Thread: literary bias in the 21st century world

I should say, since this post comes straight out of left-field and I really don't want to offend anyone nor be a party to any gross generalizations. it was something that just occurred to me recently and I thought it might be an interesting, and different, topic for discussion.

I remember once telling my mother about The Life Of Pi, written by a Canadian author by the name of Yann Martel. I was not previously familiar with Martel. but I remember telling her he was Canadian (if this actually turns out not to be the case then pardon me, wikipedia is down at the moment). anyway, my mother, who despite her good nature is more than a little bit prone to the casual bigotry typical of her generation (especially after a martini or two) instantly responded 'but there are no good canadian writers.' obviously a heated argument ensued and i employed the usual 'don't-generalize-against-a-whole-country-you-silly-old-bag' stuff. however, as usual, I found myself instantly floored when she pulled that old chestnut: 'name some then?'

i should state that i was very fond of Pi and in no way have any prejudices when it comes to nationality, least of all when it comes to my canadian friends who, judging by this forum, have anything but an under-strength literary demographic. but the fact is after that argument, as absurd as it was, i couldn't help but look at my book collection once or twice and realize that virtually every book i own was penned by either an American or British writer. i wanted to put this down to a simple question of population, the dominance of the english language and the fact the majority of my books were certainly purchased from bookstores and markets in America. but the fact is they weren't. don't get me wrong, i have traveled often (and far) in my life and many of the books i own were in fact bought in other countries. so the bias contained in my bookshelf is not simply due to being in one country, and isn't merely against foreign-language writers, but against many writers who are not either from the UK (including ireland, for these purposes) or the USA. even if we just consider 'anglophone' countries, i have to stretch myself to think of more than a handful of really great writers to come out of australia, new zealand, canada, the caribbean, south africa or even the indian subcontinent.

one of the more pleasing things concerning this issue is that in the past few generations there has been an increase in fiction output from countries who were previously not represented at all. when i lived in the middle-east i remember reading more than a few good books by writers from iraq and libya. mostly, of course, these were of a very specific genre - often concerning events in their respective countries histories. but honestly, and i realize this is an opinion, they were only good books, not great, and most of their appeal was down to their subject matter. there was certainly no iranian mark twain, james joyce or charles dickins for instance. and even considering a genuinely revolutionary writer like salman rushdie, call me cynical, but i can't help again thinking that a lot of the commercial appeal of a book like 'the satanic verses' or even 'midnights children' is down to the subject matter and their controversial nature and, more depressingly, a kind of post-colonial patronizing, a sort of 'wow, an indian author, who knew'. but i digress, that kind of opinion is just that, an opinion. and i am categorically not suggesting any country has the monopoly on literary talent. if i thought that, the question probably wouldn't bother me so much. as far as i'm concerned there must be great writers everywhere. also i am aware that prior to the nineteenth century, and even well beyond, the majority of great works were not english-language and i do have a genuine love for french literature (such as camus and proust) and nobody doubts the importance of the iliad and don quixote. but this appears no longer to be the case, though the world has grown infinitely more globalized and literate. so why, to the same degree as American or British authors, are such writers not published en masse? or, more importantly, why are the great ones not published?

it could well be that they are. quite possibily it is just an anglo-american bias against outsiders, including those who share the same language. if that's the case, then why do you think that is? again, i really don't mean to offend anybody, least of all those canadians/australians who appear to make up a healthy proportion of the users, but the point is that *you* have probably heard of many of *our* writers, and quite possibly know them as well (if not better) than we do, and yet *we* (as in the general british/american populace) are far less familiar with yours. if it is just down to a straightforward bias, then that's unfortunate and really quite absurd since it would seem in a globalized world that an American or British publisher would be silly to ignore a large chunk of potential talent. moreover, the more i think about how depressing it is, that there could be a truly life-changing author out there that i may never hear about simply because of geography. i mean, the life of pi was really quite a good read

Great topic! Life of Pi is the only booker prize winner I've ever liked. I have to agree that I think the only reason Salman Rushdie is famous is because he's rare in the literary world. I mean, Midnight's Children (which won the Booker of Bookers) is literally the most boring thing I've ever read, and the only thing I can really remember is that it was about telepathic children and included a scene where a guy takes a shit in the street.

Having said that, as well as Yann Martel, Margaret Atwood, John McRae and the woman who wrote "Ann of Green Gables" (forget her name) are Canadian.

Have you ever read The Kite Runner of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini? Very famous. Have you heard of Steig Larsson, Gabriel Gracia Marquez, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Dostoevski, Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Chekhov, Sartre, Paulo Coelho,