Re – just a little about " books that apparently only their relatives and friends read" - if they can read that is - and even when it's a matter of quality and not just quantity, there's not too many of those, even if it's no sweat having written over 100 books, in twenty different languages including Hindi, Chinese, Arabic and and hieroglyphics - I guess, sometimes not even those loyal family members and friends read works penned, purposefully composed by their relatives and among such relatives you might even have the occasional Jewish mother who upon being told by her son " I've just won the Nobel Prize mum," to which good news she answers, " Only one, son ?"
She wants both quality and quantity....
In this discussion it's mostly about Nigeria – when the whole of Africa and Diaspora is the locus of production and the marketplace. Demand and supply – you can't escape those determinants. Well, there are those who read mostly "African poetry" or only follow the latest developments in "African mathematics" - no harm in that either , but there's harm in the anxiety and anguish that I feel and that I find every time I go into a library or bookstore or take a peek at The Times Literary Supplement - or take a glance at the most prominent title on my bookshelf someone's ( Not Oga Ikhide Ikheloa's ) "1001 Books you must read before you die!"
.This causes me so much anxiety – for
at my back I hear time's winged chariot drawing near
From the depths of the"trash" (+ r. i.p.) trashy (?) picaresque Onitsha Market Literature of di pipul once dignified - given its proper place in the scheme of things and popularised by Ulli Beier – and from the humble beginnings / origins from below on the way up, out of this sort of milieu is produced the occasional flash in the pan and the eventual master piece/s.. .
Would Amos Tutola's "The Palm Wine Drinkard" or "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts "have survived the panel of Judges scalpel when one of the main criteria is based on Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth's standard orthography viewed from the orthodoxy's big grammatology of the judges themselves – the very language in which they sometimes convey their half witted, cosmic, literary criticism/s?
When is Nigeria going to produce a Sam Selvon? When Cambridge born Biko is jiving he's very near....
A literature in the various vernaculars would surely be a profitable endeavour for profit minded Igbo publishers who have an eye on making more Naira.
Ditto with music....it's now got to the point that I will have to make the kind of music that I would like to hear, maybe when I get to Nigeria – a few hours or days in a recording studio....and there are things a man ought not boast about and music is one of those things- not everybody can say like Jelly Roll Morton, "I invented Jazz!"
Cinema and stage should be competing with the printed word – Ngugi Wa Thiongo was in Sweden during much of 1985 – learning how to film and how to use the cinematic art to communicate – so, we ought not leave out Nolywood out of our calculation – whether it's the film version of Achebe's Things Fall Apart" or Adichie's " Half a Yellow Sun"
R - "writers hurriedly stapling things together every year in order to win a handsome prize"
Not bad – at least they write and know that they have to do a good job to stand "the ghost of a chance "
N. B. Some writers – e.g. Dostoevsky who was so badly pressed – he had to write to pay his debts..."necessity is the mother of invention"? - O for a muse of fire instead of Chidi's Monetized Muse ?
Tomorrow I intend to update my blog with an account of my experience of the Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibition in our Stockholm.
Waiting for more recommendations of what to read – and not just for entertainment,
Sincerely,
On Thursday, 19 September 2013 17:09:53 UTC+2, Ikhide wrote:
Thanks for the feedback. I did call the publishers and writers, "lazy." Harsh, I know, but I don't blame the NLNG for the disgraceful state of Nigeria's publishing industry. I worry that the prize has bred a new dysfunction, writers hurriedly stapling things together every year in order to win a handsome prize. Over the years, I have read several of the entries and it would be difficult for me to justify handing out 100,000 US dollars to the vast majority of them. $1,000 maybe, definitely not $10,000., $100,000 is absurd. Now, it costs $850,000 annually to run the prize. I think it is legitimate to have a conversation about how best to use that money. That's all I am trying to do here.My other thought is that we may be worrying about symptoms that point to a deeper issue. Which is the waning influence of the book as a source of entertainment and education in the 21st century. The book is dying a long slow death. I like to say there is a reading culture, as opposed to a book reading culture. To the extent that our best minds are still porting their ideas to books that apparently only their relatives and friends read, they are also losing influence among the populace. The thinking person is becoming extinct is too busy reading to him/herself and is losing influence fast - like the endangered book.Just as the music industry evolved into the digital medium, I believe that writing is moving in that direction. It is a potential book for black and brown nations where the traditional publishing industry never really took root for many reasons. Just like the cell phone liberated from the incompetence of state telecommunications monopolies, it is my sincere hope that the Internet will help us out. It is already happening. The best literature is on the Internet and social media. And daily hundreds of millions are glued to smartphones and the Internet. There is a huge market there. We are just not seeing it yes. Because we are too busy reading our books.I salute you and thanks again for the feedback.- IkhideStalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/Follow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhideFrom: FJKolapo <kol...@uoguelph.ca>
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 11:47 AM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The NLNG Prize for literature: Honoring phantom books, laziness, and mediocrity
--I see two different issues here, one of which is bigger than the prize money can single handedly address. First is the concern I see for the production of excellent literature by budding authors and, second, engagement of a wide readership within and outside of Nigeria with the excellent books.
if the award criteria do not include sale figures for the books, it is not really fair to criticize the NLNG award committee for spotting great books and authors whether or not their books are in the market.
However, I agree that excellent authorship should be linked to wide readership. I agree that should the NLNG administrators feel able to assist in this respect, they should do their best. However, its more in the terrain of those who administer the country's education and culture. Many publishers also need to be more innovative about what they do to create a readership and reach out to them in creative manners. I dont see what the NLNG has done wrong really, here.
Elsewhere, the mere shortlisting of a book for such prizes should catapult it into top sale spots on Amazon or Chapters. Where things work normally, the NLNG's choice and publication of a short list of possible winners is big enough a service to the literary community for the visibility it brings the books, the authors, the publishers and the critics. Unfortunately, not so for Nigeria, or so it seems.From: "Ikhide" <xok...@yahoo.com>
To: "Toyin Falola" <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com >, Ed...@yahoogroups.com, krazi...@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 8:38:54 PM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The NLNG Prize for literature: Honoring phantom books, laziness, and mediocrity--The final shortlist for the 2013 NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature is out. Sincere Congratulations to the lucky three: Tade Ipadeola (The Sahara Testaments), Amu Nnadi (through the window of a sandcastle), and Promise Ogochukwu (Wild Letters). This year, the prize is for poetry and the purse remains a whopping $100,000.
Of the shortlisted three books, only Ipadeola's book is available for sale or review anywhere I can think of. My friends are hunting for the other two books. I am sure the books exist, how else would the judges have judged them worthy for consideration for $100,000? As things currently stand, this is not a literary prize; this is a lottery, a jackpot for one lucky writer. Let me just say this: It is quite simply appalling, no, disgraceful, that the NLNG Prize is in danger of being given to a book that no one else but the judges has seen.- IkhideStalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/Follow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
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