On The Right to be Offended

I found this fascinating debate on the limits of freedom of speech (in 9 parts) between Indian diplomat and novelist Shashi Tharoor who is Under-Secretary General for Communications at the UN, and God is Not Great author Christopher Hitchens. It was recorded at the Hay festival last year and is chaired by Joan Bakewell.

Pakistan's Fast Bowlers

Shashi Tharoor writing in The Times of India (found via The Complete Review) finds that although Pakistani Fiction in English got off to a slow start :

... the Pakistani diaspora has in recent years produced a remarkable series of novels with affinities to Pakistan and with narratives often set there ...

among them Mohsin Hamid :

... whose two novels Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist notably finally woke up the rest of the world to Pakistani fiction in English.

and several younger writers including Nadeem Aslam (right) (Maps for Lost Lovers). Tharoor mentions too the debut of two remarkable novels - Mohammed Hanif's :

... exuberant and risk-taking A Case of Exploding Mangoes

and Ali Sethi whose :

... about-to-be-published novel, set in Lahore, is the story of a fatherless Pakistani boy rose in a family of outspoken women, and has already received a gigantic advance. Even India hasn't yet produced a 23-year-old world-class author. The future of Pakistani writing in English seems not just secure, but exciting.

Mohsin Hamid (left) has apparently identified an interesting phenomena which he calls the "fast-bowler effect", which is something we're also experiencing here in Malaysia :

... one writer, like one fast bowler in a cricket team, finds it difficult to make an impact, but when there is at least a pair of them, the world suddenly starts taking the team seriously.

(Image at top by Hamzah Shah on Flickr.)

Shirley's Shawl

Author Shirley Lim was wonderful fun yesterday, as she launched her new book, Princess Shawl, written for women aged :

... from 9-90!

Looking enviably slim and energetic in a floral dress (don't you just love the irrelevant sartorial details?), Lim explained how this was her first experience of writing for children, and described it as her most joyful book.

She was approached to write a children's book by R. Ramachandran, the director of the Singaporean Book Development Council who realised that most of the children's books available in Singapore are published in the West, and she says that being seen for the first time that someone had seen her as a local writer rather than as a "transplanted writer" (she has lived in the US for 40 years) and that touched her in a way she hadn't felt before.

She set out to write the book without any idea about who would publish her, was turned down by publishers including Marshall Cavendish, but at the no point lost faith in the value of her work. In the end Maya Press took the gamble, except, says Lim laughing, it isn't even a gamble because they will lose money on it.

She said that she was retelling a story that had meant a lot to her as a young girl and it took her back to her earliest memories of Malacca (which she jokingly calls "Blackbird Town" because the Singaporeans turn up there singing "Cheap! Cheap!").

She talked about how she used to go up St. Paul's Hill to study, sitting by the open windows in the ruined church to read and study so that there is a great deal of Malacca in herself :

... malacca air, malacca breezes, malacca particles

Pricess Shawl borrows elements of traditional fairytale writing. There is a quest - the child Mei Li is given the quest of rescuing princess Hang Li Po exiled to the island of pulau tikus and unable to come to Malacca to marry the Sultan. And like many children's books, Princess Shawl involves time travel. Lim actually describes the book as a kueh lapis* story because it goes back and forward between layers of time, visiting the time of the Baba-Nyonya's, the Dutch Colonial war, the Portuguese period and the defeat of the Malacca Sultanate, the botton layer of the cake being the C15th.

The character of Great Aunty Mei Li, Lim says was based on the much admired lawyer, P.J. Lim - one of Lim's childhood heroines. The book itself is layered so that there are references in there that an adult reader would appreciate - as Lim puts it, she's smuggled in plenty about the diaspora Chinese. (The book is in the process of being translated into Chinese in Taiwan.)

To write the love story between Princess Hang Li Po and her Sultan, Lim said that she went back to reread Jane Eyre! She also seems to have had delicious fun making the good women get younger, and the bad women get older!

The question time opened into a nice discussion about local children's books (we agreed - too many have beautiful illustrations but the content is very weak indeed), Singapore's generous support for its children's writers, and the origins of Malay legends.

I was intrigued by her attitude to publication: she said that she never worried about whether her work is published or not as long as it is out in the world, and she had a lovely quote from Indian author Shashi Tharoor to show what she means:

I write, as George Bernard Shaw said, for the same reason a cow gives milk: it is inside me, it has got to come out, and in a real sense I would die if I could not.

She talked about writing "heuristically" and her advice to writers :

You learn what you have to say as you write - if you don't surprise yourself, you won't write anything interesting.

We had a nice social time after that. It was nice to meet John of Maya Press and Mr. Law King Hui, the poor organiser of the KL Bookfair who had to change all his banners and posters because of me! (See here and here.) Aiyoh, I felt so shamefaced that I caused so much trouble, but he was astonishingly sanguine about it.

Also had a nice chat to Prof Kayum - am seriously thinking a writing a thesis of some kind on the Malaysian novel. (How long have I been saying that for? My life is full of unrealised projects.)

Had a giggle with Phek Chin and Raman about an entry in the new The Complete Residents' Guide to Kuala Lumpur which describes in Raman, in it's section on bookshops, as the "charismatic" owner of Silverfish. (Not grouchy, huh???)

Then dinner with Daphne and Priya to think up some nice pieces of literary activism and exchange all our gossip.

* A traditional Malacca rice flour cake which is made in layers and very time consuming to produce.
** Actually Tharoor wrongly attributes this - the original quote is from Henry Louis Mencken : his exact words:

I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk.

But I think there's something wrong with you as a writer if you don't have that feeling so no wonder others since have appropriated it!

Beneath the Bali Moon

You'll probably recognise Ann Lee on the right in this picture, but who is this thoroughly obnoxious Malaysian government minister who wants to appropriate the Ubud Festival next year and have it happen in KL because, of course, the country does everything bigger and better?

This was once of the cabaret performances at the Jazz Cafe in Ubud last Saturday night. Other highlights of the evening were Indian author and contender Shashi Tharoor's stand up comedy with lots of UN jokes (the author was a contender for secretary general's post) , and Singaporean poet Cyril Wong's beautiful counter-tenor voice (he sounds like a cross between Andreas Scholl and Jimmy Somerville with not a note misplaced!).

A scene from Ann Lee's play Hang Li Poh: Melakan Princess being performed at The Yoga Barn on the first night of the Ubud Writers' and Readers' Festival. It was eerie and surreal ... but was this the way Ann intended it to be played when she wrote the piece?

I must confess though, that the full Balinese moon in the coconut trees did somewhat steal the show.

Postscript:

A much better account of the Writers' Caberet on Isman's blog.

Shashi on Toast

I wrote this (elsewhere) back at the time of Shashi Tharoor's last visit to Silverfish and thought I'd stick it in here as a little trailer to his second visit:

Margaret Atwood writes in Negotiating With The Dead:

... There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine - "Wanting to meet an an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet an author because you like pate."

Well, meeting an author is precisely what I did yesterday. A coup for Raman who managed to get Indian writer Shashi Tharoor to come along and read from his books and do a short q&a afterwards. This guy is immensely popular in India, particularly for The Great Indian Novel which parodies the Mahabarata and is a hilarious send-up of modern Indian history. Nice looking guy, looking much much younger than his 48 years (how dare he be younger than me and have written so much!) with a fringe of hair he kept flicking self-consciously out of his eyes, and strange, pale eyes. (In other words, the duck was quite tasty, never mind the pate.) He read beautifully, putting on all the different voices: the British resident and the Gandhi-like character who leads the great crowd in the mango march (as opposed of course to the salt-march which was the beginning of the end for the British in India.) Even when you're an adult you enjoy being read to!

And it's quite inspiring that he mananges to write so much, despite the day job: he's actually Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information for the UN, and just happened to be in town for a conference on the role of the media.

He signed a copy of his book for me. I signed a copy of "my" book for him. We snapped a photo together in which we're both laughing like hyenas. (And no, you're not seeing it.)

Shashi is reading at Silverfish again 6.30 tomorrow evening (Tuesday 25th). He's really good value, so try to make it.

Update:

I can't make it to the reading! Gotta go to the airport tonight. So sorry that your reporter-on-the-spot has to let you down but I hope someone else can go along and blog it.

Another Update

Deepika Shetty of Channel News Asia writes about Shashi Tharoor's bid for top UN post here.