KITSCH AND SOME BOOKS....AT THE GALLE LITERARY FESTIVAL
Barefoot literature comes in sarong wrap
By Rajpal Abeynayake in Galle
(Courtesy lakbimanews.lk)
You could say that everybody who wants to be somebody was there when the Galle Literary Festival began on Wednesday with a ceremonial opening at the Law Court’s Square, in the old Dutch Fort. Plenty of ambience —— a lot of pretty faces, some creative minds.There were many somebodys — Vikram Seth, Gore Vidal, William Dalrymple, Shyam Selvadurai etc.,But for kitsch, it was hard to beat the Galle Lit., Fest. This is the first literary festival which is in fact and in sum a tourist festival. Certainly there is no law against that, of course....
It’s a great location.William Dalrymple could not have created a better oeuvre for the proceedings. He carefully went through the destruction of Moghul India by the British.Well, here was the re-visitation. A great deal of white faces, an old Dutch fort (much romanticized....), a smattering of successful writers with tons of aspirants and mix it with a myriad of things that have nothing to do with literature — such as global climate change and handicrafts and architecture, and you have, well, the Galle Literary Festival.
Make no mistake, there were some things in it for aspiring talent and even for matured talent to gain a little something from. But for all of that, the kitsch was real. This was something such as mock parliament —— or people having a whale of a time being associated with a few real writers while doing a lot of other things such as sampling handicrafts and dipping into creative writing workshops conducted by festival committee members who have written an unspectacular blog or two. (!!!!!) (Imagine somebody going home and saying “Guess who I learnt creative writing from, a lady who writes a diary....ooh a blog.... I paid 1500 smackers for that by the way......Hmm, my kid cousin writes a blog too, incidentally I pay him nothing for innovative writing advice....”)
Shyam Selvadurai said it all when he quipped at the opening cocktail in private that ‘literature is for the elite.’ When I suggested ‘yes but literature is not about the elite’’ Selvadurai shot back ‘yes literature is not about the elite, but it is for the elite.”
Of course, in Galle Fort, from January 16th to the 20th, literature was for the elite. The rest of the time literature is for those who read off weather-beaten paperbacks, glean it off dog eared manuscripts, and just read and read and read and read for the heck of it —- even if they do not in some cases have the proper time on their hands to earn their daily bread or samba.
In Galle they have to take literature and kitsch it — package it in bright Barbra Sansoni sarongs if you will, and parcel it out as a departmental store commodity —— Lush from Odel, that sort of thing.Well, there is no law against doing that, and if a lot of people who have barely skirted the edges of creative writing could conduct writing workshops, and if some people who have barely read listen to them and go home thinking they have been for a literary festival - - then so be it. Maybe nobody thinks in some of these instances they have been had, but then as definitely as Felix Dias Bandaranaike had suggested barefoot lawyers in the insolent 70s, there is always barefoot writing to replace that idea these days......
In Galle they have to take literature and kitsch it — package it in bright Barbra Sansoni sarongs if you will, and parcel it out as a departmental store commodity —— Lush from Odel, that sort of thing.Well, there is no law against doing that, and if a lot of people who have barely skirted the edges of creative writing could conduct writing workshops, and if some people who have barely read listen to them and go home thinking they have been for a literary festival - - then so be it. Maybe nobody thinks in some of these instances they have been had, but then as definitely as Felix Dias Bandaranaike had suggested barefoot lawyers in the insolent 70s, there is always barefoot writing to replace that idea these days......
But the problem is when in the process, they want to pass off a great deal of mediocrities and literary pretenders as the real thing. That’s not self effacing —- it’s self serving, self and others deluding, self aggrandizing and almost a tad dishonest. When some Gratien award winners get up on a platform, mourn about their ‘’restricted readership” and say that young writers will be intimidated having to compete in the Gratien with those on the platform — you know these people have not only lost the script, but also their marbles.
But it seems this year’s festival was an improvement on last year’s. The tickets were less expensive for the main events —— even though you could lose an arm and a leg if you wanted to have lunch with Seth and dinner with Dalrymple. Almost nothing of any real depth or consequence took place though in the four days —— which was in keeping with the carnival frivolity that seemed to be the festival trademark. For example the travel writing segment consisted of writers such as Tim Severin recounting some of their somewhat amusing though not altogether hilarious private experiences ——- all very chatty and great fodder for the chattering classes.
Some real favours were done. Shoba de saved the festival from degenerating from frivolity to absolute farce by simply not turning up. For that, we are eternally grateful to whatever detained this soft pornographer back in India......Of course a great many people walked off in a huff when Kumar Sangakara did not turn up to discuss cricket — not cricket literature but just cricket — and I bet my bottom dollar and rupee that there would not have been a tenth of that huffing if Vikram Seth hadn’t turned up for one of his discussions..I suppose in the end it’s what Vikram Seth said to so and so and somebody’s girlfriend at an intensely private lunch, or the intelligent remarks he may have made on true creativity while relieving himself in the public toilet that may have made this Galle Literary Festival a real literary festival. Seth was luminously intelligent even on the platform, and though moderator Rama Mani was insistent on scratching the surface of the issue of writing from the diaspora, Karen Roberts was down to earth and Channa Wickremesekera made some nice trenchant observations about the uprooted Sri Lankans living in Australia.
The session on publishing saw some publishers come rather belatedly to the conclusion that despite all their hard work, finding a good writer is mostly a matter of chance.Finding something really edifying at the Galle Literary Festival to write home about amidst all of the hobnobbing in the soul uplifting old world ambience of the splendid Galle Fort was a matter of even greater chance.
