Seams

"Sometimes — quite often — the same people who are capable of a radical questioning of, say, economic neo-liberalism or the role of the state, are deeply conservative socially — about women, marriage, sexuality, our so-called ‘family values’ — sometimes they’re so doctrinaire that you don’t know where the establishment stops and the resistance begins. For example, how many Gandhian/Maoist/ Marxist Brahmins or upper caste Hindus would be happy if their children married Dalits or Muslims, or declared themselves to be gay? Quite often, the people whose side you’re on, politically, have absolutely no place for a person like you in their social, cultural or religious imagination. That’s a knotty problem… politically radical people can come at you with the most breathtakingly conservative social views and make nonsense of the way in which you have ordered your world and your way of thinking about it… and you have to find a way of accommodating these contradictions within your worldview."

- Arundhati Roy, in a 2005 interview with Tehelka

The Wrong Reaction

I saw Arundhati Roy this evening, looking at a set of photographs of Afghan women on display at the Habitat Center as part of the Delhi Photo Festival. I was instantly self-conscious about my pants.

Why

To be able to express yourself,
to be able to close the gap—inasmuch as it is possible—between thought and expression
is just
such
a relief.

- Arundhati Roy
In an interview with Amitava Kumar for Guernica Magazine

In The Eye

The latest gem from Arundhati Roy:

"The first step towards re-imagining a world gone terribly wrong would be to stop the annihilation of those who have a different imagination -- an imagination that is outside of capitalism as well as communism. An imagination which has an altogether different understanding of what constitutes happiness and fulfillment. To gain this philosophical space, it is necessary to concede some physical space for the survival of those who may look like the keepers of our past, but who may really be the guides to our future. To do this, we have to ask our rulers: Can you leave the water in the rivers? The trees in the forest? Can you leave the bauxite in the mountain? If they say cannot, then perhaps they should stop preaching morality to the victims of their wars."

The essay which finds its conclusion in the paragraph above is stunning, upsetting, and absolutely essential. Put an hour aside and read every word.

On the Radio

The only person who agrees with me about the latest Bond film is a prolific, hyper-passionate, forty-something national nuisance, ten thousand miles away.