Imagine that you are a writer and you want to write a novel. But you can’t decide what the theme should be. So, you ask your friends for suggestions. The following replies come in:
1. Your best friend from school suggests that you write about the girl you had huge crush on. She married someone else, but he has heard that she is now divorced. This rekindles your desire to somehow reconnect and see how she reacts.
It sounds like a safe and workable Mills and Boonish plot. But you doubt if this will get any male readership.
2. The above suggestion is leaked by your friend in your alumni WhatsApp group, and alumni groups being what they are, the guys soon put some masala into the story by reminding you that your old flame had an equally beautiful sister who seemed to be everyone’s heart throb, including that villainous bully who everyone was scared of.
“Even you, despite your feelings for her sister, were attracted to her. She’ll make a much better heroine”, they tease you.
This plot is certainly spicier than the last one and you think that this will appeal to both male and female readers.
3. Your friend from college who fancies himself as a shayar, replies complaining that no one wants to write about poets nowadays.
“Write a novel about a poet", he suggests, "Only a poet has the ability of injecting beauty and personifying the most commonplace of things. Your poet can write a poem about a snowflake. About its lonely and melancholic life as it descends slowly to the ground. Whilst in the air, despite its loneliness, it seems to dance with capricious spontaneity as it swirls in the breeze; its carefree abandon transfering the happiness it carries within its bosom to a the person watching its descent from his window. Its identity so unique and its crystalline beauty so pure that he can't but help feel elated at the sight. As it touches the ground it abnegates its identity but not its existence. It unites its soul with the souls of all other fallen snowflakes, continuing to bring happiness to a viewer looking at the snow-covered landscape. Isn't that a purposeful life? Wouldn't you want to have such a life? Wouldn't you want to have such a death?"
“Hmmm…if I write this about this kind of philosophical stuff will anyone even read it?”, you wonder.
4. A complete antithesis to your poetically inclined friend is his sister.
“Are you mad? Don’t listen to him”, she says referring to her brother. “There’s no market for such stuff poetic drivel these days. You should write about gender roles in society. Write about how we women are denied individuality in this male dominated society. We are not allowed to wear what we want nor are we allowed to think to think and act independently”
“Feminism again?”, you ask, “Hasn’t it been done to death?”
“Rapes and murders maybe yes”, she replies, “but a series of feminist suicides certainly not”
5. “Listen bro”, says a garrulous friend tagging you on your WhatsApp group. He’s a radical right-wing conservative and so you kind of guess what’s coming. “It’s time we showed these secular, westernised liberals where they get off”, he continues on expected lines, “A society is built on its traditional values and not on imported ideas.”
This instantly draws a rebuttal from the rival ideologues. And soon there is a virtual, political war zone on your screen.
You think it may be worth writing about political and social conflict. “This topic seems to have great currency, never fails to get attention, and everyone has a view. This would allow scope for throwing in some murders and police high handedness too”
6. Soon another suggestion pops into your inbox. It’s from your ex-colleague who now lives in New Jersey.
“You can’t be authentic unless you write about something which you have seen and lived yourself”, she says. “Try writing something which you personally relate to. It need not be a biography, but you must see yourself in your characters. They must in some way reflect you. And if, like Sage Vyas in Mahabharata or like Valmiki in Ramayana you can make a cameo appearance somewhere in the story, that'll be even better.”
7. “Dada, I just love Gabriel Marquez”, a Bengali friend from Kolkata messages you. "His magic realism is so captivating. Why don’t you write something ‘Marqeuz-esque’ – a bit absurd and dreamlike but written in esoteric, eloquent prose."
By now you are totally confused. This crowdsourcing of ideas seems to have backfired.
So, you now call your Turkish friend Orhan Pamuk for advice. He’s a great writer so he should be able to help. You tell him what you want to do and the suggestions you have received.
“They are all good ideas. Why don’t you write a novel with ALL the above ingredients”, says Orham.
“All of them, Orham? Are you nuts?”, you say incredulously. “I want to write an elegant book which people will like to read, not make a Chinese, tandoori dosa served with tomato ketchup”
“No, I’m serious” says Orham, “If you permit, I’ll write it and show you how it can be done.”
“Show me Orham” you say sceptically and put the phone down.
And Orham shows you how it is done. By writing the novel he called “Snow’.
"It’s a rapid fire story of love and jealousy and the pursuit of happiness, woven into the tapestry of violent conflicts enveloped in a blanket of snow.". Doesn’t make any sense? It won’t. Till you read the book.
No wonder Orham Pamuk got a Nobel Prize and you didn’t.
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My rating : 4 stars
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