Aditya Sinha: When did reading go out of fashion?

The latest Lilyu00e2u0080u0088Jamesstarrer adaptation of War and Peace attempted to bullet point the entire Tolstoy saga but couldnrsquot do justice to the magic Tolstoy has wovenA recent bizarre television experience I had was the first episode of a fresh BBC adaptation of War and Peace It was like a PowerPoint presentation of Leo Tolstoys epic novel about the churning in St Petersburgs high society before during and after Napoleons invasion of Russia It had nicelooking actors and lavish sets but it was in a hurry to cover as much narrative ground as possibleI read the Larissa VolokonskyRichard Pevear translation six years ago and immensely enjoyed the sixweek nightly immersion into its 1200odd pages except for the last 30 pages a dreary abstract lecture about individuals and historys tide etc Even regarding the animals ndash the bear caught up in Count Bezukhovs drunken revelry a fallen horse in a meadow a dog weaving through a live battlefield ndash the teledrama did little justice to Tolstoys magic The only redeeming feature was Lily James as Countess Natasha Rostova but it that wasnt motivation enough for a second episodeReading may be more immersive than films TV or videogames but the public at large still seems to disdain it Some years ago I stood in a bookstore when a youngster followed his girlfriend into the store loudly declaring that reading was a waste of time I suppose it is for someone happy in his limited world A good book however is like a gym for your mindYet crappy gyms mushroom in our cities and similarly there is an avalanche of substandard books with a formulaic narrative lackadaisical writing and clicheacuted characters that invite zero sympathy But theyre overwhelmingly popular and it is precisely because of their predictability and their gibberish Years ago during a TV debate on Bollywood and Hindiindies an audience member asserted that he didnt want to apply his mind while watching a film ndash he preferred stories where he knew what came next Perhaps he wanted the book to be like a soothing visit to the astrologerI find such books difficult to even start but people lap them up ndash a recent selfpublished novel has sold lakhs even though speculation is that it was written by the goodlooking authors public relations guru Good marketing likely trumps good writing Another writer with my publisher apparently uses a PR agency to promote his books to profitable effect I read his latest plotdriven thriller It was sheer torture I skimmed pages something I never do ndash one trudges through each of a book to savour its writing to properly review it or simply to empathise with each authors struggle with their each and every sentenceFor instance a brilliant recent book was Omar Shahid Hamids The Party Worker It is a lean thriller set in Karachi that never lets up it is tightly written It is filled with intrigue and betrayal ndash Karachi is perfect for such narrative richness no wonder it produces the worlds current best literature ndash reminding me of James Hadley Chases pulp novels from my youth where each character was worse than the last Perhaps social anxiety and collective panic are necessary to a good thriller That would explain why Indian thrillers are underwhelming most are just middleclass homoerotic fantasies about national glory It would also explain why the only good thriller situated in Kashmir has been Mirza Waheeds The Collaborator the rest of Englishwriting is very much the James Bond onanism mentioned earlierTo me Viet Thanh Nguyens The Sympathizer and Hideo Yokohamas Six Four are recent examples of how good thrillers can be without resorting to poorlywritten mindless jingoism The former is set at the end of Americas Vietnam War when the South Vietnamese officials are fleeing and among them is a communist mole It is engrossing every sentence is a universe of observation by a Vietnamese about this weird cultural monster called America Jonathan LloydDavies translation of Six Four is a 600oddpage kaleidoscope of Japanese police politics centering around an unsolved 14yearold kidnapmurder case of a sevenyearold girl It has so many characters that the novel starts with an organisational chart It has true surprises The tension never slackens and you dont want to skip a single sentencePublishers often complain how suchandsuch genre in our country hasnt matured yet which is paradoxical considering each of our epic contains all genres rolled into one Perhaps its because authors are nowadays busy trying to sell their moderately selling books into movies TV serials or webcasts Or maybe it has to do with the culture of antiintellectualism that has recently taken hold deriding thought and industry and instead celebrating robotic acceptance of the status quo Indians are happy with their flabby minds either they want to switch off their cognition and be comfortably numb or they want to be fed bulletpoint summaries of epics like War and PeaceAditya Sinhas crime novel The CEO Who Lost His Head is available now He tweets autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom