Tags
Belgrade Book Fair, Book, Doris Lessing, Isadora Duncan, Raymond Carver, Sarajevo, Trade fair, Writer
My heart was wrenching as i strolled down the spacious halls of Sarajevo’s book fair. The books were piled randomly -some new, some classics, some bigger ones, some tiny ones, hard to find books, out of print ones, bestsellers; poetry books, prose books, high brow books, funny books, sad books – all of them pushed to the sides of the aisles, gathering dust at the portable fair’s shelves. From time to time some passerby would slow their pace reluctantly, for a moment they’d almost gave in to the sellers’ desperate attempts, they’d fix their gaze at a title briefly and then walk away abruptly, further between the rows of unwanted books.
I felt sorry for the abandoned books, i was heartbroken for the unread words, my heart went to the authors – the unwilling participants of this ruthless wholesale, for that’s what most book fairs come down to ( among exceptions being author-oriented Leipzig Buhmesse and in this part of the world – Belgrade Book Fair.)
Real books are painstaking labor of inspiration, knowledge, skill and endless perspiration, it’s downright sacrilegious to degrade them down to just another commercial product. There are many ways to make quick money, but books shan’t be among them… yet it’s being pushed down our throats over and over again.
I want to scream when some fool starts explaining me premises of the liberal capitalism and how books should fit into it… Hello, the latter had crashed bringing upon us wreath of economic depression and, unless it’s not already too late, it is high time to think over some premises.
Couple of publishers i met at the fair vented about low sales and poor attendance, NONE of them mentioned emerging writers they met or some new visions from the books they were promoting… And they blame it on the reader who presumably is dumbed down… It ain’t so. The good reader – who is even rarer bird than a good writer – is brought down to her knees by omnipresent greed, her buying power is diminished, her free time almost non-existent for she needs to take ever and ever more workload to keep going. So, don’t blame it on the reader – i am a writer and i am a reader myself, i know… I know it all. That being said, it’s one of the main motives i switched to blogging, i write for the people (feel free to scream all you want*) and i don’t need much more than my text reaching the audience, that’s about it. It is time consuming, more than that – it’s blood consuming… If you read Dianne Gray‘s writing – it’s clear that such writing is done by alchemically processing personal pain into the meaning of life and for those of us for whom writing is vocation it is the modus vivendi.
*As a side note – recently, i had an eminent literary critic nearing the edge of a nervous breakdown upon my mentioning that i do write for others… see, they thought writing should be both self-centered and self-indulging act where the unnoticed reader is reduced to not more than a peeping Tom… yeah, sure.
Last night we hang out with an amazing Croatian writer, Edi Matic. Edi looks like Raymond Carver at his best – tall, tanned with gray hair and penetrating gaze, he writes somewhat like him too – in short, sharp sentences which, read aloud at launches, seem to cut the air at the book fair’s hall, tearing it apart as a razor would, just above the heads of the previously lulled into sleep audience.
We agreed that we, the writers, are faced with an impossible mission – at the launches, we are supposed to promote what goes labeled as ‘high brow prose’… and that’s close to impossible. Good prose is more than entertaining – it’s like a roller-coaster ride, but one that stays with you for a long time – if not for good; the thing is that you can’t market it as you’d market a dish washer because good books are a phenomena unto themselves, they are discreet, predestined to be enjoyed in privacy and seclusion. It’s an almost monastic task – to read a good book, you need your you-time, you need reasonably peaceful surroundings, and above all, you need a fertile ground -an open mind – to plant the seeds from the book into your personal discourse. Great writers from the past didn’t have launches, it’s a quite recent fabrication and quite a controversial one. Of course that a good reader feels like godsent to a writer – and most of us are indeed looking forward to discussing our writings, the thing is that the publishing and bookselling industry pushes us into burlesque of a kind and – with due respect – you don’t get Isadora Duncan to wig a fake fur tail in a smokey night bar… these are parallel universes which can not – and, for everyone’s best, shall not – coincide EVER.
No one knows with certainty what’s the way out from this living sand of commercialization and profanation. There will always be Dan Browns and hopefully there will always be at least couple of authors of Doris Lessing’s calibre…
Last but not the least – hopefully there will always be at least couple of non-commercial publishers, such as Bosnian Publishing House Fra Grgo Martic and inspired promoters such as Bosnian Croatian poet and publicist Milo Jukic thanks to whom good readers still manage to find their way to good writers – without fanfarras and the fake fur; the rest, together with megalomaniac publishers and cheap booksellers – the powerful weapon of time will sort out and uproot.
“I hate tricks. At the first sign of a trick or gimmick in a piece of fiction, a cheap trick or even an elaborate trick, I tend to look for cover. Tricks are ultimately boring, and I get bored easily, which may go along with my not having much of an attention span. But extremely clever chi-chi writing, or just plain tomfoolery writing, puts me to sleep. Writers don’t need tricks or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellows on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing- a sunset or an old shoe- in absolute and simple amazement.”
Raymond Carver, Fires
Milo Jukic and Edi Matic, writers’ residence in Kreshevo, Bosnia (April 2013)
Businessman, patron of art and stud breeder, Mr Anto Stanic (front row center)
Publishing House Fra Grgo Martic at Sarajevo Book Fair 2013, from left to right: Ljiljana Shop, Tanja Stupar-Trifunovic, Milo Jukic, Seida Beganovic, Lena Ruth Stefanovic, Edi Matic
Literary evening in Kreshevo, during writers’ residence 2013.
Loved this! So many thought swirling around i my head! 🙂
Bonnie, are you an empath “by chance”?! 😉 That’s exactly how i feel ever since i arrived to Sarajevo! You know, it’s my first time here, it’s overwhelming, all of it… But the book fair, sadly it felt like an orphanage 😦 Luv you xxxx
I feel sad for all those orphaned books you mention.
The book fair reminded me of the Bibliomania event the public library used to put on every year to raise money for a larger building. The used books were sold cheaply, and though they had many hundreds of both fiction and nonfiction books to sell, people showed up well before the doors open. It was nice because those with little money could get quite a few books. I and my family always brought home sackfuls (reading addicts all :)). We stashed them everywhere until we could make our way through all the pages. But now we all rush around, and as you said free time is almost nonexistent, so the only reading I do is usually at night before I go to bed. Books are still some of my greatest treasures. And I still want the REAL ones, the kind I can crawl in bed with at night, and smell the pages I turn them. 😀
I hear you, i am the same! I was rushing to Belgrade book fair as a teenager to get some great books on discounted prize, later on i’d work at the fair – making and serving coffee, to earn money for the books which i couldn’t otherwise afford… It breaks my heart when i see it all downgraded, it mustn’t be like that… I believe that in times of reality tv and overall idiocracy, the book are our rescue, our chance to remain sane… We won’t give in, we won’t give up 😉
I love that Raymond Carver quote, Lena 😀
This is a beautiful post and covers the glory and tragedy of written art. It’s so true that writing does not make anyone rich (unless you’re one of the top 10 in the world). Putting a price on a book is a difficult thing. My youngest son has always said to me that I should give all my books away for free because writing should never be about money – it should be about the experience of writing (for me) and the experience of reading (for the reader). I know he’s right. He’s such an old soul…
Thank you so much for the lovely compliment here and the pingback to my blog 😀
You are one of favorites, Dianne ❤ Oh, no – i do believe in (and more so, work on) the class of professional writers – we must be dutifully paid for what's owed to us by publishers and booksellers… the thing is that in countries like mine, the author is usually ripped off and gets NOTHING, except the "honor" of being published… That i don't need, i prefer to self-publish with WordPress 😉
I’ve been thinking back on the reading you did for me in March and something strange has happened. A young fellow (I’ve never met before) has taken over the building part of the RUC and he’s an absolute (building genius) powerhouse. I really didn’t trust him at first (because he was just a friend of the roofer and came over one day and said he really wanted to help) but he’s proving to be very valuable indeed. I keep thinking back to your reading where you said, “We have King of Cups in the pos. of outcome and i feel he is literally referring to a helpful (male) individual, compassionate and emphatic person who’ll assist you”. I know for sure if he hadn’t come into the picture I would never have got things done (my other builder has proved to be absolutely hopeless).
Dianne, i am so happy that it did come about! thank you so much for the feedback, much appreciated! xxxx
Really like the link you provided to Diane Gray, where she talked about the “Gecko Luvfest” & the only sensible thing to do was to watch it & photograph it.
We have so many gecko’s down here in Australia, when we were a little younger we used to go to the nearby bush full of largish caves on warm summer nights & a
friend who is an artist, used to photograph them & paint them (back in the film for the camera days)
This took a lot of work ,would anybody want to read about it? my friend had some of his paintings included in an Australian reptile book by an author who commissioned him to do some of the paintings for one of his books… that was well received, though by a minority I guess who are interested in the lizards & snakes of Australia.
And you know…. for me today reading that by Diane, summed up everything you said about feeling like you were in an ‘orphanage’ for books.
If you continue to write Lena I will continue to read what you have written & you look way cool in the photos too…. well you do 🙂
My dear Jim, i’ll continue to write as long as you’ll continue to read 😉 I admire Dianne (let alone my fascination with lizards ;)) because parallel to her fiction, on her blog she’s turning into a fairytale what had begun as a tragic row of events – illness, relocation, hurricanes, houses torn down and rebuilt in a minimum time with close to non-existent outside support… And she finds beauty in that, which wold make the most almost bite the dust – and she makes the reader envious not only of her spirit, but even of the challenges she encounters! For what i know, that’s the only way for us to become co-creators, by turning our personal challenges into the Light 😉
Thank you that you are, Jim xxxx