While basking in the glow of vicarious glory, one cannot help but notice something: all these writers live outside the country. Why? Are Malaysians only able to get anything done when they leave the country? One can't help feeling that there are so many more successful Malaysians outside the country than inside.
How many times have local journalist asked me in the last several years about the next big local writing sensation? I cannot help but feel angry. "The latest local writing sensation? Are you kidding?" I want to say, "They haven't stopped congratulating themselves after that one published short story yet, and it will be ten years soon." Doesn't anyone die of embarrassment when someone asks, You are a writer? So, how many books have you written so far? (But it is also true that several of them are now into other forms of writing.)
That brings me to another point: why do we Malaysians like to congratulate ourselves when there is nothing to congratulate ourselves about? Is it cultural? Whether it is about our football team or leaks in the Parliament (did one Minister actually suggest using plaster ceilings to mitigate leaks?!!!), we seem to be unable to do anything right. Sure, that is not our fault -- we don't play football nor do we repair roof leaks, right? But think again while organising that major celebration for the world's largest ketupat (clap, clap, clap!): why does this cultural trait run through almost everything we do, or am I simply imagining it? Should we (or can we) blame it on our love of the 3-hour-teh tarik talk-a-thon or the16-ringgit-cappuccino yada yada? When we have universities that congratulate themselves for being within the top 200 in the world (when the one in a neighbouring country is in the top 20), I think we should feel embarrassed. The way things are going, Brunei will probably have a Nobel Laureate before we do.
Is the lack of Malaysian writings the fault of our education system, then? Sure. Who hasn't heard of the many disturbing stories about our schools and the teachers? If it is, then how does one explain the writers mentioned above? Did they not attend the same local schools when they were here? Maybe they went overseas for their tertiary education, one might say. That could be it. But then how does that explain the 'failure' of those who come back from overseas after their education? No stimulus? No peers to push them on? It cannot be that we have no talent. The writers mentioned above were born here too.
So what is this Malaysian malaise? Malas?
why are we obsessed with recognitions? do congolese worry about not getting nobel prize for lit? do papua new guinea people have any good writers ?
ReplyDeletei think our beloved country is just about par with these countries in many respects...i think our intellectual culture and atmosphere is just not right to produce anything great. our intellectual culture is only conducive to breeding citizens sucking up to those in power...we deserve our stupidity... we put those retards as our political masters , and they retard the intellectual atmosphere of the country...
"The latest local writing sensation? Are you kidding?" I want to say, "They haven't stopped congratulating themselves after that one published short story yet, and it will be ten years soon."
ReplyDeleteOuch!!!
True sincere work comes when one does it because one wants to do it or is compelled by need to do it. This requires conscious thought and decisions. In Malaysia, maybe these decisions and thoughts have been replaced by convenient distractions, the "world's largest ketupat","3-hour-teh tarik talk-a-thon or the16-ringgit-cappuccino yada yada". Nobody tells us how we use our time except ourselves, or how well we should do what we do. AM
ReplyDeleteactually tan twan eng was living and working here until a few months ago and is coming back next month.
ReplyDeleteand the reasons for the exodus? some go for education and stay for work, some go for personal reasons or because of parents migrating. not because the grass is greener for writers there, because one can write anywhere.
some go initially because of the availability of creative writing courses overseas and find themselves more recognised anbd encouraged as writers there
maybe a less nice "push factor" though is the question of lack of personal freedom and the way local media hounds local filmmakers/authors for not propagating the right values
keep your ear to the ground because there are some very talented young writers here and they are going to do very well.
While I was in Malaysia,
ReplyDeleteI had a look at Lydia Teh's book Honk!...
in the bookstore.
I randomly flipped open the pages,
I reached the last page of something she was talking about on libraries (last liners) and another one on bloggers. The sentences were technically inaccurate. Have a look, Raman. You'll notice the errors instantly.
It was nothing to do with malaysian english. They were simply technically inaccurate. The tenses (we learnt in primary school) were wrong. These after being edited and published by a big company.
I immediately put the book away.
The other day, on her blog, she paid tribute to Sharon Bakar's writing course. And said her husband suggested she start giving courses of her own.
Writing Course
You can spot the many other grammatical errors in this simple post. I think it starts with the 2nd para. i had not known of this. A friend copied and pasted the thing to me.
Whatever the reasons, writers go overseas, the standards employed for submissions have to be so much higher. To say nothing of in-house editing & stringent literary agents' and publisher perusal. This quality has nothing to do with reasons for an exodus. But standards still matter to a publisher who may care nothing for the writer's personal life.
With a certain commentator's certain arguments, she is twarting the real issues.
Here in her post, Lydia Teh writes:
"The last I heard it has moved..."
Correct line should read<
"The last I heard it had moved..."
Another one:
"When I took this course, the internet hasn't exploded..."
Correct line should read
"When I took this course, the internet hadn't exploded..."
etc. etc.
You don't need to announce of highly talented writers, writing in English here in Malaysia.
But get the basic things right first. Then boast.
Someone says:
"keep your ear to the ground because there are some very talented young writers here and they are going to do very well."
I have no doubt that malaysian writers publishing locally are highly talented. They are reminded of this all the time by other Malaysians. But get the basics right first. Get applauded for the right things and not the wrong ones. Brilliance and not hyped-up mediocrity & then hope no one else notices.
Thank you, Raman. At least, you have the courage to speak the truth.
That was meant to be thwarting and not 'twarting'.
ReplyDeleteAlso
"to say nothing of in-house editing and a literary agent's and publisher's stringent perusal..."
reads better I think, then what I wrote above.
anon - i actually did have a go on my blog the other day at local standards re. proofreading and i agree that it's not good enough to let publications out with errors in them. lydia knows she has some proofreading problems but a good editor should be able to pick them up. raman would be the first to tell you how difficult it is to put out a publication that doesn't have errors.
ReplyDeletethe talent pool is out there, but the editors also need to be excellent in english and vigilant!
and anon, even if you can produce flawless grammar,i doubt you've had the courage to put any work out there for other people's scrutiny!
there is no point hyping up mediocrity, but there is a very good reason for encouraging the writers who are making the effort. unless you have the groundswell of creativity, you are never going to produce those individuals who excel.
btw i did rather run with the ball re. this nicely stirring posting of raman's on my blog today
Great post, Raman. It's a question I've been wondering myself. Why aren't there more Malaysian writers? I'm an aspiring one but still have a long way to go in between paying the bills and trying to learn the trade. I'm sure more will come up in due time, though, as economic pursuits alone fail to satisfy.
ReplyDeleteThere are loads of aspiring writers out there in Malaysia just waiting for the right time to be discovered. It's no difference from those who are struggling to be a musician or an actor.
ReplyDeleteBut having a typical conservative family most of the time doesn't allow you to indulge in your passion when it's not a bright prospect, economically speaking. Thus, more often than not these aspiring young ones are stuck in mundane but stable everyday working life just for the sake of making a living. I am one of them.
Why can't we be more like the other people from other places where people would not sneer or nag at you for wanting to embark on something you are passionate about regardless of the monetary reward, or the lack thereof, it would bring?
Only when that writer get some sort of a recognition by being listed in one of these Booker Prize and whatnot that those other ignorant souls would turn their heads and make a massive fuss about it. Where were they when these writers need help the most? They're just there thinking of ways to restrict our intellects by ridiculously banning intellectual books and good other reading materials...
*Sigh*
"there is no point hyping up mediocrity" -- there is a point, to make money. So many mediocre local authors have just proven it, if you write poorly and market it to heck and back, it will still sell here. As long as people continue to pay for overhyped trash, who's going to bother to write well ?
ReplyDeleteIn the end, it's not how well you write but how many copies you sell. In a perfect world, a good book should sell a lot more than a bad one, but...
It still has to be said though, that there's a baseline quality that most people will accept. It's just that that baseline is lower here than in many earlier-established countries.
People go overseas to write because they want peace and quiet. In your own country there are too many distractions. I think that's the one thing that prevents people from writing, they don't have the wherewithal to spend years in isolation just writing and hoping to sell. I'd love to write, but you can't do that part time, you have to lock yourself away for a year or so. It's not feasible in a culture where it's considered unacceptable to refuse to help one's parents or spouse.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's too soon to generalise but I couldn't help noticing the similarity between the 3. They all touched on East meets West, cultural/race, war, etc. Did that appeal most to Western judges? Or was it because Asians writers write this theme best?
ReplyDeleteI think wherever Malaysians are, they can't ran away from their family reaction, so being abroad doesn't really make it easier.
This is an interesting post as I AM going overseas soon and and I AM planning to write a book! I agree with what the last anon said though about not being able to write part-time.
ReplyDeleteMy guess on the emerging pattern of themes from these writers is that their being abroad gives them obvious reasons to make comparisons with Malaysia?