Madonna and Aamir don't pretend to be full time members of the chatterati civil society activist set.
My contempt for various of those isn't restricted to arundhati roy, or to various left leaning types. It cuts across the political spectrum. -- srs (blackberry) -----Original Message----- From: Shoba Narayan <narayan.sh...@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:02:20 To: <silklist@lists.hserus.net> Subject: [silk] For the Arundhati Roy haters out there > > 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..." > Salil, you are clearly very well-read and I don't mean that in a snarky way-- my Dad's an English prof. so I have a great deal of respect for literature even if I shirk it. And I happen to love Barrett Browning. And as you know, she said, "How do I love thee?" so the quotes are wrong. Sorry, couldn't resist. But I had to look that up unlike you who probably said it from memory. The TamBrahm analogy was because I know so many men who hate Roy and they always describe their dislike of her with this dispassionate, rational, logical, arguing-equations-in-IIT tone that bugs the shit out of me. As if it was self-evident that Roy is an inferior writer and a hypocrite activist... when in fact this dislike goes deeper and more visceral than that...and I am curious why. > Her causes aren't original So now we are back at the causes...not the writing. > - she gatecrashes as a latecomer, and moves > on when the next crisis beckons her (does anyone remember her struggle > against Narmada anymore? I think all of us do remember Narmada. But Salil, again, I would argue the counter. If you are a celebrity-- like Roy or Angelina or even apna Aamir, you ought to lend your name and move from cause to cause. Roy never claimed monogamy for her causes. So why aren't you outraged by Madonna changing religions or Aamir forgetting dyslexia once he moved films. Why hold Roy to a different standard? > 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). I've heard this one many times. And funnily enough I agree that he connects the farthest dots. There are two ways to look at this. Roy uses revolutionary-tactics. Extremism is her forte and her choice. You can say that she does this because it is self serving or (if you want to be charitable) because it draws attention to her cause in a more-bang-for-the-buck way. If I were Roy, I would do exactly what she does. If my forte was this kind of polemic writing and I find that it works-- draws attention to the things I want to highlight -- that's what I would do. I would stick to extremist polemics. There are enough dispassionate, logical, objective, on-the-one-hand type writers. There are very few Roys. > 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. What about Ram Guha's shrill outburst against Roy? He has done it before to Vir Sanghvi and that was called "excoriation." When Roy retaliates, it is an outburst? > That, and her hypocrisy: she has a home in a forest land in violation > of the Forest Act, This to me is terrible. And Salil, you should know that I am not so much in love with Roy. Part of this is the pleasure of a good argument!! > 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 think Abhijit Menon-Sen has addressed this. Menon-Sen-- what a name! I can only imagine the inherited genetic capital. > I could go on. So could I. But my feminist colors are showing. >> > > > >
