On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 11:04 AM, Shoba Narayan <narayan.sh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I LOVED God of Small Things. It was magically written and beautifully > crafted. As a piece of fiction, it is quite wonderful. > > Re: what Roy did post her Booker-fame is the object of much of this > discussion, it seems like. A lot of people hate her polemics and I have no > argument with that. But if you are a writer who has only one book in you > and if that book so happens to be a global bestseller and a critics' > darling, you have two options of what to do with your fame: you can do a > Salinger and live like a hermit in New Hampshire. Or you can turn activist. > I would choose the latter. I may not agree with all of Roy's politics but > at least she has decided to "use" her fame for some cause (misguided or > not-- and as it happens, I don't find her causes misguided either). > > So, all you Arundhati Roy haters can go stuff yourselves.... > How's that for a spirited response? :) > I thought GOST turgid in parts and good in others. Frankly, it's an insignificant book and doesn't form even an iota of my objections against Ms. Roy. I don't think the book even defines her any more in the public eye. My problem stems from her being an "activist". She is not one. She pretends to be one. She achieves nothing, sees nothing through and frankly, she gains fame by temporarily attaching herself to causes of all sorts - not the other way round. She would have faded to insignificance except she wants to constantly tell us that Ind/Isreal/US democracy is shit. She can sit in a place like Oman and say this without batting an eyelid about the state of human rights in the middle eastern countries. She may be described as a professional polemicist, but let's not denigrate the term "activist". From ground water use by Pepsi/Coke (where she bashed MNCs and the Indian Govt for permitting MNCs per se) to the Gujarat riots (where madam was kind enough to let us know that we're all barbaric without giving to us animals any idea of how to go forward) to Narmada Bachao Andolan (an exercise in glorymongering). Tge pattern is clear - bash govt, bash monied party, bash policy, bash govt some more, pretense of empathy, can't find a solution, move on. Thanks for the stardust. She never addresses the actual issues. She makes broad allegations. Never does she actually address the issues at hand. And let's forget about offering solutions. I was in court on the day of her disgraceful contempt exercise in the face of the Supreme Court. Again, she thinks she knows everything. She thinks that our SC is a Court that perpetuates the tyranny of the Indian democracy. She says this in about 5,000 words without at any point betraying even a passing knowledge of Indian legal history. There is a reason why the Indian SC is considered the most powerful court in the world. It is because no other court in the world has evolved the kind of doctrines to keep Parliament under check. It is the foremost Court when it comes to public activism, and even the shirllest critics of the Court's activism, cannot deny that it has been forced to fill a void left by a corrupt and asinine Executive, and that much public benefit has accrued from such activism. But this is symptomatic of Ms. Roy. GOST's recognition gave her a pulpit - she uses it neither to educate herself nor us. She uses it to vent, and senselessly at that. I would love to see her write a decent book. Really, would. Regards, Nikhil
