LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT. 24..NOVELS.

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT

24. NOVELS

The novel is a literary form which has developed in the last three centuries. Not that there were no stories earlier- the epics and so called medieval romances were essentially stories, but they are not the long sustained narratives that modern novels are.Today it is the most popular aspect of literature, commanding an immensely wide readership all over the world. A popular English novel has really no boundaries. It is really amazing to think that most people in the world uniformly like a good novel, though some of them may have a specific locale or situation or incident as the background. Whatever the outward situation, the inner feelings evoked are the same. This may be the result of the present educational system, which is getting uniform across countries, and in its wake breeds some common attitudes and values; or due to innate human nature; whatever it is, it is a factor which unites humanity across cultures, continents and languages! We can easily think of single novels like 'Gone with the Wind' (Margaret Mitchell), 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' (Harper Lee) 'To Sir With Love' (Braithwaite) which have stormed the whole world apart from the works of Agatha Christie, Alistair Maclean, Arthur Hailey, Wodehouse, and the current rage,J.K.Rowling. This is quite apart from the standard authors.

Romance, social, historical- these are broadly three strands of popular novels. Adventure  and detective fiction form a distinct category, though it is doubtful how far they can be counted as truly literary.

Romances have survived in two incarnations: in the medieval period, they related to the royalty or nobles, and were more or less like fairy tales. But early in the 19th century some English writers took to it seriously, making the heroine, and not the hero, the centre of action and attraction. Jane Austen wrote 6 novels in this genre in about 8 years (1811-1818) and achieved great fame. These are still popular, though they are based on the mores of a specific class in early Victorian England. There is really something universal about the emotions dealt with. In fact it was mostly women writers who wrote these; at that time, it was felt that such stories were not truly literary, that it was too easy to read them and hence did not attract serious readers,or male writers. But once they became popular, men too took to it, developing women characters. They continue to be written today, but for a junior audience.

The social novel deals with family and social themes, while historical novel takes some actual historical incident and character and make them central to the story. Walter Scott's 'Ivanhoe' (1820) is the first historical novel in modern times and its popularity led to the growth of this genre. But really, a social novel may also have a historical grounding: the outstanding example is 'Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens  which takes place between London and Paris during the French Revolution; and 'Gone with the Wind' which takes place during the American Civil War and its aftermath. Even in the 'Barnaby Rudge' of Dickens there is an actual historical incident woven into it.

A novel can be considered historical even if has a general historical atmosphere, and not a specific incident or character.'A Farewell to Arms', Grapes of Wrath, 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' fall into this category.In the so called Westerns written by Louis L'Amour, the opening up and development of the great American West is captured in delightful prose narrative, where the language reaches poetic heights at times! He was himself a cowboy, and adventurer, had travelled to all the places mentioned and described, had even survived  in a desert; every place that he writes of exists; every mountain, hill, valley, waterhole,river and creek exists; he had done great research on some reported and recorded incidents and had drawn from their actual lives. And he writes with a great sense of historical responsibility- he knows he is dealing with a phase of a local culture, whose exact nature and even details and authenticity were questioned. To some extent, we may say he not only chronicled the West, but even helped create it! His descriptions of nature are outstanding and would stand comparison with the best in the recognised canon, say like  the works of Hardy. I must admit that I admire him, next only to Dickens and Hardy among the old writers, and Nevil Shute and A.J.Cronin among the more recent ones.

When we talk of research, I remember one more incident. Arthur Hailey became famous in the 70s for a series of high-drama novels: Airport, Wheels, Money Changers, Overload, Final Diagnosis, etc. In the 'Airport' he depicted the devious ways of the airline pilots-  how for instance they would resist the 'regulation shirt'- what we would call the uniform. In the 'Wheels', he wrote about how the employees in the car manufacturing plants were not quite attentive in their work on Fridays and Mondays- the former because they were eagerly awaiting the week-end get away, and the latter because of the hangover from the week-end exertions! After this, car buyers in the US started demanding that they be not supplied cars assembled on Fridays and Mondays! This observation of Hailey was correct. He would actually visit the factory or plant and do his research for some time before writing and he had done it in this case.Such observations were also made in the case of Final Diagnosis (hospitals) and  'Overload' (powerplants). His novels came to be called "faction" because they were based on facts, though it was fiction!

This is one genre in which India, and Tamil Nad does not lag behind- in fact we excel. In this we have followed the English model: great writers reaching out to big readership through periodical magazines. Kalki and Devan became our foremost novelists in Tamilin the 40s and 50s. If Dickens's novels ran for months, Kalki's ran for years! He became the master of the historical novel, having three big serials to his credit.These are being rerun periodically even now, after 60 years! His social novel "Alai Osai" can also be considered historical as it has the fredom movement as the backdrop. Devan's novels capture the ethos of the educated middle class with great wit and wisdom and sensitivity. After Kalki, there has been no writer of historical novels of comparable calibre; some people mention Sandilyan , Vikraman, Kovi Manisekaran; personally, I feel  their works lack genuine literary merit /quality and a certain finesse or refinement and I would not take their names along with Kalki's.. Readership number is not the real yardstick. Today, there are more readers than in Kalki's days and the standard of assessment was much higher then.

About standards of assessment, I know an incident in the music world. Govt. of India used to extend scholarships for junior/budding Carnatic musicians to pursue intensive studies and training under a senior Vidwan. A committee of musicians used to select them. In one year Palghat Mani Iyer was on the committee. After examining all the candidates, he felt no one was suitable and said so. The authorities pleaded with him that he might select one among the lot, for they feared that if the selection was not made and the grant availed of that year, it might not be offered  the next year and it might lapse. But Mani Iyer said that he was there to  judge and pick the suitable one and in his judgement no one was suitable and so he would not select any one! Such were the standards observed by our elders those days! Today they will pick some one just because the grant had to be availed of! We see how the quality of our Phds has declined once it became a regular requirement under UGC! As in music, so in literature!

In the area of social novels, we have been extremely fortunate. There has been an almost unbroken line of good novelists: from the old stalwarts like Lakshmi, Rajam Krishnan, Anuthama, Mayavi, Na.Parthasarathi Jayakanthan, Akilan,Indira Parthasarathi, Ra.Ki.Rangarajan, Aarvi, A.S.P, etc.  (There are of course many others, but I feel most of them write without restraint or a sense of social responsibility, especially in writing for mass circulation. Some of their themes and treatment appear to cross the bounds of good taste- at least my taste.)

India is extremely lucky in the variety of its languages and their richness in literary matters. There are great novelists and writers in all languages. But because of the bane of linguistic states, there is no flow of material across states. Even the most well-known writers in a language are not known outside their states. In the 50s and 60s we used to have a Tamil magazine named 'Manjari'. It used to mainly carry articles of academic interest but each issue would contain a  translation ( condensation, like in the Readers' Digest) of novels from other Indian languages: I remember reading the stories of V.Sa.Khandekar (Marathi), Masti Venkatesa Iyengar (Kannada) Vaikom Mohammad Basheer (Malayalam) and Hindi and other writers. I do not know whether the magazine is still published and it does carry such translations. In the absence of such arrangements, I wonder how many would have heard of even a Munshi Premchand or Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. (An earlier generation would know: Munshi Premchand's novel "Sevasadan" was made into a Tamil film "Sevasadanam" in 1938 under the direction of the legendary K.Subramaniam; it was the first film of M.S.Subbulakshmi, and starred a mainly Brahmin cast, though it was against orthodoxy! Similarly, Sarat Chandra's novel Devadas was made into a very popular tear jerker in the early 50; some other stories of his were also filmed; so he was more widely known. Whether cinema led to greater awareness and readership of literature is a different matter.At least the names of the writers were known.

 The linguistic division of states has actully proved a strong though invisible barrier to the free flow of literature across states. The booksellers in Bengaluru are reluctant to display Tamil books or magazines prominently; the names of even Tamil films are prominently displayed in Kannada! But I find the publishers are now churning out translations of English novels. (I could not find a good translation of Purandaradasa's songs, but I found translations of Bhyrappa's books! These local language enthusiasts do not understand a simple fact: the world appreciates good work and it needs to be translated into English and other languages. Can we think of Gitanjali getting the Nobel Prize if it had not been translated into English?) There are some good anthologies of English translations of short stories  from Indian languages, though we cannot be sure to what extent they reflect the correct trends, as selections in anthologies depend on the editor's and publisher's taste and prejudices or preferences. Eye on rewards and consequently political correctness are important considerations.

Whatever it may be, we can surely be proud of our record in respect of novels, in almost all Indian languages. That is something to cheer about.