Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Sara Suleri. Meatless Days. An engaging post-colonial memoir

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SARA SULERI, MEATLESS DAYS:
An engaging post-colonial memoir


I have read this memoir twice, and really enjoyed it. 


Sara grew up in Lahore, Pakistan, the daughter of a gentle Welshwoman, and an irascible Pakistani father (who had left his first wife, and first cousin, to marry her).


Her mother taught English, and presumably Sara grew up immersed in literature. I like her style, and twisted, contorted, almost Shakespearean diction.


Her memoir is elegiac, and imbued with sadness. Her beautiful and beloved sister Ifat was murdered (rumour said she was run over by her husband), her mother was also run over and killed. Her father was imprisoned. Tragedy stalked the family much as it did the Bhuttos.


But, through it all, runs vivid memories of a vivid childhood, her camera lovingly focusing on gol-guppas, the long wait to see the first sliver of moon at Ramadan, or the obscenities of Pakistani cuisine–she discovers a favourite dish is actually the balls of goats!! Her father, gently mocked, rebelled against, but loved and admired is the most vivid figure in the book.


Her memoir loving renders a third world childhood in a prose of her own, which owes much to the stylists of the English Renaissance, Thomas Browne, John Donne, and Mr. Shakespeare, of course. It is not an easy read, since she deliberately opts for a strange, pretzel like style–but it is a delicious and rewarding read. It is one of my favourite subcontinental memoirs. 






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Writing and Domesticity

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Writing and Domesticity


The two are natural enemies as Cyril Connolly observed in “The Enemies of Promise”! However, since housekeeping is inevitable for those of us whose mates are not up to it, and who would rather have peace and order and fewer pages than squalor, all that can be done is use the techniques of judo, and turn the opponent’s strength against him. Use the time spent in housekeeping to think, pray, listen to books on CD.


And there are resemblances. Getting a final draft is a no bull-shit time like decluttering a room–tidy it up, find a place for it, or out it goes.


You may be interested in my long essay on Domesticity and Writing 
at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wandering-Between-Two-Worlds-Essays/dp/0955373700/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283982806&sr=1-1

or on my website at www.anitamathias.com
http://www.anitamathias.com/Dom_Art.pdf






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The Uses of Blogging for a Writer

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Blogging, in my experience, is the very best way to break a writers’ block. It is a little like journalling, in that you write fast, with lower standards, suspending your inner critic. You write fast, and write a lot. And the habits of writing fast, writing fluently, translate over to one’s real writing.


Milton said he wrote prose “with his left hand.” If one is both a serious literary writer, and a blogger, one could view blogging as “left-hand writing” which one does partly to keep thinking, keep writing, keep one’s fingers nimble and ready to the task. 


I do my “real” writing so much more easily and confidently because, 6 days a week, I update my three blogs, 
wanderingbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com among them, and so have got used to writing fast, to the best of my ability. Not striving for perfection, but for a piece of writing which is “good enough.”

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The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

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The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean


We listened to this on CD during our holiday in France recently. We were mesmerized initially but the tale of misadventure and extreme polar suffering did pall eventually.


Splendid description of Antarctica. I met Geraldine McCaughrean at a Writers in Oxford/Society of Authors party in Oxford a couple of months ago, and asked her if she had been to Antarctica. “No,” she said, laughing and shaking her head, as if the suggestion were ridiculous.


That’s encouraging to me–that one can write such a vivid novel, based on research and imagination. 


She is evidently steeped in the literature of polar exploration –Scott, Shackleton, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Amundsen, Mawson. (Incidentally, all these five authors have been republished by the publishing company my husband and I own, Benediction Classics). I loved the seamless way she links this zany, doomed expedition with those of Scott, Cherry-Garrard, Amundsen and Shackleton. I particularly loved Shackleton’s quote in a letter to his wife when he turned back 97 miles from the Pole, “I thought you would rather have a live donkey than a dead lion!!”


All in all, a gripping thrilling young adult novel

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The Good Book Blog is in at #16 among the Top UK Literature blogs.

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Top 20 UK literature blogs – September

I am pleased to be in at #16.

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Want to write a novel in a month? Try Nanawrimo!

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This is in my calendar for 2011. What a great project! I have too many pots simmering on the fire, and not enough energy for this year, but am going to get into gear with ideas and research materials for next year. A date, anyone?

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2008, we had over 120,000 participants. More than 20,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
So, to recap:
What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.
Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!

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