Comments on: A Case For Fiction by Binyavanga Wainaina

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:36:14 +0000

Wow – I thought I was the only person who wondered about this! There is a column in the saturday nation magazine or true love or one of those magazines that interviews people about what they read or their favourite books and asks questions about them. I have never come across anyone who has named a work of fiction as a favourite book, its always ‘seven steps to…’, ‘rich dad poor…’chicken soup for …’ (and dare I say it and risk being labelled a heathen – ‘the bible’!). I thought I was alone in in my love for fiction and the wonderful journeys it has taken me on since I was a child – so glad to see that I’m not!

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:36:00 +0000

By: mwendwa

mwendwa — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:26:59 +0000

i think trying to give people 10, 5 or 2 steps with which to change their lives, solve their problems, save their marriages is really patronizing. i have no problem with motivational books, but some of them are just out there to make money and do not have any real impact except to narrow your thinking and limit you. i think the best motivational books are inspirational books in which people tell real stories about their lives, about challenges they overcame, about how they went through something. there is somehting about reading a real persons story that can change your life.

fiction too can be inspirational in that, in the stories you read, you get to be transported to another world, into many different characters, their lives, their thoughts, their mistakes,their joys etc. You get to see yourself in some of them, you get to see your thoughts in some of them, you get to experience different situations and in that your mind is opened up to many possibilites, just like real life, and this is why fiction is so important. it expands our horizons, it expands our thinking, it expands our individual creativity.

that is why i love story moja so much. you are interested in bringing fiction to the kenyan people, in kenyan style, written by kenyan authors.

By: mwendwa

mwendwa — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:26:00 +0000

that is why i love story moja so much. you are interested in bringing fiction to the kenyan people, in kenyan style, written by kenyan authors.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:58:58 +0000

@ Juliet, I couldn’t agree with you more. Some of the motivational books in the Kenyan book stores clearly do not go with the Kenyan scenarios (I stand corrected).

There are very few that can work in the Kenyan scenario, most of them appear to be commercial. I once borrowed a motivational book, upon opening the first few pages to read the first chapter, I could tell that I had read the same text in another context. I seemed to know everything. From the quotes to the examples (some not all). nd upon flipping throught the rest of the chapters, my enthusiasm to read the book just waned.

I think, we as Kenyans need to appreciate our own. I have read fictional books by African writers, and a few international writers – I think we had better stick to fiction. As someone mentioned previously, Life has no formula. It is better to take a journey through your mind, than to give people a recipe to life that only works for you within your mental and immediate environment.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:58:00 +0000

@ Juliet, I couldn’t agree with you more. Some of the motivational books in the Kenyan book stores clearly do not go with the Kenyan scenarios (I stand corrected).

By: Juliet Maruru

Juliet Maruru — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:05:41 +0000

@Judas, life has no formula. There are general rules, for instance, if you cross the road without looking, a car might be coming along at high speed and you could get hit by the car, and die.

Thing is you might also look before you cross, then some guy racing away from a crime scene driving on the wrong side of the road, finds you on the pavement and hits you and you die.

We need education, some sort of heads-up, and some of it comes from books. My problem with the motivational books Kenyans are reading, do not address the issues that Kenyans face.

Some of them are written by educated con-artists, and based on faulty numbered steps that people follow religiously, without considering their unique circumstances.

Even when they are written by credible psychologists/sociologists/psychiatrists, not every piece of information is reliable.

By: Juliet Maruru

Juliet Maruru — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:05:00 +0000

@Judas, life has no formula. There are general rules, for instance, if you cross the road without looking, a car might be coming along at high speed and you could get hit by the car, and die.

Thing is you might also look before you cross, then some guy racing away from a crime scene driving on the wrong side of the road, finds you on the pavement and hits you and you die.

We need education, some sort of heads-up, and some of it comes from books. My problem with the motivational books Kenyans are reading, do not address the issues that Kenyans face.

Some of them are written by educated con-artists, and based on faulty numbered steps that people follow religiously, without considering their unique circumstances.

Even when they are written by credible psychologists/sociologists/psychiatrists, not every piece of information is reliable.

By: Kingwa Kamencu

Kingwa Kamencu — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:10:34 +0000

Oh dear, i’m the Judas here,i actually love motivational books. They changed my life. Really. I feel the angst though, people have gone all one dimensional. But there’s something we can learn from these guys, one word: MARKETING. These days i read the gazetti or facebook and on peoples favorite books are books like Kwani. Story moja is also the talk on people’s lips quite a bit these days because y’all have assaulted the market with aggressive marketing. Marketing is the only reason grown up Kenya’s are persuaded to sit and watch a group of young Africans basically doing nothing all day (Big brother 1,2,3.) Marketing is the secret, you have to show the buyer that they want to buy and read your book, that they need it, that it is important for them to have, that their life will be changed by it. And when you deliver quality they will keep coming again and again. But we’re getting there….. take care.

By: Kingwa Kamencu

Kingwa Kamencu — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:10:00 +0000