Culture Council: 'The roots of the literary sector are being gnawed at'

In the week when defenders of the Dutch language are flying into each other's hair over whether or not a schoolgirl should read Multatuli in the original language, the Council for Culture comes out with its advice for the literary sector. Already in the first chapter it reads: 'those who start reading at an early age become more language literate, enjoy reading more and therefore do it more often. Moreover, those who read develop empathy: it forces the reader to put themselves in another world of thought, another emotional life.'

And so that is all under pressure. Less and less is being taught in our own language. The number of books we read continues to decline: we still read only 37 minutes a day. Not counting the packet of Venz on the breakfast table. Nor the WhatsApps from our friends and the status updates on Facebook and Twitter. (We can talk about whether this does violence to the reading time calculation later. Author the present one reads many hours in the New Yorker and Wired, for instance, thanks to Facebook. He didn't before)

Gorge

Finally: the arts are not doing well and something must be done about it. How many resources does the Culture Council have at its disposal for this? Not very many, it turns out. Yet this high advisory body of the government is doing its best to make something of it in the advice issued today. Main task: reducing the gap between low and high literacy.

Most notable policy choice therein: a recommendation to also make subsidy available for slampoetry and spoken word. Those two categories of poetry have been booming in recent years and are also well supported by a young, and especially diverse, group of people.

This leap towards diversity fits in with the policy of the Council, which also argues in its other sectoral opinions for lifting the separation between high and low art. Art forms that can support themselves well on the commercial circuit should also be included in the considerations. Logical, but not uncontroversial given the reactions to the earlier music advisory.

Carry Slee

Incidentally, another fun trend in book land is the fact that the number of children's book authors has decreased by 10 per cent, while the number of general fiction authors has increased by 11 per cent. How many of those include authors who have moved on to their original target audience after a career in children's books is something for the better calculators among us. I know at least a few, such as the Carry Slee also mentioned by the Council.

Anyway: the number of Dutch-language works is declining, and that is worrying.

Spotify

Remains that a Dutch writer does not have to make a living directly from her books. Money is made from side activities: performances, columns, festivals, school visits. And loans. The Council devotes a whole chapter to this problem area, and rightly so. Not only do libraries squeak out from under remitting lending rights to writers by setting up in schools, but publishers also squeeze authors unnecessarily. Indeed, it appears that, like the record companies are doing through spotify, they are passing on fewer and fewer digital lending fees to writers. The proceeds from Kobo Plus are not even remitted at all, it argues.

This is how publishers keep profits up, while more and more writers die. I know from a reliable source that this has been a matter of dispute for years. A solution does not seem to be in sight, and the Council unfortunately has no choice but to insist on a solution. That it thereby insists - quite rightly - on a bigger role for collecting society Lira will give many publishers a heartache.

It will remain unsettled in Dutch literature for a long time. no Culture Council can change that.

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Putting your money where your mouth is.