Generally, a writer is very ambitious about publicising his writings. He goes through a lot to manage the launching of his book, to get favourable reviews from the critics, and get publicity which attracts readers to buy it. If it becomes a bestseller, he becomes a celebrity. He is invited by universities and literary and academic organisations for lectures. Thus, he earns not only fame but also financial independence. However, for a Pakistani writer, it is only a dream to acquire fame and money on the basis of his/her writings. Still, many here try to popularise their writings and wish to become well-known intellectuals.
Why does a writer make such great efforts to propagate his writings? Perhaps, he wants that others should also share what he has written and appreciate its creativity. Or, he wants that he should be remembered by posterity on the basis of his writings. Or, he wants to educate people and create an awareness of the existing problems of society. Maybe, in some cases, his writings reflect human nature, lead to understanding human being and add to the corpus of philosophical knowledge. That is why some writers claim that they write for the benefit of society in addition to their own self pleasure or satisfaction. However, it is the law of history that the writings of only some writers survived and remembered for generation while the majority of writers and their writings are forgotten with the passage of time. Even those who were very well-known in their own time have often failed to be remembered by their writings. Books of some of these writers remain in bookshelf of the libraries, gathering dust without a reader in sight. Only those writings survive which have creativity and thought-provoking ideas.
History has seen some writers whose ultimate ambition was not just merely to be published. Virgil (d 19 BC), the great Roman poet, asked his friend to burn his classical poem Aeneid. His wish was not fulfilled by his friend and the poem survived. Why did he want to burn it? We do not have any positive or definitive answer. Perhaps, he underestimated the power and value of his poetry or maybe he believed that it was not relevant to his time. It could even be so that he had contempt for his contemporaries and he was not in favour of being included amongst writers he considered mediocre. It is difficult to fathom the real cause. However, when it survived it became a classic and made Virgil immortal, against his own wishes.
In another example, Seneca (d 65 AD), the famous Roman Stoic philosopher and the teacher of the Roman emperor Nero, burnt his writings before committing suicide. We can possibly assume that perhaps he was disillusioned of his time. Nero, who was neurotic, first exiled him from Rome and then ordered him to commit suicide. Under these circumstances, he probably realised that there was no relevance of his philosophical ideas. Though the Stoic philosophy forbids suicide, he committed it under duress. But some of his writings survived which keep him alive to this day.
In Medieval Europe, the Christian church became very powerful. It set up the Inquisition to deal with those who dissented and challenged the orthodox teachings of the church. Geocentricism was one of the ideas which were believed to be true and denial of it was a sin in the eye of the church. However, in spite of the restrictions of the church, scientists were to find out the truth. After Copernicus, Galileo challenged it and proved the correctness of heliocentricism. Thus, he had to face the Inquisition that forced him to recant from his ideas. He did it, just to save his life. When the trial was reported to the French philosopher Descartes, he silently put his manuscript in the drawer. It was published after his death and changed the whole course of philosophy.
Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations, burnt 16 volumes of his writing before his death. Again, it is difficult to understand why he did it. In his time, there was no censorship and no restrictions on the writings of intellectuals. He had already published some of his books and had earned some renown for his idea at the time. Perhaps, he underestimated his other writings comparing to his published work. Or it could be that he wanted to be remembered by his famous book The Wealth of Nations as an economist and not as an all-round writer. It is said that among the burnt manuscripts was his work on jurisprudence. He did not spare it either because of its novel ideas or of its low standard. We can only speculate about his motivations but it was undeniable that, whatever his reasons, he did not want those writings to see the light of day.
Somerset Maugham in his novel, The Moon and Sixpence, portrays the life the French painter Gauguin who went to Tahiti in search of a new culture and environment. There he painted the life and culture of these people. According to the story, he painted on the walls of his hut where he was living. When he finished his work, he asked one of his friends to destroy them. When his friend saw the painting, he was stunned. They were unique and remarkable. He inquired the artist about why he wanted to burn these painting. Gauguin replied that after completing these paintings, he had fulfilled his ambitions and expressed his creativity. This gave him satisfaction and a sense of achievement. Therefore, he was not interested to keep them. To him, they had lost their significance and he wanted no more out of them.
There is a lesson to our writers who scheme and manipulate to become popular and famous without producing writings of any value. Soon, they are consigned to the dustbin of history. Time recognises only those who have originality in their ideas. Only writings that contain such ideas survive and keep the names of their authors alive. Even those who burnt their manuscripts and destroyed their work are remembered for their honesty and integrity.
The writer is one of the pioneers of alternate history in the country.