‘Books will prevail in the face of technology’

January 23, 2017 12:23 am | Updated 12:23 am IST - JAIPUR:

The pull of words:  Visitors enter the Diggi Palace, the venue of the Jaipur Literature Festival,  on Sunday.  — Photo: Rohit Jain Paras

The pull of words: Visitors enter the Diggi Palace, the venue of the Jaipur Literature Festival, on Sunday. — Photo: Rohit Jain Paras

Ample conversation and insight summed up the fourth day of the Jaipur Literature Festival. In conversation with journalist and author Manu Joseph, Richard Flanagan revealed that not everyone enjoyed his Booker Prize winning novel — The Narrow Road to the Deep North .

“I had a man chase me up a street in Sydney, saying you’re ugly and bald,” he said, accepting that he cannot make everyone happy, and that he could, perhaps, be ugly and bald.

“But everything in the book is deeply considered. I re-wrote it 20 times.” Mr. Flanagan was convinced that books would prevail as a form of entertainment and insight, even in the face of technologically sophisticated media.

“Books are slow, but they can speak truth to power, like a few things can. Moby Dick sold 2,000 copies in the first 60 years. That’s not a great number. Which proves that you simply can’t measure the influence of literature in book sales. Books are more resilient than we imagine. They will endure,” he said.

On colonial plunder

Early in the afternoon, politician and author Shashi Tharoor spoke about his latest book, The Era of Darkness with Irish journalist Michael Dwyer at the Front Lawn of Diggi Palace. The book documents colonial plunder of the Indian sub-continent during the British rule.

“The British were in power for no reason other than that they wanted to stay in power,” he began. He continued by talking about the apathy of Winston Churchill to the plight of starving Indians: “When he was sent a report of the Bengali famine, Churchill had written in the margins, “Why hasn’t Gandhi died yet?” And this is the man we treat like the apostle of freedom and democracy!” he mused, and the audience responded with hearty applause.

Later in the afternoon, Manu Joseph and author Adam Thirlwell were in conversation with Booker Prize winners Alan Hollinghurst, Paul Beatty and Mr. Flanagan. At the very outset, Mr. Joseph conceded, “I apologise that we are a panel of all men. What is now called The Manel. And I also think Manel is the worst word in English, after Synergy.”

The conversation shifted to punctuation, and Mr. Hollinghurst expressed his love for semi-colons. “I like the idea of semi-termination. Unlike most people I know, I use the semi-colon in text messages. On the other hand, I dislike exclamation marks profusely. I’ve used it at most thrice in my entire career.”

He was interrupted by Mr. Joseph, who remarked, “They say that people use semi-colons to show off about going to college.” Mr. Hollinghurst laughed. “That’s probably what I’m doing,” he said.

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