Thought for the day

Do you know the names of few Latin American writers?Do you know or at least heard about the South American rebel cum writer Che Guevara or his kinds?Do you often use words like 'post modernism','Neo-modernism','magical realism','sur-realism' (not necessarily knowing their meanings)?Have you written any piece of work which challenges the understanding power of a common reader?

If your response to any one of the above questions is YES,then you can boast yourself as a writer,or may be a great writer in the present world of Tamil literature.Before starting to talk about this,i have to admit that my knowledge in the literature is almost null.I just have the habit of browsing through the various sites and some of them happens to have the works of some good writers in Tamil.

What i feel is,these so called new crop of writers mostly fall into fewer sub categories.One set of writers who just bash anybody and everybody's literary work.They do not even bother to sit and read and find out the positives and negatives of others work.The other category simply are the ones which i have mentioned in the beginning.

I know one tamil writer who claims that he is the only person who has written a Tamil novel with international standards.That embraces the style of post modernism.I happened to read his (only)novel which he was boasting about.That novel was more like a crazily edited movie which did not have a proper start or end.It neither had a continuity.That novel served as  a dictionary of nasty slangs of human anatomy.Then only i understood,post modernism is post mortem of the ethics of the literature. I do not understand why they alienate themselves and go further away from the enthusiastic reader.That novelist had an answer for this question too.He says ," i am beyond this earthly desires.You people are mean middle class creatures.So do not read my work".The so called beyond earthly desire people once had an intellectual meeting in a local wine shop(!!!) and some of those geniuses smashed down our novelist's face into a bloody mess.Haha..

I am reluctantly using the cliche here ,writing is an art.As a common reader,When i read some book,i should not put an extra effort to understand what has been written.I am sure many people will feel it that way.

Here i would like to mention about the Tamil short  stories collection of Sujatha's 'SriRangathu devadhaigal'.There are many reasons why it is close to my heart.One is the slang used by the characters in the stories is the same as that of mine.Secondly,the author writes the incidents of his younger days.The author gives a right blend of his imagination with the real incidents.The mixing is so perfect like the colors of the rainbow that one cannot find out where the imaginary part starts.Gradually,it makes me feel that i am narrating the story instead of the author.That is where the author succeeds.

I used to admire this author for his width of knowledge.Apart from his literary work,he has inspired many a young writers by guiding them all.He has played a significant role in introducing the usage of computers to the age old Tamil literature.Now,that i call as a service to the literary world.

If i am labeled as mean middle class for reading such books,then i am happy to be one.