On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 4:15 PM, Shoba Narayan <narayan.sh...@gmail.com> wrote: >
> > I could go point by point and refute everything the Indian Express article > said. We all know of older Indian aunties with necks that have threads of > talcum powder. I think GOST was more an autobiography than plagiarism. > Ammu seems based on Mary Roy, and Arundhati had a Bengali father, just like > the book, who left them. I haven't read Faulkner, all of Marquez or Lee. > Unlike the cool prose of Jhumpa Lahiri or Alice Munro, Roy's prose is spare > but has so much passion. Why does she evoke so much ire? The editor of > Mint, Sukumar, said in some article and context which I have forgotten that > many TamBrahm men use derision as a cloak to deal with life-- and this could > be true of the critics of Roy. Okay, so I am biased....but anyway....what's > with the enough already and move along like Rhett? I thought Silk was to > debate a topic ad nauseum. > Erm. I'm a Gujju, not a TamBram..... more seriously, there are several problems with her writing. "Why don't I love thee? Let me count the ways..." Her causes aren't original - she gatecrashes as a latecomer, and moves on when the next crisis beckons her (does anyone remember her struggle against Narmada anymore? Medha Patkar doesn't fly from one cause to another like a butterfly). Two, she connects the farthest dots to create a scary Rorschach image, when Occam's Razor would've provided a simpler explanation (OK, too many metaphors, but you get the drift). So she's terrific for conspiracy theorists, but not of much value besides. And three, there's nihilism in her writing, valorizing of certain folks over others, and a congenital failure to see nuances - witness her churlish, childish responses to BG Verghese on dams, her shrill outburst against Ram Guha (who called her Arun Shourie of the Left), and her ignoring the more serious criticism from Gail Omvedt. That, and her hypocrisy: she has a home in a forest land in violation of the Forest Act, and she did a huge song and dance about the judiciary vis-a-vis Narmada, though she was warned she'd be jailed under contempt of court laws (I don't like those laws, but that's a different matter). She went to jail for one night, probably didn't like the dal, and next day paid the fine and got out. She ain't no Gandhi (the real one, not the pretenders). I could go on. >
