http://southasianlitfest.com/2011/05/author-interview-mohsin-hamid/
An interview with Mohsin Hamid
Among the many Pakistani authors present at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2011 was Mohsin Hamid, author of Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Sona Hathi grabbed a few minutes with Hamid in Jaipur for a quick chat about his intentions as a writer, the rise of Pakistani literature and what fans of his work can look forward to next.
SH : Did you intend for The Reluctant Fundamentalist to be an allegory? If so what was your underlying political message?MH: It’s difficult to summarise a book that way, it’s not really a political message. For me, a book is about the interaction between a writer and a reader, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist was meant to facilitate that interaction. We don’t really know what’s going on, the reader has to make a judgment about that and therefore the reader reveals themselves as much as the character reveals himself.
So in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, for example, there’s no indication that the character is religious, violent, or anything like that, yet it’s possible to read the novel as the story of a terrorist. It’s equally possible to read the story as a guy who’s just gone back to Pakistan and doesn’t like American involvement and doesn’t want to be left alone.
SH: So the ambiguity in The Reluctant Fundamentalist was a very conscious thing?
MH: It’s very conscious yes, because I feel that too often right now ambiguous stories are being packaged as one truth or another. It’s more useful for us to learn to deal with and navigate ambiguity than to attempt to fit things into coherent narratives that aren’t true.
MH: It’s very conscious yes, because I feel that too often right now ambiguous stories are being packaged as one truth or another. It’s more useful for us to learn to deal with and navigate ambiguity than to attempt to fit things into coherent narratives that aren’t true.
SH: How did the experience of writing The Reluctant Fundamentalist compare with your first novel, Moth Smoke?
MH: The experience of writing both novels was kind of similar each time. I spent several years on each book, and wrote several drafts. The basic story was always very similar but the way of telling it—the voice, structure, frame—everything changed. Eventually it solidified into what it was. I didn’t want the two experiences to be the same, I thought the first time I made so many mistakes along the way, I’ll do it better the second time. But the second time I had to go and make these mistakes again to make the book work.
MH: The experience of writing both novels was kind of similar each time. I spent several years on each book, and wrote several drafts. The basic story was always very similar but the way of telling it—the voice, structure, frame—everything changed. Eventually it solidified into what it was. I didn’t want the two experiences to be the same, I thought the first time I made so many mistakes along the way, I’ll do it better the second time. But the second time I had to go and make these mistakes again to make the book work.
SH: What would you attribute the rise of English language Pakistani literature to and how do you see its future panning out?
MH: A number of things have happened in Pakistan. The Pakistani English speaking diaspora has grown. The number of Pakistanis studying abroad at English Language universities has increased. There’s a large number of Pakistanis outside of Pakistan who are potential writers. And in Pakistan there’s a huge group of young people growing up reading novels in English, seeing Pakistani writers. So you have this confluence of a youth bulge in Pakistan, a Pakistani diaspora and an interest in Pakistan which translates into publishers publishing Pakistani books and readers reading Pakistani books, which is reinforcing. It attracts very talented young writers, those that do well attract more and it builds upon itself. So I think right now we’re in this virtuous cycle. Obviously, not everything written will be good, or at least what I think is good! But more and more will be written and among this will be some fantastic stuff.
MH: A number of things have happened in Pakistan. The Pakistani English speaking diaspora has grown. The number of Pakistanis studying abroad at English Language universities has increased. There’s a large number of Pakistanis outside of Pakistan who are potential writers. And in Pakistan there’s a huge group of young people growing up reading novels in English, seeing Pakistani writers. So you have this confluence of a youth bulge in Pakistan, a Pakistani diaspora and an interest in Pakistan which translates into publishers publishing Pakistani books and readers reading Pakistani books, which is reinforcing. It attracts very talented young writers, those that do well attract more and it builds upon itself. So I think right now we’re in this virtuous cycle. Obviously, not everything written will be good, or at least what I think is good! But more and more will be written and among this will be some fantastic stuff.
SH: Is there a burning desire among the youth of Pakistan to get its voice heard?
MH: I think right now there is a burning desire for change. Certainly in Pakistan people recognise that the way things are, are not the way they want them to be. That is true regardless of whether you’re a secular capitalist, or socialist inclined, or a religious person or whatever. There’s a tension between what you would like the society around you to look like, and what’s actually happening around you, and you’re struck by that tension. People want to talk about that tension and that gives birth to the desire to say things. Of course, that’s on top of the eternal human desire to tell stories and communicate your experiences and so on. So I think it’s amplified by that political context.
MH: I think right now there is a burning desire for change. Certainly in Pakistan people recognise that the way things are, are not the way they want them to be. That is true regardless of whether you’re a secular capitalist, or socialist inclined, or a religious person or whatever. There’s a tension between what you would like the society around you to look like, and what’s actually happening around you, and you’re struck by that tension. People want to talk about that tension and that gives birth to the desire to say things. Of course, that’s on top of the eternal human desire to tell stories and communicate your experiences and so on. So I think it’s amplified by that political context.
SH: As a writer whose work is read throughout the world, do you feel any kind of responsibility to change negative perceptions of Pakistan?MH: Human beings have different facets. There’s a political aspect to who you are, there’s a family aspect and so many other different aspects. And that’s true as a writer as well. I mean a writer is just a label given to a particular human being who happens to write books or something else. And so all of those things are unchanged. The responsibility of a writer and the responsibility of a human being are not two different things. But I think it’s really only appropriate to speak of what I view my responsibilities to be. I am a writer and among my responsibilities is to be true to my writing—which is not to write what is true, because I write fiction—but to be as honest with myself about the intentions of my work and what I am trying to do. To be as rigorous as possible about achieving those ambitions and to put out a vision, which comes from a place that is self-examined and that is created with an integrity. That’s my job now. Separate from that there’s the fact that I have a voice in the public media. So therefore I can engage on political issues, those are other things that I do get involved with. But on the writing side of it, fundamentally, it’s writing in the way things should be written.
When it comes to writing itself I am an extremist! I read my stuff out hundreds of times. I throw away hundreds of pages to get a short manuscript together. I’m utterly brutal with my own words, I’m always trying to figure out how to do it. Maybe all writers are like this, I don’t know, but I try to maintain a very rigorous internal standard on what I’m doing. That doesn’t mean its any good, it might be terrible! But at least it’s true to my internal standard.
SH: Give us some insight into what you’re writing now?MH: I hate talking about what I’m working on now! It’s a bit like a pregnancy – the child’s not born, I don’t want to say if it’s a boy or a girl!
SH: But are you three months in? Surely it’s safe to talk about it now!MH: I don’t know in these kind of pregnancies it’s hard to say, there are no sonograms and my periods were irregular so I don’t really know how far along I am! [Laughs]. But I think moving back to Pakistan has definitely influenced this book. With The Reluctant Fundamentalist, I wanted to do something I didn’t do with Moth Smoke, I want to keep growing and evolving and I’m trying to do the same thing with this one. It’s again looking at a hybrid of utterly realist narrative with completely unreal structure, and it has elements that are political, concerned with economic, social equity and like my other books, at least part a love story. So it’s both a progression from what I’ve done before and hopefully something very different too!
Hear more from Mohsin Hamid at The Guardian Book Club on 17 May in London and Book Slam on 19 May.
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