You can’t reach it with your mind: Moped at sea , the book program of theVPRO, will not return to the screen in the new year. Was signed: NPO.
Eveline Aendekerk is director of the Collective Propaganda of the DutchBook Foundation (CPNB).
In Moped at sea Within the framework of a varied magazine, two writers orpoets usually spoke, in conversation with the dedicated presenters Ruth Joosand Wilfried de Jong. Gradually they found their way better and better. Thatgrowth process was reflected on the viewers side. There were more hookers thandropouts and so their number crept up towards 200,000. That is four times theJohan Cruijff Arena is full. The viewers of Moped at sea were fascinated,were surprised and moved by writers they didn’t know yet, and resolved to reada book by that author and watch the program more often. How many people have_Moped at sea_ viewed more than once? One in fifty Dutch people? I think evenmore.
But that is apparently not enough. Is it because longer conversations areboring? Or because Moped at sea there is for people who already read, right?Boring is a matter of taste. There are people who find a football game boring- I am one of them – and there are many more than those who like it Moped atsea watched. And what’s wrong with book readers? Reading is mental fitness.Bookstore and library are just as useful as gym and pedometer. Trained readersalso need to be familiarized with the overwhelming offer. They too depend onintermediaries who put them on a new track. Those mediators cannot do withoutplatforms: social media (BoekTok!), playlists, podcasts, written media. Andalso good old linear radio and television, started in the last century asuplifters of the people.
right to exist
It is the public service broadcaster that carries the torch of popularupliftment into the 21st century. You will find that in it _mission statement_of the NPO. There is no shortage of lofty terms. The NPO promises “a richerlife for everyone”, is concerned with “vulnerable genres for the connoisseurto much-needed relaxation for a wide audience”. This makes the NPO “animportant lifeline for the creative sector in the Netherlands”.
Read also: NPO scraps VPRO Boeken and turns out to be a sponsor of thedecline
A vein is now being pinched for our writers. At the same time, the Ministry ofEducation, Culture and Science is fully committed to reading and improvingreading skills. This is the same ministry from which the NPO receives itsfunds. Shouldn’t there be a lot more book programs on radio and TV? This isapparently possible with our neighbors in France and Germany.
It is true that the NPO adds that books and writers will be central to theBook Week for twelve weeks Eus ‘ Book Club. That’s good news, it will make alarge audience excited for writers and bestsellers. But that alone is notenough. Both Eus ‘ Book Club_with a more entertainment approach from theBurgerweeshuis in Deventer, as _Moped at sea has its right to exist. Pulledin the past Here is … Adriaan van Dis 770,000 viewers. Regardless of theformula, books on TV should be audiences.
Because of our culture
Three years ago I spoke to the NPO director about the lack of book programs inpublic broadcasting. The reason was the discontinuation of VPRO Books at thetime. That led to the promise to explore in a wider group what is needed andwhat the NPO could do. Should this exploration ever take place again, the booktrade will be happy to think along with the NPO.
The reader is central to the campaigns of the CPNB, the novice reader as wellas the well-trained reader. All those readers cannot do without writers,translators and illustrators. Lesser-known writers, translators andillustrators also deserve opportunities and cherishment, not so much for theirown sake, but for the sake of our culture, which otherwise becomes rigid andatrophied. Nurturing and cultivating, they are contained in the word’culture’.
Writers can put you in someone else’s head, someone who is completely alien toyou, or wholly unsympathetic. If ever a novel about the dilemmas of a publicbroadcaster appears, I rush to the store. Maybe one day I’ll understand.