Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
the character of Dr. Aziz. The man is a skilled surgeon, better, we are explicitly told, than his English overlord. And yet when introduced, his character is rather childish and even buffoonish. I cringed at the description of his response to the Major's summons.
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I think that what annoys a Northener about Aziz character is his emotionality. All Indians are shown as extremely emotional, by Forster. They might be good surgeons, good barristers, good land owners, but they are moved by their emotions and feelings. Of those and of those of their friends, they discuss, in name of those they get involved in cervellotic enterprises. Uncountable episodes in the book. In first place the disaster of the picnic, with all those exaggerations. Kindness is what is often invoked, as the principal remedy to all injustice. Love is next.
Personally, I am rather emotional, although by orders of magnitudes less emotional then Aziz. Most Italians are, maybe a bit less than me. From what I know of British they are much cooler than me, and Scandinavians in comparison icy. I see the over decorated melodrama in the India of Forester and I compare it with Italian melodrama and with the lean lines of Scandinvian design.