Interview with Anita Saran By Kohinoor Dasgupta - Bangalore
Bangalore-based writer Anita Saran John will publish her novel, Circe,
on Electric Umbrella.com on October 1, 2000. Anita has a background in
advertising and also loves to paint. Exuberantly creative, she relishes
surprises and funny, gender myth-busting Circe too is literally bursting
with them. As fond of Zola and Hugo as she is of Moravia, Marquez and
Silverberg, Anita traces her yen for writing right back to her school days,
when her poetry and essays won prizes and admiration. Her 1991 work,
Aditya, the Underwater Boy, bagged the Children's Book Trust national
award. Since then she has published Dolphin Girl and Other Stories. In a
candid interview, Anita talks about Circe and why she decided to publish
it electronically.
Circe has a most interesting theme. Why are you attracted to myth,
magic and fantasy?
Circe comes from my love of the Greek myths. My mother was very fond
of Greek classics and I sort of grew up with Sophocles, Aristophanes
and Euripides! I think Circe is my alter ego -- my wicked self, wicked to an
extreme, yet looking for answers, the Great Truth we seem to seek in
our union with the opposite sex. Only, there isn't such a thing as the
ideal mate.
The Truth and true security resides within us. This is what Circe, the
enchantress from Homer's The Odyssey, discovers after her long and
varied quest for Mr Right.
I believe fantasy is a most difficult genre to master since one creates
new worlds, one becomes a goddess in writing fantasy. Yet even fantasy
hasits rules of logic. Not just anything's possible. Ursula Le Guin calls
fantasy 'The Language of the Night' because through it we can explore
our innermost psyche, our demons, our angels.
Is Circe a 'feminist fantasy'?
In many ways, yes. It is, after all, about a powerful woman who in the end
rejects men and sex. Odysseus was her only 'true love' but when he
does return to her in my novel, he is no longer the man she used to love
and deep is her disillusionment. But Circe is also a satire on sex and the
eternal quest for the ideal mate.
Why was it tough to find a publisher?
Years ago, I did an Advanced Short Story Course with the London School
of Journalism. It was my terrific tutor, Hilary Johnson, who encouraged
me to write novel-length works and Aditya was my first try. Ms Johnson
told me that Circe was so original, it'd be difficult to find a publisher for
it and she was right. I sent it to Penguin and David Davidar said it was a
veryinteresting story but who in India wanted to read about a wayward
Greek enchantress. Rupa Books said it wasn't' 'commercially viable'.
I didn't try sending the novel out again after that for a long time till I
became a net freak and learnt about epublishing through my writing
group run by the University of Pennsylvania. Also, everyone who read
the book loved it and enjoyed it. A writer recommended Electric
Umbrella.com (soon to be known as Mylero Publishing) as friendly and
paying the highest royalty among epublishers - 60 per cent.
Oh, I could have had it published through P. Lal of the Calcutta Writers
Workshop who called it highly experimental and brilliant but the author
pays two-thirds of the production cost with the workshop. I didn't want to
pay to get read, nor did I want to pay an agent to represent it - Jacaranda
Press that has its own literary agents asks for money up front. I think
India really does lack agents and good publishers.
Can epublishing become a trend?
Electronic publishing is the future of the publishing industry. It offers
new ways to read, through palm-held gadgets and PCs and software like
the Acrobat Reader that makes it a pleasure to read a book on a screen
and even flips pages as you read. You can even print an ebook. Barnes
and Noble and Powells will also have access to the book. Sure ebooks
can become a trend. It's the mainstream publishers who tend to
badmouth the epublishing industry. I mean, imagine a world where there
are such few trees that ebooks are the only way. Could very well
happen!
When did you start writing? How does your work in advertising gel
with your fiction writing?
I've been writing since school when I used to write a journal and still do.
I have kept all these journals and even got another novel out of them.
This one too I must find a publisher for. And since epublishers are not
really bothered about 'commercial viability', I think they're the way to go
for any writer of substance who refuses to write formula books wanted
by the masses.
I won a district poetry competition in high school and let's just say that I
love to write. I love to paint too, but not as much as I love to write.
Maybe because I've always had so much to say. Fiction writing always
enhanced my advertising work because advertising is about creativity,
ideas, good writing. I brought my love of stories to my direct mail work
and it really found a niche there.
Compared to writing short stories, does novel writing demand more
or less from you?
Novel writing is certainly a different ball game. I was rather petrified
about starting on my first novella, Aditya, the Underwater Boy, but I
conceptualised the work as a string of short stories with a binding
theme. I think it's the way many adventure novels are written. In Aditya
we're in aworld where genetic engineering has created a creature that
can live on land as well as water. Some of the lovable characters are
dolphins and whales.
There's also the Bermuda Triangle and a sunken Atlantis peopled by a
race of water being created by some Atlantean scientist before the great
island sank. There is a 'rishi' who manages to prevent a nuclear war. The
message of the book is that man is not yet ready to people the seas with
its benevolent and peace loving whales and dolphins. I love writing
humour too. I've done a few funny stories for Dolphin Girl and of course,
Circe is hilarious.
People say you are always looking for a lost sister. Do you think
childhood is the time that really makes writers?
I am always looking for a lost mother. My sister I lost to suicide. Yes, I
think childhood is extremely important in the making of a writer. Many
writers have had tragic childhoods. They say that tragedy fuels
creativity. They say that writers are basically a solitary lot that are so
fulfilled by their passion for writing, that other passions pale in
comparison. I think they are right in saying so.
