Re: One Laksha each for Novel and Play
Bapa Rao (brao@tis.com)
Wed, 10 Sep 1997 12:06:48 -0700 (PDT)
> At 12:41 -0400 10/09/1997, V. Chowdary Jampala wrote:
>
> >The totality of the post gave the impression that the TANA committee
> >knowingly >decided to give the prize to a novel that did not meet the
> >standards set >earlier by the committee. In reality, the TANA committee
> >gave the prize to a >novel which met their standards, but not
> >Ramakrishna's expectations. Big >difference.
>
> Perhaps. At this point, I would like to continue the discussion on the size
> of the prize, divorcing it of the recent context; if that can be done,
> without any real and imagined references to the particular novel.
If I may, I'll throw in a few words about the novel itself. I enjoyed the
novel despite the flaws, about which enough has been said. But I don't
think even the best-imaginable English translation will generate too much
interest in the global literary marketplace. Not being a lit.critic,
I have a lot of trouble explaining why; the closest I can come to an
explanation is to say that the best English novels I have read have a
well-woven tapestry-like quality to them in which the protagonist's
inner life and his relationship to his environment are brought out in a
way that finds instant resonance with the reader. RV has a bit too much
polemic in its conception to work well in this respect. It is too involved
with its protagonist to achieve the right level of detached compassion
and humor that marks someone like, say, R.K. Narayan.
(As an aside, khaki-bratukulu is also flawed due, among other reasons,
to its excessive polemic content, but it was more satisfying to me in
that it brought me closer to the inner life of its protagonist than
did the RV author.)
As to whether RV was therefore undeserving of the 1L prize, my reaction
is No; if the committee's intention underlying the guidelines was to
restrict the prize only to world-class novels rather than to encourage
the movement of the contemporary Telugu novel in that direction, maybe
they shouldn't have bothered with the contest in the first place. Given
the realities of the state of the Telugu novel, (in contrast to the
Telugu poem or the Telugu short story) the outcome was probably a
sensible one. (The logic is analogous to noting that we continue to
participate in the Asian games, though we don't have a chance in the
Olympics.) We should be concerned if RV was awarded the prize even
though there was a realistic theoretical possibility that a qualitatively
superior novel would have competed (but didn't for some reason). My
feeling is that there was no such possibility. Barring that possibility,
the only choice would be between not holding the contest in the first
place and awarding the prize to RV.
>
> >Aren't all reviews, including yours and mine, about rEgaDi
> >vittulu or any other book suspect at this or any stage?
>
> Perhaps. More so at this stage, than sometime before, or sometime later.
> More so about RV than any other book. (Looking back at this sentence, ten
> minutes after I initially wrote it, I am not able put forth cogent reasons
> for that assertion, even though I am intuitively convinced of it)
This is a curiously cryptic assertion. I would like to understand it
better. Maybe I'm missing a lot of context here?
>
> Coming back to the size of the award per se, yesterday I was talking to
> someone, who said that the lack of support for coordinating this contest,
> from "major" AP magazines, was that they felt that in future they have to
> match the size of the awards. That made me say that it is as if a
> millionaire walked into your friendly little poker game, and raised the
> stakes so high, that no one else could play. Any validity to this logic?
>
> Are the "major" weeklies, which ever they are, at this time (frankly I
> don't know the players now) in a position to announce a contest for a play,
> and give laksha rUpAyalu as a prize? I don't mean this question in a
> rhetorical sense. I am really asking.
Maybe there is some validty. I don't have any facts, but I imagine that the
smaller, literary type of magazines are always going to be hard-pressed,
TANA or no. But I wouldn't think a lakh is a lot of money for eenaaDu or the
chandamama group, for instance. (One could argue that the movie business
with its big bucks similarly puts pressure on Telugu mags with limited
resources.)
There are probably ways of addressing this issue of NRT benefactors with
fat purses skewing the literary economy, violating the Prime Directive
as it were. Off the top of my head, I can think of one--NRT lit enthusiasts
can team up with quality literary organizations back home; the coalition
should be geared to provide the right mix of funds, peer review, editorial
and publishing support. This seems to be eminently doable in fairly short
order.
I also like the appajOsyula-vishnubhotla foundation's idea of awarding
what amount to a certain number of fellowships instead of prizes. These
fellowships can subsidize a "writing sabbatical" for promising writers.
The RV author was fortunate to be able to take time off to write her
novel; most people wouldn't be so lucky. The fellowship can come with
an understanding that the money would be used to underwrite the writing
of a novel or some equivalent literary activity.
Bapa Rao