Of award-winning books and movies
Read that Midnight's Children wins 'Best of the Booker'. Don't know what to think - either I am stupid to not appreciate the ramble of Salman Rushdie, or the poll is made up, or God forbid, it is a problem with all Booker-winning books (if this one were the best, I shudder to think of the rest).
I was always of the opinion that one should avoid (like the plague) award winning books and movies. This opinion started with the Sunday afternoon regional language feature films (national award winning feature films) screened on Doordarshan. I do remember one particular movie that I watched when in school. The movie opened with a dark shot of a porch (its called a mitham in Tamil) in a rural Tamil house.
Let me take a slight detour to explain this location - it is a rectangular area (a square is also a rectangle right?) typically in the middle of the house, at a slightly lower floor level than the rest of the house. This is flanked by cylindrical pillars. The reason this porch area is different from the rest of the house is that it is open to sky - in some variants transparent roofs - to let light flow in. It is in this area that a broad, deep vessel (called an anda)(usually brass or copper) of water is kept. One would use a sombu (also of copper or brass, sometimes of stainless steel) to take water out of the anda to wash one's feet upon entering from outside. (If you are wondering what this detour is all about, let me assure you that you are not alone :-))
Cut to the movie - so this is a shot of this porch for a full minute - sixty seconds, no less - no background music (national award winning movies rarely did), and then an object comes into the frame - of a bare kneee (obviously belonging to some person, he is sitting on a wooden chair) - all you can see is his bare knee, and then he starts vigorously rubbing his palm over his knee in clockwise direction. This shot continues for what seems like an eternity before I lose my patience and give up.
This belief in award winning things was strengthened when I read (or tried to) Midnight's Children, and God of Small Things in quick succession (well both in the same day, for exactly two pages before returning to my comfort reading of good old James Hadley Chase). Some disclaimers in place - It was over 10 years ago, I had just completed school, not perhaps the stage of life for heavy reading. Nevertheless, both books left on me a deep wound that didn't heal for a long while.
Watching some Oscar movies did help altering that opinion to an extent, and for the record I did read The God of Small Things recently, and quite enjoyed it. But Salman Rushdie is a very different cup of tea. And speaking of tea, there is a variety of tea called Golden tips - it goes through very stringent quality checks, it is the finest of tea, and it is claimed that when you make tea with those leaves, the tea would still be colourless, but with all the flavour. Now, this is the cup of tea I am talking about - I would never enjoy something like this. Believe me, I have tried - I have given Monsieur Rushdie a second chance, and I have to say (not unapologetically), he has not passed muster.
Hence the musing on how exactly do these books win awards.
I was always of the opinion that one should avoid (like the plague) award winning books and movies. This opinion started with the Sunday afternoon regional language feature films (national award winning feature films) screened on Doordarshan. I do remember one particular movie that I watched when in school. The movie opened with a dark shot of a porch (its called a mitham in Tamil) in a rural Tamil house.
Let me take a slight detour to explain this location - it is a rectangular area (a square is also a rectangle right?) typically in the middle of the house, at a slightly lower floor level than the rest of the house. This is flanked by cylindrical pillars. The reason this porch area is different from the rest of the house is that it is open to sky - in some variants transparent roofs - to let light flow in. It is in this area that a broad, deep vessel (called an anda)(usually brass or copper) of water is kept. One would use a sombu (also of copper or brass, sometimes of stainless steel) to take water out of the anda to wash one's feet upon entering from outside. (If you are wondering what this detour is all about, let me assure you that you are not alone :-))
Cut to the movie - so this is a shot of this porch for a full minute - sixty seconds, no less - no background music (national award winning movies rarely did), and then an object comes into the frame - of a bare kneee (obviously belonging to some person, he is sitting on a wooden chair) - all you can see is his bare knee, and then he starts vigorously rubbing his palm over his knee in clockwise direction. This shot continues for what seems like an eternity before I lose my patience and give up.
This belief in award winning things was strengthened when I read (or tried to) Midnight's Children, and God of Small Things in quick succession (well both in the same day, for exactly two pages before returning to my comfort reading of good old James Hadley Chase). Some disclaimers in place - It was over 10 years ago, I had just completed school, not perhaps the stage of life for heavy reading. Nevertheless, both books left on me a deep wound that didn't heal for a long while.
Watching some Oscar movies did help altering that opinion to an extent, and for the record I did read The God of Small Things recently, and quite enjoyed it. But Salman Rushdie is a very different cup of tea. And speaking of tea, there is a variety of tea called Golden tips - it goes through very stringent quality checks, it is the finest of tea, and it is claimed that when you make tea with those leaves, the tea would still be colourless, but with all the flavour. Now, this is the cup of tea I am talking about - I would never enjoy something like this. Believe me, I have tried - I have given Monsieur Rushdie a second chance, and I have to say (not unapologetically), he has not passed muster.
Hence the musing on how exactly do these books win awards.
Comments
Reading James Hadley Chase just after school hmmm
But I don't agree with you on the award winning movies showed on Doordarshan, of course going back to days when that was the only channel available. I remember seeing such gems as Anjali, Roja, Pushpak, Pather Panchali and quiet a few good regional movies then.
But yes one should avoid award winning Indian authors thats for sure right from V S Naipaul to Arundhati Roy
Good to know there are fellow Rushdie haters.
@Dhanno,
Ditto to you too. And what is weird about James Hadley Chase after school - He is not worth reading at any age after that, so totally teenage fiction. I hope you did not mean it in another sense.
Well, you may be right about the Doordarshan part - I think I just preferred an afternoon nap on Sundays; the days I did watch I had to have a traumatic experience as described in the post.
I'll add Catch-22 to the list.
1) Focaults Pendulum by Emberto Eco supposedly Intelligent Man's Da Vinci Code
2) Dice Man
Vid as to JHC, I thought guys read JHC and Girls had their M&B during the teens
award-winning movies is a different thing.. try to catch up some of the winners in the best foreign film category of the oscars... they are definitely a good watch.. am referring to a czech movie "kolya" (won the oscar in the mid-90s) or the italian movies "il postino" or "cinema paradiso"..
speaking of award winning books.. the one book that comes to my mind is the pulitzer-winning (?) "the remains of the day" by kazuo ishiguro... trust me, thts a good one... also has a movie based on the book, starring anthony hopkins and emma thompson.. another good watch...
guess, i hv got carried away.. the point remains... rushdie isnt for me too :)
but dunno if i can extend the argument to other award-winning books or movies...
and i need to find the difference between booker and pulitzer awards..