Humble writer's dilemma

The first feedback I received on my new book, Black Hole, is that I put off the lay reader with too many allusions and references which are not made clear enough. "All your readers are not going to be people of English Literature," the message went, "nor are they going to be all Christians." My mention of Kipling's 'white man's burden' and Henry VIII's murderous lust were cited as examples.

The feedback came from a very good friend who was with me through thick and thin for over a decade. But she is a person with a double Masters in English language and literature. While I agree with her that my novel is not an easy read at all (I didn't mean it to be either) and concede also that quite a few of my allusions are likely to put off some Indian readers who are not acquainted with Christianity, the fact that a person of her knowledge and literary background made the remark continues to amuse me even now.

The feedback made me sit and think for a while.

Okay, Black Hole demands quite a bit of patience and literary skills from the reader. Literary skills would mean familiarity with standard literature as well as related subjects like history. But the demands made by Black Hole are far less in comparison with those made by, say, Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness or Salman Rushdie's Quichotte. In fact, my novel doesn't extract a fraction of the patience required to understand any of the good writers of today whom I admire like Kazuo Ishiguro or Javier Marias or Julian Barnes. And these are writers whose books sell in millions. Why can't at least a hundred people endure my much easier writing?

I think the answer lies in the simple fact that I am not as famous as them or anywhere near that fame. A writer who hangs on an illusory hook in the ominous vacuum between the readers and the galactic limelight has no right to write difficult books!

Anyway, I didn't intend to write a difficult book. The allusions and references came along as I went on. It is possible that a writer who relies so heavily on so many allusions and references is an inferior one. It is possible that I don't know the art of novel writing. I am not a trained novelist at all. Black Hole is my first novel, completed as I turned a senior citizen. All the while, as I was editing it, I was under the impression that anyone who can appreciate Roy and Rushdie, Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan will find my book just a breeze.

I am grateful to the friend for disabusing me of my self-assessment. The feedback will definitely help in my future writing.

Comments

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below. Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Break Your Barriers

Guest Post Break Your Barriers : 10 Strategic Career Essentials to Grow in Value by Anu Sunil A Review by Jose D. Maliekal SDB Anu Sunil’s Break Your Barriers is a refreshing guide for anyone seeking growth in life and work. It blends career strategy, personal philosophy, and practical management insights into a resource that speaks to educators, HR professionals, and leaders across both faith-based and secular settings. Having spent nearly four decades teaching philosophy and shaping human resources in Catholic seminaries, I found the book deeply enriching. Its central message is clear: most limitations are self-imposed, and imagination is the key to breaking through them. As the author reminds us, “The only limit to your success is your imagination.” The book’s strength lies in its transdisciplinary approach. It treats careers not just as jobs but as vocations, rooted in the dignity of labour and human development. Themes such as empathy, self-mastery, ethical le...

The Art of Subjugation: A Case Study

Two Pulaya women, 1926 [Courtesy Mathrubhumi ] The Pulaya and Paraya communities were the original landowners in Kerala until the Brahmins arrived from the North with their religion and gods. They did not own the land individually; the lands belonged to the tribes. Then in the 8 th – 10 th centuries CE, the Brahmins known as Namboothiris in Kerala arrived and deceived the Pulayas and Parayas lock, stock, and barrel. With the help of religion. The Namboothiris proclaimed themselves the custodians of all wealth by divine mandate. They possessed the Vedic and Sanskrit mantras and tantras to prove their claims. The aboriginal people of Kerala couldn’t make head or tail of concepts such as Brahmadeya (land donated to Brahmins becoming sacred land) or Manu’s injunctions such as: “Land given to a Brahmin should never be taken back” [8.410] or “A king who confiscates land from Brahmins incurs sin” [8.394]. The Brahmins came, claimed certain powers given by the gods, and started exploi...

The music of an ageing man

Having entered the latter half of my sixties, I view each day as a bonus. People much younger become obituaries these days around me. That awareness helps me to sober down in spite of the youthful rush of blood in my indignant veins. Age hasn’t withered my indignation against injustice, fraudulence, and blatant human folly, much as I would like to withdraw from the ringside and watch the pugilism from a balcony seat with mellowed amusement. But my genes rage against my will. The one who warned me in my folly-ridden youth to be wary of my (anyone’s, for that matter) destiny-shaping character was farsighted. I failed to subdue the rages of my veins. I still fail. That’s how some people are, I console myself. So, at the crossroads of my sixties, I confess to a dismal lack of emotional maturity that should rightfully belong to my age. The problem is that the sociopolitical reality around me doesn’t help anyway to soothe my nerves. On the contrary, that reality is almost entirely re...

Mahatma Ayyankali’s Relevance Today

About a year before he left for Chicago (1893), Swami Vivekananda visited Kerala and described the state (then Travancore-Cochin-Malabar princely states) as a “lunatic asylum.” The spiritual philosopher was shocked by the brutality of the caste system that was in practice in the region. The peasant caste of Pulayas , for example, had to keep a distance of 90 feet from Brahmins and 64 feet from Nairs. The low caste people were denied most human rights. They could not access education, enter temple premises, or buy essentials from markets. They were not even considered as humans. Ayyankali (1863-1941) was a Pulaya leader who emerged to confront the situation. I just finished reading a biography of his in Malayalam and was highly impressed by the contributions of the great man who came to be known in Kerala as the Mahatma of the Dalits . What prompted me to order a copy of the biography was an article I read in a Malayalam periodical last week. The article described how Ayyankali...

Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Search This Blog