Author Interviews Herself

Arundhati Roy – At the Fitzgerald Theater and on “The Thread,” Minnesota Public Radio

Arundhati Roy, Indian fiction writer and political essayist, came to the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA to promote her new work of fiction “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.”  (reviewed below) Unfortunately the book was barely mentioned.

Born in Small Village in Kerala to Single Mom

Hosting the event was Kerri Miller, who joined Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) in 2004 after a stint at KARE 11 local news as a reporter.  Miller was unable to rise to the occasion to adequately interview Roy, whose politics are head and shoulders above what Miller was used to.  A good number of times Roy had to say ‘no’ to some misdirected question by Miller.  As the interview progressed, Miller was left almost silent as Roy understood she had to fill in the time.  I doubt Miller has read any of Roy’s political books, which might have helped. The program is to be broadcast on MPR later.

Roy is a radical intellectual, something Miller’s well-modulated and conventional approach cannot handle.  There were no questions about the occupation of Kashmir, which is at the heart of the new book. Or a question about why ‘the market,’ as Roy calls it, and Hindu supremacists, have both united in India. Nor a question about caste, which plays a role in the violence against women occurring in India, a topic Roy brought up. Miller was instead obsessed with asking about Roy’s first novel, “The God of Small Things,” which won the Booker prize years ago and about Roy’s personal fierceness or other perceptions of her.  Roy at one point had to say ‘it’s not about me.’  

During Roy’s long responses, she said many valuable things that go against conventional wisdom in the U.S.  She pointed out that fiction is the most holistic artistic method of describing the world, as it weaves together separate issues and silos.  Because of that, reading fiction demands that the reader not be a passive receptor but an active ‘contemplator.’  In this context she said that feminism or any other partial approach or issue is not sufficient to deal with current reality.  She decried the artificial separation between art and politics imposed by modern bourgeois literature standards.  This includes the supposed opposition of so-called ‘fact’ and so-called ‘fiction.’ She joked that some people think her scenes of poor outcasts living in cemeteries were ‘magical realism.’ Yet people in India do live in cemeteries.

Roy chided some Indian liberals for calling for the oppressed Adivasi people of the Indian forests to become pacifists in the face of violent Indian government repression over corporate mining.  She used a line from her book ‘Walking With the Comrades,” (reviewed below) to ask, “Should they go on hunger strikes when they are already starving?”  For anyone who is familiar with her work, this might bring up her long introduction to Ambedkar’s “Annihilation of Caste” where she took Gandhi to task.  Gandhi supported the caste system.  But ah, another question left unasked, another sacred cow left alone.

Roy has a quick wit and handles words like a poet.  She thinks in many languages, as she has been immersed in India's profusion of languages.  She described the present situation in India as ‘micro-fascism.’  The demonetarization policy of the Modi government devastated workers and small businessmen.  It took small money bills out of circulation in a situation where the majority exist in a cash economy.  Roy thinks that the elite promotion of practices for the Hindu masses like oppressing Muslims or women is a placebo for their own oppression.  Many rapes are linked to caste, as upper-caste / class men think they have every right to beat and rape girls and women.  What she found most disturbing was the mass of men and women that would come out in demonstrations in support of the rapists.  Roy addressed so-called ‘development’ and ‘modernization.’  She saw these as merely words for destructive market-rule, which she pointed out should be obvious ‘even to those in the most contorted yoga position.’

I think the reason that Miller is unable to actually interview someone like Roy is because of the ideas of the literary mafia in the U.S.  Politics and class are not their forte.  This mafia is headquartered in New York. Its local Minnesota arms are the Star Tribune newspaper, the Loft literary center and MPR’s Talking Volumes/ The Thread radio program.  They urge readers to cherish memoirs, especially dysfunctional ones.  Or read and write stories of families, emotions and personalities exclusively.  They focus on the life of the middle-class and individualism. They go into raptures over words and phrases alone, while greater meanings and stories go out the window.  They advocate a separation of politics and art and ignore working-class life.  People like Jonathan Franzen, Augusten Burroughs and D.F. Wallace are exemplars of these styles.  None of this is done in Roy’s fiction, as she understands that the personal cannot be separated from its social and economic context.

A few questions from the Indian audience members reflected their frustration with current Indian political conditions.  Roy had no answer as to how to end fundamentalist Hinduism or caste or class oppression.  She is an honest observer and even activist with excellent instincts, but is not allied to any political tendency.

Prior reviews on books by Roy, below:  Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Walking with the Comrades, Field Notes on Democracy, the introduction to Annihilation of Caste and  Capitalism, a Ghost Story.  Also commentary: "Turning Off NPR."  Use blog search box, upper left.

Most of these books are available at May Day.

Fitzgerald Theater

Red Frog / May 12, 2018