by Tissa Devendra
I wonder whether any of its once numerous army of readers noticed the news item that the Reader’s Digest had filed for bankruptcy. Little did they imagine, a few decades ago, that their favourite ‘little magazine’ would be done to death by the rise of TV. Today it is hard to envisage the wide readership this magazine enjoyed among Sri Lanka’s "English-speaking" class. As this was a phenomenon that deserved to be recorded, I decided to attempt the task
.I must confess that I have not seen a Readers Digest[RD] for a couple of decades or so. This article will be based on memory but, I am afraid, .this will not be a fond memorial. To some extent it will echo the views I expressed sixty odd years ago in the article I wrote to the University Magazine . As a politically ‘pinko’ student of English under Professor Ludowyk, mine was a hatchet job in classic Practical Crit style titled "The Readers Digest as Propaganda". The title said it all. This was at the height of the Cold War and Readers Digest [RD] had , subtly, become one of America’s most effective WMDs [Weapons of Mass Disinformation]. Excellent marketing ensured that RD found its way in Ceylon to many homes, public and school libraries and reading rooms. Dog-eared copies entertained nervous patients in dentists’ waiting rooms
RD;s popularity, in that era, seems to have been international as it had editions in French Spanish and other languages. .
Format
RD’s format was most reader-friendly. It had two unique features. The first was its size, It was the size of a paperback novel and thus convenient to handle and read in any position – even horizontally in bed. The second was that it was, probably, the only magazine to print its contents on its front cover, not hidden within.
The early wartime issues were printed on unpolished paper and carried hardly any advertisements. However, as WW II ended and the need for utilitarian practices disappeared, the quality of paper improved considerably. The more attractive RD and its burgeoning international readership now attracted advertisements from many multi-national firms – though the editors eschewed ads of liquor, lingerie and tobacco as RD always projected a ‘not-before-the-children’ image. Increased popularity meant more advertisements – and pages of brightly coloured ads began to be sandwiched between stories. Interestingly the products advertised varied according to the country or region which earned a separate edition. Thus the ads in the British edition differed from those in the Hong Kong edition
The print arrangement of stories was a great boon to the casual reader. They were brief, as befits a summarized [digested] version. Wherever a story ended mid-page , an amusing ti-bit was used as a filler. Most stories carried illustrative drawings alongside their titles.The reader’s eye was never allowed to droop in boredom – but to flit from story to joke and so on.
Content
From the ‘ranks of Tuscany’ I cannot but cheer the sheer readability of the material presented . For its summaries [digests] its editors always selected subjects of contemporary interest – travel, recent medical advances, adventures, famous catastrophes, lives of great artists, composers and scientists. To begin with the protagonists were generally WASP but, as readership expanded to Asia we had Third World heroes, such as Sarvodaya’s Ariyaratne, featured as well. Pleasant and non contentious religious leaders, mostly Christian, were occasionally featured. But star treatment was given the rabidly anti-Red Cardinal Midzensty of Yugoslavia.It was impossible to avoid the subject of sex – but related topics were dealt with most discreetly, It never stooped to the ‘Playboy’ level.
A condensed book rounded up each RD - always a near contemporary book that had popular appeal. At regular intervals these condensed books were collected into volumes that decorated many bookshelves if those readers too lazy to read the voluminous originals – and give them the illusion of being well-read.
Almost every story had a subtle American bias. Many were located in the U.S or featured Americans in overseas adventures. If a Russian or Chinese appeared he/she had escaped to ‘the land of the free’ from a ‘gulag’ or prison after undergoing much physical and mental torture. Great Americans were a popular subject. So were horror stories of life behind the Iron Curtain.
Among its most popular features were its regular features . ‘Drama in Everyday Lfe’ had dramatic confrontations in domestic life.‘Laughter is the Best Medicine’ had a few pages of pretty good jokes.RD even ventured into adult education with. ‘Increase Your Word Power’ was an attempt at a sugar-coated dictionary.
Summing Up
Years ago I read an anecdote that wittily encapsulates RD and its ‘message’:
"An escapee from Siberia approached the RD Editor with his hair-raising true story ‘I slept with a She Bear’ . In spite of its sex angle, said the Editor, it yet needed more work to bring into RD. The author’s next attempt was ‘I slept with a She Bear for Stalin’. I like the anti-Commie espionage touch, said the Editor, but there is yet another dimension RD needs. Try again. At the third try he hit paydirt and elevation to an Editor’s position. The story now read ‘I Slept with a She Bear for Stalin – and found GOD’ It was the perfect RD formula of sex, anti-communism and religion."
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