Distortions in the production of Greek books
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_civ_4105022_31/01/2008_92815
By Paschos Mandravelis
Umberto Eco once wrote that the only question that visitors to his
library ever asked was "Have you read all these books?" In Greece the
question should be tweaked to "Who reads all these books?"
Figures from the National Book Center of Greece (EKEBI) reveal that in
2006 alone 9,209 titles were published in the country, an increase of
9.1 percent over 2005 and of 23.6 percent in the past five years.
Is that good news for Greek culture? More and more Greeks are reading,
so does that signal an intellectual renaissance here in Greece? If
only it did, but, apart from the poor performance of Greek pupils in
the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment, there are
some odd statistics in EKEBI's survey. One might expect literature to
be at the top of the list of titles. Yet 24.8 percent of the titles
published in 2006 were on the theoretical sciences, compared with 20.7
percent for literary titles.
Have Greeks suddenly got into sociology, Heidegger and globalization,
or are publishers bringing out books without business criteria?
In fact, there is a lack of Greek titles in the social sciences.
Classic texts are absent and presumably an effort is now being made to
fill the gap. On the other hand, publishers are businesspeople.
Despite the zeal for their trade many of them still possess, the
entire market cannot suddenly be displaying a preference for books
that sell rather than potential best-sellers.
The answer is probably to be found in the textbooks that are given to
students. Here the state causes the distortion in the market, a
distortion that may have positive outcomes for some. It is good that
Wittgenstein's notes are published in Greek, even if the translator is
the only person who reads it. It should exist, if only as a reference
book.
But with all this frenetic output of books, some things go awry. More
and more doctoral theses from Greek universities are being published,
funded by the State Scholarship Fund. These naturally belong to the
public sphere and to the website of the National Documentation Center
(EKT), when they are useful. A dissertation on local place names, for
instance, is not going to be read; it's a reference work, which is
useful in electronic form but not as a bulky printed volume that will
only sell to school or university libraries.
The absurd cycle of statism is apparent in the publishing industry.
The state subsidizes the production of knowledge in the form of
scholarships. The state buys the products in the form of books, and
some intermediaries (publishers) profit while a vast number of
interested parties (researchers, journalists and scholars) are
essentially excluded.
To avoid any misunderstanding, it is good for books to be published,
even with state subsidies. But it would be better for everyone
concerned if they came out on the Internet, at least in the case of
dissertations.
--
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.com