Can money buy love for reading? Gwee Li Sui on our results-oriented culture

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

This is a podcast by The Straits Times.

Lianne Chia (0:09)

Hello and welcome to another episode of In Your Opinion. I'm Lianne Chia, Assistant Opinion Editor at The Straits Times.

In this episode, I'm speaking to poet, literary critic, graphic artist and occasional contributor to our Straits Times Opinion Columns. SingLit stalwart, Gwee Li Sui, welcome to the show.

Gwee Li Sui (0:27)

Thanks for inviting me, Lianne.

Lianne Chia (0:30)

Shall we dive right into it?

Gwee Li Sui (0:31)

Right.

Lianne Chia (0:32)

So we're a nation that likes to throw money at our problems.

So low TFR, we give people money for babies. And low arts participation, we will give people money to attend plays and buy books. So I mean, I guess you can imagine what I'm talking about, our culture pass credits.

So our recent headlines actually showed that we had maybe only 10% of credits being used. And you've been in the literary scene for decades. So, what's your take on why this is the case? Are we just an uncultured people?

Gwee Li Sui (1:02)

Well, there are a few ways to take this question. I think the very first thing is we are also considering culture against the way we have been behaving, you started off by mentioning all that. A very pragmatic way in which we treat problems, we go after problems for solutions and that itself is quite telling that we may not actually spend enough time thinking about the issues that we are addressing. You say that we throw money, but I think underlying that is a sort of extractive impulse that we have. When we go for something, we are always asking what is it we want and how are we going to get there as fast as we can. And then sometimes this ignore the basic problem or the challenge itself, the nature of the thing. And in this case, you're dealing with culture. And actually culture is a very complex thing. And when you do something like this, it may come out sometimes really going against what cultural people will do, right? They prefer things to develop on their own. They prefer things to be developed in a way out of passion, out of thoughtfulness, and not being rushed or being pushed in that direction. And that itself is a kind of antithetical to a kind of cultural impulse. So yes, so I mean, right from the start, that itself I feel is a contradiction.

The idea of culture paths actually is not a bad one.

And I don't think we should get too angsty about it not being used enough. We can encourage people to, I guess, use it. I myself am very happy to have extra money to spend on books.

But to try to push people to spend that, that itself is an impulse that I'm not very comfortable with. And we shouldn't worry too much about trying to achieve a certain KPI in order for the past itself to be seen as being successful. And that's the issue with that pragmatic impulse, always measuring things as a way to see whether or not it is successful. With culture, it always takes time.

With reading too, the love of reading itself has to be cultivated. And it cannot just be cultivated from the outside. It is something that as individuals, we discover that we want to read something, to read more of that thing. And then that will take us. And when we feel like maybe we need to take a break, and then start living a bit, do that. And I don't think that sort of things should be regulated, because we are all different people. And when we think that we ought to, we do things to the very nature of reading that may put off certain people from wanting to read.

Lianne Chia (4:05)

So I guess the concern therefore is that, it sounds to me that we might just, is it that you're suggesting that we might want to maybe leave people to their own devices and let culture develop naturally, would you say?

Gwee Li Sui (4:15)

Yes. I don't think this is the view of many other literary people, but it is mine. I think I'm entirely okay, actually.

Some writers are not, that for example, literature is taken out of the school syllabus some many years ago.

I know people are very, are still reacting to that and say, oh, I wish there were time. But yeah, I know enough people who also feel like, they don't want to read anymore after being forced in secondary school to read books that they don't actually enjoy. There are some people who actually, after not reading the, I mean, after not enjoying the both books, later on come back and say, hey, those are books that were really wonderful and they have fond memories of it. So again, you know, this sort of things, I mean, we do because we believe that it ought to be part of people's life. But to regulate or to try to control the outcome, I think that can be quite challenging and not necessarily positive.