Poor writing standards, a lack of ideas and fall in demand have led to the death of fiction in literature. Writers and publishers tell Karan Bhardwaj why non-fiction is, therefore, flying off shelves
If we ask you to recall a few popular books that you have heard of in the last few months, chances are you would come up with autobiographies of Sachin Tendulkar, Natwar Singh, Rajdeep Sardesai, Naseeruddin Shah, Pranab Mukherjee and so on. But do you remember the last novel that made headlines for its record sales except for Chetan Bhagat’s Half GirlfriendIJ The rising popularity and demand of non-fiction over fiction has led to the debate on imagination — whether it is anymore required or is it put to rest forever. Some discussions have already concluded the untimely death of fiction as the real life accounts have not only caught the fancy of publishers and writers but also the readers.
“The literary action is shifting because of a variety of reasons. The quality of writing is going down and no publisher can put money on poor writing. You have to be exceptionally creative to be able to imagine a world of your own. In absence of that, non-fiction comes as a saviour as truth is the most exciting aspect of writing,” said author Urvashi Butalia. She was participating in a debate at Taj Mansingh Hotel, organised by Jaipur literature Festival.
“A lot of times writers produce a mammoth narrative and are unable to build the characters by the end. However, non-fiction allows a gamut of writing. From travelogues to personal accounts, biographies to incidents, anybody can share important aspects of their life. Fromdalit women to sports players, fashionable ladies to social activists, anybody can attempt non-fiction,” she said. literary critics observe that major publishers are publishing fewer literary novels and that review space is almost non-existent. “The Internet has empowered the crowd at the expense of elites,” read a blog.
Diplomat and author Navtej Sarna recalled how it took several years of writing and success of other books that led to the printing of his short stories. “Every publisher appreciated my short stories but none of them published them. After 20 years of writing, I could manage to get my stories published as a book,” he said adding that authors are shifting towards non-fiction because of the new-age technology and the change in the economy of thoughts. “There are several new portals which are paying huge amounts for the non-fiction accounts than the short stories,” he said.
However, novelist and advertiser Anuja Chauhan said that fiction is a far greater medium of learning than non-fiction. “Erotica would tell you more about biology than the books featuring the scientific processes and definitions,” she said. According to her, fiction has always outsold non-fiction and the iconic novels will never die. “It is the record sales of those novels that publishers manage to print non-fiction in abundance. We are still reading and re-printing iconic novels which will never go out of business. In India, fiction outsells non-fiction in the ratio of 3:1. Chetan Bhagat’s What Young India Wants couldn’t even match half the sales of Half Girlfriend,” she said.
Chauhan said that even the real life accounts also need an imagination to compile an engaging story. “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was based on life of the Flying Sikh. There’s a scene where he is romantically involved with an Australian player. But in real life, he admitted that he never shook hands with that lady,” she said.
However, Shashi Tharoor, politician and writer, asserted that even reality requires little bit of fiction to become an exciting account. He said, “If you look at the wars, tragedies or the happiest moments, the most loved and memorable books are the fictional accounts and not the non-fiction ones. let me tell you a story. There was a prince who fell in love with a young princess.
However, the father of the princess asked the man to find the truth of life if he wanted to marry his daughter. The prince left everything and roamed in jungles in search of the truth. He met an old woman who taught him lessons of life. After the prince was convinced about the truth of his life, he asked the woman how he should tell others about her. She said, ‘Tell them I was young and beautiful.’”
With fiction going out of business, faction seems to be the way out. “Writers are mixing facts with fiction. It makes the reading exciting and offers all possible avenues for reading and writing,” said Butalia.