THE STATE
Features
Q&A -- SHAUNA SINGH BALDWIN
by Robin Nalepa
Published on: 09/28/2007
Section: WEEKEND
Edition: FINAL
"Caught in the Creative Act: Writers Talking about Writing"
A WOMAN OF WORDS and the world, author Shauna Singh Baldwin explores human stories of religious, political and cultural oppression set in India. Baldwin will speak Wednesday about her awardwinning novels, including "What the Body Remembers" and "The Tiger Claw" at the "Caught in the Creative Act: Writers Talking about Writing" event at USC. We exchanged e-mails with the author about responsibility, pain and happiness.
What, if any, responsibility do you feel to tell the stories of women from parts of the world where their value is viewed differently than in the West?
My first responsibility is to entertain, using that first form of virtual reality: the story. My fiction rises from areas of silence and hypocrisy, which can be found anywhere in the world. A woman -- or a man -- can be devalued anywhere, depending on how her/his gender, race and socio-economic group is perceived.
How do you think your books can help others understand the complexities of race, religion and politics? Are your books more relevant in the current world political climate?
I'm attracted to people on the periphery, who often have different points of view from the official versions of history, economics and politics. Also people who straddle cultures and become reluctant rebels. Even when I don't agree with them, their situations allow me to explore complexity and paradox, and I hope my readers will join me in armchair travel and simulation.
What one piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Write the book that only you can write.
And if you would indulge us, please answer these three questions from Proust ...
What is your most marked characteristic?
Ambivalence.
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
To be unable to imagine the pain of another, and thus to be unable to love.
What is your dream of happiness?
I'm with my husband -- maybe we're out to breakfast. He's reading aloud from a book of philosophy. Then I read to him from a superb and moving novel. We discuss, as I sip from a cup of fine Darjeeling and at intervals, I pen a fleeting thought in my notebook. And there's a moment in the dream when I suddenly know everyone in the world can read and write, and not merely in English. What a dream!
-- Robin Cowie Nalepa
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IF YOU GO
WHO: Shauna Singh Baldwin, author of "What the Body Remembers" and "The Tiger Claw" and Commonwealth prize winner for literature
WHEN: Book lecture led by Janette Turner Hospital is at 5:45 p.m. Monday; author visit at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday; spring session starts March 17 and will include visits from Joyce Carol Oates and Salman Rushdie.
WHERE: Gambrell Hall, USC
COST: Free
