Hello Gentle Reader
(I)
Small presses like Archipelago Books, And Other Stories Press, Peirene Press; as well as larger publications like Dalkey Archive Press and New Directions Books; as well as literary publications like Three Percent Review, affiliated with Open Letter Books, and The Best Translated Book Award; are champions of the other languages. English language countries have a cold attitude and distrusting feelings towards, other languages and their literary works. The common argument is what is a book from Finland about artificial intelligence, becoming conscious and aware, have any relevancy towards an English speaking reader; what about a Romanian authors surreal tale of the stifling life under Communism? The truth is this is a small and flawed argument. Global literature is literature surpassing the defined boundaries and borders of cultures, and traversing the confusing world of translation, and becoming available for a new readership, in a new language, in a new country. It’s about the dialogue and sharing of ideas. Yet in today’s world, writers and authors are expected to be like, pop stars and other manufactured forms of people – where their persona and their life is far more important than that of their literary work. People are not interested in a book by an Estonian writer, and his poetic epistolary novel, written with beautiful language and surreal imagery, shows the fall of communism, and the overpowering consumption of a consumerist society. Nor are people interested in, a Lithuanian author’s strange short stories or columns or essays; about autobiographical depictions of life that may have changed from memory to dream to embellished fiction. Quite the contrary. People want the next Nora Roberts book. Some quick read: girl meets boy, boy and girl don’t like each other; then girl loves boy, and boy loves girl. It appears that readers want what they know – what they are comfortable with. They do not want a surprise punch. In a sense publish in English language countries have done away with literary merit, in favour of catering to less serious works of fiction, and passing it off as the next big thing. This was fine at one point. That is why there are publishers like Harlequin Enterprise and Kensington Books. However gone are the days when the fiction of the English language was innovative; such as Virginia Woolf, Samuel Beckett and James Joyce. This Modernist revolution eventually fell into Postmodernism, which in a lot of cases with American authors has become a bloated satirical caricature of itself; and some author have turned to kitchen sink realism. Other countries continued to develop and move into newer territories in their literary works. Why did the English language publications suddenly go stale? I personally can’t say for certain, when it happened or how it happened; but can be seen is that the works these publishers are doing, is changing the literary landscape of the bloated English language publishing sphere, into something more open to the wider world. It is proving to be no easy task; however, these publishers are finding a way to connect with their readers, and to make their publications more known and heard about, building a reputable reputation; and allowing those readers interested in, international fiction and literature, a chance to experience the wider world.
(II)
At the Jaipur International Literary Festival, a panel of writers that included: Xiaolu Guo, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Jonathan Franzem; discussed the Global Novel. The discussion soon turned to the lack of translation, and the warped reading habits of the general reader. In short Xiaolu Guo has called the work “over rated.” An audacious assertion, but a correct assessment. Guo points out that:
“For example I think Asian literature is much less narrative … but our reading habit is more Anglo-Saxon, more American … Nowadays all this narrative [literature is] very similar, it's so realism, so story-telling driven … so all the poetry, all the alternative things, have been pushed away by mainstream society.”
Guo is correct. When I go into a bookstore, I read the write up, the first thing that one will notice, is that, a lot of the books are family sagas. The drama or action takes place between the characters interactions as a family unit, and how the past continues to haunt the present. It is always filled with the odd characters – racial grandmother; eccentric world traveling aunt; disappointed mother, drug addict brother; successful sister – the usual archetypes. It’s incredibly boring and it’s over done with, much like young authors trying to be the next Hemmingway. All literary ingenuity is extinct; it appears in Anglo-American fiction – mostly American. The lack of translations that each country (Canada included as Anglo), is surprisingly disappointing; and is noted by Lahiri who noted in Italy, that in a news papers ten books of the year, that seven of them were by American authors. Either this is cultural imperialism or Italy and other countries are more open to foreign fiction in their marketplace.
On the flipside as pointed about the small presses, and the readerships that they are gathering and maintaining are proving to shift the publishing worlds, perspective on translation. Before big named translated book consisted of Stieg Larsson and Haruki Murakami; crime fiction and then a Japanese author, heavily influenced by American culture and pop culture, whose Japan becomes to resemble not a Japan but a shifting state of lacking a identity; and is comfortable for Anglo-American readers to read, because it’s reminiscent of their own home – it’s not too foreign.
However this problem appears to be diagnosed and treatment appears to be on the way. With small publishers, translators, literary publications, and anthologies like “The Best European Fiction,” it’s going to show that, the global literary world is opening up, slowly, but headway is being made.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
