Familiar Waters

This was an Opinion/ Editorial piece that I had written in my first semester at Purdue.

Have you ever been thrown into a swimming pool and been told “Swim!”? My dad did something of that sort to me, which led to one of the greatest joys in my life. When I was 12, my father threw me into the metaphorical sea of the works of P G Wodehouse, leaving after giving me the elaborate instructions, “Read!” While I initially paddled about awkwardly through chapters, hanging onto my dictionary like a float, I slowly befriended these strange waters. It was only a matter of time before I became extremely attached to his writing style, and proclaimed this my favourite water body, an opinion that has not wavered despite years of reading other authors. Here, I shall try to explain my admiration for this writer.

Wodehouse was a 20th century British writer, who, as he mentions in some prologue, started writing at the age of 5. Wodehouse was no activist. He wrote not about wars and prevalent social evils (even though his era was that of the World Wars), but more about silly, droll lives of British aristocrats. His works were predominantly humorous, and his language and vocabulary were stunning.

Wodehouse was, I believe, a pioneer in humorous writing. Wodehouse had an incredible way of stringing and placing sentences together, which is what won him his audience. I enjoy how Wodehouse employed very subtle humour, seldom using innuendos or puns. His humour arose from his descriptions and dialogues, and the clever juxtaposition of words and images, that have never failed to make me giggle with glee. For example, to imply that a gentleman was standing very quietly, he described his comportment as “a perfect impersonation of someone who wasn't there.” Or to say that he came out of the room very fast, “He went in and came out so quickly that he nearly met himself going out." (Very Good, Jeeves)

Reading Wodehouse is a great way to work on your vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. Each time I read a book of his, I learn some half a dozen phrases, many referring to English culture, and easily 20 to 30 new words, some including imbroglio, escutcheon, nolle prosequi, preux chevalier, and gruntled (“if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”, Code of The Woosters). Also, the variety in the kind of sentences he used, and the way he changed his jargon and style of speech according to the character, is mind-blowing. In fact, I can guarantee that a new reader’s substantial improvement from reading just one of his books, will outdo that of an equal amount of time on any English textbook.

Wodehouse created an incredibly simple world where an Earl’s greatest problem in life could be that his pet pig is not fat enough for a fattest-pig contest. With an assortment of aunts, uncles, cousins, Dukes, impersonations of these people, policemen, policemen’s helmets, and unimaginable criss-crosses of lovers, Wodehouse sets the stage for extremely intricate, complex and hilarious plots, as seen in some of my favourites, Full Moon, Picadilly Jim and Uncle Freddie in Springtime. And, using the magical swish of turning a page, we read time and again of how he eliminates every single problem with a single blow, so that it’s win-win for everyone.

I would love to live in that world. I would, rather than worry about the various problems of life, deal with much sillier and happier problems. In Piccadilly Jim, he even features this Jim, who, due to a complicated series of circumstances, has to impersonate himself! In a world currently diseased with a billion problems, are we not, to quote Stephen Fry, “in need of this remarkable healing spirit, this balm for hurt minds?” Undeniably so, I say. And if we cannot ourselves live in that utopian world, we can very well experience it by burying our noses in his works, and living it vicariously through his splendid characters.

On the whole, I find huddling up with a Wodehouse to be one of the ultimate mood-lighteners. I strongly advise anyone with even a fleeting desire to be happy to pick up any one of his books; they will not be disappointed.

To put it simply, there are 2 types of people in the world: those who like Wodehouse and those who have not read his works, and I can say this with unflinching confidence. After all, he was regarded by some as merely the greatest writer of his time, and by others, the one true master of the English Language.