Countdown to a Marathon

I realise that I’m becoming utterly lazy these days especially when it comes to writing. Even reading. Earlier, I used to blog almost daily. Then it became an alternate-day affair, then twice a week, and now there’s no order whatever. Similarly, I spend less time on reading too. So, I have decided to give a kick to myself and rouse my spirit up. That’s why I’m joining Blogchatter’s exercise called Half Marathon.

It begins tomorrow. Ten posts in 15 days is all what it demands. Fairly easy, if not a child’s game. But the problem is when you’re nearly a burnt-out case. Have you read that novel, by the way: Graham Greene’s A Burnt-Out Case [1961]? It’s worth your time.

The novel tells the story of Querry, famous architect, who loses interest in life. He quits and lands in a leper colony in Congo which is looked after by some Catholic missionaries. He is diagnosed by Dr Colin, an atheist doctor, as the medical equivalent of a ‘burnt-out case’: a leper who has gone through the stages of mutilation. As days move one, Querry begins to discover meaning in working for the lepers in the colony.

However, his past haunts him soon enough. The people in the colony now know that he is a famous architect who designed many famous churches which, according to him, were all defiled by the religious occupants. Querry is then persuaded to design and oversee the construction of a hospital building in the colony.

He has a sordid past too. He was a womaniser and his former love committed suicide because of him. Querry is not quite happy with all the stories about him being spread all over by a journalist. He leaves the place but is accompanied by Mrs Rycker who has her own personal problems. This woman messes up Querry’s life rather unwittingly and the end result is a tragedy. 

When I thought of my situation nowadays, my loss of interest in reading and blogging, the first person who popped up in my consciousness was Querry. I hear his last laughter as Mr Rycker cocks his pistol against his burnt-out heart. That laughter wakes me up from bed at 4 this morning. And then, after all the dilly-dallying and shilly-shallying, I sit at my study table and start typing. I realise that I’m becoming utterly lazy these days…

I decide to embark on this journey with The Blogchatter. What am I going to write about? I don’t know yet. But I know there’s the whole infinite world of literature from which I can always pick up a few pearls and bring them here. Like this post, for instance.

We can learn a lot from literature, can’t we? Or, as Graham Greene puts it in A Burnt-Out Case:

            “What strange ideas people have about leprosy, doctor!”

            “They learn it from the Bible. Like sex.”

            “It’s a pity people pick and choose what they learn from the Bible.”

I’m going to do some picking and choosing. But not from the Bible. From literature. That’s how I’m finding the content for the Marathon. You’re most welcome to join me on this literary journey.