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Writing the Survivor - Author Anupama Mohan on the Human Cost of Sexual Violence & her Book 'Where Mayflies Live Forever'.
The book has been on my mind ever since I read it, and I can't but think about domestic abuse, child molestation and rape cases where victims go on feeling stigmatized and victimized by a society that claims to be helping and supporting them. There are just too many questions on my mind and I'm so glad that Anupama is joining me in this conversation around her hard hitting book that's been receiving rave reviews since its launch. Hello Anupama. Thank you so much for joining me today
Anupama Mohan
@a980 · 5:00
When I first thought of the book, the very first idea that impelled the book was just someone running out of their house looking for some quiet. In fact, even today, the entire folder of draft of the novel is sitting in my computer under a very different title, which was the original title of the novel. It was called A Quiet Place, and that was always the first intention of a person running out of their own home looking for some quiet
I have never read a book in recent times that so vividly paints the bewildering maze that a sexually assaulted woman faces. In each one of the testimonies shared by Wayne's family members, there are visceral descriptions of the audio that she faced. You haven't shied away from depicting the realities of that scenarios. Could you perhaps talk a little bit about bringing those specific scenes to life while writing the story and how it was navigating and writing through those very sensitive topics?
Anupama Mohan
@a980 · 4:17
But at the same time, what I didn't want to do that is I so one of the things about the novel is how thick it is in its detail. But on this curious aspect, it remains rather silent. And I think there is a great deal of power in the art of suggestion. And here I leave it to the reader and the reader's imaginative and critical faculties to fill in the gaps of the testimonies and fill in the gaps of what even venue cannot articulate
Thank you so much for sharing that. Anupama as a reader, when I have been so profoundly touched by a book, I can only imagine the kind of exacting toll the writing would have taken on you. So yeah. Thank you so much. How would you hope that the character of Wayne and her story can add on to the conversation on what it is important to have more strong female driven narratives?
Anupama Mohan
@a980 · 4:45
And glass ceilings of various orders define the lives of women in different ways. And not just women, I suppose. We remember that no one identity comes to us impurity, and it intersects with so many other different coordinates of one social existence. So strong, female driven narratives tend to not have a certain kind of universal appeal. And that has always felt to me a kind of curious bind of the genre, but also of the way in which readerships have been shaped by male driven narratives
Oh, it absolutely does answer my question about having strong female driven narratives on a formal. So thank you so much for that. I think there's something about connecting with the earth and nature that harmonizes our internal rhythms, induces inner peace and recharges us. And this is an aspect you have brilliantly explored in the book. In fact, it is very sublime connection with nature that literally heals her from within. So is this a philosophy that you strongly believe in?
Anupama Mohan
@a980 · 4:46
By which I don't mean a necessarily religious or spiritual reading of life, but simply recognizing that given all the permutations and combinations possible in the universe, there is this one, which means that I am alive and you're alive and we are talking, and so much else is happening simultaneously on Earth. So that aspect was very important. It's true that people and you and I and people in general, we take from nature what soul is consolation and soul building is possible
Anupama Mohan
@a980 · 0:44
Thank you very much, Ramya, for this opportunity and for all the probing questions that you asked and that got me to think about the novel in new ways. I hope the listeners enjoy our tetateath and that they will read the novel for themselves to know more about Wayne. And thank you also for the offer to join well's growing community of readers and listeners. I'd be very happy to feature and to listen and to participate in any way that I can