[doogiehoussi]

I do not know much about AR. However I caught part of an interview with her on PBS's show called NOW. I was very intrigued and impressed that views such as these are being aired on public television. As an African-American woman with Native American Indian and African American slave roots who is a practicing Muslim in America I can definitely relate to many of her views. I really appreciate that there are Hindu's from India in this world who care to share such opinions with the rest of the world. I believe that her views are ones that the world needs to be exposed to so that we may be challenged intellectually and spiritually. Regardless of any human imperfections that any choose to voice about her I am happy that she is being heard. Thank you AR for speaking up for those who are not heard. Thank you for trying to bring the world closer together.

[juliannamed]

I have nothing to comment on Shobha Dhe or Ms.Roy(who I know only as a brilliant journalist; I also know of Ms.Dhe only as a gossiping feminist columnist), but I would dare say that Ms.Dhe is/was one of the most beautiful women in India (Ms.Roy can't contend with her at least in physical aspects, in spite of herself being a good looking woman !)

Sorry guys, sometimes IT gets too much on your nerves and it relaxes to indulge in such asides !

[Paybeskf]

Bard,

AR and Rushdie write about India and describe India very successfully, but their points of view, their influences and their sensibilities, seem to me essentially Western. To me, they seem to think and write like Westerners who never really experience India below the level of the picturesque. Even starvation is beautiful seen through train windows or from behind sun-glasses.

I am afraid I read them too long ago to be able to give references. When I say an Indian novel, I mean the kind of novel that a foreigner can read and instantly get a glimpse of what the typical Indian lives, thinks and feels like. It is possible that when I say RKN is more Indian, I actually mean that he is more South Indian than some of the other people I am comparing him to(because I am South Indian).

VS Naipaul and RK Narayan describe India (or Indianness) more authentically, through Indian eyes. Or the guy who wrote Train to Pakistan. There is a earthiness in RKN's books, for example, that instantly recalls the hot and dusty roads of South India.

This is just my memory of the impression I came away with, after reading Midnight/Satanic and God..Little. Not that I am belittling any of those books: they were wonderfully creative and immensely enjoyable. I grew up reading RKN and that may be why I am biased.

So, what do you think? Do you personally find (I assume that you're Indian?) that Rushdie's characters and situations "feel" Indian to you?

By the way, was that "we" regal or representative?

[MarythePuppy6]

I too could not feel that Arundhati Roy wrote her novel keeping the Western readers in mind. All I could feel was that she had kept the Syrian X'ian community of Kottayam-- of which incidentaly I'm also a member as she is (or was?)--while writing the book. And who can understand the background and the plot of the work better than these people?

In fact, my fear was that whether the Western or even non-Keralite readers would be able to appreciate the work well enough without some understanding of the Syrian X'ian community of Kerala.

[rootoronpunty]

i had to read this perverted book for english at UT Austin for my World Lit class. The narrative began as many others mid life but unfolding into orangedrink lemon drink man- gross and Rahel and Estha making love...Totally fit in with our Professor's choice of "porn" novels and how he intentionally picked out the sex in each on tests. ok that is my comment. Roy you--you- oldnew running around ex crazed pedophilliac one

[Keyclenef]

Shard,
Thanks. Saw your post after composing the above. Coincidentally I was about to mention Shobha De ex Ed. Stardust, for her novels which are Indo Anglian because they are written by an Indian and happen to be in English. Period! Any day, I'll go for a Ray than a De!
BetweenRKN and AR there is of course the age difference which we have to reckon with.
Shakespeare

[avavavava]

Hi Vish,
Thanks for the info. Though I doubt if Roy would want to be known more as a journalist rather than an as an environmental activist.
Regarding Roy's beauty, perhaps you did inject the right amount of diversion into a discussion that was becoming too academic and highbrow!
Hi Naveen,
You wrote >>A minor quibble: I think there are others more in need of representation than the urban English-educated though I agree with your point that they provide a unique and useful perspective.

[RicardoHun]

Shard,
Thanks. Saw your post after composing the above. Coincidentally I was about to mention Shobha De ex Ed. Stardust for her novels which are Indo Anglian because they are written by an Indian and happen to be in English. Period! Any day, I'll go for a Ray than a De!
BetweenRKN and AR there is of course the age difference which we have to reckon with.
Shakespeare

[Tauntenue]

Hi Shakes,

Man, you do have a sense of feminine beauty ! A criticism of female artists should necessarily take into consideration their beauty too when they are beautiful, aint it? (just kidding...)

Ms.Roy is also a very controversial journalist (I don't like to use the word controversial, but then that is how she is defined by her leftist ideas !). She has written very sensible and insightful articles on Enron and the Narmada issue and a few of her articles were even banned or burned, if I am right. At some part of time there was even a minor discussion on one of her articles in this forum itself and if you dig it you can find it.

[effenseshoora]

Siby,

>>>>>Grown up brother and sister sharing
their bodies?
Shard meant "growing up children". Anyway,
I'm surprised that childhood sibling experimentation of the "I'll show you mine
if you'll show me yours" variety surprises
you. It is a natural part of growing up
(given the opportunity) in any culture, Indian
or other. The problem here for most of us is
that it makes us uncomfortable to be made to
hark back to it. Legitimate literature, or
for that matter any frank exposition,
has this "uncomfortable" quality about it.
One will have to ask Roy but it bespeaks
great intellectual courage to to be so
forthright in a novel that will almost
certainly be judged as autobiographical.
My point is that "Portnoy's Complaint",
"Tobacco Road", "Train to Pakistan" and
others works do not cease to be great
literature just because they hold up uncomfortable facts to light.
Comfortable literature is the domain of
Readers' Digest and other journals of that ilk.
Dare I say that "comfort level" is a good
indicator of the artistic relevance of a work to its day and age?

[lLianneForbess]

Quite some time ago when I was working for a publishing house I happened to meet one of the well known writers (male) of India. He went to great lengths about how AR didnot receive the booker. Some of my colleagues and I questioned him about his opinion. His answers gave us a cl;earer picture about his reasons for disliking AR and her GOST--'How dare she get the prize when there were other Male writers like himself who have been ignored so far'.
The criticism that her novels are prnographic amazes me and I went back to the novel to see if there was anything I missed. No...there was nothing that struck me as being pornographic. The narrator's strong feelings for her twin brother which seems to cross borders at times...The mother's dalliance with the lower caste handyman...I guess all these are real issues of sexuality. But then the Indian psyche has always treated sex as a solely male prerogative. As for incest...I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours is a process of growing up in most hoseholds all over the world...even India is that incest?
If the book deserved the booker? Well did Salman Rushdi deserve it...I know quite a few well known scholars who regard him as a literary shyster. A prize is always relative. I personally regard the book as a fine work and she has a powerful gift for the language.

[gZAhTyWY]

The role of a writer in the contemporary world is entirely different.He/She must be an activist.The part played by Arundhati on the contemporary issues are thougt provoking.I think it is better to discuss on that aspect.
jeyasankar

[klnbgqr]

Vishvesh,
Shobha De was Shobha Khilachand back in those days when she appeared in the pages of women's magazines as a pretty face rather than a gritty writer. She was okay, I guess.
But to me Roy has an understated, unconsciously laidback approach to the camera's gaze. This, along with her translucent skin stretched so vulnerably over slender bones makes her a very appealing beauty. Not to talk of her very peculiarly husky nasal voice!
Tell me more about Roy as a journalist. I never knew she had been one.
Shakespeare

[lungumnentibe]

beautiful novel...i read it three times. Should be made into amovie..and hope that she will come up something else like this one

[PetrZimin]

Hi folks,

i'm new 2 this forumhub, hence sorry for continuing an OLD topic by today's standards. Personally i think Ms. Roy as an one-book celeb. After God o' small Things, nuthing, rite?? and we have to also see the gimmicks she indulged into for being in the limelite.

First she wrote a third rate article in '98 (Outlook) when India tested an atom-bomb in Pokhran for the second time. It was supposed 2 b for the intellectual elite of India toread such a great article.

then she took part along with Medha Patkar in the Narmada Bachao Andholan. It was say, a week long stint and that's how far she could manage. She just had some figures and quoted it around whenever a media person happened tobe near. The irony is she survived the whole stay there on mineral water bottles, the way the Indian(NRI !!??) Rich defend their tribals, pity !!

As for as her book is concerned, I thought it was just written keeping the Western audience in mind. its a bane on Indian writers writing in English, the typical other example being Salman Rushdie. I dunno what these people get out of degrading the image and customs and practices of India. As such, if you ask any Westerner abo' India, there's a 90% chance that the answer will be "its a land o' snake charmers and roads full of cows". That's the image created by the Western media, why do our writers then add fuel 2 this ?

and the amount of sex the book had, its disgusting. all these written as seen by seven year old twins !!!

so, any reply folks??

bye
arvind.

[boXGWf04]

Shard: I agree with your comment about the morality issue.

It's a novel, for heavens sake, and an enjoyable one. I didn't think it was a very "Indian" novel or an insightful one, but it was definitely good. Better than a lot of other Indian English novels.

Aside: I wish RK Narayan had received some recognition. I come across lots of people who have read AR and never heard of RKN. RKN was an "Indian" writer in a way that Rushdie and AR have never been.

[chelviweeme]

I do not know much about AR. However I caught part of an interview with her on PBS's show called NOW. I was very intrigued and impressed that views such as these are being aired on public television. As an African-American woman with Native American Indian and African American slave roots who is a practicing Muslim in America I can definitely relate to many of her views. I really appreciate that there are Hindu's from India in this world who care to share such opinions with the rest of the world. I believe that her views are ones that the world needs to be exposed to so that we may be challenged intellectually and spiritually. Regardless of any human imperfections that any choose to voice about her I am happy that she is being heard. Thank you AR for speaking up for those who are not heard. Thank you for trying to bring the world closer together.

[steevytraunse]

Hi Sandhya(or is it sandihya?!)

Yeah I read somebody expressing interest on AR s journalistic works.She is a regular contributor to Guardian and her articles are published in their website (www.guardian.co.uk).Now that the interest on GOST seems to have waned ; we can probably dissect her articles.
Could you plz mention who is the author you referred to - verma - and what context you had in mind?
Thanks.

[oxixernibioge]

There's another writer from Kerala who writes about the royal Varma family. He himself belongs to the same lineage. The name of the book is LAMENT OF THE MOHINI. I don't think it was written to create a sensation but an artist finds it compelling to present his feelings.

[Loovikeillilen]

Naveen, Sorry about the "we"! It was not meant to be regal, judicial or editorial. This is a common forum attended by other people (at least seven? on this thread anyway) and also "we" ( as opposed to "I")seems to alleviate any hint of personal affront. Hence "we"!! Yes, I'm Indian - deep south. Now to the point. You wrote that AR and co. do not write >>the kind of novel that a foreigner can read and instantly get a glimpse of what the typical Indian lives, thinks........