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vijayjohn wrote:Even more often, Indians writing in English turns out to be less of a coherent piece of writing and more of an exercise in showing off how much English they know.
linguoboy wrote:vijayjohn wrote:Even more often, Indians writing in English turns out to be less of a coherent piece of writing and more of an exercise in showing off how much English they know.
I disagree, but then I'm a fan of Salman Rushdie and Khushwant Singh.
Rushdie has sold millions of books and won the Booker of Bookers. He's pretty much the poster boy for "Unrepresentative Indian Writer".vijayjohn wrote:Yeah, from what I've heard, Salman Rushdie is hardly representative of Indian writing as a whole, and I have my doubts about Khushwant Singh in that regard, too.
I do know what you mean. I picked up Mihir Bose's history of Bollywood recently and the style is so annoying. I should post some of the worst bits. I was hoping for something more of the calibre of Suketu Mehta's Maximum city, which is a terrific read.vijayjohn wrote:To be fair, though, I wasn't only thinking of novels (or even short stories) written in English by Indian people but also things like newspaper articles, essays, children's literature (oh my God, you should see Indian children's literature written in English ), movie summaries, and language textbooks (remember the "Learn X Language in 30 Days" series? ).
linguoboy wrote:I do know what you mean. I picked up Mihir Bose's history of Bollywood recently and the style is so annoying. I should post some of the worst bits. I was hoping for something more of the calibre of Suketu Mehta's Maximum city, which is a terrific read.
"What will this Brahman do in the battle field. Why did he wish to go rather than write poems."
Kindled some one.
"Let him go friend. He will never comeback and that will do a lot of good to us" other said.
vijayjohn wrote:Since I'm pretty much the only user here who's Malayalee, I guess I'm just curious about what y'all think. Do you think Malayalee literature stands a chance outside Kerala? If you've read some Malayalam literature before, what do you think of it? Do you think other non-Malayalees would be able to appreciate it, too? If you haven't read any before, would you be willing to give it a try?
The biggest obstacle in the US would be the expectations of the market. We ghettoise writers--particularly foreign writers--and it can be very hard to get publishers to promote works which don't fit into established categories. There's a certain notion of what a "modern Indian novel" should be, moulded by the success of writers like Rushdie, Desai, Ghosh, and others, and the more easily Malayali authors can be slotted in with them, the better their chances of succeeding in the American market.vijayjohn wrote:Since I'm pretty much the only user here who's Malayalee, I guess I'm just curious about what y'all think. Do you think Malayalee literature stands a chance outside Kerala? If you've read some Malayalam literature before, what do you think of it? Do you think other non-Malayalees would be able to appreciate it, too? If you haven't read any before, would you be willing to give it a try?
Yasna wrote:I would like to give it a try. In fact, can you recommend a few books that you think might have broad appeal to the outside world? It would be a plus if it doesn't cost a fortune and a lot of effort to get it in the United States. SF, fantasy, mystery, normal fiction... anything is fine.
vijayjohn wrote:I recently started getting more active in a Malayalam forum I'm part of. There's one thread in that forum where some users talk about books they've been reading. One (Malayalee) user claims that the reason why Malayalee writers remain little known "is because their style isn't innovative" and that Malayalam literature "will never go beyond our culture and language, for various reasons."
Since I'm pretty much the only user here who's Malayalee, I guess I'm just curious about what y'all think. Do you think Malayalee literature stands a chance outside Kerala? If you've read some Malayalam literature before, what do you think of it? Do you think other non-Malayalees would be able to appreciate it, too? If you haven't read any before, would you be willing to give it a try?
Yes and no. Again, it depends on what the market has been cultivated to accept. If you read best-selling Chinese and Chinese-American novels, for instance, you'll find a lot of focus on traditional Chinese folklore and culture. And Jorge Amado does well in this country because he fits the mould of "Latin American magical realism". But you won't find, say, works of science fiction from Chinese or Latin American authors translated for the American market. It's not "folkloric" enough.TeneReef wrote:Ethno-centric (folklore-rich) literature written in countries other than our own is not very appreciated nowadays, people like reading ethnicity-neutral/universal literature.
At 73, P.V. Chinnathambi runs one of the loneliest libraries anywhere. In the middle of the forested wilderness of Kerala’s Idukki district, the library’s 160-books — all classics — are regularly borrowed, read, and returned by poor, Muthavan adivasis
linguoboy wrote:Hey, vijayjohn! I was at our local Indian bookstore and I saw a compilation of shorter fiction from M.T. Vasudevan Nair, a Malayali writer.
Ahendu wrote:Im curious to read another poet I heard about - Magha. How would be his work compared to Kalidasa's?
I also have an aim since long time to read one day the sangam poetry. But I think finding learning material is harder than with sanskrit.
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