Most of us who claim to be authors always cherish a dream-- to write a masterpiece one day which can live tomorrow and drift through the centuries and decades, and so become a benchmark for people to come. Our dream of writing a Shakespearean tragedy, Homer's epic, Coleridge's romantic poetry, Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children' and Rabindranath Tagore's 'Gitanjali', among others keeps disturbing us either until we write one or until we breathe last.
But is every writer capable of penning a masterpiece? I doubt. And it is fair to doubt everyone's ability to produce one, since most of us are fettered in the convention and so afraid of experimenting. Influenced by megatrends around and often spanked by publishers, we tend not to think beyond the drawn coop. If we dare, we'll lose our checks.
The tragedy is if Chetan Bhagat has become successful, every damn'd author aims to be one rather than aiming to be his own. Similarly publishers run after the trends because their investment is at stake. They, however, forget that the trend began because of someone's diligence and out-of-the-box thinking. Imitating the same would potentially harm the long term interests of their trade and is equally not in favor of the literary writing which has given us the best of the books. If Vikram Seth wrote 'A Suitable Boy' and became famous, he shouldn't be forced on others. Nor authors should try to ape him.
This thinking has caused more harm to the literary writing than anything else in the world. A masterpiece only emerges when we are committed to break the convention and experiment with innovative thought. Challenges will obviously persist along and hinder a masterpiece. But a true masterpiece does not take birth without the challenges I mentioned.
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