₦airaland Forum

nollywood20: Sanguine authors: Chimamnda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, Adaobi Tricia Nwauban's I Do Not Come to you by Chance and Bisi Daniels' Conspiracy of Lagos.

Choleric: Bisi Daniels' The False Truth and Helon Habila's Waiting for an Angel.

Melancholic: Helen Oyeyemi's The Icarus Girl and Chris Abani's The Virgin of Flames.

Phlegmatic: Ben Okri's first novel Flowers and Shadows and Uche Bialonwu's The Long Claws of Fate.

Interesting, how did you come by these conclusions. I'd have said Habila's waiting for an angel was melancholic.

sholay2011: Take it easy bro. D OP isn't saying ppl shudnt write abt societal themes or av historic events as dia story background, but Nigerian writers shud find d balance between writing for entertainment of d mind and writing for a social cause. Ironically, william shakespeare is known mainly for combining both...but wiv more emphasis on entertainment of the mind.

Nigerian books are entertaining too naw. They are not nearly as boring as you peeps make them out to be.

[quote author=sholay2011][/quote]You know there was Nigerian drama in the past, my friend was lamenting on facebook the other day, that the drama genre is dead. Maybe you would be the one to revive it for him. But I have been wondering, has drama just gone 'old school' or we just don't have drama writers?

[quote author=Mynd_44]Waiting is what got us in this mess. I refuse to.

I will just keep putting my crap out there(even when religious folks look at me sideways). Writers of unusual works are mostly criticised by society. I know cos someone questioned my "christianity" because of 'burning cold' and in the case of 'Fear' forget, if I was not so uncaring.............

These is what some writers face and hence they drop such stories. Personally, I prefer creating a separate world when writing[/quote]Personally I prefer reading about the world I live in, maybe that makes me a realist but there are more readers for your kinda writing than mine.

Redmosquito:
I can bet that none had as much cyber popularity as chim. But then what do I know? I go to the bookstores looking for unusual nigerian stories, and I never find them.
How then will I look for it online, when I expect it to look for me?

Yeah, that's another thing, most of them don't get very much publicity. Look how everyone wants to read Chinua Achebe's TWAC cuz of all the talk about it.

nollywood20: @Poster, only a couple of Nigerian writers are engaged in what you alleged.
More of us are sanguine and producing the best literary works than pop fiction since Cyprian Ekwensi’s People of the City, which was the first Nigerian novel in standard English published in 1954 before Chinua Achebe's all time classic Things Fall Apart was published in 1958.

All humans, including writers have four temperaments responsible for their moods, lifestyles and pursuits in the world.
Sanguine (pleasure-seeking and sociable), choleric (ambitious and leader-like), melancholic (introverted and thoughtful), and phlegmatic (relaxed and quiet). And Nigerian writers have been busy expressing themselves and their environments in these four different temperaments.

Hehe, this is a new one. Interesting. Please can you list some contemporary SANGUINE Nigerian literature . Infact if possible, just list about two contemporary books under each of the four temperaments.

Redmosquito: what genre is it? Does it hold mysticsm, mythology, sci-fi? Not just sadness and cryin and government and village

I haven't read it but from reviews I know it doesn't hold any of the things you asked for. Try reading it sha, it holds sadness in a cool way, all of them do. I think one of the teams was homosexuality in Nigeria. But first, google short stories by Chimamanda, Jude Dibia and Chika Unigwe, and use them as a test case, the short stories are available free online. If you like the short stories, then you would love the books.

So how come everyone is waiting when we all can't wait.

sigmundfreud: We write for different reasons. Nigerian writers in recent times, I think, write with eye focusd on a prize!(commonwealth, NLNG, etc.) I think we have become stereotyped, almost predictable...
But in their defence, these stories sell. The world want to read about injustice in NigerDelta; the Biafran experience; the poverty stricken land; the emerging voices of the slums of the 'third world'...
We cant feel them or like it...its what we live everyday!
Thats why the English classics, Greek mythlogy or American civilization appeals to me.

Good writers reflects their world, the Better ones use them and the Best just create a new world. We get the message all the same.

I agree with this. They write for the prizes cuz that's almost the only way to make money as a Nigerian writer. People don't really buy the books.

But as for the bolded, I'd like to say that I 'feel Nigerian literature and I like it' even though some of it is what I live everyday. So you shouldn't generalize.

I think the problem is that Nigerian pupils are not made to read enough literature. They should be made to read these things right from primary school.

Most young people who condemn Nigerian literature still think of Nigerian literature as only the thrash sold in roadside bookshops, they are not aware of people like Chika Unigwe, Jude Dibia, Eghosa Imasuen, Helon Habila and the rest of them. Atleast now most young Nigerians know and like Chimamanda cuz her 'purple hibiscus' was introduced into secondary school curriculum.

[quote author=Mynd_44]Nigeria has been influenced by religion and culture and so it's writers, film makers, music(until recently) tend to make creative art along that lane.

I don't read Nigerian novels again cos it is filled with poo. Same old crap and no changing. This comes as a result of them wanting to pass a message with their movies and books.

I have heard of folks read a book and say they learnt nothing from that book or see a movie and start asking what the moral is.

We need to understand that not all works of creative art needs to pass a message about good winning over evil. Sometimes, we just want to be entertained and find something to keep us busy. If I want a sermon, I will go to church and not search inside the pages of a book for that.

It is the environment we live and since the market dictates what is produced, most people involved in creative art want to give the people what they want so to speak/write

we can change this though. I have met writers and film makers who are tired of the present situation but they are of the new generations but the people who buy creative art works are of the old generation.

The dinosaurs are going extinct[/quote]yeah I agree with you that not all works of creative arts need to send a message, but I disagree when you say it is only the old generation who patronise these works of art. If you start following writers on facebook you would see an amazing number of young people who want to read, and what's even more amazing is that most of them want to read genres that no one is writing in Nigeria yet.

I think the first author who takes up genres like this, and dedicates time and effort to it, would be able to make a good living out of it. These days everyone is talking about it, but no one is actually doing it.

What is wrong with a work of literature reflecting the society the authors live in? Aint there a reason literature is defined as a mirror of life. Those are the only novels I read.

If what you mean is that, Nigerian authors concentrate on only writing novels where they get to address ills in the society, then I agree with you. You rarely get any romance or crime fiction writers. I see them on NL, but for some reason, they never publish.

High time we got a Nigerian Dan Brown or Sidney Sheldon, maybe his name would be Mynd44 Or a Nigerian Dannielle steel whose name would be Omolola