...said feminist icon Germaine Greer in a conversation with Vikram Seth during the opening session of the Tata Literature Live! Mumbai LitFest
...said feminist icon Germaine Greer in a conversation with Vikram Seth during the opening session of the Tata Literature Live! Mumbai LitFest
After profusely apologising for the delay in starting the sixth edition of the Tata Literature Live! Mumbai LitFest (“It’s too popular,” he offered as the cause) festival director Anil Dharker welcomed on stage Vikram Seth and Germaine Greer to address the opening session titled, “Can books change the world ”.
Known to be a controversial name in the literary world, Greer started by saying that she is very reluctantly, after a lifetime of not wanting to do it, turning into a blogger because she is tired of being misquoted. While Vikram said that it was too difficult to name any book, Greer argued that it is in fact readers who make a book what it is. Her most popular work — The Female Eunuch — which she believes is far from her best effort, is what it is because people brought to it more than what she had intended — Fifty Shades of Grey is another example she cited. To which Vikram Seth promptly added, that Mein Kampf is another book that comes to mind. “It’s an awful book and I’m not saying it’s evil. It’s just a weird, sloppy book,” he said.
Then Greer went on to say that people in India are worried about freedom of speech in India right now, while they should have been worried all along. “We’re worried in India about free speech. We should always have been worried about free speech. Simply because we've never had it. People assume that we had something that amounted to it, but it didn’t. In England, the law of libel can silence almost anyone and truth is not a defence. The only defence is to have enough money to counter the libel suit.”
Speaking of validating the essence of a book, Greer continued, “The Nobel Prize commission has a political agenda and you’ve all probably guessed what it is. It’s communistic, anti-socialistic.” “R.K. Narayan should have won a Nobel prize,” she continued, adding, “If you’re saying that something is the greatest piece of prose in the 20th century, you might as well consider that case.”
The second session, titled Chacha Pe Charcha had Anil Dharker, Nayantara Sehgal, Arun Maira and Vir Sanghvi talking about Jawaharlal Nehru’s political aptitude — what you’d thank him for and what you think he’d have done differently in retrospect. Anil Dharker said that the man needs to appreciated for his secular views. “He promoted the idea of India as a democracy, a secular India. At a time when the wave of decolonisation hit and other countries collapsed, (secular) India survived,” he said. Of the things he’d do in retrospect, Anil said rather strongly, “Maybe fire Krishna Menon because of his acerbic nature! He rubbed people the wrong way. You don’t hire diplomats like that.”
STAGED It’s not just about books and all things connected to the printed word that is on offer at the Tata Literaure Live! Mumbai LitFest. In keeping with the previous years’ tradition, this ongoing edition will also see some spectacular live performances during the four days of the LitFest.
Highlights from the upcoming performances include:
Schlock! In the grand tradition of literary terrorism, Hannah Silva has ripped up her copy of Fifty Shades of Grey and now, surrounded with the crumpled pages and with the help of radical punk-pirate Kathy Acker, she attempts to put the female body back together. Schlock! premiered at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and is performed using British Sign Language, soundscapes and poetry.
On Friday, October 30 at 5 pm at the Experimental Theatre, NCPA
On Saturday, November 1 at 9 pm at the Prithvi Theatre, Juhu
SEA SICK Canadian science journalist and author, Alanna Mitchell, will take us through her award winning non-fiction book (of the same name) about the state of the world’s oceans and how we are altering its chemistry. In this captivating solo performance, she tells us about her journey to the bottom of the ocean, the demons she discovered there, and her hope for the future.
On Saturday, October 31 at 9 pm at the Prithvi Theatre, Juhu
On Sunday, November 1 at 5 pm at the Experimental Theatre, NCPA
When It Rains When the improbable happens, two couples are beset with misfortune, communication fractures, relationships crumble and behaviour becomes absurd. When It Rains is a play in the form of a live-action existential graphic novel. An award-winning production from one of Canada’s most heralded touring companies, When It Rains is performed by Anthony Black (playwright/director), Francine Deschepper, Pierre Simpson, Samantha Wilson.
On Saturday, October 31 at 8 pm at the Tata Theatre, NCPA
On Sunday, November 1 at 6.30 pm at the Prithvi Theatre, Juhu
Storm Still A perfect blend of literature, music and theatre, Storm Still is a reinterpretation of Peter Handke’s famous work, Immer Noch Sturm, a play about the Slovenian uprising against Hitler in 1945, where the past and the future collide in the present. Created and performed by actor Tanaji Dasgupta and musician Varun Kishore, this 70-minute Indian production is presented by the Kolkata unit of the Goethe-Institut.
On Friday, October 30 at 6.30 pm at the Godrej Theatre, NCPA
On Saturday, October 31 at 6.30 pm at the Prithvi Theatre, Juhu
ILA Inspired by Devdutt Pattnaik’s mythological story in The Pregnant King, Ila tells the story of a king who is cursed to spend half the month as a man and half as a woman. The play is set in the ladies compartment of a Mumbai local train, where the passengers share the story on their long journey home one evening.
On Saturday, October 31 at 6 pm at the Sunken Garden, NCPA
The River Runs Deep:Rhythm Divine II
Inspired by the work of Manipuri poet Saratchand Thiyam, this dance piece captures the soul of the North East with its juxtapositions of natural beauty and militant aggression, of lightning moves and glacial response, of the turbulence of politics and the calm pace of tradition. Using Pung drummers from Manipur, Astad Deboo and Manipuri martial art dancers create a work of delicate and lyrical beauty.
On Friday, October 30 at 8 pm at the Tata Theatre, NCPA
