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Kipling the man who would be king5/19/2023 ![]() ![]() He also says he had a chance to be close to a king, but he’s afraid his king is now dead. The narrator, like the young Kipling, is an English reporter for an Indian newspaper (called here ironically The Backwoodsman) and in this capacity roams around India, where he has often opportunities to be fellow to many beggars, even though he has no chance of checking their worthiness. The novella starts with an epigraph “Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy”, which as the Helpful Footnote suggests, is or is meant to sound like a freemasonic motto, and indeed the story is full of allusions to Free Masonry, of which Kipling was a member. He also managed to be at the same time an apologist for the British imperial project and a subtle interrogator of imperialism and racism, as this story is going to show. Kipling spent only 13 years of his life in total in India (that would be about 18%), including his early childhood, and yet it was India which furnished him with material for his best-known texts. ![]() James Joyce – “Ulyss… on James Joyce – “The… ![]() James Joyce – “Ulyss… on James Joyce – “Ulysses” (“Lest…
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