A MALAYSIAN AUTHOR IN STRESS
My editor phoned me yesterday and asked whether I like to CHANGE my name to
something feminine... er, that was a neat way to put it and at last she
confessed that she thought it would be better if I change my existing
author's name to real woman's name. A WOMAN'S NAME? Yeah... with her
father's full name and all. She even suggested one... Johanna binti
Syafrizan.
I know her intention was good. And I fully realised that I am living in the
capitalist world where MONEY is god. And then I knew better that I am not an
author that lives in the UK or USA or other part of the world where authors
are celebrated if not respected. They could voice out almost everything that
they want and they can keep they author's name whichever they prefer.
But not here in MALAYSIA.
Yes the scenario is understandable. If you look closely these are what you
could expect:
1. Majority who buy Malay books are women (teenagers under 20 mostly)
2. Most Malay books are romance books 'without soul'
3. Most so-called educated persons only read foreign writers' novels (mostly
english)
4. Different genres, although available, than romance are very hard to find
their ways to the hearts of MALAY readers.
These are few things but enough to show us that MALAY literature is going
downhill. Yes I believe AHADIAT AKASHAH would use these to his advantage and
I respect his decision. That's why (and I believe so) he is very successful
with his works such as "Budak Setan", "Hikayat Cinderella" etc etc. But is
is just not for me. FULL STOP.
I dream of becoming PAULO COELHO, JOHN IRVING, A TALIB HASSAN and few other
authors who can combine love stories with what-life-is-all-about things.
It's a romance at its highest peak, a total perfection written flawlessly by
a COMPLETE author. AND I WANT TO BE LIKE THEM.
So you may ask, what is the relation between my dream and the request from
my editor to change my name to woman's name? It's simple. By changing my
name, I'd have to abandon JOHN NORAFIZAN and becoming someone else.
And during that process, they hope that the readers will buy more book from
JOHANNA SYAFRIZAN because she is a girl, not a dumbheaded MALE author who's
trying to be cool and upheld his own principles. Marketing strategy,
obviously... But killing the author's passion for writing-not-for-money
nonetheless.
I have just got 72 more hours to agree or not to agree with the proposal.
