Pakistani Literature

From:Guardian Unlimited

While the world continues its love affair with Indian Literature in English, one wonders what happened to its Pakistani counterpart? Why have Pakistani novelists failed to achieve the same high profile? With the inclusion of The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid in this year’s long list for the Man Booker Prize, there is hope that this might change.

Apart from Sadat Hasan Manto's Mottled Dawn: Fifty Sketches and Stories of Partition (which is translated from Urdu) the only Pakistani writer I have read is Hanif Kureishi (and I don't think he qualifies because he was born in Kent). I have had Aamer Hussein's The Other Salt on the shelves for a while, but have not got round to reading it. Of course, I have read Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice Candy Man. And how about Nadeem Aslan's Map for Lost Lovers (which I have not read yet)? Come to think of it I have probably read more than a few but I have not seen them as such. Pakistani writers probably face the same problem Canadian artists (especially musicians) face: being lumped
together with their larger neighbour.

But I suppose it should not come as a big surprise (considering our own experience in Malaysia) that Anglophone writers in Pakistan should be marginalised by 'majority' nationalist sentiment. English is the official language, that is language preferred by the officials, while Urdu is the national language, the one preferred by everyone else. And then let us not forget censorship.

Which is all a shame. With one associating Pakistan primarily with 'bombs and mullahs', one would have thought a little more written in English might help the world see that another side exists. Fortunately for them, I believe Pakistanis probably have somewhat more testicular fortitude than Malaysians. Things can still change.

Full story: http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330565912-99930,00.html

The Poetry-only shop

From Seatle P-I.

Imagine a bookshop of just 480 square feet stocked with 9,000 titles, all poetry. How on earth do they survive? But some how poets J.W. Marshall and Christine Deavel do. They actually make a living running one of two poetry-only bookstores in the US.

Called Open Books: A Poem Emporium, the bookstore which is located in the basement of a bungalow has managed to make a profit for twelve years it has been in operation, with sales described as steady. And one of the co-owners is always there at the front desk. "It is part of our home life," Christine, 49, says in the story.

She adds: "Most people in the book business know they will not make a lot of money ... we find other rewards. There are still poetry lovers ... that is a form of payment for me."

Visit their website: http://www.openpoetrybooks.com/

Brunei wants the Nobel

From the Borneo Bulletin

In an article headlined Translation Key To Promoting Local Writers To World, as Rosli Abidin Yahya reports on a meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan between a group of literary figures and the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Pehin Dato Major General (Rtd) Hj Awang Mohammad, and a senior government officer, Dato Paduka Hj Mahmud bin Hj Bakyr to express their concern over the future of literature in Brunei Darussalam.

"Translation is very important, as this would ensure that our writers are introduced to the world," they said, adding that the ultimate goal is to see a local writer receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 10 to 20 years" time.

Apart from their proposal for major works of local literary writers to be translated so that their books could be promoted globally, they would like to see 'the development of literature activity centres in all districts is vital in ensuring that literature is promoted to the masses'.

Will they win it before Malaysia?!

Full story: http://www.brudirect.com/DailyInfo/News/Archive/Aug07/080807/nite12.htm

Khushwant Singh doesn't like RK

From Outlook India

Naipaul criticised the current boom in Indian writing by saying, "I know of no literature in the history of the world which has been created for foreign readership, foreign publishers, foreign critics."

Now Kushwant Singh has his dig. He says of the three pioneers of Indian writers in English: Mulk Raj Anand was a Marxist propagandist, Raja Rao turned ... to exploiting the mystical and spiritual aspects of India and R.K. Narayan (was) a simple storyteller. "... none of his novels or stories has the ingredients I consider integral to fiction: sex, violence or pithy turns of phrases." (Narayan remains to this day the most widely read Indian.)

Kushwant Singh's top twelve are:

1. A house for Mr Biswas -- VS Naipaul
2. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie
3. A Suitable Boy -- Vikram Seth
4. Shadow Lines -- Amitabh Ghosh
5. Cuckold -- Kiran Nagarkar
6. The God of Small Things -- Arundhati Roy
7. Interpreter of Maladies -- Jhumpa Lahiri
8. The Trotter-Nama: A Chronicle -- I Allan Sealy
9. Chinnery's Hotel -- Jaysinh Birjepatil
10. The Hero's Walk -- Anita Rau Badami
11. Filming:a love story -- Tabish Khair
12. The Assasin's Song -- MG Vassanji
    

Full story: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070820&fname=OKhushwant+Singh+%28F%29&sid=1

Indonesia book burning

From the Sydney Morning Herald

At least 30,000 Indonesian school history textbooks of the 1965 coup attempt and slaughter of more than 500,000 alleged communists have been burned in Indonesia since March this year after the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono banned several texts implicating the military in the events.

Publishers, academics and activists are planning a constitutional challenge against the ban.

"We have failed to deal with our past," says Mr Nababan, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Studies. "We have to find out the truth otherwise we have no capacity to heal the wounds."

After the resignation of President Suharto in 1998, the national school curriculum was revised and the new texts included. The ban on the books, which question claims that the Communist Party was solely responsible for the coup, was imposed recently following pressure from the military, ultra-nationalists and fundamentalist Muslims. A criminal investigation into the books' authors was also ordered.

Franz Magnis-Suseno of the Driyarkara School of Philosophy says, "The book burnings show us (the government) is incapable of dealing with events intellectually."

Tell that to the Malaysian members of parliament.

Full story: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/indonesian-academics-fight-burning-of-books-on-1965-coup/2007/08/08/1186530448353.html