(This is my article in the launch issue of the new journal ‘The Wagon Magazine’, edited by my friend and bi-lingual writer Chiththan Prasad. Welcome, greets and best wishes to The Wagon Magazine!)
ESSAYS / BY THE WAGON MAGAZINE / FEB 03, 2016
‘Why is there a dearth of science fiction in Tamil’? Or it is rather, why is there a dearth of Sci-Fi in Tamil?
One feels like coming out with a wry remark, ‘Blame it on Sujatha, the master of Sci-Fi who is no more’ and using the rest of the 600 words article to write verse liber in Tamil. Yet, let me put my lap top in the sleep mode and ponder about this.
What could be the profile of a reader of science fiction in Tamil? It could be something like that of a youth, mostly employed in the IT software services industry with a passable knowledge in English and questionable accomplishments in Tamil. It is that of a youngster with A.R.Rahman’s music in the DNA, pizza remote wired to the taste buds and cricket virtually hard wired to the neurons.
The cream of these profile owners with a good knowledge of English both written and spoken in USA, a flair for soccer and baseball and a marked preference for pasta and cappuccino, may be readers of science fiction in English, a habit they would have cultivated during their high school years. This attribute of their personality perhaps would come in handy when attempting to establish they are distinct, ever far away from the maddening crowd. These avid readers of science fiction in English may also be secretly nurturing a desire to key in their own Sci-Fi in Tamil, one of these days to come. It may not be wrong to presume they do not subscribe to Tamil magazines published with stray Sci-Fi in their pages.
The common refrain among the Tamil readers about Sci-Fi is somewhat condescending in nature. ‘We do not have mental blocks against Sci-Fi. If someone could write something light and have science in it, aimed at a target audience of children below 12, we shall support that initiative whole heartedly. After all, someone is attempting to kindle in our wards, an interest in science with such works. And, as responsible parents, we should endeavor to stand by those good Samaritans.
In fact, this is a pan-Indian perspective too of science fiction. There is a common consensus that Sci-Fi is for inducing recalcitrant children to develop scientific temper which may help them immensely in their future study of various branches of science and technology ensuring their eventually becoming better qualified and thereby, better employed. As it is for children, it is imperative Sci-Fi should have a happy ending with the evil elements if any summarily vanquished and good triumphing over evil, as expected always.
Also, since Sci-Fi is intended for children, the themes to be handled should be simple to the core without taxing the young mind for which reading fiction may be for relaxing after a strenuous day at school followed by private tuitions at home extending till late hours at night.
Let us for a minute imagine that it dawns on the great Tamil Diaspora that Sci-Fi is not only for children but for grown ups as well. That in itself will not make Sci-Fi the hot favorite of all discerning Tamil readers. The main reason attributable for this predictable lukewarm reception could be the handling of technical terms. What is Sci-Fi without technology and what is technology without technical terms? Yet, being in Tamil, the narration cannot have an overdose of English terms peeping out from every other line in a page. That takes it to the realm of translation into Tamil of the technical terms. And translation is a sticky wicket. A good story can be marred by over-usage of chaste vernacular words which every now and then would stop the reader to mentally match the encountered term with its appropriate English equivalent. Either way, it is going to be problematic.
Sci-Fi, like magical realistic fiction or fantasy, occurs in a space where there is suspension of disbelief. In these exotic literary genres, the author as well as the reader always are aware of this status, yet, prefer to ignore as the emphasis is on using the deceptive environment and the abnormal proceedings to convey a layered interpretation with enlightening sub text. In Sci-Fi, such suspension of disbelief has to be backed up with a strong logic that implies this could happen sooner or later or there is an area for concern as a grave situation on the lines depicted may erupt. Unless the writer of Sci-Fi has a mooring in science and technology, such a delicate bonding between the fictional narrative and plain vanilla flavored science may not be achieved.
That brings us to the question of who should be authoring Sci-Fi. Does the needle oscillate and point in the direction of the scientists or of the writers with proven track record in other streams of writing? It is generally observed the scholars are not adept in spinning the narrative yarn in its entire splendor, radiating vibrant hues of life whereas an author with minimal or almost no scientific background may create a narrative devoid of scientific temper and more importantly explainable logic. There is also a risk of pseudo sciences like telepathy and tele-porting stealthily creeping into the narrative due to the author being incapable to identify and weed these out. All said and done, it may be a tad easier for the writers to develop a scientific bent of mind than for scientists to become authors of an art, that of developing absorbing fiction.
When we place emphasis on Sci-Fi creators to develop scientific temper, it goes without saying that the reader should also be prepared with minimum scientific and technological awareness to appreciate what is being served. This may amount to asking the readers to walk the extra mile in their quest for good Sci-Fi which could prove a mirage also. The only issue we can spot here is that though the average reader develops a rational and scientific temperament at an early stage of his life through compulsory learning of basic sciences, they are ever willing to selectively forget the same to get immersed in an out of the world experience, if there is an opportunity to do so. It is mostly akin to watching a magic realistic narrative being enacted with the readers too playing their parts and believing all the way in the scene unfolding.
A few years ago, the whole Tamilnadu went agog with reports of the statues of Lord Ganesa in temples everywhere, all of a sudden developing a healthy hunger and commence imbibing the milk placed with devotion as offerings to them. The winding elephantine trunk of these Ganeshas often form a thin capillary tube as the statue is being made and this tubular trunk is the central piece of this high voltage divine drama with the elementary concept of capillary action from the domain of physics being the fascinating technology behind it. The average Tamil who wanted to get soaked in the Ganesha experience fully, willingly displaced the acquired scientific knowledge of capillary action for a short period of time, whipping out a mass hysteria all along. The media too did not conduct themselves in a honorable manner in this sordid episode. They made sure the reader was kept in the lotus eating stage for long till the story lost its curiosity value and shelf life. Imagine luring the reader with such a conditioned response towards Sci-Fi, hard coded in their genes. You may think of quitting altogether and focusing on alternate initiatives to keep yourselves busy like the cultivation of high yield potatoes.
Also, we cannot ignore another, albeit a minor only irritant that may scuttle any effort at good Sci-Fi in Tamil. The writer may experience a micro mental block attempting to decide what to write about. Intergalactic travel is strictly out of bounds as such stuff is meant for Tamil cinema of 1950s only. Haven’t we watched the late MGR as a swashbuckling hero, boarding a flying saucer to land in another planet only to encounter another version of the heroine who is to be lured again with song and dance and bells and whistles, different from what was made use of for her first appearance? Also, the damsel had to be saved from the shenanigans of the bad elements with sustained display of fast footed sword fighting and middle weight wrestling. Seeing once is believing or an exercise in suspension of disbelief and it certainly does not warrant an encore in the printed form as a Tamil Sci-fi.
One can always write about computers outraging the modesty of meek young pretty girl apprentices working for demented scientists, but have we not read all that before? You can place your story in the realms of botany, chemistry or biology but what simple yet interesting science laden fiction you could spin out of these steams? With Steven Spielberg’s more than real, computer graphics based dinosaurs still fresh in our collective memory, there is not much scope for zoology based Sci-fi either.
Well, time travel is something that can hold the attention span temporarily, at least for the duration of reading the story. Remember, you cannot travel back in time as you may have to write about not so good emperors who all have been deified by the present rulers or their immediate predecessors. Either way you are in trouble as you may be hauled on coals for mocking the great Indian, more specific, the grand Tamil culture.
That gives the ardent writer set out to create sci-fi in Tamil, some leeway to write about computers and communications in future. But is that not what the technology magazines regularly cover in their annual numbers?
Forget it. If you still want to write Sci-Fi in Tamil, make a simple fictional framework and then strive to back it with as much science of any discipline as possible. Who knows? The gamble may pay you off or the template may be used for another story line with ready holes for shoving in scientific ammunition of a slightly different kind. A writer, Sci-Fi writer to be precise, never gives up. Thamilmaghan, Nalini Sastry and Sudhakr Kasturi are such creators with unshakable conviction in suspending disbelief for the sake of developing significant Sci-Fi in Tamil.
After the untimely exit of Sujatha, these are some of the torch bearers of science fiction in Tamil, having inherited the baton from him. Let their canter develop into a gallop with others from Gen-Next too pitching in.
About the author Murugan Ramasami
Techno banker and project management professional heading large banking IT projects in UK, Thailand and USA
An author with 30 books to his credit (3 more on the anvil now), novelist, short story writer, poet, tech-travel-humor columnist (Tamil and English)
Playwright in Tamil
Movie script – dialogue writer
Translator from Malayalam, English to Tamil