The Jaipur Literature Festival, on its second day, recalled some historical revolutions and marked dialogues around the changing political discourse
Writing about writing
Fiction is said to have an independent existence in an author’s imagination as the most relatable books are firmly grounded in the creator’s reality. An expert panel at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival explored whether a thinly disguised autobiography is a requirement for authenticity in a novel.
In the session ‘Writing about Writing,’ characterised by Pulitzer Prize-winning author of six works of fiction Andrew Sean Greer’s humour and author Anita Nair’s deep insights into writing, the point was discussed at length along with other salient aspects of the craft of fiction.
Greer described his endeavour as an attempt to capture “the grand moments but also the small moments of a writer trying to make a living,” and has a light-hearted take on life in general. In contrast, Nair said she explores the darkness that drives her protagonist-writer to suicide.
While Greer said that writing about a writer’s life is “incredibly self-indulgent” and something he would do only once, Nair stated that she had to descend into “that excruciating set of circumstances” that would drive her to kill herself and immerse into the mindset of the protagonist.
Greer also recounted that many of the traits of his protagonist have taken on aspects of his personality.
The panelists observed that readers and the media both tend to relate the experiences of the characters to the life of the author and often to extremes.
The finest literary work that most captures reader’s imagination is when the writing is rooted in personal experience, yet doesn’t directly convey it.
Greer described how he gathers material for his writing on his travels, but relies on actual things he has written down at that moment rather than merely on his memory. “I didn’t want to write some fantasy of other countries that American writers tend to do,” he said of scenes written in various countries. In the same vein, Nair said, “I am drawing on reality.”
She said she writes about Kerala because she understands the “psyche of the people” and can relate to them. That is the level of engagement with her subject and characters she requires. But subsequently, she described the final act of creation as a weaving together of all the disparate elements as in a “patchwork quilt.” She said she decides at that moment what works and what does not.
This transformation of experience into fiction is a challenge and ultimately a pleasure, Nair noted.
Political discourse is spoiling the youth: Gulzar
Filmmaker and lyricist Gulzar at the festival expressed hopelessness at the new lows that the political discourse in the country is hitting with every passing day.
Without naming any politician or party, Gulzar said that the “kind of language” some politicians use these days does not only have an adverse effect on politics and mutual friendship, but in the larger picture, it “may spoil the younger generation.”
He urged politicians to be mindful of the fact that their words reach the masses and the youth, in particular, take a keen interest in politics these days, “so they should not use such language.”
Whitehead dives deep into The Underground Railroad
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad is garnering critical acclaim from readers around the globe while also bagging some of the most prestigious literary awards. The novel simultaneously literalises the railroad and employs it as a metaphor — almost as a living character.
“As a kid, you think it’s a literal train, until at some point, hopefully a teacher or an adult corrects you and tells you how it actually worked,” said Whitehead, referring to the fact that in reality, it was “a network of people” that helped slaves in America to escape from the Southern states to the North.
The novel also looks at the dilemmas peculiar to the experience of a female slave. “When a slave girl became a slave woman, she was subject to her Master’s desires; she was expected to pump out babies as more slaves for her Master,” pointed Whitehead.
The story required a certain maturity to handle it, and Whitehead was glad that he had waited for as long as he had to write it.
Instead, Whitehead dealt with topics such as 19th century eugenics and the forced sterilisation of black women, and drew parallels between this particular form of hegemonic injustice and others, such as the Holocaust. “I wanted to blend reality with fictive imagination, and deploy research in an artistic way,” he said.
The author said he finds himself viewing his book differently after the Trump moment in American politics.
“Police brutality was not a surprise to me,” he asserted, adding that the idea connecting his novel to present day-America is the basic element that “being black in the wrong place” is still dangerous and even lethal.
egyptian revoluton 2011 revisited
The 2011 Egyptian revolution was sparked by a Day of Revolt on January 25, 2011 when tens of thousands of people stormed public spaces across the country to protest the oppressive regime of President Hosni Mubarak and eight years down the line, an expert panel came together at the festival to present dispatches from those tumultuous days.
Max Rodenbeck, South Asia bureau chief of The Economist, moderated the panel that looked back at the events of Tahrir Square, discussing whether it’s ever possible for a revolution to succeed, and looked ahead to what the events of the Arab Spring heralded for the global future.
Veteran Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif noted that the movement was “a true grassroots endeavour.”
She said, “For a year, people were prepared to be out there in the street, to be in harm’s way”, highlighting how people from all over Egypt were “willing to risk grave consequences” in an attempt “to usher in a new dawn of freedom.”
“What went wrong?” asked Rodenbeck. “So much of it was built on emotional and idealistic energy,” author and award-winning filmmaker Omar Robert Hamilton said.
“Unless you’re able to actually destroy the enemy, they work on a timescale that’s unavailable to a volunteer-based public movement. They can move against you with calculated, mechanical precision,” Hamilton added.
Egyptian author Yasmine El Rashidi’s sense of regret for the opportunities lost seemed palpable and deeply personal. “I emotionally feel that we failed due to our inability to organise,” she said.
Soueif countered her claim that the people of Egypt failed their own revolution. “People point a finger at the streets and the young, but they did what they had to do. A political leadership had to step forward and seize the moment,” said Soueif.
The session concluded with what the world learned from the Arab Spring in general, and the January 25 Egyptian Revolution in particular.