WHY WRITERS MUST READ
 What is the place for Literature in the 21st century Kenya? What is its position in the country? Several people have lamented, bewailing on this platform that Literature is dying because it has been relegated to scholarship. Simply put, people rarely do read for pleasure : and if they read, they do read for exams. No wonder critics have bemoaned the fact that most current writings lack creativity whatsoever. I opine that it is only through reading that we can solve this problem. Sir Francis Bacon, the father of English essays, writes in his essay Of Studies that, “Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament is in discourse (conversation); and for ability, is in judgment and disposition of business.” He also adds, “read not contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider…” Thus, truth be told, reading is a way of emancipating yourself from the falsehoods acquired.
 Wole Soyinka believes that every work of art has elements of craftsmanship in them, and it is only in reading that you can acquire these strands. I am not suggesting that one should write like V. S. Naipaul for instance, what I mean is that Naipaul has a way of presenting the Caribbean problems through the use of humour, and it is only when you read him that you will know how to use humour to present the challenges facing Kenyans. In a nutshell, I do not believe that one can be a good writer without reading.
 T. S. Eliot in Tradition and Individual Talent writes, “… (Tradition) cannot be inherited and if you want it, you must obtain it with great labour… (That is, through reading)” Orocho Jakojwaya

Of -ing endings

In literature, most literary artists employ the use of a style called parallelism. And, according to www.literarydevices.net, “parallelism is (defined as) the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in construction, sound, meaning or meter.” Nay, similarity may be at word level, phrase level, sentence, or even paragraph level. A notable example, is Chinua Achebe, in his essay The Trouble with Nigeria he writes, “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing … wrong with Nigerian Character. There is nothing wrong with Nigerian climate…” Here, Achebe uses parallelism to emphasise the fact that the problem with Nigeria is its failure of leadership. Just like Achebe, Jonathan Swift, too, employs parallelism to emphasize how leaders use laws for their own selfish gains. In his novel Guilliver’s Travels His Majesty concludes, after hearing Gildrig’s tale about his people, (Gildrig’s people) that, “You have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislature. That laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them.” Parallelism also does exist in poetry. In Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man, the poet juxtaposes two contrasting elements in attempt to bring out a human trait of imperfection. He says that man is “ Born but to die: reasoning but to err.” That is why, I do not agree with Dr. Ochichi’s argument that appeared on The Standard on Saturday 16th July where he opines that –ing ending words weaken sentences. His argument can be termed as dissuasive: it is not a watertight argument. Grammarians classify verbs syntactically into two; that is, finite verbs and non-finite verbs. The former is defined as those verbs that do inflect for tense, number, and person. For example, the sentence, “Jimmie walks to school,” has the verb ‘walks’ inflect for both number and person. The latter do not inflect for tense, number or person: nay, non-finite verbs are numberless, tenseless, and personless grammatically speaking. For example, the sentence, “Swimming is good for your health,” has the word swimming acting as a noun inasmuch as it is structured as a verb that inflects for tense in the progressive aspect. The same grammarians also further subdivide the non-finite verbs into three; that is, infinitives, participles, and gerunds. For the purpose of this article, I shall define all the three terms. Infinitives can be defined as the base form of a verb that does not inflect for either person or tense. For example, “The baby begun to cry.” To cry is the infinitive. Participles can be described as those words formed from verbs by adding –ed or –ing to function as an adjective. For example, “A frustrated player commits many fouls in the field.” Lastly, gerunds are verb forms ending in –ing that function as nouns. For example, “Flying is the safest means of transport.” According Dr. Ochichi’s argument, whenever you use a gerund for emphasis or for aesthetic value repeatedly, the sentence is weakened. And, in the example given above, “… laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them,” I do not see any weakening. Thus, if I were to buy Dr. Ochichi’s argument then the adjectives perverting, confounding, and eluding would have to be changed from a gerund to either a participle or an infinitive. So, the new sentence would read something like this “… laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose abilities lie to pervert, to confound and to elude them.” The original sentence sounds better than the new sentence. That is why, I opine, that the –ing whether it be a participle or a gerund, does not weaken a sentence. Orocho Jakojwaya