make the point about one culture alienating another even stronger If so I think it misfires,

The ending of the book is beautifully written, Mary's gradual mental deterioration into a complete breakdown is very convincing, and the reader is unsure what is real and what is in her mind, There is an hypnotic and oppressive feeling in this final chapter, Clearly we are invited to feel that the ending was inevitable that the characters of Moses and Mary are puppets, or victims of their own doom, Yet nothing earlier in the novel had indicated any feelings on Moses' part, except for a brief moment of surprise and pity, when Mary had begged him not to leave, back before her depression took hold.
But at the end of the novel, Lessing says of Moses, "what thought of regret, or pity, or perhaps even wounded human affection were compounded with the satisfaction of his completed revenge, it is impossible to say.
" Why, exactly This idea of an enigmatic native "type" is not only inaccurate but very distasteful,

It is a brave book for its time, And it is extremely well written, by an author who went on to be a Nobel prize winner, But this is far from an exemplary work,




My Personal Glossary of terms:

Veld wide open rural spaces of Southern Africa, It is used in particular to refer to flatter areas or districts covered in grass or low scrub, especially in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia,

Vlei a shallow minor lake of an intermittent nature, Seasonal ponds or marshy patches where frogs and similar marsh dwellers breed,

Kopje a small isolated hill,

Kraal a homestead and usually included a simple fenced in enclosure for animals, fields for growing crops and one or more thatched huts, Afrikaans and Dutch word also used in South African English for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock,

Kitchen Kaffir dated now offensive Fanagalo, a Zulubased pidgin language,

Compound Closed labour camp of migrant male workers from rural homes in Bantustans or Homelands to the mines and jobs in urban settings generally, One of the major cogs in the apartheid state, Flash points for unrest in the last years of apartheid,

Sjambok official heavy leather whip of South Africa, sometimes seen as synonymous with apartheid,

Mashonaland a region in northern Zimbabwe,

Lobengula the second and last king of the Ndebele people, usually called Matabele in English, Migrant workers from there. في رواية "العشب يغنى" تتناول "دوريس ليسنج" السياسات العنصرية بين البيض والسود في إحدي المستعمرات البريطانية إبان الحرب العالمية الثانية حيث ارتفعت الأصوات في هذا الوقت مطالبة بأهمية إلغاء التمييز العنصري وضرورة الاعتراف بوهم تميز الجنس الأبيض علي الجنس الأسود. The Grass Is Singing, Doris Lessing
The Grass Is Singing is the first novel, published in, by British Nobel Prizewinning author Doris Lessing, The novel begins with a newspaper clipping about the death of Mary Turner, a white woman, killed off by her black servant Moses for money, The news actually acts like an omen for other white people living in that African setting, After looking at the article, people behave as if the murder was very much expected, The bulk of the novel is a flashback of Mary Turner's life up to her murder at the hand of Moses in the last chapter,
Mary has a content life as a single white Rhodesian we assume, though the novel refers to both Rhodesia and the Union of South Africa simply as South Africa, while making clear the farm is in Southern Rhodesia woman.
She has a fine job, numerous friends, and values her independence, Nevertheless, after overhearing an insulting remark at a party about her spinsterhood, she resolves to marry, After a brief courtship, she marries Dick Turner, a white farmer struggling to make his farm profitable, She moves with him to his farm and runs the household, while Dick manages the labor of the farm, Dick and Mary are somewhat cold and distant from each other but are committed to their marriage, They live together an apolitical life mired in poverty, When Dick gets sick Mary takes over the management of the farm and rages at the incompetence of her husband's farm practice, To Mary, the farm exists only to make money, while Dick goes about farming in a more idealistic way, Their life together is solitary, Because of their poverty Dick refuses to give Mary a child, They do not attend social events, yet are a great topic of interest among their neighbors, Mary feels an intimate connection with the nature around her, though being in general rather unexplorative in nature,

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هفتم ماه دسامبر سالمیلادی
عنوان: علفها آواز میخوانند نویسنده: دوریس لسینگ مترجم: آذر کریمی تهران: آذربددرص شابک:چاپ دیگر: تهران: آشیانه کتابدروص مصور عکس شابک:چاپ دومچاپ سومموضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیایی سدهم

داستان در آفریقای جنوبی تحت سلطه ی سفیدپوستان میگذرد, رمان علفها آواز میخوانند شرح از هم پاشیدگی انسانها و همچنین نقدی بسیار جامع و کامل اما کمتر دیده شده از مسائل اجتماعی است. ماری ترنر از یک زن جوان با اعتماد به نفس و مستقل تبدیل به همسر افسرده و مستأصل یک مزرعه دار ناموفق میشود. با گذشت سالها کار و فشار مزرعه طاقت فرساتر شده و یأس و فروماندگی ماری رو به فزونی میگذارد تا اینکه یک برده ی سیاه پوست مرموز و تنومند به نام موسی وارد زندگی آنها میشود. ماری و موسی ارباب و برده که در زندان غم و اندوه خود اسیر گشته اند دائما احساسات متناقضی همچون علاقه و نفرت را نسبت به یکدیگر تجربه میکنند. انفجار تنش روحی و روانی میان دو شخصیت در صحنه ای به یادماندنی از این حکایت جذاب درباره ی نزاعهای نژادی در آفریقای جنوبی تحت استعمار را به سرانجام میرساند. علفها آواز میخوانند از راه ترکیب ذهن خلاق لسینگ با یادمانهای تجربه شده ی او در کودکی خطرات و مسیر زندگی نفسگیر یک زن را در ستیز با سرنوشت بی رحمانه ی خود نشان میدهد. نقل نمونه هایی از متن: کسانی که از روی ضرورت یا به دلخواه تنها زندگی میکنند و کاری به کار همسایه ها ندارند اگر بفهمند دیگران پشت سر آنها چه حرفهایی میزنند سخت ناراحت و برآشفته میشوند. درست مثل کسانی که از خواب میپرند و میبینند عده ای غریبه دورشان را گرفته و به آنها خیره شده اند. دیروز صبح جسد مری ترنر همسر ریچارد ترنر کشاورزی در گوسی در جلوی ایوان خانه شان پیدا شد. خدمتکار خانه که دستگیر شده به جنایت خود اعتراف کرده است. انگیزه ی این قتل هنوز روشن نشده است ولی به نظر میرسد که قاتل در پی سرقت اموال خانواده ترنر بوده است. روزنامه بیش از این چیزی نگفت. مردم سراسر کشور حتما نگاهی به این پاراگراف و عنوان مهیج آن انداختند و فورانی از خشم که تا حدی با رضایت آمیخته بود در درون خود احساس کردند. مثل این بود که باور قدیمی آنها باز هم تایید شده بود. گویا ماجرایی اتفاق افتاده بو که میشد انتظار آن را داشت هر بار که مردمان بومی دست به دزدی قتل و یا تجاوز میزنند سفیدپوستان همین احساس را دارند بعد هم روزنامه را ورق میزدند و به مطلبی دیگر مشغول شدند. پایان نقل. ا. شربیانی.