Getting It Done

Catching sight of the headline in yesterday's paper, Growing The Literary Scene, I falsely assumed it was going to be about some pointless official initiative concerning how to get the citizens of this Far Place reading. The article turned out to be far more interesting than that. It concerned a certain Fong Hoe Fang whose claim to fame is that he runs Ethos Books, a company who've published a fair amount of 'literary' material in recent years, lots of poetry especially. Basically he's done this making hardly a penny - the enterprise being financed by a rather more lucrative printing company he runs.

Now this really is how literary scenes (whatever they may be) grow (whatever that means.) Or rather, this is how people with something to say that's not necessarily of the mainstream find a means of saying it. And, as a result, have a chance of developing an audience, who themselves have an opportunity to grow in depth and understanding, and find their own voices. This is how things happen, when people do things.

As someone who has never done enough, my admiration for Mr Fong runs very deep. And I felt a bit petty, a bit snide regarding the mild sneering I'd indulged in when I first glanced at the headline. I felt a bit like doing something, in fact.