By Harish Trivedi, Dayton, Ohio.
© 2010
5
The Gujarati NRI Writer
We look to India to get a Good Housekeeping stamp of approval. (Page 1 last paragraph) I think here Natwarbhai is speaking for himself. He is definitely not speaking for me and perhaps not for all the Gujarati NRIs look for approval from critics in India. I have a hunch that Natwarbhai is using the plural WE instead of singular I when referring to himself the same way a President or a King does when referring to himself personally or their regime or administration.
I hope that Natwarbhai is not seeking approval from India for his writings and nor does Babubhai Suthar or Madhubhai (Madhu Rye). I am sure there are a number of other good Gujarati writers who do not seek approval and they do not write for getting approved by critics in India. Generally people write or create something because they want to do so. Writing and generally all creative effort is a result of some unsupressable inner urge for expression be it painting, photography, sculpting or writing… William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) has aptly described good poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.
Having said this, let me add that every writer, poet, novelist, painter...creates some thing, first for his own pleasure but then he/she also wants to share the work with some people –readers, viewers, literary or arts experts and so on. There is no play without an audience…
What we do not have in Gujarat and do not have in any other country is enough number of people who enjoy READING. Compared to over all population of Gujarati-speaking people, relatively a very small number of people BUY books for reading. Comparatively there are not enough Gujarati speaking people who like to read, who go out and buy a new novel or a collection of poems. (Of course many a friends have made a practice of ‘borrowing’ and never returning the books they borrow, but that is a subject for some other time and place.) Under these circumstances even a learned critic (if there are any left…) with rave review of a self-published book can guarantee a big sell of the book. It merely satisfies the ego of its creator.
Many of us know how this game of publishing and reviewing is played. The vanity press folks in India, some even with their own column in the weekend edition of a newspaper are able to sell a total package for one flat price. The gullible NRI empties his/her pockets for a short-lived fame, experience instant gratification and this makes both the parties happy. Even an editor of a respectable publication has no guts to write that the book under review is a vanity publication (paid for and published by the writer) or portions of it are plagiarized. In spite of knowing that some of the poems in a particular collection are not original and have been claimed as original by the so-called poet and that too without any acknowledgement as to the source of the material… One magazine editor has devoted precious space to make a note of such publication. (I state this from a personal experience) So why worry about Gujarati NRI writers wanting to have approval from India or for that matter in this country? Who really cares?
The established writers with a number of awards and honors in their pocket really do not care for approval. They really do not NEED any approval. We have in this country at least half- a- dozen of writers who fit that category, the same folks who get invited again and again at each seminar, symposium or convention to do their own dog and pony show. The literary event becomes a place for joyous merriment and for some a bacchanalia, an all expense paid ritual and a source of entertainment for all the attendees. There is no phala shruti after such event. Only mutual backslapping and preparation for the next year’s event.
It is not as if the vanity press phenomena is unknown in this country. It has flourished and will keep flourishing. But the folks in the know, the academia, the editors at national publications and the editors at respected book review journals know this game and try to stay away from such publications.
But in this electronic age the vanity press has dressed itself up in the form of respectable sounding euphemism – the self-publishing service. These outfits would help one with editorial service, jacket design for the book and marketing assistance – all, of course for a price. The writer gets a small percentage of the sale and if the book is good enough and commands a respectable share of the publishing market, may end up making a small profit may be over a period of a decade or so… These self-publishing companies do advertise and some the books published by these publishers do get sold. But there is one minor but very important detail. The publishers print the books on demand. So there is no worry about unsold copies in the attic that are generally palmed off to unsuspecting guests year after year… I have happily received first edition of such books even after some ten years since its initial publication. I state this only to illustrate my earlier point.
To be continued....
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