అక్షరం

అమెరికా తెలుగు సాహిత్యం మీద ఈ చర్చ పట్ల ఇటు అమెరికా తెలుగు వాళ్ళే కాక, అటు ఆంధ్రా (ఆంధ్రా అంటే, ఆంధ్రా, తెలంగాణా, సీమ) నించి కూడా అనేక మంది ఆసక్తి చూపిస్తూ ఈ-లేఖలు రాస్తున్నారు, ఫోన్లు చేస్తున్నారు.

ఈ చర్చకి తగిన ఆధార భూమికని ఏర్పరచడానికి వీలుగా ఇదివరకు జరిగిన చర్చల నించి కొన్ని భాగాలని అందించాలని అనుకున్నాను.

అందులో భాగంగా విష్ణుభొట్ల లక్ష్మన్న గారు ఒక చాట్ గ్రూప్ లో రాసిన ఈ ఈ-లేఖని పునప్రచురిస్తున్నాను.




namastE: June 12, 1998

I have not posted to this news group for a while but I have been following the
news of this group for a long time.

Following the tremendous interest a lot of us have shown on Telugu Sahityam in
the recent past, I would like to share these comments with you all.

Though there are a number of knowledgeable people with good writing skills there
seems to be fewer people attempting to write in Telugu in general. Even fewer
among those who are writing are doing sobecause they want to JUST write. I
sincerely feel that it is time that we refocus on the contemporary or relevant
issues that Telugus face in the USA and put them succinctly in an accepted
literary form (kadha, kavita, etc.). And we should also strive to bring a higher
quality in these writings.

Honestly, I have read many Telugu stories originated in this country in the last
few years, but I can count only a few that I remember today as good. I have
always felt that a good literary piece of work would withstand the test of TIME
and people will remember it for a longtime no matter where and who produced it.
I do think that it will take our telugu sahitya community some more time to
achieve a higher quality of literary work. However, the efforts of a number of
writers in this direction are applaudable. And they should also be challenged to
produce better literary works.

If we ask ourselves the simple question, "How can one produce good literary
work?", I have the following to say.

Besides the writer being a competent person, he/she SHOULD

(1) have access to good literature (Classics etc.)

(2) have knowledgeable critic friends who are not afraid to criticize the works
(not the person) and help the writer produce better sahityam, and

(3) enjoy a good & sizable readership.

Unfortunately, our community lacks in the first two areas. I was surprised to
find that most of the literary people I know have read very few classic books.
Similarly, they feel uncomfortable to receive criticism that is not in praise of
their work. However, I feel that there are a large number of literally oriented
people for the readership.

I would like to continue on this later.


Best wishes,

/Lakshmanna Vishnubhotla