Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Anne's Post-JLF Interview 2014



Anne, a/k/a The Glamorous Nomad, gracing a sari
On January 26, I sat down with Anne (a/k/a “The Glamorous Nomad”) on our balcony in Trivandrum to discuss her experience at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Anne had not been able to join us last year, so I first wanted to ask her about her expectations. She confirmed my suspicions by reporting that her “expectations were high because of all the praise that she had heard from us from the previous year.” She expected the panels to be interesting as she looked at the program carefully before coming, and she’d planned her schedule carefully. She had no idea how it would all work out at Diggi Palace, and she found it very crowded. The chai at Diggi Palace was perhaps the best surprise. 

I asked her to compare this to her academic conference experiences (she’s a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science). Anne reported that this was a much more enjoyable experience because she wasn’t under an obligation to present a paper or to respond critically to any presentations. She also noted that the quality of the speaking was higher, although there were places where she thought there was a bit too much of poetic license or sophistry. She expressed her agreement with author-presenter  Antony Beevor that nonfiction must be distinguished from historical fiction. An example she provided of this is Rana Dasguta’s Capital, his new book about Delhi. Anne reported that it was “beautifully written, but I wonder if his style convinces when I’m not sure that there’s a cohesive argument being made.” In one of his talks, Dasguta claimed that partition was not so much motivated by hatred as by love and fear. Anne found this an interesting thought, but one not supported by any data or extended argument to support his conclusion.

 I asked Anne to comment further about the difference between academic writing and general non-fiction writing that was a popular subject of discussion at JLF this year. She responded bluntly, “Most academic writing is boring and suffers from cumbersome citations. Nonfiction for the general audience, on the other hand, enjoys a different audience and, therefore, a different format for addressing issues of documentation. Although nonfiction won’t normally use the cumbersome citation systems of academic writing, good nonfiction does validate its claims with endnotes, bibliographies, and the like.” I noted that legal writing often suffers from the same problem of burdensome citations that break up the flow of an argument.

I asked Anne for her opinions about the format of the sessions. Anne commented that there were a number of different formats. In one session, Gloria Steinem and Ruchira Gupta held a one-on-one conversation. In another, Michael Sandel conducted a Socratic question-and-answer session involving the entire audience. In still another, William Dalrymple interviewed Rana Dasgupta., author of Capital, in a one-on-one session. The keynote, of course, was a solo venture by Nobel economist Amartya Sen. Finally, there were a number of panels. Some became unfocused and sometimes left  some members aside. However, she noted a happy exception to this flaw in the panel about Afghanistan, which she found extremely informative.

Asked about her discoveries at JLF, the first thing Anne noted was a “rediscovery” She had heard Gloria Steinem speak about 12 years ago when she was a student at Barnard College. She admitted to having forgotten how wonderful and inspirational she found that talk. She had read Amartya Sen before hearing him speak in person, but hearing him speak in person was a true delight.

Asked about any new reading experiences arising out of JLF and she reported that she’d read Maaza Mengiste’s Beneath the Lion’s Gaze about the Ethiopian Civil War in advance of JLF, and after learning about Capital, she is already out well into it and enjoying it very much. She hopes to read by books by Taiye Selasie and Nadifa Mohamed as well. She admitted not to having read any William Dalrymple before, except perhaps for some chapters from Nine Lives. She reported she hopes to cure that however by reading The Return of the King, which she purchased that JLF. Anne estimates that she bought a total of 12 or 13 books at JLF  that she will be shipping back to her apartment in China for happy reading during the course of the coming year there.

I ask her about any disappointments, and she quickly volunteered a presentation by John Ralston Saul, which was a dialogue with Hubert Vedrine. It started out with Saul trashing the work of Francis Fukuyama ( specifically The End of History and the Last Man) and Samuel Huntington’s work The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order.) Anne found this irritating and defamatory and left after about five minutes. (This interviewer stayed for the entire session and asked a question following the presentation that led Saul and Vedrine to back off some of their criticisms of Fukuyama. Saul also appeared in a dialogue with Michael Sandel the following day that was much less inflammatory.)

I asked Anne for her recommendation to future JLF attendees. Her advice was succinct: “Bring a warm coat, read some of the books ahead of time (two or three should be enough), come early enough to get a good seat, and enjoy Jaipur.”

I turn the conversation then to Anne’s special interest, China, and its presence and absence the JLF. Anne noted that China scholar Rana Mitter presented a very fine talk regarding his book about China in the Second World War. Mitter also presented at the panel titled “Who Will Rule the World in the 21st Century?”. Anne found this a disconcerting title and the panel discussion unfocused. However, she again found Mitter quite well spoken and articulate in his knowledge about China. She was surprised that otherwise there was not much the China representation other than one fiction writer. She noted a lack of Chinese attending JLF.  She related an interesting anecdote on that topic that arose from JLF. While waiting in a cue for the ladies room, she met an Indian woman who asked where she was from. This is not an easy question for Anne to answer given her rather extensive travel itinerary in the last year. Anne responded that she is from America, but she had traveled to India from Ethiopia, and before Ethiopia from China (apparently choosing to leave out Vietnam to avoid further confusion). The conversation partner reported that  she was in English literature Ph.D. student in Jaipur. She then asked Anne if the Chinese government was as oppressive as it is made out to be. Anne remarked that she pondered carefully how to answer the question and came up with, “Yes and no. The government can be intrusive and abusive in some instances, but in daily life, things are pretty good except for the pollution”. Anne wondered what kind of coverage China receives in the Indian media.

This led me to ask her about a comparison of China and India. Anne replied that there is very little interest about India in China. She is never heard any Chinese discuss India unless she happened to raise it  because of the fact that her parents are currently residing in India and that she been to India now three times to visit. The Chinese do not see India as a rising superpower. Indeed, perhaps the most frequent comment that she hears is that Chinese do not like the Indian palate. On the other hand, almost all Chinese are intensely interested in the US and other OCED countries, including those of Western Europe. China is certainly in the throes of super capitalism. Anne noted that buildings in China are named things like “The American Dream Apartment Complex” or “Paris Life”. People will decorate in a French Baroque style and  borrow the status symbols and vocabulary of wealth from the American and European world. Many of the rising Chinese middle class are engaging more and more and tourism, but  the last place they seem to be interested in going is India. Anne suspects that it’s too close to the poverty that they only recently left behind. This is especially true of people over 40.

I then asked and to put on her hat to comment on the difference between India and China, and her immediate response was  that she wears two different hats, one “personal” hat, and the other her “social scientist hat”. Using her social scientist eye, she noted that median PCI (per capita income) is vastly lower in India than it is in China. Everything in China is newer, safer, and more efficient, including its infrastructure (at least for now). Indian culture seems to have co-evolved with global capitalism in way that China hasn’t. A distinct Indian cinema, Indian dress, Indian religion, Indian crafts, and other manifestations of native Indian culture survive, but such arts have not survived nearly so well in China. In addition, India enjoys a greater degree of freedom of speech and overall a greater cultural vibrancy. China, on the other hand, has much less of a public culture. She remarked it between the 1950s and 1970s, China wiped out much of its traditional culture. In fact, if you want to enjoy traditional Chinese culture, you’re better going off going to Taiwan than to the Chinese mainland. India, compared to China, is much less westernized and Americanized and has retained more of its uniqueness. The one difference may be that China has retained its language, while India has adopted more to English as a global medium, which is to its advantage.

Finally, I ask and for her reading recommendations. She listed the following:

  •  Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste. This is a novel about the 1972 communist coup and the following Red Terror. Anne found it a brilliant novel that blends interesting insights about politics and human rights issues through  the use of a strong storytelling capability.
  • Capital by Rana Dasgupta. Anne is not finished it yet, but she want to reiterate that it is a beautifully written book.
  • The Map Of The Invisible World by Tash Aw is written about “ the year of living dangerously” in Indonesia. This occurred in 1963 when Sukarno was deposed from power. Anne found it a rewarding work about  revolution, family, and identity in a postcolonial context.

I wrapped up my interview with and by thanking her for sharing her thought her insights. I wished her well on her travels that would be taking her to Bangladesh, Seattle, Chicago, and back to her temporary home in Chengdu, Szechuan, China. Happy travels, Anne!