Father and Son

Oe and his sonOe Kenzaburo and his son Hikari

The birth of Hikari was a turning point in Oe’s life and in his literary career. Much of Oe’s later fiction examined relationship between disabled and non disabled people. Hikari turned out to be exceptionally gifted in music, and he is acknowledged as one of the most famous composers in Japan. (Via)

Hikari Oe Wikipedia here

Art and Healing: Conversation with Oe

Rostropovich and Argerich play Oe Hikari “A Talk”.

Arthur Arthur Miller, Marilyn and Abe Marilyn and Abe

A family tragedy exposed and a famous writer disgraced.
The abandoned child (Daniel Miller) with down syndrome managed to survive the hardship and has grown into an advocate of the disabled, surrounded with love and respect from people who know him.

Arthur Miller now joins the club of the great man, awful father category populated with men like Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi’s son was not as lucky as Daniel Miller.
Gandhi and a boy
(Note; a little boy in this picture is not Gandhi’s son)

Chapter 4 in Koestler’s (1960) The Lotus and the Robot gives a reasonable analysis of the all-too-human psychological reasons behind Gandhi’s emphasis on celibacy. Included in those is the Mahatma’s abandoning of his father on the latter’s deathbed to be with his young wife sexually, thus being absent from the old man’s death, for which he never forgave himself.

Koestler also covers Gandhi’s disappointing treatment of his children, in the same book. That handling included the Mahatma’s denying of a professional education to his oldest sons, in the attempt to mold them in his image. The eldest was later disowned by the “Great Soul” for having gotten married against his father’s prohibitions; and died an alcoholic wreck, after having been publicly attacked by Gandhi for his involvement in a business scandal. (Via)