Anita Nair is the author of the bestsellers ‘The Better Man’, ‘Ladies Coupe’ and ‘Mistress’. She has also authored a non-fiction collection ‘Goodnight and God Bless’ published by Penguin in 2008. This interview is part of a series of small interviews done with specialists or front-runners in different fields relevant to India. I spoke to Anita Nair about Indian Writing in English.
Do you think the Indian literature scene today is influencing the country’s image globally? Would you call it a positive influence?
Most of what is published in India seldom travels the world. However, of what is published worldwide is how the country is perceived. It isn’t exactly a positive image of India that is circulated worldwide. For every writer who writes about contemporary India, there are half a dozen writers whose fiction resides in the realm of nostalgia. For every writer who writes about what constitutes India as it is today, there is another writer who will emphasize on the third world imagery.
How would you view the growing popularity of the quick read kind of novels in India?
Interesting. To me these books represent wading pools. This is where reading India will first have to conquer their fear of reading before they are ready to swim beyond their depth.
Finally, blogs have thrown the doors open to a whole bunch of new authors. It would be interesting to know what you think of this trend.
Blogs have a purpose namely, to be able to let writers exhibit their voice, style and extent of literary ambition. However when bloggers set themselves up as experts on literature they tend to become didactic and judgmental.