Alice Munro must be a great writer. She is a Nobel
laureate in literature. I haven’t read her. My job and other life-related
issues force me to limit my reading choices. That’s why I haven’t read Munro
yet. Not because she was complicit in a paedophile case. Did she let her second
husband sexually abuse her daughter from her first husband? The daughter has
raised this charge which is prima facie true.
The latest issue of Outlook
is dedicated to Munro and the new controversy. Having read a few pages, most of
which is too philosophical or literary to be of much interest to me in spite of
my normal tolerance of philosophy and love of literature, I started thinking
about the issue that Outlook is raising. Should you read a writer
who has committed serious mistakes in his/her life? How authentic is such a
writer’s writing?
The editorial states the answer
explicitly: “Munro wasn’t telling us how to live. She
was telling us how we live.”
The answer to my problem lies there
in those two sentences.
None of us is perfect. And writers
are even more imperfect. I say this not because I am a writer (because I make
the claim myself) and I am terribly and terrifyingly imperfect. Study your
favourite writer, whoever it is, and you will see how very imperfect he/she is.
The truth is that you can’t be a good
writer if you are perfect. It is your imperfections that set you on a literary
quest in the first place. Then, of course, you have a lot of good things in you
such as the ability to perceive life’s complexity more clearly than ordinary
people, to communicate that complexity in a way that fascinates readers, and so
on.
I know how very imperfect my
favourite writers were: Dostoevsky, Kafka, Kazantzakis, and a few others. But I
love reading them again and again.
Alice Munro could not have been a
great writer without her sins. My response to the present controversy surrounding
her daughter’s allegation ends there.
This does not mean I am justifying what
Munro did. I don’t even know the details. Did she really let the step-father
rape their adolescent daughter? Or was she helpless in some way that is beyond
my average brain’s grasp? Or is there something more that I should learn about
this before making any judgment?
The truth is I am not interested in
judging Alice Munro or anyone else at all. I have grown up enough to know that
understanding an individual is far more important than judging him/her.
As I was reflecting in this direction,
a question exploded like a bomb in my consciousness. Will I ever understand Mr
Narendra Modi with the same stoic detachment? No. Why? Maybe because Mr Modi’s
narcissism is my own most hated imperfection.
When you judge someone, are you judging yourself?
When you try to understand someone, are you trying to understand yourself?
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteExcellent questions; worthy considerations. There might be one or two writers of whom to be wary if one were to interact socially, and certainly some writing that crosses the border of taste. But mostly, writers are just being writers. Ultimately we will read only that which speaks to our own inner being... confirmation bias? I've never read Munro either, simply because it's not subject matter that attracts my reading eye. And she would far from be the first or last woman to have found herself on the middle of such accusation. Would it make a difference to whether I would read her work? No, because I have no interest in her work. If a favourite author of mine (let's say L J Ross, or Terry Pratchett) were to be denounced for some social evil or other, would I stop reading their books? Frankly, probably not. Unless, of course, one could draw a direct line between whatever the accusations might be and appearance within the body of work indicating and proving the guilt of said misdeeds. To read an author one has never read would be informed in a similar manner. For example, you'll never catch me reading Mein Kampf... YAM xx
Thanks for the detailed answer. Confirmation bias is quite natural, I guess, and I'm not free from it when it comes to my reading choices. There are some writers whom I keep at a distance because their writings don't appeal to me. But will their personal lives affect my choice? I don't think so.
DeleteI don't know. But I would wonder about her back story.
ReplyDeleteSuch information does affect us.
DeleteWhen you judge someone you are absolutely judging yourself. It's why we should detach. Of course, that's easier said than done. I did not know about Alice Munro, but lately Neil Gaiman has hit the news as having done some vile things, and it makes me sad. I hate losing respect for writers who wrote very clever things. Do we then have to stop enjoying their work? I have not figured out the answer to this.
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy to answer that. I'd prefer to avoid judging the writer and go for the writing. Yet something within me resists too at times.
Deleteyo creo que uno puede gustarte la obra de un escritor, actor o director sin que te guste lo que ha hecho de su vida. Aunque a veces es muy dificil. Te mando un beso.
ReplyDeleteGoogle translator helped me understand you. I agree it's difficult to accept a writer or actor whose personal life is flawed. But whose life is without flaws?
DeleteIf you are aware of the writer's background it does influence your while reading his/her work.
ReplyDeleteOf course. In fact, I stopped watching Dileep's movies (Malayalam) after he perpetrated a heinous crime on a fellow actress.
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