Newer forms of technology comprise the most formidable challenge in the 21st century. This is visibly true for printed reading materials like the book and other print media. This challenge has raised questions as to whether the printed word is becoming increasingly marginalised in the electronic era, and whether the completely familiar tradition of the book will be swept away by technologies that will render it antiquated.
However, the number of enthusiasts going from one stall to another to pick up a book of their interest at an exhibition organised by Sajha Prakashan in Kathmandu recently shows that there is little to fear. Encouraged perhaps by this trend, Ramesh Bhattarai, General Manager of the publishing house, said that Sajha plans to form a readers' club across the country to instil reading habits in the people from each and every class.
Indigenous publishing
The growth in indigenous publishing and writing in recent years is a good sign. With the spread of education, a social and cultural change is definitely looming, and one instrument causing the movement is obviously the book. However, the growth of the reading public has not quite kept pace with the growing literacy and educated mass. The book continues to remain a luxury for a painfully large segment of the population.
Considering the important role played by literature in building up great traditions in society, this field has, unfortunately, been largely neglected. And the secular religion of the times, free-market capitalism, has been winning the battle on all fronts, including literature.
The book industry now faces direct competition from the more immediate and exciting electronic media. However, creative works continue to exist in the traditional form regardless of how far the electronic revolution has gone. Reading will, hopefully, be very much there in the times to come. Reading is a lonely affair that requires, in the final analysis, an engagement between the reader and the text, which cannot be fulfilled by the electronic media.
?We read in order to be quiet," says an Argentinean scholar, Alberto Manguel, in his book ?A history of reading". Solitude is what is required, that, however, is not to mean loneliness. It is a desire to be left alone with your own thoughts and feelings. Reading essentially demands that imagination be put to work; substituting imagination with visual or aural images require great effort. The portability of great works of literature is a spiritual necessity, and for that reason, the book will not die out.
Therefore, whatever humanity's destiny - courtesy of the influence of electronics on our lives where elements of time are a decisive factor - certain conventional norms can never be replaced. And one among them happens to be the book and the reading habit. The immense pleasure which a reader gains by reading can never be experienced by electronic reading from a CD-ROM.
As reading is a discovery, it engages the reader's mind and imagination. Thus, be it fiction or non-fiction, the characters and subject matter read in the book usually take specific shapes in the reader's conceptual vision unlike what is depicted synthetically on the CD.
Many surveys conducted on reading have revealed that people who have not developed the habit of reading are gradually afflicted with the disease leading to loss of memory. The reading habit does not end with schooling or academic studies. The reading culture should continue throughout life to enhance one's knowledge.
These days, there are many TV channels that help enrich your knowledge. However, only the book is conducive to creating impressions in one's memory, although, in certain respects, audio-visual media have been an ally in the business of disseminating printed knowledge. First, the information explosion on these media has increased the public thirst for in-depth specialised knowledge that only books can provide and which the electronic media can't. Second, a novel serialised on television often enjoys renewed popularity, of which we have many examples.
In a market-driven system, there is every possibility of ignoring the mass culture. Moreover, the non-availability of books on varied subjects in one's own language, as English is being preferred to, could pose a threat to the Nepalese book industry. Hence, at a time when news of the death of the book is constantly being announced - for lack of funds, growth of the electronic and visual media and other distractions - the crucial question is where is the mass culture and literature in Nepal heading?
Efforts must be made to develop the book industry and reading habit among the people. Yet, nothing much is happening on the publishing front in terms of publication, translation, reprint or adaptation. Generally we buy books in English from countries like India, US and UK. Books are nowhere in the national scheme. Only a few believe that books are important to national development, however, not even the leaders and bureaucrats fully realise the connection. A nation without books has no soul. But this is not as urgent or pressing a problem as a nation without food or jobs for its people.
The situation at present is not healthy. Most of the books we produce are textbooks. We lack books of literary and artistic quality - supplements for nurturing the love for books and reading. It seems ridiculous that even our very own stories, our own culture and feelings are being written and told by foreigners, especially writers from the west. We need to build up the confidence and nourish the talent of our own writers.
We can't stop importing books to protect the national publishing industry. The way to displace foreign books is to produce more locally. The book industry needs to become more vigorous, and there must be a wide range of interesting titles out there for general reading. We have not been able to build a community of readers - a critical mass - that would stimulate others to take to the book for the sheer pleasure of it.
Future of industry
The growth of the book publishing industry will largely depend on how readers in the urban and rural areas respond to it. Their response is determined by the spread of literacy and, over all, socio-economic development in the different regions and language groups. For any culture to grow and flourish, it must have a mass base. And obviously, if the base is eroded it will become weak and die. One must remember that the base is created not by money alone but also by language, which determines the limits of our thoughts.(Chalise is Editor-in-Chief of the Gorakhapatra)
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