literary enigma Professor

“Did you attend the State Literary Festival?” I asked a literary-minded sensitive good friend of mine, the other day.

“No,” he responded, calmly.

“Why? You are so vigilant about these literary matters?”

“But,” he said smilingly, “there was no festival as such, but a galaxy of talks in the name of literary matters and an award ceremony not worth watching.”

I was silenced by my friend. But I did not give up.

“Did you not attend the Vidyodaya literary festival?”

“Don’t you know that it is not there any more?” He said.

“Why?” I asked.

“It looks as if there is hardly anyone to organise it.”

“Yes, more than anything else, the organising matters.”

A grave silence ensued.

“Did you attend the Godage festival?”

“No,” he said.

“Why?”

“I did not have much faith in the literary topics selected for the discourse?”

One notes that the month of September is dedicated to literary activities, the culmination of which is the Book Fair. I enquired my literary-minded friend further.

“Did you go to the Book Fair?”

“No,” he said.

“Why?”

“I heard that the place was too crowded and looked more like a carnival.”

“Are you not interested in buying books?”

“No,” he said.

“Why?”

“My house is overcrowded with books. Now the time has come when I have to get rid of some old books.”

“Do you have any plans to do that?”

“No I am still thinking about a plan. Perhaps it will take time to get rid of books.”

“What are the books you will get rid of?” I asked.

“I am not sure. I have to wait and contemplate about this.”

Then our discussion centred round the concept of collecting books and getting rid of books. Some elders get rid of their precious ownership of valuable books by donating them to public libraries. But a seasonal librarian told me the other day: “I am not sure if the younger generation has inculcated the reading habit nowadays.”

“What are the barriers keeping them from reading books?”

“The advancement of computer technology. They are now shifting towards social media. It is nothing but a habit formation. No one is to be blamed for that. Most books on the library shelves have gone into the smartphones.”

“But does that hinder the reading habit?”

“It is compulsory that the reading habit has to be taught. Schoolteachers have a role to play on this. The lists of books that should be read as supplementary readers ought to be planned. Pity that there are no plans even though October is declared as the month meant to cultivate the reading habit,” the librarian expressed his sorrow.

Most literary activities look more stagnant than vibrant with the exception of the Galle Literary Festival.

There you see the English book lovers. No adequate plans are designed to hold provincial literary seminars that eventually could revitalise the interest in both promotion of good reading and creativity. Think of the Buddhist literary seminar, organised by the Buddhist Congress. It comes as a welcome variant to other literary discourses in the country.

Mass media channels have a role to play on this. I am surprised to see that most sound and visual channels are silent at the literary functions. Taking the cue from Mao Tse Tung’s celebrated phrase, ‘may thousand flowers bloom’ it is not the personal bestowing of literary honours that matters.

Bestowing of honour to a single writer or a few may not matter as long as the merits are concerned. But the times have changed where more than one award could be ushered depending on the quality of contribution.

The criteria of literary judgements and scrutiny ought to change. Perhaps one could say that the literary judgement should depend upon the calibre of judges or the board of literary adjudicators.

The best lesson came to us from the post Greek theatre where a number of awards were flowered depending on the merits of varying types of creations. The practice of a democratic measure of literary and cultural activities should flourish.

The ultimatum is that the evaluation of books and creators should be pristine and sacred. The books that came to be honoured ought to be high calibred and resourceful. It is observed that a large number of poetic creations come out from the younger generation of poets.

But it must be emphasised that no proper evaluation of the poems have evolved for the last three decades.

Quite a number of pamphlets like poetry collections emerge as self publications as a result of the reluctance on the part of the established publishers wishing to accept the poetic works.

They deem that poetry is an unsaleable commodity. This is far from the truth.

These literary factors are worth discussed.