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You can read Part 1 here. In this section, we steer away from epics in our conversation.
Shyamala Rao, a wildlife artist, talked about her journey reading an incredible book called Sonia Sotomayor: Supreme Court Justice by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand. This biography features Sonia Sotomayor, the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Hispanic justice and the third woman to serve the Court. Many of us in the group didn’t know that judges fought elections in the U.S as this is not the case in India.
Sotomayor’s story has some parallels with Leila Seth’s autobiography On Balance, a story of the making of a judge against various odds. However, the challenges are different.
“It’s hard for someone of Hispanic origin in the U.S and no connections to reach the level Sotomayor reached,” Shyamala said. Sotomayor’s is a story of battling the odds. As a young girl of eight, she had juvenile diabetes. Since her mother was out most of the time trying to make ends meet, she had to sterilize her syringes on her own. In spite of her medical condition and her economic limitations, Sotomayor was no whiner. She observed her situation and assessed how she could move ahead.
“This is a rare quality,” Shyamala told us. Which adolescent understands how to fit in and uses observation as a tool not just to fit in, but to excel? As she was bright, Sotomayor was admitted to a posh school, the kind of place where a book like Alice in Wonderland was common fare, a book she hadn’t even heard about. Instead of cringing in shame, she decided to fill in the gaps in her knowledge. She decided to find mentors.
“We can only prepare kids for the world they will know,” Shyamala said as she stressed how important it is that children find mentors wherever they go; parents can’t be mentors in all fields.
Without mentorship, the student is most likely to be ignored right at the time when he needs peers, even in old boys’ club institutions like Ivy League School. But Sotomayor was resilient and for a Supreme Court Justice, she’s full of fun too, considering she got the other Justices to try their foot at salsa.
Arun who hosted the party along with Vaishali mused on the theme of growing up and finding mentors. He talked about his yearly excursions to bookshops as those books sustained him during the long vacatioin. He learnt English from his experience at convent schools and it was when he went to college that he was advised to stick with the English speaking group if he wanted to get ahead in life.
What gets you ahead in the U.S may not necessarily get you ahead in other parts of the world. Everyone seemed to agree that in India merit counted more than it did once, especially in IT companies. In any part of the world, how far you get ahead all comes down to how well you can play the game. “There may be a glass ceiling, but all glass ceilings disappear when people start demanding excellence.”
Excellence is again debatable. There is disgruntlement at the idea of merit being replaced by dynasty. “Yet there is no debating that if you grow up exposed to say film or politics or whatever else, you will end up being good at it, by virtue of swimming in the same ocean,” Jaya said. “Not all of us are fortunate. It will not serve as a reason not to try to succeed.”
Which is why mentoring makes sense.
Arun spoke about how important it is to network and be in the right place at the right if you want to make it in India. It is a contentious issue but being well-versed in your native language is not always enough. There’s a huge disconnect between the English speaking and non-English speaking community, or what Veena, author of Beyond the Call of Duty, called the Pizza Hut vs Darshini culture in India.
“There was a pre-globalization period in India when people grew up the same and dressed pretty much alike. It was hard to make out who was richer than the other. There were just about three brands of cars. We’ve adopted all the wrong things from the US. Competitons for post birthday return gifts. Beauty treatment for young kids.” Shyamala said.
“It was a culture shock,” said Arun who grew up in post independence India,” We were taught about sacrifice but today brands matter.”
“Not to mention what music are you listening to,” said Srishti.
Speaking of mentors and role models, Veena talked about her co-writer Raghunathan’s book called Games Indians Play. Raghunathan is an economist and he uses game theory and economics to understand for instance why Indians in general have a tendency to litter. Veena finds his criticism constructive, though some readers have expressed outrage at how he has painted Indians as privately smart(yes, they clean their own houses) and publicly dumb(they sometimes do litter outside their houses).
“This could be the tragedy of the commons,” Nilesh said. Poverty can aggravate the problem.
Veena disputes this, “Raghunathan didn’t sit on a pedestal and give his advice. He stated the facts and the bottom line is that we all need to be nice and care about our environment.”
Do we care enough to become mentors to the new generation? Look at where talking about books can lead you.
By InstaScribe
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This time we chose a different venue for the BYOB Party. We co-hosted this quaint book party with Reading Hour and it took as an hour to get to the venue- a quiet house filled with the warmth of book loving souls Vaishali and Arun Khandekar.
Nilesh Trivedi has a penchant for challenging books in a previous BYOB Party. He found Indian Philosophy by S.Radhakrishnan quite riveting. Though the book is written in English for western readers, it is a starting point for a seeker of knowledge when it comes to such an inaccessible subject like philosophy. While Bertrand Russell and Will Durant have succeeded in making the polarities of Western philosophies far more accessible, S. Radhakrishnan has veered away from the mystical and provided a serious analysis of Indian philosophy, of which there are several parts.
The German philosopher Schopenhauer’s dictum of never reading commentaries was a strong motivator for Nilesh to chose this book. Summaries may seem appalling to a fiction lover like Vaishali (how can you read a summary of a fiction?) but reading summaries is one way of tackling the mountainous number of non-fiction books out there.
As is the case with book parties, one reader is magically connected to the next by an invisible thread called taste. Arun Khandekar spoke at great length about his experiences reading the philosophical works of Swami Vivekanada and Ramakrishna Paramahmsa.
“It is strange how Vivekananda uttered such difficult truths in his time. He believed in the agency of the mind and finding things out on your own.” Arun believes that this freedom of thought and expression seems to be a thing of the past.
“In fact The Great Indian Novel written by Shashi Tharoor and published in the 90’s interprets the Mahabharata in a way that can not be envisioned being done now.”
Arun told us how Tharoor eloquently clothed epic characters in contemporary light, reflecting the Indian public’s fascination with this story. Abhaya confessed to his addiction of the Mahabharata series that he watched on YouTube several times over and Arun spoke of the pre-internet, pre-TV days when he relied heavily on Amar Chitra Katha to feed his Mahabharata compulsions.
“In hindsight, in post independence India, it was stories like Harishchandra that got more leeway and now we see a renewed interest in the epics,” Arun mused.
Even if you did not know the nitty-gritty of the epic, the rivalry between the righteous Pandavas and the tainted Kauravas have lodged themselves in the Indian psyche.
“There is a Shakuni in every household,” Veena Prasad, a writer, summed it up nicely.
The mythical theme continued in Veena’s description of her co-writer Raghunathan’s book called Duryodhana, a book she confessed to reading in one sitting. “It’s a book from the villain’s point of view. Only here, the villain questions the reader. He speaks from the other side and his monologues are a social commentary on hypocrisies and double standards that existed in Hastinapur.”
The defining line from the book Veena cites is when Duryodhana says, “I had evil thoughts, and so have they”. The story of the Mahabharata never runs dry, does it?
What are you reading this week?
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According to their website, “The Hugo Awards, to give them their full title, are awards for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. They were first awarded in 1953, and have been awarded every year since 1955. The awards are run by and voted on by fans.”
There are a huge variety of categories in which an award can be given. As one would expect novels, graphic stories and Dramatic presentations (long and short) are judged. Moreover, editors and fans also qualify for various awards.
The most recent award ceremony was held on the 22nd of August 2015. A complete list of winners are available as well as a video of the award ceremony.What was to be a celebration of the best that the Science Fiction/ Fantasy (SFF) genre had to offer, delivered another set of controversies, the latest in what is seemingly becoming a trend..
The fact that 5 “no awards” were given seems like something out of a fantasy novel. This is the most “no awards” ever. The 5 categories that were not awarded are “Best Novella, Short Story, Related Work, Editor Short Form, and Editor Long Form.”
To explain how unusual these “no awards” are, in Hugo Award history, there have been only 5 “no awards”, the most recent in 1977.
The “No Awards” effect be attributed to the Sad Puppies and their offspring, the Rabid Puppies.
To gain some insight into what is happening here, we need to understand who these puppies are and what they stand for.
Sad Puppies
Sad Puppies “is a voting campaign meant to influence the ballot for the Hugo Awards.” They are neither against the Hugos or anti-Hugo in any way. To super summarize, the Sad Puppies are unhappy with the kind of science fiction and fantasy that “keeps on” winning.
Back in 2013 Larry Correia started arguing that the Hugos have become the SFF voice whose politics is left-leaning. This is where the Sad Puppies campaign began.
To quote, Brad R. Torgersen, another of the original Puppies:
A few decades ago, if you saw a lovely spaceship on a book cover, with a gorgeous planet in the background, you could be pretty sure you were going to get a rousing space adventure featuring starships and distant, amazing worlds. If you saw a barbarian swinging an ax? You were going to get a rousing fantasy epic with broad-chested heroes who slay monsters, and run off with beautiful women.
But now:
The book has a spaceship on the cover, but is it really going to be a story about space exploration and pioneering derring-do? Or is the story merely about racial prejudice and exploitation…
A planet, framed by a galactic backdrop. Could it be an actual bona fide space opera? Heroes and princesses and laser blasters? No, wait. It’s about sexism and the oppression of women.
Finally, a book with a painting of a person wearing a mechanized suit of armor! Holding a rifle! War story ahoy! Nope, wait. It’s actually about gay and transgender issues.
No longer interested in adventure, argue the Puppies, the Hugos have grown elitist, academic, and overly ideological—irrelevant to the average fan.
In other words, Sci-Fi and Fantasy is not what it is supposed to be, and is not what it was. It has become a tool by which political correctness is not only communicated, but taught.
The Sad Puppies’ solution? A list of books that are the truest to the SFF genre, at least according to them. They then actively promote these books and encourage all other puppies to vote for them.
Rabid Puppies
The Rabid Puppies are described as “a more extreme offshoot” of the Sad Puppies. Vox Day is a prominent voice of this group.
Awards always cause controversies. Whether it’s the Oscars or the Hugos. Someone is always offended that their favorite did not win.
To prevent too many brokenhearted Sad Puppies, Correia and Torgersen turned to what we could call “vote prospecting” or seeking out votes. Some argue that it has always happened.
Some say that the quality of the work has been overlooked. The five categories that received “No Awards” “were composed of only Puppy nominees.” This can be taken to imply that they were “disqualified” because of the political leanings of the Puppy movement.
Some authors preferred to withdraw their books from the award than be on the Puppy card. Marko Kloos (Best Novel) and Annie Bellet (Best Short Story) are two examples.
It seems as if the Puppies, with arguably a valid complaint, are turning the Hugo Awards into a philosophical and political award. Sadly, their so-called “liberal” opponents are falling into the same trap.
We read:”We smacked the Sad Puppies with a rolled-up newspaper,” said a woman on the shuttle bus between hotels at WorldCon in Spokane, Wash., on Sunday night. “It’s the only way to teach them.”
So, while, ideology is being fought over, what about the readers, and the unaffiliated writers?
Did you vote in the 2015 Hugos? Tell us about it.
By InstaScribe
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This time around, we will look at a few movies that should have been left unmade. Here we have some examples of how difficult it can be to transform the success of one media to the other.
Why did the movies fail? Many technical reasons could be offered, but the underlying theme is that somehow the magic of the written word was lost.
Battle Cry
This great book by Leon Uris, tells about the experiences of the 6th Marine Regiment during the 2nd World War in the Pacific theater. It helps one understand the unity, or esprit de corps, that soldiers often talk about. Uris also illustrates how a very diverse group of people can overcome their various prejudices and form a tight unit and effective team.
The movie was made in 1955, two years after the book was published. Perhaps it was because the war was still fresh in everyone’s memory; the movie was a box office hit. However,it completely fails to capture spirit of the book, even though many of the incidents are pictured faithfully. The unity of the book is never captured.
Dr Seuss
The poor writer must be turning over and over in his grave. How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat are two reasons. Both were made into movies. The movie Cat in the Hat would give Stephen King nightmares, at least that’s what I think.
Neither of these movies comes close to capturing or even vaguely reproducing the appeal that Dr Seuss is associated with. Dr Seuss, famous for his rhymes said: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” Jim Carrey as the Grinch would have been more at home in a Vampire-manga than a Dr Seuss production.
Books you want to remember/ movies you want to forget.
The Lonesome Dove Series
We wrote quite a bit about this series in our recent Writing a Series-series. In Wild West terms, the mini-series is like a gunfighter armed with a water pistol. The hardness of the character Captain Call never makes its appearance. Call is someone who focuses on the task at hand. He sacrifices his girl, his child and his life, all for the sake of the mission.The man in the movies is nothing but a boy who should have been a telegraph operator or a store clerk. He is not even tough enough to be a barkeeper! This meekness characterizes the movies; the toughness of the West has been domesticated.
Spenser
The Spenser series of books were written by Robert B. Parker.
Spenser and his side-kick Hawk are played by Robert Urich and Avery Brooks. Robert Urich does not look like Spenser. Spenser was a professional boxer, with a repeatedly broken nose and scars on his face. Hawk is an extremely dangerous, physically strong and sexy man.
Robert Urich seems like he would be at home in GQ magazine. No offense to Mr Brooks, but, You ain’t no Hawk!
The whole book series is built around Spenser’s character and looks. Physically written Spenser creates a completely different image as Mr Urich.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Here we have a case of, It was a movie?
The book is a master piece. The characters, their foibles and fears are utterly real, even though earth has been destroyed and nearly everything happens in space.The movie never captures Douglas Adams‘ world. Marvin the Paranoid Android just is not Marvin. Arthur Dent is someone else.
As we have seen, sometime a book and movie can differ when it comes to the characters and the plot, and still be great. Other times the movie is great because it accurately represents the pictures in the mind of the author.
This movie does neither and fails horribly in the process. It is like seeing someone you love losing their life for nothing.
Orwell would have sued the producers of this movie, I bet! The writings of Mr Orwell reflected his “awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.”
According to Orwell, the book was against Stalin, the man and his policies. It was an outright, albeit allegorical, political statement. Both movie adaptations fell short. The 1954-version featured characters that reminds one of Disney, and features a happy ending.The 1999-version was aimed at children. It ended up being over simplified. It was not a hit with children or their parents.
“Just do it” is not always good advice. Sometimes you just shouldn’t!
Which book turned movies didn’t work for you?
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