Hello, Namaskar, Vanakkam, my name is T.S. Sudhir and you're watching Study with Sudhir, your own India's digital classroom. And we are going to be doing this very long chapter by Roald Dahl, which is part of the IAC Class 11 Prism textbook.
The Great Automatic Dramatizator by Roald Dahl, written in 1954. Now, before we start, in today's context, you read a poem by Roald Dahl in Television Class 9, which is... Treasure Trove was in the book and you saw how Roald Dahl was ahead of his time. The kind of things he wrote about television in that poem, they sit in the context of mobile phones in today's context.
Similarly, the kind of automatic machine talk that is done in this book, in this story, they sit in the context of mobile phones in today's context. Because we are talking in terms of chat GPT, bard... of Google and all these kind of different artificial intelligence related apps which are actually doing pretty much what this particular machine is talking about.
So, if we look at it that way, then from that perspective, you see that Roald Dahl's story in 2023-2024 is absolutely correct because this is exactly what the world of today is talking about. This is exactly what the world of today is using. largely.
So, in that way, although this story was written in 1954, its relevance fits perfectly in today's date. It fits perfectly. And that's why I always believe that Roald Dahl was one author who was ahead of his time.
Who was ahead of his time. The kind of stories he wrote, even after 50 years, even after 75 years, are perfectly right and relevant. And in his stories, he had made you...
The stories are humorous, satirical. And the human qualities of greed, revenge, abuse of power, are written about them. Interestingly, Roald Dahl wrote stories for both children and adults.
But both of them could straddle Yandra very easily. So this is a commentary on the publishing industry. on the entire creative process, technology ka us par kis tarah ka asar padta hai, aur technology ki wajah se, kis tarah se creativity par, kis tarah ka impact padta hai, aur profit ke liye, kya kuch karne ko tayyar nahi hai, publishing industry ke karta dhartha.
So, it's basically talking about an inventor, called Adolf Naip, who creates a machine, that can churn out a novel in a matter of minutes, jisko ki likhne mein, 6 months, 8 months, sometimes 1-2 years, he can create a novel in a few minutes. Right? Pretty much like today, you put basic keywords in chat GPT, that I want a reference on this thing, I want an essay. It actually delivers to you in less than 30 seconds.
Quality, although it may have a, I mean, someone like me, who is a puritanical, who believes in creative process i may have a problem with chat gpt's way of writing but the fact of the matter is for many people it has proved to be a big boon and this i'm telling you from the personal experience of people around me right and that's precisely what happens as a result of the invention of this machine as well in this particular story So there are only two characters, mainly Adolf Naib and Mr. Boland, who is the owner of a company. He is a literary agent also. And they use this invention of Naib. Okay, so let me not do the summary. Let's go straight to the story because it is a very long story.
I think your book is about 24 pages long. So it is going to be a long thing. The video will be long.
I remember... Another video which was of 1 minute 21 seconds, they were taunted on that. Now the story will be long and you also need the meaning of every sentence, every paragraph, so the video will obviously be long. If you want a 10 minute summary, some people do that too.
You can look at there. I have no issues with that. But here I would prefer to do a thorough job. It's quite an effort because I've already done it as part of the course. In English for those who are more comfortable.
And I do believe that ISE students should understand the story in English. Completely understand. But there is a large majority of students. Who prefer to understand in Hindi for reasons known best to them. So for them I am doing it in Hindi on YouTube.
And also to keep the two contents distinct. There I believe our Prism Rhapsody course for class 11 is very good. You can get all the explanation videos in simple English. Detailed explanation with notes. With MCQs, with reasoning questions, with long format questions and answers and doubt solving.
So it kind of covers the entire gamut for your preparation for Prism Rhapsody. And in Prism Rhapsody, one thing you should know is that this is not your treasure trove of 9th or 10th standard. You must have understood by now.
The kind of poetry and stories that have been chosen in this book, they are... extremely complex. Okay.
So, don't think that this treasure trove facing the dark will be of that level. It won't be. This is simple.
Okay. As far as themes of the story is concerned. Okay. What are the themes of the story?
One, of course, is the power of technology. Note this. If you are not part of the course.
Power of technology. This is one of the main themes of this particular story. Then, of course, its impact on the creativity process.
okay then there is the entire element of you know the big money that it gets as a result then of course this is very important the monopoly monopoly by a machine and of course the whole automation process which is done by this particular machine okay now grammatizer you know it is made by two you words, you know. One, of course, is the main thing of grammar. So, you get to know that this has some connection with grammar. And the use of the word zeta gives it the sense of a machine. So, it is a machine-like sounding word and it highlights the main theme, the title itself, the title of the story itself highlights the main theme of the story, that is the effect of automation, which I have written here, automation and commercialization of a creative process.
Remember this phrase. You can use it in your answers. The effect of automation and commercialization on a creative process. Those who are more interested in reading in Hindi, please don't start abusing that it is told in English.
Like one of the scenes of Macbeth because I thought it was a very complicated scene and I explained it more in English than in Hindi because certain things you can explain only in English because that's how Shakespearean work is. I find it very surprising and very upsetting and distressing the people come down to abuse just because it's not been explained in Hindi. As I said, there are people who are explaining it entirely in Hindi.
You are absolutely welcome to go to those YouTube channels. I'm sure they're all doing very good work, but I will do it the way I think it will work best for the children, right? So that's my viewpoint.
Now, let's get started. Well, Naib, my boy, now that it's finished, I just called you in to tell you how I think. I think you have done a fine job.
So this is Mr. Bolin. What is he doing? He's complimenting Naib, saying that you have done a good job. I appreciate what you have done.
Adolf Naib stood still in front of Mr. Bolin's desk. There seemed to be no enthusiasm in him at all. So you get an idea about Naib's personality right from the second sentence. Aren't you pleased? Oh, yes, Mr. Bolin.
Did you see what the paper said this morning, referring to the newspapers? No, sir, I didn't. The man behind the desk pulled a folded newspaper toward him and began to read. The building, so he is now quoting from the newspaper, which has written about a machine that has been developed by Mr. Boland's company.
The building of the great automatic computing engine. Now, this is not the grammatizer. Don't get confused.
The building of the great automatic computing engine ordered by the government some time ago is now complete. So it is a news report which has been published in the newspaper. It is probably the fastest electronic calculating machine.
Now please bear in mind there will be a lot of details which can come in your MCQ. So a lot of this detail is what you need to focus on when you are reading a story which is running into 24 pages. Right.
So this is probably the fastest electronic calculating. So he's developed a calculator. Talking about that time, right? In the world today, its function is to satisfy the ever-increasing need of science, industry, and administration for rapid mathematical calculation, which in the past, by traditional methods, would have been physically impossible. That is, if you have to do, you know, 2 million multiplied by 13,864.
Now, just imagine, how much time it will take you to calculate that thing, right? So what he's saying is that it was able to kind of satisfy the need of science because many of these mathematical calculations, complicated mathematical calculations would be needed in the world of science, industry and administration for rapid mathematical calculation, which in the past by traditional methods would have been physically impossible or would have required more time than the problems justified. the speed with which the new engine works so basically talking about a calculator said mr john boland now it had quoted mr boland in that particular news report may be grasped by the fact mr boland head of the firm of electrical engineers so his company is a firm of electrical engineers mainly responsible for its construction may be grasped by the fact that it can provide the correct answer in five seconds to a problem that would occupy a mathematician for a month A mathematician, in order to solve that complex problem, may take a month, but that machine was able to solve the same problem in a matter of five seconds.
So that's the kind of speed that he was talking about. In three minutes, it can produce a calculation that by hand, if it were possible, would fill half a million sheets of foolscap paper. Now, foolscap is a type of paper that was used for writing before computers were invented.
Please keep noting down the difficult words, okay, which have been used in this particular story so that you are familiar with each and every word, each and every line in this particular story. The automatic computing engine uses pulses of electricity. So you need to know what was, what went into that computing machine.
Pulses of electricity generated at the rate of a million a second to solve all calculations that resolve themselves. into addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. So basically talking about the different aspects of calculation.
For practical purposes, there is no limit to what you can do. So what you can make out is that it is a story. It's an article which praises the machine which has been invented, the calculating machine, the computing machine, in order to make the job of calculations, mathematical calculations, that much easier. Mr. Bolan glanced up at the long melancholy.
Melancholy is that, but Nipe is not looking happy. He's looking sad. Melancholy is sad, right, of the younger man. Aren't you proud, Nipe?
Aren't you pleased? Of course, Mr. Bolan. I don't think I have to remind you that your own contribution, especially to the original plans, was an important one. So, he's acknowledging.
He's acknowledging Nipe's contribution to the development of the machine was an important one. In fact, I might go so far, I will say this much, to say that without you, without you and your ideas, this project would still be on the drawing board, still, you know, on the concept stage, this whole machine would not have been made if you had not contributed for it, if you had not contributed for its development. Adolf Knight moved his feet on the carpet and he watched the...
two small knife hands of his chief the nervous fingers playing with a paper clip uh unbending it straightening out the hairpin curve so that is something a tendency that he notices in mr bolin so he's getting into the micro details of his physique he did not like the man's hands now from an mcq point of view this these kind of details are important he didn't like the face either tiny mouth he had a tiny mouth and narrow purple colored lips it was unpleasant the way only the lower lip move when he talked when he talked only his lower lips move the upper lips stayed the same so he's getting into very micro details because of which he doesn't like that speaking where in whose office he actually works is anything bothering you so you saw that this whole conversation is done by Bolin not properly answered Nahi dera hai, jo bhi jawab diya, chote chote jawab dera hai. Anything on your mind? Ki kya tumko koi cheez parishan kar rahi hai?
Oh no, Mr. Boland, no. Would you like to take a week's holiday? Kya tumhe ek hafta ki chutti lena pasand karoge? It will do you good.
Ye tumhar liye acha hoga. And you have earned it. Because you have done such a good job.
Because of which I will be happy to give you this leave. I don't know sir. The older man waited. Watching this tall thin person.
So you know about Bolin's physics. From the perspective of Knight. Now know about Knight's physics.
From the perspective of Bolin. Okay. He is a tall thin person. Who stood so sloppily. He is very shabby.
He is not a... tidy kind of appearance. You know, kaafi neat and clean appearance nahi tha.
Before him, he was a difficult boy. Yani ki uske saath kaam karna thoda mushkil tha. Why couldn't he stand up straight? Ki seeda kyun nahi khada hota?
Aise se, aapki mummy daddy bhi kabhi gaya tha. Re to seeda to khada ho jaana. You know, if you are very sloppy kind of thing, like typical teenagers usually are.
Always drooping and untidy with spots on his jacket and hair falling all over his face. Ki uske baal uske shakal pe the and there were spots all over his jacket. I would like you to take a holiday. You take a holiday.
Okay. And you need it. Alright sir.
If you wish. So he doesn't argue. He listens to what Boland says. Take a week. Take a one week holiday.
Actually you take a two week holiday. And go to a hot place. Get some sunshine.
Vitamin D low. Okay. Swim. You know. Swim in the lake, river, pond, wherever.
Just rest. Relax. Sleep.
Then come back. Refresh. And after this. iske baat ki baaton ke liye, bhavishye ke liye, hum baat mein baat karenge.
Adolf Kneipp went home by bus to his two-room apartment. So he stayed in a two-room apartment aur wahan pe jaake he threw his coat on the sofa, poured himself a drink of whiskey and sat down in front of the typewriter that was on the table. Mr. Boland was right.
Of course he was right, except that he did not know the half of it. He probably thought it was a woman ki shayad kisi ladki ke wajah se uska mood theek nahi hai. And because that is the usual thing, he thinks that whenever a young man gets depressed, everybody thinks it's because of a woman, it's some love affair gone wrong.
He leaned forward and began to read through the half-finished sheet of typing still in the machine. Which he had started writing something in that typewriter, started typing. Many people write directly on the typewriter. Okay.
Some people have a habit of writing on longhand. And then they type it when it was the time of typewriter. Before the time of today's computer.
Okay. So, he has written something on it and the sheet is on it. He has not finished it.
It was headed, its title was A Narrow Escape. And it began, the night was dark and stormy, the wind whistled in the trees, the rain poured down like cats and dogs. So, in this way, he started that story, whose title was A Narrow Escape.
You can also pay attention to such details. Adolf Neib took a sip of whiskey, tasting the malty bitter flavor, feeling the trickle of cold liquid as it traveled down his throat and settled in the top of his stomach, cool at first, then spreading and becoming warm, making a little area of warmness in the gut. So he's describing the whole effect of whiskey as it went down his throat, down to his stomach.
To hell with Mr. John Bolin anyway and to hell with the great electrical computing machine. To hell with. He doesn't like to speak, nor does he like his machine.
Okay, in which he has contributed, but that is not something which he is terribly proud of. At exactly that moment, his eyes and mouth began slowly to open. Because the last time he said to Helved, he didn't complete that incident. Because he had a brainwave in his mind, an idea. In his sort of wonder and slowly he raised his head and became still absolutely motionless, gazing at the wall opposite with this look that was more perhaps of astonishment than of wonder.
That his facial expression was more like a surprise. It didn't mean that he was wondering at something. He wasn't surprised by anything. He was surprised in a way, not in an appreciative sense.
But... quite fixed now, unmoving and remaining thus for 40, 50, 60 seconds. So he's looking, something is going on in his mind and that is reflecting on his face but he remains unmoved without moving himself for up to 60 seconds. Then gradually the head still motionless. So look at the attention to detail by Roald Dahl.
A subtle change, around the corners of his mouth and he changed into a smile. increasing gradually spreading out until at last the whole face was wide open and shining with extreme delight so the idea that had come to him it was the first time Adolf Naip had smiled in many many months. And this was the first time that Naip was smiling for many months.
So you get to know a little bit about his personality, his personality, that this person doesn't laugh a lot. But in that particular moment, after many months, Roald Dahl tells us that he laughed. Subtle means?
It is not something which is very obvious. Jo jyada obvious na ho, usko subtle kehte hain. Kahan gaya subtle? Yeh raha subtle. Okay.
Then, of course, he said, speaking aloud. It is completely ridiculous. Again, his smile, raising his upper lip and baring his teeth in a queerly sensual manner.
Sensual ka matlab hai, something that gives him pleasure. It's a delicious idea, but so impracticable. that it does not really bear thinking about it at all.
That the idea is brilliant, it is a very good idea, but it is such an impractical idea that it cannot be applied in practice. It cannot be applied that thinking about it is useless, it cannot be thought about. You know, thinking about it also seems very strange.
From then on, Adolf Neib began to think about nothing else. But, although he felt that thinking about it There is no benefit of that. But after that, Naib started thinking about him. Okay. The idea fascinated him enormously.
He was so interested in that idea. At first, because it gave him a promise. However, remote of revenging himself in the most, in a most devilish manner upon his greatest enemies. Because he thought that if I invent such a machine, then I will get a chance to kill such people.
Badla lene ka, jo ki uske sabse bade dushman hai. To agar aap dekhe, aur isko ek MCQ ke liye aap markar liye, reasoning questions ke liye markar liye, long format answers ke liye markar liye, to pehli baare, pehla jo uske dimaag mein khayal aaya tha, wo isliye tha, kyunki wo kisi se badla lena chaata tha. So, what does it tell you about Naip?
That essentially there is a lot of negativity inside him. Okay. This thing in his character sketch, you note this thing in your notebook. Okay.
From this angle alone, he toyed idly with it for perhaps 10 or 15 minutes. Then all at once, he found himself examining it quite seriously as a practical possibility. So, he kept thinking about it. Okay. And he thought, can this be a practical possibility?
Or not? He took a paper. and made some notes about it. But it didn't help. It felt like it won't be able to do it.
Right? It felt like this machine is incapable of original thought. That machine, how is it original? Like the invention of ChatGPT, or Google.com, where do they get that content from? They get content from the content that is still available on the net.
The benefit is that you can get it from 20 other places. research is not required. Someone like me, I do research from different places. If I am reading Shakespeare, before that I will read 20 such texts, so that the whole story, different critics have different views on the same incident.
Like there is a character, Lady Macbeth's character, on Lady Macbeth's character, 20 critics have 20 different views. So you get a 360 degree view. Chat GPT will give you one view or two or three views by crystallizing them and simplifying them. So it's your choice what you want. It can handle, and it doesn't have originality of thought.
Chat GPT is a machine. Similarly, this grammatizer will be a machine. If you are talking about a novel, if you want to read a story, then you will want to read something new in the story.
It's not that the 20 books you have read earlier will be the same as the 20 books or the 21st book. then you will think, what is wrong with this? Like you see a movie, if you think that movie is a scene from the previous movie, then what will you enjoy? Similarly, the case goes with music. So it's the same thing.
So he realizes that there are kind of limitations on original thought. And he will not be able to face any kind of difficulty, will not be able to solve any kind of problems, except those that resolve themselves into mathematical terms. So if mathematically any problem can be solved, then they can do it. But apart from that, such machines cannot solve anything because they have the experience of developing a calculator.
Okay. This was a Stumper. That means, He got stuck in a road. He got stuck in a road. There did not seem any way around it.
A machine cannot have a brain. Machine cannot have a brain. But it can have a memory.
It can have a memory. These are all the original terms, initial terms that were there when the computer was invented. Their own electronic calculator had a marvelous memory.
Simply by converting electric impulses through a column of mercury into supersonic waves, it could store away at least a thousand numbers at a time, extracting any one of them at the precise moment it was needed. Would it not be possible, therefore, on this principle, to build a memory section of almost unlimited size? So, to solve mathematical problems, a machine to develop, then Naib has to think, can a novel, a story, similarly, a memory not be developed? So he's thinking, he's thinking to himself. He's not discussing it with anyone.
He's just thinking to himself. Now what about that? Then suddenly he was struck by a powerful but simple little truth, and it was this.
And this is why it is written in bold letters and in italics. that there are certain rules in English grammar, which are kind of mathematical rules, if you are told that this particular tense will go with this. Right? So this tense will go, although whenever I teach grammar, I always say that the more rules there are in grammar, the more exceptions there are.
For instance, you are told that I was studying. Okay. But, if this is a situation which you understand that it is not going to be possible, which is hypothetical, that my reading is a little, who is making noise?
Right. So, in that situation, you will use the word, if I were studying. If you want to convey that I am a reader, then, it is not possible. then you will use the word. Whereas, you are talking about a possibility which is difficult to happen.
Right? So, as I said, there are rules, but the violation of rules is also done a lot in English language, in English grammar. Given the words and given the sense of what is to be said, then there is only one correct order in which those words can be arranged. So, what I mean to say is that the law believes that if there are such rules, So, in a way, words can be arranged according to that same rule.
So, he is thinking of applying the mathematical formula to English grammar. So, he understands that a way can be found from this. No, he thought. That isn't quite accurate.
In many sentences, there are many alternative positions for words and phrases, right? There are exceptions. All of which may be grammatically correct.
Grammatically, they are also correct. But what the hell? The theory itself is basically true.
Therefore, it stands to reason that an engine built along the lines of the electric computer could be adjusted to arrange words instead of numbers. Instead of numbers, you use words in their right order according to the rules of grammar. Give it the verbs, the nouns, the adjectives, the pronouns. Store them in the memory section as a vocabulary and arrange them to be extracted as required.
Then feed it with... plots and leave it to write the sentences. I mean, put so many words in memory, put some plots too, that in this way they can interact with each other and tell him to make his own words.
Now there was a little excitement in it. There was no stopping night now, meaning the enthusiasm increased. He went to work immediately and there followed during the next few days a period of intense labor.
the living room the living room became littered with sheets of paper formulae and calculations so It's in the living room. It's described here. List of words, thousands and thousands of words, plots of stories, curiously broken up, and subdivided, huge extracts from Roger's Thesaurus.
Thesaurus is a book, for those who don't know, in which synonyms and antonyms are given. And Roger's Thesaurus is considered the most accurate thesaurus. Okay? If you don't have it, then you should always have it.
It will help you a lot in exams like CUET. Pages filled with the first names of men and women, hundreds of surnames taken from the telephone directory, intricate drawings of wires and circuits and switches and thermionic walls, drawings of machines that could punch holes in different shapes in little cars. So, this whole machinery has been described. And of a strange electric typewriter that could type 10,000 words a minute and a kind of control panel with a series of small push buttons, each one labeled with the name of a famous American magazine. He was working in a mood of exaltation.
Exaltation means... means excitement. Prowling means the use of this word he has used. Now prowl is generally used for lions or tigers.
Almost for a predator. So it has been compared with a predator which is moving towards its target. Prowling around the room amidst this littering of paper, rubbing his hands together, talking out loud to himself.
And sometimes with a slight curl of the nose, he would mutter a series of murderous imprecations in which the word editor seemed always to be present. Now, imprecation is a curse. He was abusing the editors because those editors had repeatedly rejected his stories. Okay, so on the 15th. implications is like terms of abuse it's like cursing curse would be a correct word okay on the 15th day of continuous work he collected the papers into two large folders which he carried almost at a run to the offices of john boland incorporated electrical engineers so yeah you remember the name of his office his company's name is this you need to remember this for mcq Mr. Boland was pleased to see him back.
Well, naip good, gracious me. You look 100% better. You have a good holiday. Where did you go?
So, it turns out that Mr. Boland didn't have much information and it was difficult to assess him. At least on the face of it, he is saying that you look better. Although he doesn't believe that there is any difference in this. He is just as ugly and untidy as ever and he thinks the same.
So, it turns out that what he thinks in his mind actually doesn't make sense. Mr. Boland thought, Why doesn't he stand up straight? He looks like a bent stick.
You look 100% better, my boy. I wonder what he's grinning about. Every time I see him, his ears seem to have got larger, right? So a lot of physical description has been given by Roald Dahl of the two men. Adolf Ney placed the folders on the desk.
Look, Mr. Boland, look at these. Then he poured out his story. He opened the folders and pushed the plants in front of the astonished little man. That is Mr. Boland. He talked for over an hour, explaining everything, and when he had finished, he stepped back, breathless, flushed, waiting for the verdict.
Ki, aakhir kar, wo kahenge kya? You know what I think, Naip? I think you're nuts.
Tum paagal ho. And then, as soon as he said it, Mr. Boland said, isko is tara ki bhasha ka istamaal Adolf Naip ke saath nahi karna chahiye. Treat him carefully.
Isko jara dhyan se isko treat karo. He's valuable. Okay?
This one. If only he did not look so awful. It doesn't look so bad to look at.
With that long horse-like face. And such big teeth. And such big ears.
Which are like rhubarb leaves. Rhubarb is a plant. Plant whose leaves are very large.
Mr. Bolan, it will work. I have proved to you it will work. You cannot deny that.
Take it easy now Naib. Take it easy and listen to me. This idea is very ingenious. This idea is very good. Very good.
I say that this is a brilliant idea. And one thing is for sure, what I believe about you, what I believe about your ability, that was absolutely right, Naib. Okay. So first, he is saying the right things to Naib. He is putting butter.
Okay. But don't take this so seriously. Okay.
Because what will be our benefit? Who needs a machine to write stories? And where is the money in it? Tell me this. So, Mr. Boland is looking at it from a commercial and a practical point of view.
Naip is obviously excited because he has invented that machine, so he is very excited. So he says, how will he write this story and how is there money in it? How will you make money with this? He says, may bed jao?
He says, betho. Adolf Neib seated himself on the edge of a chair. The edge of the chair, what does it indicate?
Yeh batao? Agar aap kisi chair ke edge pe bedte hain, toh isse, kya kata hai? He was on the edge of the seat. India-Pakistan ka match chal raha hai.
Last 3 ball pe India ko 8 runs banane hai. Aap kahan par bethenge? Jaise main ho toh main toh bethunga hi nahi, main khada rakke dekhunga.
Lekin you will be on the edge of your seat. which means you are excited. You are in a sense of, you know, tension. So, in the same way, he sat on the edge of the chair. The older man watched him with alert brown eyes, wondering, what will you say now?
I would like to explain something, Mr. Bolan, if I may, about how I came to do all this. He said, yes, tell me. He would have to be humid.
He would have to put on a little more makeup, Bolan said to himself. The boy was really valuable, a sort of a genius. Okay.
Almost worth his weight in gold. Now this line is very important to the firm. So this line is important about Naip.
If you talk about Naip, then you can use such stories. Look at these papers. Darnest thing that you ever saw.
Basically, he's referring to the effort that he has put in. Because he has put in a lot of effort in the last 15 days. And he has put all those papers in a folder and brought them to show to Boland.
astonishing piece of work, quite useless, but it won't be of any use, because it doesn't have commercial value. Okay, but it proved again the boy's ability, that this boy has the power, but it doesn't have commercial ability. He says, start a startup.
First question, you will go to a venture capitalist, and you will say, you know, this is my idea. The first question that any good venture capital firm will ask you is, what is your revenue model? How do you generate revenue for the startup to improve further?
It is a sort of confession, I suppose, Mr. Bolan. I think it explains why I have always been so kind of worried. You tell me anything you want, Naip. I'm here to help you. You know that.
The young man clasped his hands together tight on his lap, hugging himself with his elbows. It seemed as though suddenly he was feeling very cold. So he's very tense because he's tense with a lot of excitement because he wanted to convince Mr. Bolan of... His idea that my idea has power, Babu. You see, Mr. Boland, to tell the honest truth, I don't really care much for my work here.
That what kind of work I do here, the kind of work I do in your firm, I'm not very interested in it. I frankly don't care too much about it. I know that I'm good at this work.
Okay. But my heart doesn't fit in it. It is not what I want to do the most. Up went Mr. Boland's eyebrows quite like a spring. His old body became very still.
You see, sir, all my life, I have wanted to be a writer. Ki main ek lekhak banna chahta tha. Lekhak? So he's surprised.
Yes, Mr. Bolan, you may not believe it, but every bit of spare time I've had, I've spent writing stories. Jab bhi mere ko free time bila, usme main ek kahaaniya likhi hai. Pichle 10 saal mein, aur in details ko jara mark kar lijiye, this is important, in the last 10 years, I have written hundreds, literally hundreds of short stories. 566 to be precise.
You note this number for MCQs. Okay. Approximately one a week. Good heavens man.
What on earth did you do that for? So 52 weeks into 10 years. So he's talking about approximately one a week. He has written a story every week. Why did you write?
He says I had a desire to write. What sort of urge? The creative urge. Every time he looked up, he saw Mr. Bolan's lips.
They were growing thinner and thinner, more and more purple. And may I ask you, what do you do with the stories? What do you do with the stories? He says, the problem is that no one buys those stories.
Every time I finish, I send it to one of the editors of a magazine. Then I send it to another magazine. If it gets rejected from here, then I send it to another.
And they send it back. It never gets published. It used to happen in the olden days.
If you want to send someone, it still happens. You send one, now stories are commissioned. Stories, articles, whatever.
First you used to send, you used to wait that they need it or not. Sometimes they didn't fit in it. So they used to return it. Then you could send another reporter. Mr. Boland relaxed.
I can see quite well how you feel, my boy. His voice was dripping with sympathy. So he was expressing that... I understand what you feel, you know, because rejection kisi ko bhi pasand nahi rehta hai.
We all go through it one time or the other in our lives but now that you have got proof, positive proof from the expert themselves, from the editors ki tumhari kahaniyon mein achche nahi hai, they are unsuccessful. Leave it. I mean, just forget about it. What's the need to write so many stories in 10 years which no one has published?
No, Mr. Boland, that's not true. This is not right. I know that my stories are good. So Naip has a very good opinion about himself that my stories are good and if you compare it with those stories which are published in these magazines, which are very boring stuff, which is very sloppy, means that it doesn't have any power, they are very boring and very lazy kind of writing, I get very angry, it drives me mad. Now, wait a minute, my boy.
Mr. Boland, do you ever read those magazines? Do you read those magazines, Mr. Boland? You will pardon me, but what is the connection of your machine with this? Everything, Mr. Boland, absolutely everything. And that is what I want to tell you, that I have studied all those magazines in a way, I have analyzed them in a way.
And I think that each one tends to put out a particular type of story. That someone will do murder stories, someone will do suspense stories, someone will do romantic stories, someone will do social stories, someone will do political stories. So, every magazine has a niche area that is quite different.
And the writers, the successful writers, they know and they write stories for that magazine only. Okay. I still don't understand why all this is happening to this machine.
Please, Mr. Bolan, hear me through. It is terribly important. Okay.
And he took a breath. He said he has worked up now. He was very agitated because he wanted to convince Mr. Bolan that this machine can do a lot. The long toothy face with the big ears on either side simply shone with enthusiasm.
And there was an excess of saliva in his mouth which caused him to speak his words wet. So it's all conveying a sense of excitement. So you see on my machine, by having an adjustable coordinator between the plot memory section and the word memory section, I'm able to produce any type of story I simply desire by pressing the required button. So I can mix plot memory and word memory with words and plot. With this, I can do any story production on this machine.
Okay. But what is the point of this? Just this, Mr. Boland, the market is limited. We have got to be able to produce the right stuff at the right time, whenever we want it.
It's a matter of business. And looking at, from your point of view, a commercial proposition, that this machine can produce stories that we can sell and make money from. So the question you raised, where is the money in this? Understand, Babu, this is it. My dear boy, it can't possibly be a commercial proposition ever, you know it at well, that it takes a lot of money to make such machines.
Yes sir, I do. With due respect, I don't believe you know that you don't know how much money magazines give for every story. How much do they give? Twenty-five hundred dollars.
Twenty-five hundred, meaning two thousand five hundred dollars. And if we average all the magazines, then at least one thousand dollars is what everyone gives on average, right? Boland didn't know.
He didn't know. Okay. Yes, sir.
It's true. Absolutely impossible. This is ridiculous.
No, sir. It is true. You mean to sit there and tell me those magazines pay out money like that to a man just for scribbling?
They give so much money to write a story? Good heavens. Whatever. So, writers would have become billionaires. That's exactly it, Mr. Boland.
That is where the machine comes in. And this machine will come there. Okay. And there this machine will come. Listen a minute, sir.
While I tell you some more, I have got it all worked out. The big magazines are carrying three fiction stories. Three stories are published in every issue.
Now, take 15 most important magazines, which give good money. A few of them are monthly. Some of them, most of them come out every week.
Every week they come, right? So if we do 40 big stories, that becomes $40,000. 40 into 1000. Yeah, $40,000. So with our machine, when we get it working properly, we can nearly collar nearly the whole of the market.
We can dominate the whole market. Because this machine will write those stories. Publish them. You are crazy.
No, sir. Honestly, it's true what I say. Don't you see that with... volume alone we can completely overwhelm.
That we will create so much volume that someone else... He won't be able to compete. And he can produce a 5000 word story in 30 seconds. Like the chat GPT does nowadays. He can produce a 5000 word story in 30 seconds.
Pay attention to these details. How can any writer compete with him? Because to write a 5000 word story, he has to spend many days and weeks... At that point, Adolf Naib noticed a slight change in the man's expression and extra brightness in the eyes, the nostrils distending. Distending means swelling.
The whole face becoming still, almost rigid. Quickly, he continued. Nowadays, Mr. Boland, the handmade article hasn't a hope.
It can't possibly compete with mass production, especially in this country. You know that. Carpets, chairs, shoes, bricks, crockery, anything you'd like to mention, sabhi machinery banati hain.
Quality shayad. inferior hogi. Lekin, cost of production maine rakta hai.
Right? And stories is another product. Carpet ki tara, kursi ki tara. Right? Ye bhi ek product hai.
Right? To, jitna jaldi aap usko deliver karenge, utna betar hoga. No one cares how you produce them as long as you deliver the goods. Okay? Ki tum kis tara se uss kahani ko likh rahe ho.
Is par koi dhyan nahi dega. Jab tak kahani unko deliver ho rahi hai. Aur hum wholesale me isko bechenge.
And we will undercut every writer. We will completely take over the market. So that is the big plan. Mr. Boland edged up straight in his chair.
He was leaning forward now, both elbows on the desk. The face alert, the small brown eyes resting on the speaker. I think it is still impractical, Naip.
40,000 a week, cried Adolf Naip. And if we halve the price, making it 20,000 a week. So now he is kind of coming down to...
doing the calculations, how this will be a good commercial proposition. So he says that if we bring it to 20,000 a week, that is still a million a year. So he is trying to project to Mr. Boland, how much money can we make in a year? And softly he added, you didn't get any million a year for building the old electronic calculator, did you? You didn't get a million in a year from that calculator.
But seriously now, Naib, do you really think they would buy them? how will you sell them? Who will say who has written them?
Ki kis ne likha hai? Kaun kharidega? Kya wo kharidege? We'll set up our own literary agency and we'll distribute them through that.
Now, what is a literary agency? Literary agency is like this. And I'll tell you my own example. Aapko ek kitab likhte hain. Aapko ek kitab ki draft likhte hain.
Manuscript likhte hain. Now, aap publishing industry mein kisi bhi publishing house ko. Penguin, Harper Collins, Rupa, or any other kind of LF, you don't know any publishing house.
So, what happens is that there are literary agents in the market to whom you can send your draft manuscript. They will read that manuscript and they have contacts in all the publishing houses. And they think that this publishing house will be interested in this kind of story.
There are chances of getting interested in such books. So they will kind of do the work of marketing your book, selling your book to the publishing company. And from that, I think they take a particular percentage as commission if the book gets published. So that is the work of a literary agent. And there are many literary agents in many cities like this.
And we will invent the names we want for the writer. So he says that we will have our own literary agency. And we will create imaginary names ourselves. Boland, you realize, is an ethical person.
He said, I don't like this at all. Because it will be a trickery. Trickery means trickery. And another thing, Mr. Boland, there is all manner of valuable byproducts once you have got started.
Take advertising, for example. He says, you will not get money just from writing a story. If we take an example of advertising, beer manufacturers and people like that are willing to pay good money these days if famous writers will lend their names to their products so if we create famous writers they advertise those products so they can make money from it too that will be side income why my heavens Mr. Boland this isn't any children's play thing we are talking about it's big business don't get too ambitious my boy And another thing, there isn't any reason why we shouldn't put your name, Mr. Boland, on some of the better stories, if you wish to.
We can use your name as the author of a particular story. My goodness, Naib. And he is now playing on because every person... Every person has a kind of interest that my name should also come in print.
You know, by so and so. When that name comes in print, it has a different kind of thrill, right? I remember my first article, the first time I saw my name in print was in the Indian Express.
I written a piece on the 22nd of August 1990. So, you know, till today I remember that date because that was a very special day for me. So I don't know, sir, except that some writers get to be very much respected like Mr. Eric Gardner or Kathleen Morris, for example. We have got to have names. And I was certainly thinking of using my own on one of the two stories just to help you out. I can use my own name.
Your name can also be used as the author of some of the stories. A writer, well, it will surely surprise them over there. So Mr. Boland feels good that people will look at him as an author.
He says, some people in the club will be a little surprised. Oh, he has written a story. And in the good magazines, that's right, Mr. Boland.
For a moment, a dreamy farce. So, he went into his dream world while cooking Khayali Pulao. Mr. Boland, right? And then he kind of came back to earth and he started looking at the plants. One thing I don't quite understand, Naib, is from where the plots will come.
Machines cannot make plots, right? So, what will be the basic plot of that story? We can feed it.
There is no problem at all. Everyone has plots. There are 300 or 400 of them written down in that folder there on your left. Feed them straight into the plot memory section of the machine.
Okay. There are many such little refinements too, Mr. Bolin. You will see them all when you study the plants carefully. For example, there is a trick that nearly every writer uses of inserting at least one long obscure road. Every writer uses a long and wide word.
Right? And the one who uses it, The reader thinks that this person is very clever. He has written very well.
He has used such heavy words. I will make the same thing done with the machine. There will be a whole stack of long words stored away just for this purpose. That he uses big words in between at every place.
So that the person who is reading, he is full of admiration for the writer. Where? In the word memory section.
He said epics. Now, this word, I think Roald Dahl has deliberately put it because it is not a normal word. It means to provide additional information.
Okay. Through most of the day, the two men discussed the possibilities of the new engine. In the end, Mr. Boland said he would have to think about it some more. The next morning, he was quietly enthusiastic.
Within a week, he was completely sold on the idea. Completely sold on the idea means he is completely convinced that it will be a good project. Completely sold on the idea.
Now when you see in this, why do I always say to read in a good way? So that you can see the use of those prepositions. So this kind of an event comes in your grammar paper, in your English language paper.
So you can immediately, completely sold on the idea. You will not make a mistake by doing it with the idea, for the idea. What we will have to do, Naip, is to say that we are merely building another mathematical calculator, but of a new type that will keep the secret.
So, in this way, we will maintain its secrecy. Exactly, Mr. Bolan. And in six months, the machine was completed. It was housed in a separate brick building at the back of the premises, where no one could go. And only these two people used to go and do the work.
It was an exciting moment when the two men, the one, shot. plumbed, brevibed. Brevibed is having short legs.
Okay. The other thin and toothy stood in the corridor before the control panel and got ready to run off the first story. All around them were walls dividing up into many small corridors and the walls were covered with wiring and plugs and switches and huge glass walls.
So, poori machinery ka description kya hai? Dono ke dono thore nervous the. Mr. Boland hopping from one foot to the other. You know, he was not able to stand.
There was so much of excitement in his body. Quite unable to keep still. Which button? Knife asked. A row of small white discs that resemble the keys of a typewriter.
You choose Mr. Bolin. Lots of magazines to pick up. So which magazine would you like to write a story for?
Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Ladies Home Journal, anyone you like. Goodness my boy, how do I know? Jumping up and down with a man with hives. Hives means the person who has skin allergy. So because of this, he is very uncomfortable.
He is on one foot and on the other foot. Mr. Boland, I've said gravely. Do you realize, gravely means seriously, do you realize that at this moment, with your little finger alone, you have it in your power to become the most versatile writer in this continent.
Versatile means multifaceted. You can write all kinds of stories. Listen, Naik, just get on with it, will you please? And cut out the preliminaries.
Don't talk too much. You start working. Good, Mr. Boland. Then we will make it.
Let me see this one. How is that? He extended one finger and pressed down on a button with the name Today's Woman printed across it in diminutive. Diminutive means small black type.
There was a sharp click. And when he took his finger away, the button remained pressed and below the level of the others. So much for the selection. Now here we go.
He reached up and pulled the switch on the panel. So the whole process is described. Immediately the room was filled with a loud humming noise which the machine was making. A crackling of electric sparks and the jingle of many tiny quickly moving levers almost in the same instant.
Sheets of quarto paper, which is a type of paper, began sliding out from a slot to the right of the control panel and dropping into the basket. Like paper coming out of a Xerox machine. Then came out quick.
one sheet a second and in less than half a minute, it was all over. It means, it didn't take even a minute. Adolf Kneipp said, this is your story.
They grabbed the sheets and began to read. The first one they picked up started as follows, and it was all gibberish. Okay, so the speaker got angry. So he said, calm down, you fool, calm down.
It is all right, sir. Really, it is. There is a need to make some adjustments. Our connection must have got a little bit damaged. You have to remember that there is a million feet of wiring in this room.
So, everything cannot be fixed at the first time. Bolan is a pessimistic fellow. He says, he will never work. Be patient, sir.
So, he started working. Where did he make a mistake? And it took him four days. And then he was ready for the next try. Remember this fact.
Four days. It will never work. It will never work. This time, he typed the second magazine, Reader's Digest, and he again got pages.
Okay, a small story for Digest. And this time, you see, the words have come in, but there is no spacing. It is gibberish. No, sir, it is fine. Can't you see?
It is simply not breaking up the words. That's an easy adjustment. But the story is here. Look, Mr. Boland, look, it's all there, except that the words are joined together.
Indeed, it was. On the next try, a few days later, everything was perfect, even the punctuation. The first story they ran off for a famous woman's magazine was a solid plotty story of a boy. This is not an important detail. Of a boy who wanted to better himself with his rich employer.
This was the first story that was written. So if you remember from MCQ point of view, it was a story of a boy who wanted to better himself with his rich employer. This was the first story.
This boy arranged so that story went for a friend to hold up the rich man's daughter on a dark night when she was driving home. Then the boy himself happening by knocked the gun out of his friend's hand. So, like in Hindi plots, there was a story of that kind of plot.
The girl was grateful, but the father was suspicious. He questioned the boy sharply. The boy broke down and confessed. Then the father, instead of nicking him out of the house, kicking him out of the house, said that he admired the boy's resourcefulness.
He tried to ask for the girl's hand from this girl. The girl admired his honesty and his looks. The father promised him.
to be the head of the accounts department, the girl married him. It's tremendous, Mr. Boland. It's exactly right.
Seems a bit sloppy to me, no? Mujhe itna interest nahi aaya. Sir, it's a seller.
Ki yeh bikhegi. Yeh is tarah ki kahani bikhegi. In his excitement, Adolf Nye promptly ran off six more stories. Chhe aur stories usne produce kar diye.
Utne minute mein. All of them except one, which for some reason came out a trifle lewd. Lewd matlab thoda sa vulgar.
Seemed entirely satisfactory. Mr. Boland was now mollified. Ki ab wo santush ho gaya ki yeh machine come I give he agreed to set up a literary agency in an office downtown and to put downtown mutlip share k toda a gay toda cabal tennis or a suburbs may Usta raka illaqa okay to put knife in charge in a couple of week this was accomplished the knife mailed out the first dozen stories he put his own name to four of them mr. Boland's name to one and for this he simply invented a Muslim could he up in him let's say Virat Sharma Rohit Kohli, he made such names and started publishing them.
He put his name on 4 stories and Bolan's name on 1 story. Out of 12, 5 stories were accepted. Imagine, it didn't take much effort to write, but 5 stories were accepted.
The one with Mr. Bolan's name on it was turned on with a letter from the fiction editor saying, this is a skillful job, it's written very well, but it wasn't made properly. We would like to see more stories of this writer. So Adolf Neib went to the machine, he made another story in one minute and put the name of Boland on it and mailed it.
He bought it. Okay, so a story was published in the magazine in the name of Boland and money started coming. The money started. Pouring in. Knife slowly and carefully stepped up the output and in 6 months time he was delivering 30 stories a week and selling about half.
So 30 stories production was going on. Out of that 15 were being sold. Money was coming.
He began to make a name for himself in literary circles as a prolific and successful writer. He was making a lot of money as a prolific writer. So did Mr. Boland, but not quite such a good name, although he did not know it.
At the same time, Naip was building up a dozen or more fictitious person, as in naamon ko invent kar raha tha, as promising young authors, everything was going fine. At this point of time, unne socha ki sirf kahaaniya hi kyu likhe, hum poori novel kyu na likhe. Okay, aur Mr. Boland ko lag raha tha ki, haan, issse aur naam badega in the literary world, sahi ti ki duniya mein, uska bada naam hoga, to usne bola ki, haan Naip, tum uspe lag jao. So now he's completely... sold on the idea okay i want to sold on the machine i want to do a novel he kept asking saying i want to do a novel sold on the machine sold off the machine depending on the context and so will you sir and so you will but be please be patient this is a very complicated adjustment i have to make this adjustment Everyone tells me that I should write a novel.
Now Mr. Bolan is kind of, you know, he is feeling very happy in the world of lies. You know, people come to me, those who have read my stories, they say that you will definitely have to write a novel. Okay.
So, all sorts of publishers are chasing me day and night, begging me to stop fooling around with stories. Publishers say, you stop writing stories, you write a novel. You know, he knows it's all a lie.
But he is happy with the lie because it is being considered as a truth. by the publishers. So, we are going to do novels, and I've told him, just as many as we want, but please be patient.
Keep a little patience. Listen to me. What I'm going to do is a serious novel, something that will make them sit up and take notice.
I want to write a serious novel, so that they, you know, write me more seriously, consider me more seriously. I'm rather getting tired of the kind of stories you have been putting. The kind of stories you are putting my name in, I don't like it that much.
I feel like you are, you are, you are a character. You are not trying to humiliate me in a very useless way. By putting my name, make a monkey out of me. Okay. You are making a monkey out of me.
Here also, pay attention to the prepositions. Okay. Make a monkey out of me means, you are making me like a monkey.
Basically, trying to say it's a proverb. Basically, trying to say, you know, you are trying to humiliate me by making me associated with something which is ridiculous. Which is a kind of foolish thing. But by putting my name in it, you are making a monkey out of me.
A monkey keeping all the best ones. You put your name in the good stories. You put my name in the useless stories.
But he was telling a minute ago that publishers are very happy with him. And he says that you write a novel. No, Mr. Boland, no.
So this time I am going to make damn sure I am going to write a high class intelligent book. That I am going to write a high class intelligent novel. I want to do this. Did you understand? Look, Mr. Boland, with the sort of switchboard I'm rigging up, you'll be able to write any sort of book you want.
The kind of switchboard I'm making, you punch it and decide what kind of novel you want. And this was true for within another couple of months. The genius of Adolf Neib, new control system, which enabled the author to pre-select literally any type of plot and any kind of style of writing he desired.
There were so many dials and levers on the thing, it looked like an instrumental panel of some enormous... aeroplane. So it was a very complicated machine.
He's comparing it with the instrument panel of some enormous aeroplane. Okay. First by depressing one of a series of master buttons, the writer made his primary decision.
Historical chahiye, ethihasik chahiye, satirical chahiye, yaani ki thoda comedy and satire kind of a thing. Philosophical chahiye, ya political chahiye, romantic, ya erotic, ya majaakia, ya straight. Then from the second row, the basic buttons he chose were Army Life, Pioneer Days, Civil War, World War, Racial Problems, Wild West, Country Life, Childhood Memories, Seafaring, The Sea Bottom and many many more.
The third row of buttons gave a choice of literary style, Classical, Whimsical, Racing, Hemingway, Faulkner, James Joyce, Feminine, Characters, Words. So 10 rows of pre-selector buttons. Control had also to be exercised during the actual writing process which took about 15 minutes per novel and to do this the author had to sit as it were in the driver's seat and pull and Push a battery of label stops as on an organ.
So, in a way, like you go to driving school and sit, in that way, by pushing the buttons, you have to pull and push the levers. And it will give different types of qualities. Tension, surprise, humor, pathos.
Pathos means sadness. Mystery. Numerous dials and gauges on the dashboard itself told him how, throughout exactly, how far along he was with this work.
Finally, there was a question of the... passion you know passion will be there in the thing in the novel from a careful study of the books at the top of the best seller list for the past year Adolf Knaip had decided that this was the most important ingredient of all a magical catalyst that somehow or the other could transform the dullest novel into a howling success so success ke liye passion button hone ki kaafi zarur thi is baat ko yaad rakhi again from an MCQ point of view okay so he realized that you needed to have passion among characters between characters in the novel you And in the same way, bestsellers are made who sell more. At any rate, financially.
But Naip also knew that passion was powerful, heady stuff and must be prudently dispersed. But how much passion should there be? Otherwise, there is a thin line between passion and vulgarity. So, how much dose will it have to be put in? We will have to pay attention to that.
The right proportions at the right moments and to ensure this, he had devised He is making a vegetable, it seems like that. to ensure he had device and independent control consisting of two sensitive sliding adjusters operated by foot pedals similar to the throttle and brake in a car jasmine one pedal governed the percentage of passion to be injected 35 or 64 percent i mean i'm just giving you an example and the other regulated its intensity There was no doubt of course that this was the only drawback that the writing of the novel by the Knife Methods was going to be rather like flying a plane and driving a car and playing an organ all at the same time. But this did not bother the inventor.
So it was a very complex procedure. When all was ready, he proudly escorted Mr. Boland into the machine house and began to explain the operating procedure for the new wonder. Good God night.
I will never be able to do all this. Damn it, man. It would be easier to write the thing by hand. If I start writing, it will be easier. So Bolan is somebody who gets very overawed and a little pessimistic.
You will soon get used to it, Mr. Bolan. I promise you. In a week or two, you will be doing it without hardly thinking. It's like learning to drive.
Well, it wasn't quite easy as that. But after many hours of practice, Mr. Bolan began to get the hang of it. And finally, late one evening, he told Naib to make ready the running of the first novel. It was a tense moment. But with the fact...
little man crouching nervously in the driver's seat. So he was nervous that because he will have to press many levers in order to get the right intensity, right passion, right kind of content out. And the tall toothy Naib fussing excitedly around him.
I intend to write an important novel. So he's just thinking that I want to write an important novel. He is not so interested in the procedure. I'm sure you will, sir. I'm sure you will.
With one finger, Mr. Boland carefully pressed the necessary. pre-selector buttons what does row message it may be pre-selected buttons they dira dira suppress satirical racial problem classical style characters jay men four women one infant pandra chapter then power mystery profundity you know that it should be very profound and very philosophical for intelligent novel as he's going on saying what he has been saying no that i want to write an important novel so which sounds good are you ready sir yes yes i'm ready Naip pulled the switch. The great engine hummed. There was a deep whirring sound from the oil movements of 50,000 cogs and rods and levers.
So it's a very complex machine that Naip has created. Then came the drubbing of the rapid electrical typewriter, setting up a shrill. Do you know that the ATM machine, when you put an ATM card in and it makes a sound before the money comes, it makes a sound. If you are thinking that it is actually the notes being counted, you are wrong.
It is a sound deliberately put into the htm machine to make you feel that the machine is counting the money Okay, you know this, I had read this Then came the drubbing of the rapid electrical typewriter setting up a shrill almost intolerable clatter Out into the basket flew the typewriter So all the pages like this come, like from the xerox machine All those pages started coming, one every two seconds But with With the noise and the excitement and having to play up on the stop and watch the chapter counter and the pace indicator and the passion gauge, Mr. Boland began to panic. He reacted in precisely the way a learner driver does in a car. When you learn car driving, you get scared that you might hit someone or make an accident.
By pressing both the feet hard on the pedals, the car gets off. That's what happens. You take your foot out of the clutch without putting enough acceleration.
congratulations on your first novel naib said picking up the great bundle of typed pages from the basket little pearls of sweat were oozing out all over mr boland's face it sure was hard work okay but you've got it sir you've got it done let me see it naib how does it read he started to go through the first chapter passing each finished page to the younger man good heavens naib what is this right because it's a bit fruity he says fruiting it is revolting because it had that kind of element. I possibly, I would not have put my name on it. Quite right, sir.
Quite right. Is it some nasty? Are you kidding me?
No, sir. It certainly looks like, I think so. You don't think, Mr. Boland, that you might have been pressing a little hard on the passion control pedals.
You pressed a little too much on the pedal of your passion, so you put the passion by cheating. Because of that, this novel is a little of that kind which is not suitable for reading by many people. My dear boy, how will I know? Why don't you try one more? So Mr. Bowler tried one more novel and it went well.
Within a week, the manuscript had been read and accepted by an enthusiastic publisher. Knaip followed with one in his own name, then made a dozen more for good measure. For good measure means more success. And published more novels.
In no time at all, Adolf Knaip's literary agency had become famous for its large table of promising young novelists. Now if you ask this question. who were in the large table. It means, actually only two, because these two had names, the rest were fictitious. These two were the real people, the others were all names invented.
But people thought, there are a lot of writers here. Then it was at this stage that young Naib began to display a real talent for big business. See Mr. Bolan.
We have got too much competition. Why don't we just absorb all the other writers in the country? Because there are still a lot of writers who write their own.
Why don't we take them all to our literary agency? Mr. Boland, who now sported a bottle green velvet jacket and allowed his hair to cover two-thirds of his ears, was quite content with things the way they are. Don't know what you mean, Mr. Boy. You can't just absorb writers. How can we take them to our agency?
Of course you can. Exactly like Rockefeller did with his oil company. So he's using the example.
of what Rockfeller did. Rockfeller was a big multinational company in the US with the oil companies. Buy them.
Tell them the price. Buy them at that price. Okay. And if they don't swell, squeeze them out. That means if they are not ready to sell, then squeeze them out so that they don't get any work and it becomes very difficult for them to survive.
Careful now, Naip. Be careful. I've got a list out here of 50 of the most successful writers in the country.
And what I intend to do is to offer each one of them a lifetime contract with pay. So here I have 50 most successful writers. I will offer them a contract. Okay. With salary.
All they have to do is to undertake never to write another word. After that, they will not write another word for anyone. And we will use their name in our stories. So people will think that this writer, who is very famous, he has also written this story.
They will never be ready. You don't know writers, Mr. Boland. You watch and see. What about the creative urge? Why?
Because I should write what is in my mind. Okay? It's bunk. They are only interested in money, just like anybody else.
So now you are getting the commercial part of it coming very, very strongly into this entire invention. In the end, Mr. Boland reluctantly agreed to give it a try. He thought, okay, let's give it a try.
And Naib had a list of 50 writers. He had a chauffeur-driven Cadillac. So he had money, he had a Cadillac car, and he had a driver too.
He went to the first man. The man at the top of the list, a very great and wonderful writer, and he had no trouble getting into the house. So he went to his house. He told his story and produced a suitcase full of sample novels, which he had written.
and a contract for the man to sign which guaranteed him so much a year for life. Okay. The man listened politely, decided he was dealing with a lunatic. Lunatic means a madman. That I am talking to a madman.
I gave him a drink and told him to keep walking. I took him out of the house. The second writer, when he said that the knife is very serious, he attacked him with a paperweight. Okay. Paperweight is there, right?
To save the paper from flying, we keep a paperweight. And Naip had to run from there and he was abused a lot. The kind of abuse he had never heard before. A torrent of abuse and obscenity that he had never heard before. But it took more than this to discourage Adolf Naip.
He was disappointed but not dismayed. Okay. He was not dismayed. He was a little disappointed but he was not completely disappointed. And off he went in his big car to seek his next client.
This one was a female. A woman writer. Famous and popular whose fat romantic books sold by the million across the country. So she sold her romantic books by the million. She graciously received the client and gave him tea and listened attentively.
to history. It all sounds very fascinating, but of course, I find it a little hard to believe. I don't believe that there can be such a machine which can write such stories and novels. Madam, come with me and see with your own eyes.
My car awaits you. So off they went and in due course, the third person to see the machine. The astonished lady was ushered into the machine house where the wonder was kept. Eagerly, Knipe explained its workings and after a while, he even permitted her to sit in the driver's seat and practice with the buttons.
All right, you want to do a book now? Oh, yes, please. She was very competent and seemed to know exactly what she wanted.
She made her own pre-selections, then ran off a long, romantic, passion-filled novel. She read through the first chapter and became so enthusiastic that she signed up on this spot. So she signed her signature on the contract. That's one of them out of the way.
Naib said to Mr. Bolan, out of a pretty big one too, because she was very famous, very popular writer. Nice work, my boy. And you know why she signed?
This is important from the question-answer point of view. Why? She didn't have money.
She has a lot of money. But when she read this first chapter, she came to know that the type of writing that the machine is writing is better than her own quality of writing. Okay.
Which would seem strange, but it is combining various things. So he says, it is Naib's claim that it is better than... her own creation. Thereafter, Naive wisely decided to concentrate only upon mediocrity. So at that time, she thought that now I focus on mediocrity, which means the little useless things.
Like on YouTube, when it's useless, you know, if you make a meme, it gets millions of views, but on serious stuff, it doesn't get views. Thereafter, Naive wisely decided to concentrate only on mediocrity. Why mediocrity? Because it would be easier to convince mediocrity.
I will- will read this book. This is better than my quality. So I sign it. It will be easy to make money. Right.
I just have to lend my name. So that's what he, this thing. Why did I say Per?
Because name is called Per in Tamil. On Per Anna. On Per Anna. What is your name?
So in the end, after several months of work, he had persuaded something like 75% on it. So. Out of 50 writers, 75%, that is three-fourth of them, that is approximately 36-37 writers, he had persuaded to sign the contract. He found 70%, so around 35-36 types, right?
He found that the older ones, those who were running out of ideas, had taken the drink, but the easiest to handle. Those who were not able to write, signed the contract so that money would keep coming. The younger people were more troublesome.
He could write. He would become abusive, sometimes violent when he approached them. And more than once, Knipe was slightly injured on the ground. So he would get hurt because he would physically attack him.
But on the whole, it was a satisfactory beginning. This last year, the first full year of the machine's operation, it was estimated that at least one half of all the novels and stories published in the English language were produced by Adolf Knipe upon the great automatic grammatizer. So, means that half of the novels published in English were written by Adolf Naip's machine. Which is a major achievement.
Does this surprise you? Now, this part, from here, Roald Dahl is talking directly to you. Does this surprise you? I doubt it. And worse is yet to come.
Today, as a secret spreads, many more are hurrying to tie up with Mr. Naip. And all the time, this crew... turns tighter for those who hesitate to sign their names.
So, those who haven't signed, they are under a lot of pressure. Okay, actually here, there is a lot of pressure that they also sign. This very moment, as I sit here listening to the howling of my nine starving children, that I have nine children who are hungry in the other room.
I also feel that maybe I should sign so that money keeps coming to my house. Okay. So he is telling about his own problem. He is talking about the dilemma that he is facing himself.
I can feel my hand creeping closer and closer to that golden contract. Why is he calling that contract golden? Because it is going to bring in a lot of... Money that lies over to us Kobe Roald Dahl Kobe Adolf My name contract be Jai or was was so try a key Mary but she okay Unko khana killa naa us kill a person say a person Kelly a agar my scone track was saying car to the miracle Pesa a Jai gha and then he says Roald Dahl will not do that he says Oh Lord God Please give me strength to let our children stuff Kimmy ribba che bouquet But I will not sign that contract.
So at the end of the story, Roald Dahl's viewpoint is very clear. He is completely against the grammatizer. He is completely against the automatic machine.
That I will not take this automatic machine and give my name in any of my stories and take money and do this work. So I am in favor of creativity. I am not in favor of automation.
I am not in favor of a machine producing all these stories. So let my children starve. but I will not do this work. So, Roald Dahl, if you are asked a question, what was Roald Dahl's viewpoint, what was it, then you have to take a point from this portion, that's what Roald Dahl believes, that he is not in favor of the great automatic grammatizer. I hope you understood this story, you enjoyed it, okay, so you need to prepare the basic themes, etc., so that you are ready in this whole chapter.
Okay, bye-bye.