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| Wednesday, 4 February 2004 |
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Creating an awareness on books : Barriers for development Focus by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra At least a total number of 50 Sinhala novels come out from the presses both as vanity publications (or author publications) and as publications of products of accepted publishing houses. In my discussion with some of the writers I detected that they prefer to publish their own novels (and the books as well) if they have money to invest, for they are pretty certain on the returns. But unfortunately this has not been a success all together. Some of the writers have managed to raise funds from various places to publish their books, and tried their best to promote them (even by carrying bundles of books kept on their shoulders). They even do so to the extent of contacting the 'critics' to get reviews (mostly favourable) by way of publicity.
Some other writers prefer to get their books published through the accepted schemes and hold book launches to promote. This according to some publishers is a better way (or the only way) of creating an awareness on books. The publishers complain that poetry books don't sell. The poets point out that they sell if the proper awareness is created among the readers. If I remember correct the Sinhala anthology of poetry titled 'lovi kahata' by Parakrama Kodituwakku had an unprecedented effect on the readers. It was true enough widely discussed. To the credit of Gunasena publishers, this book came out as a surprise winning a State award for poetry as well. Although the managing director of Godage Poth Medura, Sirisumana Godage, is reluctant to publish anthologies of poetry, he says that he has with the greatest difficulty tried to print at least 500 copies of poetry books as a mercy measure to promote Sinhala poetic works. But strangely enough, this was not the scene a few decades ago, for when the poet Mahagama Sekara, managed to create a massive impact with his two poetry books, Nomiyemi, and Prabuddha where lies the secret? Literary Scene I feel that the necessary form of discussion is absent in the local literary scene. The anthologies of poetry prescribed for school examinations, never give way for a healthy discussion. Even the university dons seem to take Sinhala poetry as a dead entity, and worthless cause of intellectual discussion. As a result the anticipated live form of dialogue never ensue among the students of literature. The more senior poets of the calibre of Gunadasa Amarasekara, seem to believe that the Sinhala poetic tradition had ended up in Kotte period of Sinhala literature, and no proper product had enlivened the tradition since then. This I sincerely feel is a negative attitude in creative thinking. A poetic tradition cannot be ended at a particular moment in literary history. There may be shortcomings in actual creative flux but a tradition continues. One can say the same about short story writing, for it was a popular and a live genre in the sixties, and quite a number of short story collections came out during these decades. Comparatively the short story as a genre is transformed via the mass media challenges all over the world. In my literary observations in the year 2002 during my Sabbatical leave period spent in the UK, I found that the short story as a genre has changed from its former structure and content. Instead of longer short stores, one encounters shorter short stories in learned journals, especially meant for undergraduate reading. One observes that the mass media channels, especially the local print media, attempt to take an active interest in the promotion of books. Quite a number of weekly and monthly supplements are designed by daily Sunday newspapers. But to what extent has it helped the promotion of books? Instead of evaluations, one finds blurbs. One Sinhala journalist told me point blankly: 'I am not too sure about the service we render to the nation on arts and cultural matters, but may it be said with good intention that the literary supplements we design and produce help to sell the paper well. It looks as if advertisements do not matter very much for the promotion of books. Instead, a live dialogue on books is anticipated. Who can generate this dialogue? If looks as if the higher seats of learning are becoming narrower and narrower in their literary outlook. The pattern and trend today is not a critical outlook, about books, but a high flown ideological jargonizing quite derogatory to the development process of books. **** Back **** |
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