Monday, April 27, 2009

Amit Chaudhuri interview

Q:What kind of novel is it that you write? I wouldn’t call you a noisy novelist.

A:I’m not a noisy novelist, no. I’d say I write novels involving random digressions and distractions. I cannot dwell on one thing for too long. So I am not the right candidate to write a novel of deep psychological realism and inwardness, or a heavily researched historical novel with a kind of social-science sensibility—a type of writing I abhor, actually, but which is endemic to a lot of Indian writing. My novels deal with inwardness but also with outwardness, with allowing oneself to be seduced by distractions and interruptions, to let oneself go there.

Full interview

2 comments:

Brad Green said...

I'm curious what you think about such a statement.

Mrinal Bose said...

Welcome, Brad. Hope you're fine. As a lit blogger, I find it quite cool and interesting. Interesting because Chaudhuri is very candid about his way of choosing his theme. And cool because he does not mince when he says that he abhors those researched things which are a common practice now. This is where I, as a fiction-writer, agree with Chaudhury in full: a real writer does not get his fiction's content by researching, he needs to live by, and with his subject for a long, long time. BTW what's your take, Brad?

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