Here we go again!
Themed ‘Tall Tales’, the latest issue of Papercuts pushed writers to the limits of their imaginations. It’s going to delight you with its utter strangeness.
Here we go again!
Themed ‘Tall Tales’, the latest issue of Papercuts pushed writers to the limits of their imaginations. It’s going to delight you with its utter strangeness.
Although Shobhaa De’s been affectionately announced as the “Superstar Writer” of the KLF in its programme, literary sorts know that the real celebrity in this year’s event is Hanif Kureishi. And when Kureishi made an appearance in conversation with Muneeza Shamsie at the main garden venue of the Carlton yesterday morning, we were there to cover it.
The session had its highs and lows. Kureishi’s reading from The Buddha of Suburbia was definitely the most engaging part, with the author reciting already witty prose with a wonderfully straight-faced humour, visibly enjoying the audience’s appreciation. His Q&A with Muneeza Shamsie was disappointing, mainly because of the unimaginative way in which Shamsie approached the conversation. When an author has as much to share as Kureishi does, it could be so much more rewarding to really talk to them, letting the conversation take its own path to areas that are of interest to the author and the audience. Instead we heard a pre-decided set of questions that got funny but fairly textbook answers from their respondent. There’s no debating Shamsie’s experience and stature in this field, but in this particular case she missed some opportunities for a more stimulating conversation.
Things got more interesting when questions were opened up to the floor, and that was when we got a more intimate glimpse into the author’s personality as well. Kureishi got a bit more than he’d bargained for when an old lady stood up to ask the first question.
Lady: Hanif, I remember when you visited Pakistan years ago, we met you through your aunt who was a friend of ours. We asked you how you liked Pakistan and you were full of praise for Pakistan and for its people. But when you went back to the UK and you were asked how you found Pakistan, you said you hated it and that the people there were strange. Could you explain why you did that?
She then asked him: I got an impression from reading your books that you have a very low opinion of women. Would you comment on that?
Such questions could make any author quake in his boots but Kureishi, true to his past, did what a typical urban youth in Britain with a survivor’s instinct might do: he went on the offensive. He danced around the first question by stating that as a writer he felt compelled to speak the truth and that it would be ridiculous to expect him to say something he didn’t mean just so that others would think well of Pakistan. This didn’t address her point, of course, but as he said to another audience member later, “I’m not sure if that answered your question but that’s the answer I fancy giving!” (This elicited a good laugh from the audience). He seemed to lose his cool on the old lady’s second criticism, however, and replied only with an, “I don’t know what to say other than that’s a stupid question.” One couldn’t help but feel at that point that the answer wasn’t much better than the question.
At many points during the session, Kureishi’s thoughts were solicited on the issue of identity and it’s not difficult to see why that would be, given his personal history and the themes that he’s written about. In response to a question by Muneeza Shamsie about the link between autobiography and fiction, he half-jokingly referred to the process of ‘reverse colonialism’ in Britain as the South Asian community has established itself there. He too used to grapple with issues of where he belonged until he developed a firmer appreciation of the benefits of nationalism. “People would ask me where I was from,” he said. “I’d say, ‘I live in that house up there,’ but they would say, ‘No, where do you come from?” Then he visited Pakistan and an uncle of his told him, “Your father is Pakistani but where you’re going back to, you’ll always be ‘Paki’.”
That was the turning point for him. England had to change to suit him, he realised, not the other way round. “We’re British, not half English, not mongrel,” Kureishi eloquently put it. He praised how hard England had worked on issues of race. “I don’t think of identity anymore,” he said at one point. “Becoming a writer saved me. Identity is your relationship with yourself, your family and the place you live. The idea of developing an identity is simply to gather more of the world into you than you did before.”
Fortunately, Kureishi was honest about the benefits his race brought for him. His first assignment with Channel 4 came his way because “they were looking for an Asian or black writer and I was the only Asian or black writer they knew of!” And so was born My Beautiful Laundrette and with it, one of modern British literature’s biggest stars.
“I’m fascinated by the desire to speak, to write,” Kureishi said, who was full of praise for the new cadre of Pakistani writers in English making waves around the world. “You’re lucky if you’re an artist and you’re driven to do what you do. It’s a passion, a love. There’s no other way to do it, because the process is chaotic. You just sit in a corner writing until you’ve got blood coming out of your ears! That’s what it is to write.”
We agree.
Tomorrow’s a big day for Karachi’s book lovers! The Karachi Literature Festival kicks off at the Carlton Hotel at 9.30 am on Saturday, 11th February, for the third year in a row.
After the success of last year’s event, there’s an even bigger line-up of drool-inducing writers this time, indicating that the KLF is finally coming into its own. William Dalrymple, acclaimed writer but known best in recent times for founding the enormously successful Jaipur Literature Festival, is flying in for the event – a sure thumbs-up to the KLF organisers’ efforts. Another star to look out for is Hanif Kureishi, British-born but with Pakistani family roots, who was named one of Britain’s top writers since 1945 by The Times in 2008 (a good year for South Asian writing in English in general). Kureishi does not make appearances often in Pakistan, so make sure you attend his session. There are a few Indian writers attending the festival this year, but the one we’re most excited about is the utterly charming Vikram Seth who’s re-entered the writing scene with a bang recently.
A welcome addition to this year’s festival is also Anatol Lieven, a known expert on international conflict and author of the recently released ‘Pakistan: A Hard Country’. His presence ought to help hoist the standard of discussion at current affairs sessions to a higher level. One writer who will be conspicuous in his absence will be late journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, author of ‘Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11’, the controversial book that many believe he was murdered for. We’re hoping that Shahzad’s a contender for the KLF’s book prize this year, which is awarded for the best non-fiction title of the last twelve months. A book worth dying for is worthy of a prize, or at least a special mention.
One disappointment in this year’s schedule is that, apart from one session featuring Ayesha Jalal, there seems to be no marking as such of 2012 being Manto’s centennial year. With a special theatre performance for Dickens’s 200th birthday, we feel Manto Sahib deserved a bit more attention.
No peeves apart from that; our usual favourites will be present at the KLF, including M. Hanif (who caused near stampedes of admiring female fans at the Jaipur
Literature Festival), Kamila Shamsie, Mohsin Hamid and Bilal Tanweer, among others. We’re particularly looking forward to seeing the screening of Meherjaan, the film that has caused an uproar in Bangladesh for showing a love affair between a Pakistani soldier (played by Omar Rahim) and a Bengali woman during the 1971 war.
Cancel your plans, folks, because that sounds like one helluva weekend.
We’ve been in a bit of a funk on the blogging end but guess what? We won the Best Literature Blog category at the Pakistan Blog Awards 2011 and we are NOT going to let this blog slide after that amazing achievement! So here we are, kicking off the new year in the DWL way, i.e. full of plans, a little crazy and ALWAYS late.
Two of our team members have set personal literary challenges for this year. Omer Wahaj, Papercuts Articles Editor, was inspired by this book to write a novel composed entirely of tweets. The paradigm changing feature about tweeting a book, of course, is that it’s written in blocks of no more than 140 characters, and each tweet must be able to stand on its own. There is an enormous discipline involved in this style of writing, so we’re excited about seeing where this goes! The first tweet for The Just In Case Files of Shandar Misttry, Inventive Generalist by Omer Wahaj went up on Twitter today, the 1st of February 2012. Follow the author on Twitter (@omerwahaj) if you want to be a part of this awesome project.
The second literary challenge has been taken up by Afia Aslam, Papercuts Editor, and is a little less challenging and a little more cheesy than the one you’ve read about above. (This is where I start talking about myself in the third person.) Fresh from completing Swapna Krishna’s South Asian Challenge in 2011, which involved finishing more than 10 books by desi authors before year end, Afia decided to read at least one book every month in 2012 that would start with the same letter as the month in which it was being read. Thus the progression of books will be J, F, M, A, M, J, J, A, S, O, N, D. The challenge was put up on DWL’s Facebook page and several suggestions came in for titles, which are listed below. You’re welcome to give your own suggestions as well!
1. Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam
2. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
3. Justice and Remembrance by Reza Shah Kazemi
4. Silas Marner by George Eliot
5. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
7. Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott
8. Julius Caesar (play) by William Shakespeare
9. Silencing the Past, Michel-Rolph Trouillot
10. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
11. Snow by Orhan Pamuk
12. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
13. Fools Die by Mario Puzo
14. The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
15. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Here’s to 2012, then! If you’re inspired to start your own reading challenge, share it here!