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'There is no shared literary culture in India'

It was a wide range of questions that Pankaj Mishra, author, critic, columnist, tackled on Rediff Chat. In answering fellow readers, he admitted it was hard to keep up with all the different kinds of writing being done in the world today.

biblio (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:27 IST)
Mr Mishra, it seems to me that D.H Lawrence has been an overwhelming influence on you. Also, have you read any of Raymond Williams work? When Williams went to Cambridge, he felt really out of place among the rugger-bugger types. He has a beautiful description of the same. It matches anything in your book. Has that been an influence??

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:30 IST)
Dear Biblio. Actually DH Lawrence hasn't been an influence at all. I did read and admire Raymond Williams, but only his literary essays, not his fiction or memoir.

biblio (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:29 IST)
Mr. Mishra - I've asked you a question I am dying to hear the answer to - what do you think of Amitav Ghosh

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:31 IST)
Dear Biblio, Amitav Ghosh is a very fine writer. My particular favourite is The Shadow Lines.

Vikram Chandra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:31 IST)
I must say I admire the fact that you subsisted on only review writing. Did you know that one day you would write a novel that would pay you such a huge advance?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:32 IST)
Dear Mr Chandra, I certainly never thought when I was writing those reviews that I would one day write a publishable book. One didn't think of advances in those days, Getting published was a huge achievement in itself.

Radhika (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:27 IST)
mr mishra, why do hate all the new indian english writers so much? latest we heard you had a panga with vikram chandra

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:35 IST)
Dear Radhika, I am not sure if you could call a disagreement a 'panga'. I admired Mr Chandra's polemic and agree with many things in it, but there are certain things I disagree with, and said as much.

biblio (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:33 IST)
Isn't it ironic that as a one-time critic and reviewer yourself, you now dismiss critics who pan your work, turning instead to reader categories such as "university students", who you say in an interview in an Indian newspaper, have told you that they could identify with the novel. Does that negate the worth of your work as a reviewer? Also, does mere identification make for great writing?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:40 IST)
Dear Biblio, I think you have to define the word 'critics' very strictly. Not anyone who gets to writes for newspapers can call himself a critic. It takes long years of reading and reflection and writing before you can call yourself a critic. Reading to a large extent is an act of identification.

Spinoza (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:37 IST)
Do you believe the Indian novel in English has to evolve its own form or is form itself a european concept?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:42 IST)
Dear Spinoza. The novel is of the West and attempts to adapt it to other places have succeeded only in places with long and coherent aesthetic traditions. I don't think Indian writing in English has thrown up an original form yet.

FAROOQ (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:42 IST)
Mr Mishra do you still read for the sheer joy of reading or has that been stymified by the more inllectual pursuits of looking at it from a higher ground?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:44 IST)
Dear Farooq, The pleasure principle has to be there. The rest of the stuff comes afterwards.

Ingenue (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:42 IST)
Did you find Flaubert's idiom pervasive and something you had to move away from consciously qua Harold Bloom's theory of the Anxiety of Influence, especially given the innate similarity of experience between the provincials.

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:46 IST)
Dear Ingenue, Not only Flaubert's, but also Chekhov's way of looking at their societies, in the latter's case a society much like ours. I don't feel any anxiety on that score. You have to find your own way of saying things that have been said before.

jennifer (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:45 IST)
Hi, Pankaj I am a great fan of yours! Do you write at one stretch, locking yourself in, or do you write in spurts, spread over a year or two?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:47 IST)
Dear Jennifer, I find writing in one long stretch more fruitful.

Spinoza (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:46 IST)
Proust once said in order to write the writer must sumbit to what is most urgent to him. WHAT IS MOST URGENT TO YOU, MR MISHRA?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:49 IST)
Dear Spinoza, The urge to express a particular experience of the world which is something all writers share.

FAROOQ (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:49 IST)
Pankaj I'm sure u are struck by a lot of ideas....how do you select one that finally makes a novel?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:52 IST)
Dear Farooq, The idea which seems most likely to yield a true impression of life.

venkat (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:48 IST)
Why are most of the new crop of Indian writers based in and around delhi? Is it because thats where the editors sit? Or is it because there are no good writers who live in the south?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:50 IST)
Dear Venkat. I think some of the country's best writers live in the South. There might be a greater concentration in Delhi

Veronica (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:53 IST)
Some reviews say that your book is just about Samar's travels and has no substantial content.Some say that you have not been graphic in your description about the first time he makes love.

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:55 IST)
Dear Veronica, I couldn't have turned a virginal shy person into a Genghis Khan in bed the first time he makes love. There has to be certain consistency in the way you draw characters.

biblio (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:48 IST)
I once met the writer Amit Chaudhuri who told me that in the UK there exists a community feeling among writers. It seems the same does not exist here, at least not among those writers that write in English. Is this because we are an inherently competitive sort and still view our achievements through a prism created and defined by the West? Or is there any other reason? What would you say?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:54 IST)
Dear Biblio, There is no shared literary culture here the way there is in England. And, yes, the fact of this dependence upon the West plays a role in thwarting this sense of community you speak of.

singer (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:56 IST)
What do you think of RK Narayan as a writer? Personally, I think the whole lot writing before GV Desani from Aurobindo to Sarojini Naidu, Narayan to Mulk raj Anand and R Raj Rao are awful writers.

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:58 IST)
Dear Singer, I disagree with you. RK Narayan and Raja Rao are great writers, would be great writers in any context.

Zeus (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:54 IST)
Hi Pankaj, I'm a lit student from the US. I loved your book so refreshing from the work of Bharti Mukherjee types. What do you think of all the "politically correct" brigade of writers who are using their race, gender and condition of "exile" as a passport to success?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:57 IST)
Dear Zeus, I haven't examined the aspect you speak of. But there is certainly a kind of writer who flourishes through the vogue of multiculturalism etc.

sudipto (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:57 IST)
i think all this indian writing in english holds no candles to what is churned out by our vernacular writers. You guys take the bow and the money, but writers like masti, premchand, ov vijayan, or mahashweta are the real stars. What do you say?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:0 IST)
Dear Sudipto, Writing in English is unlikely to match the achievement of writing in Indian languages. That has to do with the alien language you write in, the small local audience you have here, so many other reasons.

Zeus (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:59 IST)
Do you read a lot of work in translation. I feel some of the best writing in this country is in the regional languages but it gets ignored - I speak 4 regional languages and can translate Bangali, Tamil, Oriya and Urdu into both English and Hindi (and vice versa) but I haven't found enough work to earn a living in the last 8 years. Says something about our intoxication with English and our neglect of our rich literary traditions which cumulatively are as diverse as those of all of Europe!!!

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:1 IST)
Dear Zeus, I am confident that the situation will change, that there will be a rediscovery, both here and in the West, of writing in Indian languages.

Zeus (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:2 IST)
That's why I could identify with Samar and Rajesh. But there's one aspect you've soft-pedalled. People in northern universities are often exceedingly crude and cheap about women. Visiting houses of ill-repute is quite common . Ans their inability to deal with the fair sex is often a good refelction of their larger insecurities. I feel that could have beem explored more in the case of Rajesh

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:4 IST)
Dear Zeus, I can't agree with your generalisation about students in the North. A large number of them are exceedingly puritanical, very straitlaced. I knew several people like Rajesh who simply would never speak of women in that way.

Justin (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:5 IST)
Mr Mishra WHAT IS YOUR HONEST OPINION OF SHOBHA DE'S NOVELS?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:7 IST)
Dear Justin, I haven't read any of Shobha De's books and I cannot venture an opinion about them. I do find it interesting that she writes about aspects of metropolitan life in this country that few people tackle.

kirti (Sat Feb 5 19100 6:54 IST)
Is that realy true?Did you really edit arundhati roy's manuscript?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:8 IST)
Dear Kirti, I had no role in editing Arundhati Roy's ms.

hero (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:12 IST)
WHAT DO YOU HONESTLY THINK OF ROY'S BOOK AND OF HER PIECE ON THE BOMB

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:11 IST)
Dear Hero, One of constantly transforming experience into awareness.

daytripper (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:8 IST)
Dear Mr Mishra, are you pro-BJP. What are your politics. In your non-fiction you speak of Islamic depredations. In your novel you talk about essentialisations like "Hindu fatalism" How is that different from the Gandhian essentialisation about a Hindu way of life. Do you believe such a thing exists?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:10 IST)
Dear Daytripper, Such a thing exists and can be identified, very broadly speaking.

daytripper (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:11 IST)
Mr Mishra I have just got the very sad news from the net that Kurt Vonnegut has been burnt in a fire and is in hospital in a critical condition. Have you read Slaughterhouse Five. Are you influenced by postmodern American fiction

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:13 IST)
Dear Daytripper, No. I can't read most of that stuff. I don't find it very interesting or original. But I have enjoyed a couple of Vonnegut's books.

daytripper (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:13 IST)
Could you please define what you mean by a "Hindu way of life"? How is it different from an Indian view of ilfe. Are the two identical in your scheme of things?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:15 IST)
Dear Daytripper. No, they are not. I really can't speak of something as vast and complex as Hinduism in a couple of sentences.

hero (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:15 IST)
Do you like writers like Toni Morrisson - chicana writers, gay writing. What do you think of it?

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:16 IST)
Dear Hero, Haven't read much of that. It's hard to keep up with all the different kinds of writing being done in the world today.

daytripper (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:16 IST)
Are you influenced by the religious Hindu texts - have you read the Gita and in which language

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:20 IST)
Dear Dayripper. The Mahabharata is the great big book of life for me for me. It was really the first book I read, in Hindi.

daytripper (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:15 IST)
How did you manage to survive without a steady job? Was it very difficult

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:18 IST)
Dear Daytripper. I wasn't conscious of any difficulty then. The whole business of writing and reading was compensation enough, and I had few needs.

Mr Pankaj Mishra (Sat Feb 5 19100 7:21 IST)
Got to go now. Thanks everyone. I greatly enjoyed this.