(Article published in an english literary journal SATHI, Spring 2013)
Newer forms of technology are the most formidable challenge in the 21st century. This is visibly true for the printed reading materials like book and other print media than any other industry. This challenge has raised questions whether the printed word is becoming increasingly marginalized in the electronic era, and completely familiar tradition of the book being swept away by technologies that will render it antiquated. Keeping in mind the advancement of the electronic software, French Philosopher, Jacques Derrida and Cambridge academic George Steiner's fear about the future of the books, is obvious.
Even the changing habit of book reading has posed a threat to the value based literary works ignoring culture. The Latin American concept of 'culture' has a double meaning: culture is a language, but it also means ethnicity, which is the essence of life. Sashi Tharoor in May 21, 2001 issue of Newsweek writes," Americans, the conventional wisdom has it, do not read. At least not as much as they used to. Television, movies, computer games, the internet- all have driven people away from books. And when they read, it seems, it's not literature they want. The best seller's lists are overflowing with diet books, books on self-improvement, and books on how to play the dating game. The fiction lists seem to consist of nothing but steamy romances and formulaic thrillers." More or less the present day's reading culture is shifting in this very direction through out the globe. This could obviously develop cultural illiteracy among the coming generation. However, the warning being herd since last three or four decades, that book and reading are going to die in the age of interactive multimedia technology, reading continues to grow. It proves this medium can never die.
Disregarding apprehensions expressed by Derrida and Steiner about the future of the book, Mathew Evans, Chairman, Faber & Faber feels that the traditional book form will not only survive but also, in fact thrive. Obviously, while it might be right that the publishing industry was on the verge of a revolution brought in by electronic software, it would be wrong to assume that the book would disappear.
The book industry now faces direct competition from the more immediate and exciting electronic media, however, creative works continuing to exist in the traditional form no matter how far the electronic revolution may go. Reading will not wipe out as a desire for things of aesthetic. Reading is a lonely affair that requires, in the final analysis, an engagement between the readers and the text that could not be fulfilled by visual reading. "We read in order to be quite", says an Argentinean scholar Alberto Manguel in his book entitled "A history of reading". Solitude is what is required, that does not mean loneliness. It is the desire to be left alone with your own thought and feelings. Reading essentially demands that imagination is put to work; interactions or connections that need to be made substitute the visual or aural images for the imagined ones require some effort. The portability of great works of literature is a spiritual necessity and for that, reason book would not be dying.
Whatever may be the destiny of humanity, courtesy of the electronics in modern life where elements of time could be a major decisive factor, certain conventional norms can never be replaced. And one among them happens to be the books and the reading habits. The immense pleasure which a reader gains by reading a book can never be experienced over the electronic reading like CD-ROME editions in computer although the subject or theme could be viewed in varying dimensions. 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 the people, who have not developed the habit of reading, gradually are afflicted with the disease of loss of memory. The reading does not end up with schooling or academic studies, but reading culture should continue to inculcate throughout the life. These days many channels of Televisions are catering to enrichment of knowledge, however, book reading is conducive to creating impression in the memory storeroom. Researchers say continuous witnessing of TV may cause inactivity in the brain though it may be stimulant to excitement. The network of brain memory cannot be vitalized by TV.
Moreover, reading text on a computer screen is not only confining and tiresome but can't be seen where we are or how far we have to go. Neither we can leaf through the pages to compare parts of the text or to see what our eyes finds at random, nor comfortably carry a computer screen around the journey.
Although, in certain respects Television, Radio, F.M. has been an ally of people in the business of disseminating printed Knowledge. First, the information explosion on these media has increased the public thrust for the kind of in-depth specialized knowledge that only books can provide and the electronic media can't do that. And second, a novel serialized on Television often enjoys renewed popularity, of which we have many examples.
In a market driven-system, there is a possibility of ignoring mass culture. Moreover, the non-availability of books on varied subjects in 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- because of lack of funds, the rise of the electronic and visual media and other distractions- the crucial question is where does the mass culture and literature lie in Nepal. We should have done great effort to develop book industry and reading habit among the people. On the contrary, nothing much is happening on the Nepali book front in terms of trade in books like publication, translation, reprint or adaptation. Generally we buy books in English from countries like India, U.S. and U.K. Books are nowhere in the national scheme. Few believe that books are important to national development, however not even leaders and bureaucrats fully realize the connection. That a nation without books has no soul is just not as urgent or pressing as a nation without food or job for its people. The situation at present is not healthy. Larger percentages of books we produce are textbooks. As textbooks alone are not sufficient, trade books of literary and artistic quality are a necessary supplement in nurturing the love for books and reading. It seems truly ridiculous that even our very own stories, ours 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 the importing books to protect the national book industries. 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. The future growth of the book publishing industry will largely depend on how readers in urban and rural areas respond to it. Their response is determined by the spread of literacy and over all socio-economic development in different regions and language group. 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.
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