Ramsay Wood

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ramsay Wood is a writer best known for his modernized compilation of the ancient animal fables derived from The Panchatantra. His Kalila and Dimna-- Selected Fables of Bidpai was published by Knopf in 1980^[1]. Wood believes that these fables are the earliest secular example of what Lawrence Lessig calls remix culture.

Contents 1 Fable collections as early examples of remix culture 2 English versions 3 Edinburgh Festival 1984 4 French edition 2006 5 Other Activities 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Fable collections as early examples of remix culture

Wood claims^[2] that in hundreds of literary collections, various arrangements of The Panchatantra fables are known by separate titles in different languages at different times in different places. Yet each unique cultural remix always links back to an oral, even pre-literate, storytelling society in ancient India. No original text survivies. We can only enjoy and study the many derivative works. Wood’s Kalila and Dimna has an Introduction by the novelist and Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing supporting his contention. She cites some literary variants of The Panchatantra. This Introduction was reprinted in Lessing's 2005 collection of essays, Time Bites: Views and Reviews^[3]

[edit] English versions

The fables first appeared in English as The Morall Philosophie of Doni in 1570^[4], translated from the Italian by Sir Thomas North, who also translated Plutarch’s Lives^[5]. Wood’s book is the first modern English, multiple-sourced, remix of these ancient fables since North's 1570 version. Wood’s Kalila and Dimna is reconstituted from the North text and also seven other works translated from Sanskrit, Arabic, Syriac and Persian. In the book’s ‘Afterword’ Wood suggests that these distinct literary collections of ancient fables^[6], although highly revered classics in each target language, are among the world’s most durable examples of cross-cultural migration, adaptive morphology and secular survival — as they have been widely and continuously shared and modified for over two thousand years from a legendary, long-lost, original manuscript.

[edit] Edinburgh Festival 1984

In 1983, Wood’s book was turned into a play entitled A Word in the Stargazer’s Eye by Stuart Cox of Theatr Taliesin Wales. The show premiered at the 1984 Edinburgh Festival, starring the actor Nigel Watson. The Scotsman reviewed it thus:

A stunning performance, bridging the gap of understanding between East and West. We are blessed a while with the wonderment of children as we listen to these eternal tales of the human psyche. A show for every nationality under the sun.

Theatr Taliesin Wales subsequently toured the production in many countries for several years, from Iceland to India.

Wood’s second volume, Kalila and Dimna – Conflict and Intrigue, will complete his re-compilation project when it is published by London publisher Saqi Books^[7] in May 2009. Saqi Books is re-issuing Wood’s first volume, retitled as Kalila and Dimna – Friendship and Betrayal in May 2008.

[edit] French edition 2006

In 2006 Éditions Albin Michel published a French translation of his 1980 first volume. A review by Roger-Pol Droit in Le Monde on Sept 15th 2006 said:

Crossing linguistic and cultural frontiers, these fables also transcend conventional time-frames. They abound with temporal paradoxes. Ancient letters, locked in a series of smaller and smaller treasure chests by King Houschenk in the past, are addressed to kings of the future. They contain words of advice whose meaning only becomes gradually clear, sometimes after a very big delay.

FRENCH TEXT: "Sans frontière linguistique ni culturelle, ces fables ignorent aussi celles du temps. Au sein du recueil, les paradoxes temporels abondent. Des lettres très antiques, enfermées dans une série de coffres par le roi Houschenk autrefois, s'adressent aux souverains de l'avenir. Elles renferment des conseils dont le sens ne s'éclaire qu'à mesure, parfois avec un très grand retard."

[edit] Other Activities

Wood was a freelance photographer and journalist who covered feature stories in Europe, Africa and the Far East until 1986. His first major publication, when he was 25, was an interview and photographs with the poet Robert Graves in LIFE Magazine. ^[8] He was chairman of the original charity called Afghan Relief, from 1992 until its dissolution in 2000. He was a co-founder and acting Secretary of the College of Storytellers from 1980 until 1991. In 2005 he qualified as an assistant literacy teacher and now works part-time in London at Emerson House ^[9] helping dyslexic children learn keyboard skills. He was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1943.^[10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Wood's agent is The Susijn Agency