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Civil Lines: New Writing in India
editorRukun Advani, Ivan Hutnik, Mukul Kesavan and Dharma Kumar
Ravi Dayal Publishers
Page:
164
price:Rupees 90
When I sent in this new magazine I was told, “It's a bit similar.”approve“. I don't really like it.approveExcept that this is a book-length magazine and, as is often the case with role models, the material is loosely themed.
There are seven prose pieces here, most of which are autobiographical in some way. It is unknown why it took four editors to put them together: Rukun Advani, Ivan Hutnik, Mukul Kesavan, and Dharma Kumar.
Two of the contributions are excerpts from the forthcoming book. Allan Sealy has written, somewhat disappointingly, about his travels in the American Southwest, and Khushwant Singh provides two sections in his autobiography.
Amitav Ghosh ponders Indian short stories and Bill Aitken's ecology. But in my opinion the three best pieces of this first issue are Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's writings in his adolescence, Radha Kumar's writings in his brief imprisonment in Bhopal after the Union Carbide tragedy (she was arrested by mistake, I think), and Ramachandra Guha's writings in his adolescence. This is an article by Experience with the Calcutta Marxists.
All of the magazine's articles are craftsmanship, there is not a single piece of poor writing, but there is none of the wow factor that can sometimes be found in a piece. approve. None of this can be called literature. They're all journalism. All seven. But it's a much higher standard of journalism than what you usually see in Indian magazines.
Each is written in a low key, but also in an individual voice. Journalism should only be preserved if it's very good, and I think some of these works are. However, when put together in this way, it does not become the delicate and nuanced artifact that is a literary magazine. The title is great, but the overall content isn't.
It's especially disappointing because this is the first issue and the concept of the magazine is great and adventurous. Ravi Dayal claims to be called India's first quality publisher, or more accurately, the first person who aspired to be a quality publisher. Civil line We aim to produce quality magazines.
The only reason this first issue doesn't live up to these aspirations is because it's not interesting. I said the contribution was artisanal. This means honest work rather than excellence. It's readable, but nothing stands out or jumps out of the typeface to startle you.
No one seeking literature can benefit greatly from the following methods. Civil line. The introduction to this issue continues rather endearingly.Civil line “I hope it will come out irregularly… twice a year at first,” he says, going on to say that it will be published “whatever the editors believe will hold up.”
In other words, this magazine hopes to be the same junk, ragbag that the better literary magazines have always been.
This problem is probably going to give you a hard time because you are not a ragbag. The contributions are too uniform in tone and pace. Even though there are four editors, another thing that is disappointing is the presence of the editors. In fact, it may be because we have four editors, so there are too many cooks.
Good literary magazines have always been able to achieve good results thanks to their editors. The more whimsical and unusual the magazine is, at least in general, the better. Having four editors on an issue with only seven contributions not only sounds nice, it's also a bit silly to begin with.
Moreover, editing by committee would prevent any magazine from finding its own identity. And I have another comment to make regarding the first issue of this new venture. The only author whose name is unfamiliar to me is Radha Kumar, so I have no idea how old she is.
But all the other writers have had time to gain some reputation or another. In other words, they are not young. Literary magazines, by their very nature, must provide a platform for young writers. I haven't seen many people doing that in India. When asked, the editors said they had none, which, if true, is very sad. maybe Civil line You will have more luck finding them.
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