[A lit fest] calls for derivative topics like The Master of Johannesburg: The Life and Times of JM Coetzee. [Or], one could do a mash-up of the authors’ book titles. So, you’d have A Million Point One Mutinies Sometime: The Revolution in Indian Literature, maybe, starring VS Naipaul and Chetan Bhagat. Or, The Famished Code: Is Popular Fiction Given its Due?, starring Ben Okri and Dan Brown. Or My Name is A Suitable Enchantress. The session topic is crucial when you have an incompatible star panel – let’s say, off the top of my head, Amartya Sen, Prannoy Roy, Amitabh Bachchan, George RR Martin, and Vishwanathan Anand – because the topic must acknowledge all of them, while sounding equally esoteric to each. Something like Game of Thrones: Is the Indian Sarkar making the right moves in the West? would ensure that each of the panellists is as confused as his neighbour, and topics about which no one can speak with authority are important components of a lit fest. dailyo.in/art-and-culture/how-to-organise-a-successful-lit-fest/story/1/1482.html
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 12:07:58 +0000