Interview: Ashok Karra

© Grace Pham

Ashok writes about poetry, politics, and philosophy on his popular blog Rethink. There, he promotes an avid appreciation and admiration of the arts. He regularly does so by providing his audience thoughtful, inspired commentary on everything from Dickinson to Schubert.

Besides maintaining Rethink, Ashok studies political science as a grad student at University of Dallas. He’s currently working with Plato, Xenophon, and Machiavelli. Heady stuff.

I recently talked to Ashok over e-mail; we discussed his blog, his work, and his thoughts on poetry. He makes one thing clear: The youth do care about art.

Check out his blog here, and his twitter here. Most importantly, “Like” the Rethink Facebook Group, here.

[Interview Follows]

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How do you engage art on a daily/regular basis?

ASHOK KARRA

I read poetry daily. I keep a handwritten journal where I copy interesting things from Poetry Magazine, The Atlantic, poetry 180, Verse Daily, The New Yorker, and anywhere else down. The idea is to read and reread poems; my journal is usually small and right now can fit in my pocket.

A picture of an older journal, where a poem and commentary are on display:

I’m always looking for new artists. The above link goes to deviantart. The point of the account was actually just to see what’s out there. There are so many strong artists on dA, flickr, tumblr and nearly every other web community that you can find good ones easily. The real issue is being able to give something back. I try to give them attention at the various communities I frequent. Occasionally I’ll link to them from the main blog.

The web makes finding new artists of any sort really easy. I’m very surprised that more people haven’t gone out of their way just to spotlight others. It wouldn’t be hard to start a blog that spotlighted unknown bands on myspace, for example.

So all of that is pretty much a daily routine. It goes hand-in-hand with another routine, responding to art and more serious, well-constructed work generally. I let the poems sink in and write something when I feel like writing. I promote the art and music I like when I feel I might be able to add a comment or when I know someone definitely needs to see/hear the work immediately.

And I’m a graduate student whose work on Xenophon and Plato drives me to comment on certain themes, though I prefer to take my time writing commentaries on those specific works. I still feel like 99% of the blog has been rushed.

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E-reader or book?

ASHOK KARRA

Book. Book book book book book. That having been said, an e-reader would be a huge help right now in terms of studying. I often need to be looking at multiple sources concerning a problem. Piles of notes are no substitute when something needs to be looked up fast because it’s on my mind.

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Your blog, Rethink, is quickly gaining Internet popularity. Can you tell us a little about your goals/mission for the site?

ASHOK KARRA

I want people to work through serious opinions and see how the higher issues emerge in texts, movies, lyrics, music, fine arts (and maybe even performing arts: I need to learn something about ballet, though). That sounds snobby, but it’s really something lots of people want to do already.

No one is happy about the unanimity at certain outlets on the web; even the most diehard partisans tire of winning every comment thread “battle.” I know people want to know something more serious has been said and want to engage it.

So I try to present (short) poems, journalism I find thoughtful, summaries and commentary on longer texts that are too important to ignore, reviews, etc. I think the key to what I do is that I don’t shy away from working toward questions and elaborating difficult themes.

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ASHOK KARRA

The commentary is indispensable. There are lots of people who say “you’re just over-analyzing and destroying literature.” One of the people who said this actually was a classics professor. He maintained that literature should be introduced at most; people should just know how to read the language (i.e. read it in the original Latin or Greek, in his case).

But I know for myself, there are times I simply want to know and can use the help thinking through something. And I know some of the texts I wrote on are fairly obscure – who here has read Xenophon’s “Agesilaus” – and commentary is sorely needed. The most important thing I do in this regard is symbolic.

I think I show that someone cares to read, see, listen, appreciate, respond. The commentary analyzes in order to give as much attention to the work as humanly possible. And I go back and edit and sometimes revise commentaries wholly. If I said I felt like I was destroying literature, I’d be lying. I feel like I’m working to be a better reader, the best possible audience.

Most of the young people I’ve run into are very supportive of what I’m doing. They’re happy to learn: they know what I do is just a starting point, that good literature and art stay with you and is responded to continually. It is the adults telling those kids what to think or not caring at all that they think who have to be won over.

Socrates in the Republic distinguishes between wisdom and learning. The latter seems to consist of the conventions that keep society afloat. The former is far more radical and cannot be controlled.

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Do you believe that, in allowing anyone with web access to write, photograph, or design, the Internet threatens to cheapen “real” art?

ASHOK KARRA

Not at all. The best artists show up that much better on the web and often get stronger using it themselves.

The only problem of the web I see as particularly relevant is the mob mentality of certain communities. Truth is, serious artists should be promoted that much more by many more people. The mob mentality in its softer form is navel-gazing. People would rather talk about the same old news story or vent about their day over and over again as if all self-expression were created equal.

Again, though: I think the hunger for something better is there. The money is in letting people think there is nothing better, though (hence, our tv and radio media. Print media is much better than either).

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What’s next for you on the road to fame and adoration? What have you been working on recently?

ASHOK KARRA

Working on Plato’s “Letters,” rereading Xenophon’s “Oeconomicus” and Machiavelli’s “Prince” (the latter two with friends). A paper or some blog entries will come out of those, surely. Poetry is a daily thing and I do wish I could find some time to go back and write it. Oh well, when this PhD. is done…

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