Literary Bengal waits for its taste of ‘horror’ fiction ahead of Durga Puja
Writers, editors, artists, and publishers are busy putting together the numerous eagerly-awaited Puja-special magazines that mark the onset of autumn in the State, and the thriller/horror/suspense genre dominates
No matter what the weather in the recent weeks, politically and literally, a set of people has been quietly at work to liven up the literary landscape of West Bengal ahead of Durga Puja, which is a little over three months away. They are writers, editors, artists, and publishers, busy putting together the numerous eagerly-awaited Puja-special magazines that mark the onset of autumn in the State with their appearance in the market. And the genre that appears to be dominating, like in the past few years, is thriller/horror/suspense.
“We have been working on Puja issues for a while now because the idea is to bring them out latest by September (this year, Durga Puja begins on October 9) because the response is not very good if we bring them out too close to Puja. This year too, the detective/horror/thriller category seems to be trending,” Antara Bhattacharya of the College Street-based publishing house Palok, said.
Ms. Bhattacharya will bring out two Puja numbers this year: Palok, for children, and Panchali, a literary magazine for women. “Submissions are plenty; if only sales could match the submissions. I am trying to include horror/thriller stories but it is not easy to find good writers in that genre,” she said.
For Chiranjit Das of Aranyamon publishing house, too, submissions have arrived, and designers and illustrators are at work. He agreed that there is an increasing demand for thrillers and horrors and detective stories, something that publishers tried to cater to by mixing a healthy dose with other genres. “Another genre that’s suddenly enjoying a new popularity is graphic stories — for children as well as adults,” Mr. Das said.
“Ghost stories and horror stories have always been a part of the Puja literary scene, but yes, now you even have magazines dedicated to the horror genre, such as Bhut-Bhutum,” Sonal Das, an editor with the publishing house Book Farm, said.
According to Saubhik Mukhopadhyay, an avid reader who works in the finance department of an MNC and who keeps track of the literary scene in Kolkata, a few dozen Bengali magazines come out ahead of Durga Puja; of them he buys mostly two, Antareep and Desh.
“The quality of writing has gone down over the years; I would rather buy books than spend money on these magazines. But I know people who buy 10-15 magazines, if not more, every Puja. Many of these are people who eagerly wait for horror stories,” Mr. Mukhopadhyay said.
Veteran writer Amar Mitra, winner of the Sahitya Akademi and O. Henry awards, is also not very happy with the trend. “Thriller, horror, tantra-mantra, these are the choice of some readers, and the writers are losing their vision of writing with this. This is not good for literature,” Mr. Mitra, who has written for Puja specials in the past but is busy at the moment working on a major novel on the Bengal famine, said.
“But at the same time, young writers have come. They are writing their thoughts, their vision. This is good. There are so many Puja specials from big publishing houses and also little magazines. I feel proud of literary magazines like Parichay, Anustup, and many of those that come from the districts of Bengal. Many writers from Bangladesh also contribute fiction and poetry to the Puja issues. This is a new trend and good for our language,” Mr. Mitra said.
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