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the last drop of ink
Win Liaowa-rin
> Amant | La poupée | Poumrak Pansing connaît la musique |
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‘This year’s most outstanding novel
is A Single Drop of Rain, written by Weit Wathin.’ Thunderous and prolonged applause greeted the
announcement. As Weit Wathin stepped onto the podium, hundreds of pairs of eyes
converged on him. He bowed a little as he received the Asiawrite
Award from the president of the jury, placed the golden plaque down on the
stand and beamed. The Asiawrite is given every year
to five outstanding writers in the whole of Asia, and is the most prestigious
award crowning the career of an Asian writer. In the course of twenty-four
years of literary toil, Weit’s output had been
steady and his books not only made money but also won much critical acclaim.
None of them, however, had qualified for the coveted award, until his latest
offering, A Single Drop of Rain, which was hailed by critics as the best
novel he had ever written. A Single Drop of Rain is the story of two youngsters
from the Northeast who struggle through thick and thin together, working in
one of Bangkok’s sweatshops. Unable to stand the cruelty with which the owner
of the sweatshop treats the child labourers, one of them plots to murder him
and ends up in jail. When he comes out ten years later, he discovers his
friend has become the owner of the sweatshop. Despite its simple plot, the novel
was cleverly crafted. Its blunt and incisive language hammered home the
thoughts and moods to great effect, in a style as different as day and night
from Weit’s previous works. But the novel won the
approval of the readers. Weit pulled the microphone a little closer to himself before saying, ‘Ladies
and gentlemen, I feel both gladness and regret that the novel A Single
Drop of Rain has won this coveted award. Never in my life did I imagine I
would have the opportunity to stand on this podium. Yet it is my duty to
inform you that…’ He paused for a while. ‘…I am not the author of this book!’ The entire hall was struck silent. The well-known writer continued
speaking amid the confusion and puzzlement of the whole assembly. ‘This book was written by an
amateur writer named Khom Kang-wan. He published it
under my name without my permission. Though the novel has won the award, I
feel too embarrassed to pretend to the fame it entails. I am glad for the
author, who has been able to create a literary work of quality, but I am
sorry that I must take full legal action against him.’ An interview with Weit Wathin [This interview, transcribed verbatim,
took place at Weit Wathin’s
residence on 2nd February. It is a candid talk about Thailand’s
literary, music and advertising circles.] Did you know Mr Khom
before this case? Like you, I’d never heard of his
name before, but I’m sure from now on everybody will remember it. Why didn’t he write under his real
name? I don’t know. I was abroad when
they announced the novel had won the award. (He coughs discreetly.) Mr Khom came to see me and confessed he had borrowed my name
because he wanted people to read his book, and he has certainly achieved this
much. How do you feel about the fact that
your legal action against him has boosted the sales of A Single Drop of
Rain? Whether the book sells well or not
is none of my concern, since it wasn’t written by me. (He laughs.) But
personally, I’m not at all surprised. Why? Because the event made the
headlines, the media contributed indirectly to the promotion of the book. You mean readers buy the book
because it’s being promoted? To a certain extent, yes. Is there
anything these days that needs no advertising or promotion? Even literature
has come to depend on it. In Mr Khom’s case, he did
what he did because he couldn’t find a publisher for his work, so he had to
find a way to get it published. That’s all there is to it. Do you think he wants to be famous? I ‘don’t think so, of if he does
it’s only so that people would read his book. But you see,
borrowing my name has also made me more famous. In other words, this has
helped advertise two writers at the same time. (He laughs.) It’s a kind of
disguised advertising. What do you mean? I mean advertising which are
exposed to without being aware that it’s advertising. It’s very dangerous if
it’s misused. Take for example (he points at the television set in the
sitting room) those music videos on TV or the songs the radio keeps dishing
out without you realizing it, and some entertainment columns in the papers
that keep raving about this or that film until you feel you have to go and
see it yourself. As for this novel, it’s a bestseller mostly because of the
news you’ve generated and the Asiawrite Award
label. Do you think this is a wrong use of
the media? I accept that awards are an
important factor in determining the choice of certain types of consumers. If
you follow the news, I think you can remember that a few years ago, one
magazine cleverly decided to grant ‘outstanding product’ awards to various
categories of consumer goods, such as outstanding furniture, outstanding
sanitary ware and the like. The companies that won the award were invited to
attend the presentation ceremony in some posh hotel, in exchange for a modest
contribution to expenses paid by them to the magazine; after that they could
use the award label to advertise their products. The arrangement benefited
both parties. You can see if you put too much faith in an award, the chances
are you’ll end up being cheated. So awards are double-edged swords. But you
have to accept that A Single Drop of Rain is really good and did
deserver to win. An interview with Khom Kang-wan[The interview was conducted at the
Bangkok Special Prison and published in Reflection Magazine, Vol. 4,
No. 10, April.]
What prompted you to do what you
did? To tell you the truth, my novel was
rejected everywhere I sent it. Other aspiring writers may well have stopped
writing altogether, but I was confident my novel was good enough to be
published, so I tried to find a way to make myself known to the public. Please elaborate. Take a look. How wide is the Thai book market and what standard do we use to
judge the quality of a work? At first, four publishers told me my book was no
good, but as soon as they heard people say it should get the award, they all
came running to ask me for the right to reprint it. The publishing world has
gone completely commercial. It got me thinking that, suppose you have a good
work, say, of Pulitzer Prize calibre: if you can’t get it published, then
your precious Pulitzer novel isn’t worth more than the paper it’s typed on. What do you think of reading
standards in Thailand? To make the comparison easier,
let’s talk about films. High-standard Thai films don’t make money as a rule,
and because they don’t, nobody wants to produce this kind of film anymore.
So, what we keep seeing is low-quality films, and there’s no way the standard
of the viewers can be raised. It’s a vicious circle. For readers, it’s the same. If they
keep reading books because of the author’s fame or because they are heavily
promoted, it’ll be very difficult for them to improve their reading standard.
Some of the bestsellers on the market now are full of misprints, yet lots of
people read them. Do they do so because they like the author or because they
like the story? This got me thinking that the art of presenting oneself is
sometimes more important than what and how one
writes. Therefore, I had to make myself well known first because, at least,
it would make people read my novel. That is all I wanted. What would you say if other writers
did the same? This way of thinking is very
dangerous, because it’s as if you look down on the readers. It’s like
slapping them in the face. In my case, I was really at the end of my tether. Have you ever lost hope before? Oh yes. I was certain there was no
way I could succeed in writing and I’d better give it up. I thought this
novel would be my last drop of ink. My feeling at the time was like that of a
leading character in Martin Scorcese’s film, King
of Comedy, which I saw a long time ago, when he
explains that the ultimate ambition of all artists is to see their work
acknowledged by other people. And when people come to admire your
performance, you feel like a king, even if it’s only for one night. That’s
exactly how I felt. Deep down, I was confident in my own work. But the
publishers didn’t like it, so I had to do something. I’m delighted the
readers are enjoying this book – that’s good enough for
me. But what’s blown the matter out of proportion is that I won the award. Why did you decide to use Mr Weit’s name? For three reasons: first, he is famous, he has a wide readership and his work is of a high caliber; second, critics like to review his books and I was interested to hear what they had to say; and third, he had to go abroad for several months of medical treatment, which made it difficult to find out that A Single Drop of Rain wasn’t written by him. How did you do it? Well, I managed to find out where he went for medical treatment. Then
I forged a letter and sent it with my manuscript to Suesarn
Publishing House, which published Mr Weit’s works. As soon as the book was out, it was a hit,
and that’s when Mr Weit
found out. Weren’t you afraid of being sued? I was, but I was also ready to face the music, as indeed I have. I
only wanted the opportunity to have people read my book. That’s all that
mattered to me. Have you written a lot? Quite a few short stories. As for novels, this is my first one. Right
now, I’ve got offers from four or five publishers, but I haven’t got any plot
yet. Did you sign on with any of them? Of course. I am very popular now. |
Newspaper reports 17th
January Leading writer sues greenhorn for making him win award Well-known writer Weit Wathin filed a court action this morning, alleging his name had been used without author- ization by an amateur writer named Khom Kang-wan. As a result of the announcement made
by the Asiawrite Award jury, which selected Weit Wathin’s work, A Single
Drop of Rain, as this year’s best novel, the well-known writer declared
in front of hundreds of persons attending the award presentation ceremony
that the novel was not his own work, but that of a young writer named Khom Kang-wan. Mr Weit
claimed he was under medical treatment abroad when Mr Khom
sent the manuscript to Suesarn Publishing House,
which decided to publish the novel, unaware that it was not Mr Weit’s work. When he returned from abroad, Mr Weit found the book already on sale. After the award presentation
ceremony, Mr Weit told reporters the real author, Khom Kang-wan, had come to see him upon hearing that A
Single Drop of Rain had won the award. Mr Khom
had confessed he had merely wanted his novel to be read nationwide, and had
never thought of deriving any other benefit from it. Mr Weit
added that, in spite of his sympathy, he had to sue Mr Khom
on charges of using his name without permission, otherwise others might want
to follow suit. 19th January Fifty thousand copies of A Single
Drop of Rain have been sold in record time, more than all previous
bestsellers ever published, owing to the notoriety of the legal action
engaged against its young author. 22nd January The jury of the Asiawrite
Award made the following statement today: ‘A Single Drop of Rain won
the award not because of Weit Wathin’s
fame as a writer. The jury has never based its decision on a writer’s
reputation. The reason the novel received the award is because it is a work
of outstanding quality, reflecting and revealing aspects of the Northeast in
a way that is both lively and informative…’ Newspaper reports 27th February Khom Kang-wan, the
latest winner of the Asiawrite Award, was sentenced today to six months in jail for using Weit Wathin’s name without his
permission. 2nd March A Single Drop of Rain is being
reprinted for the fifth time in only two months. Three hundred thousand
copies have reportedly been sold. |
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Newspaper report
12th March
The Mountain and the Stars, the latest novel of popular writer Khom Kang-wan, has sold two hundred thousand copies since
its launch two months ago, and is well on its way to outselling his first four
novels.
Since he won the Asiawrite
Award with A Single Drop of Rain two years ago, Khom
Kang-wan has churned out two novels a year. All of them have been well received
by the readers, even though critics consider them grossly inferior to his first
novel.
As for The Mountain and the Stars, most
critics agree that it is ‘absolute rubbish’, ‘devoid of any substance’.
This translation was first published in the April 1994 issue of the Bangkok monthly magazine Caravan.