Award fever
 Literary Awards fever has become a seasonal epidemic, and the season
is just beginning, with the announcement of the Godage and Swarna
Pusthaka Awards.
It can be identified as a viral infection, as described by Richard
Brodie, in his book 'Virus of the Mind'.
Like with the biological viral infections affecting living organisms,
including human beings, there are no antibiotics available to fight the
virus infections of the mind.
Like with computer viruses, there are no anti-virus software or
firewalls against the viruses of the mind.
Literary Award Virus (LAV) infection cannot be prevented. It has
become a part of world literary culture, probably from the time Alfred
Nobel decided to award a prize for literature.
In our country out of the different strains of this virus, the
'Swarna Pusthaka' is the most virulent strain with its Rs. 500,000 cash
prize, while Vidudaya does not offer a cash prize. The Gratiaen strain
of the virus affects only the English reading community.
 LAV affects different groups, the writers, critics and publishers, in
different ways. Even in each group all are not affected in the same way.
Some appear to have been always immune, while others have acquired
immunity, but they can still pass on the virus to others.
Some suffer only a very mild attack, hardly detectable by an outsider
and the victim himself may not be aware that he has been infected.
With some of them, specially among writers and critics, it could be
very acute, yet will recover by end September every year.
Among a few of them the illness could develop into a chronic
condition which will affect them for their lifetime, leading to other
complications. There will also be several who try to hide their
infection, even though the symptoms are visible.
A virus can enter our mind only if we allow it. It is similar to a
computer virus, rather than a biological virus, because it is very
difficult to prevent a virus from infecting us.
But for a computer virus we open the door ourselves, into our
computer or mobile phone, by letting a Trojan or a sleeper inside, just
like we let HIV virus into our body. Literary Award virus grows in our
mind because we offer a very fertile medium for its growth.
As long as we are driven by desire, greed and envy, which are also
the driving forces for literary creativity, we are all exposed to the
virus and run the risk of infection.
One way of blocking the virus is by doing away with Literary Awards,
the way the new premier of Queensland stopped the annual Queensland
Literary Award as a government cost-cutting measure. Politically it is
an easy step, because such a decision would not lose many votes.
Displaying how contagious the virus is, now the Queensland novelists,
publishers, writers and booksellers have all got together and announced
they would stage their own literary awards.
Probably Jean Paul Sartre was immune to the Award virus, because he
turned down the Nobel Prize (1964), and he had consistently denied all
official honours.
The first ever prize for literature was the Nobel. In 'Writers Quote
Book' Jim Fisher quotes.
"The Swedish selection committee had given the first prize in 1901,
to the mediocre Sully Prudhomme, over Leo Tolstoy, and the list of other
great writers who have not won a prize included Marcel Proust, Henry
James and Joseph Conrad".
Sinclair Lewis refused the Pulitzer for 'Arrowsmith', because he did
not win it for his 'Main Street', but a few years later he accepted the
Noble.
Other quotations are, "Any author who gets a swelled head because he
has been given a prize or a plaque is a foolish man" - John O'hara.
"The Nobel Prize, to me, is a joke. They give it year after year to
one absolutely non-existent writer after another" - Truman Capote.
The first literary prize in modern times was initiated by the
inventor of dynamite, and another popular award, the Booker was
sponsored by a wholesale food dealer, Booker & McConnel, which hit the
limelight with the award to Salman Rushdie for his 'Midnight's
Children'. Today Man Booker is sponsored by the stockbroker, the Man
Group.
In our country we have a book publisher offering an award to books
published even by his competitors. Whether they were all infected by the
LAV is not known.
Tom Chatfield, under the title 'The Art of prize-fighting', says
"Prizes are a vital part of the modern market for serious
literature.....Prizes are an attempt to mould, and to pre-empt,
posterity".
He also says "It is a central paradox of writing that true greatness
only becomes apparent over time, and yet the judgement of the future is
substantially dependent on what the present chooses to publish,
publicise and preserve".
Chatfield also reports that Aravind Adigar's 'The White Tiger',
before been shortlisted had sold less than a 1000 copies, and after the
Booker award sales had passed one million.
He also says "Prizes grant opportunities, but their pronouncements
remain at the mercy of the reading public and he gives an example,
Moshin Hamid's 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' lost the Booker to Kiran
Desai's 'The Inheritance of Loss', but far outsold Desai.
Sometimes even the harsh criticism of a book which won the award also
contributes to increased sales, as it has happened several times in our
country too.
A major complaint by our critics is that the judges for the awards
are not competent. But all over the world public and popular figures are
picked as judges.
Booker was once chaired by an ex-cabinet minister, and the Orange had
a pop-singer on their panel.
One good reason to continue with Literary Awards could be the
motivation to write good, readable and enjoyable novels, so that the
destruction of millions of trees to produce these books could be
justified to some extent.
[email protected]
|
