Politics and authorship have a way of going together. Even the glorified and idolised late S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was the author of a book titled "Mahahene Riri Yaka." It was a novel later made into a movie. But, the literary world is political as well. Political novels such as Ganadhura Mediyema Arunelu Dutuwemu, by Gunadasa Ameresekera are, however, quite a rarity these days. The rebels are tired. The Sinhala literary scene is existing, if its not moribund.
But a hue and cry has been made about Sri Lankan writing in English. That's why a discussion about Sri Lankan writing in English should perhaps be taken out of the realm of the cultural and the literary pages and discussed as a social phenomena. One Michael Ondaatje, who won the Booker prize for literature (it's a British book award, which often raises quite a lot of controversy in that country) brought his prize money to Sri Lanka and decided to establish an award called the Gratiaen award. It was to encourage Sri Lankan writing in English.
The first Gratiaen award was won by one Carl Mueller, for a book called the Jam Fruit Tree about the Burghers of Sri Lanka. He shared it with Lalitha Withanachchi who is also a journalist. The second award was won by Punayakanthe Wijenayake, who is of course known as the author of a book which Lester James Peiris based his tele-drama "Giraya" on.
Well, now the third Gratiaen award is about to be made and there has not been much of a hue and cry made about the award this year, even in the English literary circles. The award, however, will be made.
Now, among the reasons there was an unusual lot of hue and cry made about Sri Lankan writing in English was that one Romesh Goonesekera wrote a book called "The Reef" which was supposedly about the JVP. Gunadasa Amarasekera should have heard about that! Mr. Goonesekera wrote his book from London, and of course his romanticised version of the carnage in Sri Lanka suited the British readers. They always like to find out how "Paradise was spoiled " and things like that. Mr. Goonekera's sweet little novel about a servant in a rich man's household and his little ups and downs during the JVP crisis suited the tastes of the British well, and they rooted for it. The book became fairly well known internationally.
Then Shayam Selvadurai wrote a book about being Tamil and gay in Sri Lanka. That was also received much the same way that Mr. Goonesekera's book was received internationally. Suddenly there was this feeling that Sri Lankan writing in English had come of age, and of course Michael Ondaatje, being a Canadian, but having a Sri Lankan background helped..
Carl Muller of course is Sri Lankan, and his books have had a great reception in India and some parts of the sub-continent, and have been reviewed in TIME magazine along with Romesh Goonesekera and Shyam Selvadurai.
So back to the Gratiaen award. It can't be given to either Mr. Selvadurai or Mr. Goonesekera, because both are not Sri Lankan, or even Micheal Ondaatje, because he is the donor. The award is of course to encourage Sri Lankan writing in English.
It is a great boon for the small community of writers in the English language. It is such a small community that one year's judge for the awards is the next year's recipient. One year's contestant is the next year's judge. Previously, there was an obscure award called the Arts Councils award (which still exists, God knows?) which was also generally rotated around by the judges among themselves. Of course there might have been exceptions, but I'm talking here about the rule.
The Gratiaen award, due to some of the reasons stated above, and due to the fact that there is a hundred thousand rupee prize money involved, acquired an aura of respectability that the Arts Council award was missing. But, the English literary community is so circumscribed that it is almost incestuous. Of course, when this fact was mentioned by me at the Gratiaen shortest reading two weeks ago, the circumscribed literary community was scandalised. One shocked member of the audience even turned back at me and suggested quietly that "close" would be a better word than "incestuous", and I was forced to say that the word incestuous was meant to be considered quote, unquote. It's funny having to explain a thing like that.
Anyway, be that as it may, this year's Gratiaen award, to add to the incestuousness, also has on its shortlist one of the trustees. When the question was raised about the conflict of interests in this situation, it was explained that the contending trustee is "suspended" from his duties as a trustee this year, or something to that effect. Anyway, the bottomline is, he is not supposed to be discharging his duties as a trustee this year.
One of the judges was scandalised. He contended that the integrity of the judges is above board and the judges will not be swayed by any other considerations other than literary merit. Of course Lord Hewart or someone is supposed to have said that justice must not only be done, it must appear to be done as well.
Others in the audience were scandalised that "trivial" issues were being raised while the literary merit of the books was not being spoken about. Maybe we can leave that task for a rainy day. But somebody should definitely write a book. It should be about incest. Who knows, it might even win the Gratiaen award.
Anyway, come fifteenth, Micheal Ondaatje will be here, to coincide with the Royal-Thomian cricket match, and the winner of the award will be announced. Any bets? The English literary community will be there, and will say that English writing has come of age.. Never in the history of literature has so much been owed by so few for being given so much money.
The Gratiaen award is of course a great concept. The English literary community may be circumscribed, it may have never felt the pulse of the nation, and it may only reflect the views of a quaint but comfortable section of society. So what? The point is not the reasoning behind the award. The point is that the community is so quaint, that it excels in giving awards to itself. If that impression is to be cleared, the only thing that could be done is for the Gratiaen trustees to get members strictly outside the circumscribed community of writers to be among the judges. The award will acquire the respect it deserves, and will cease to be a bit of a eccentricism.
That will be good. Once put in perceptive, the award will presumably attract more talent among the writers who will take the award seriously. Small is beautiful. But a tangential community cannot pretend to be a microcosm for society. Or is the award going to be running in the family?