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Alice Munro’s Sins


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?

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Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanAugust 12, 2024 at 2:45 AM

    Hari OM
    Excellent 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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 12, 2024 at 6:33 AM

      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.

      Delete
  2. peppylady (Dora)August 12, 2024 at 4:06 AM

    I don't know. But I would wonder about her back story.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Liz A.August 12, 2024 at 6:25 AM

    When 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 12, 2024 at 6:35 AM

      It'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.

      Delete
  4. J.P. AlexanderAugust 12, 2024 at 6:38 AM

    yo 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 12, 2024 at 6:44 AM

      Google 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?

      Delete
  5. magiceyeAugust 12, 2024 at 5:52 PM

    If you are aware of the writer's background it does influence your while reading his/her work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 12, 2024 at 7:16 PM

      Of course. In fact, I stopped watching Dileep's movies (Malayalam) after he perpetrated a heinous crime on a fellow actress.

      Delete

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