arundati roy
TRANSCRIPT
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Arundhati Roy--Biography
My mother says that
some of the incidents in
the book are based on
things that happened
when I was two years
old. I have no
recollection of them.But obviously, they
were trapped in some
part of my brain.
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Arundhati Roy
The God of Small Things
Pinchia Feng
NCTU
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Arundhati Roy-- childhood
born as Suzanna Arundhati Roy on11/24/1961
mother--Mary Roy (Christian)--a well-
known social activist, ran an informalschool (Corpus Chrisiti )
father (a Bengali Hindu tea planter)
uncle--George Issac (owned the Palat
Pickles--the slogan: Emperor in the
realm of taste)
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Arundhati Roy--childhood
feeling of insecurity because of the
broken marriage--on the edge of the
community (GSMp.60)
When I think back on all the things I
have done I think from a very early age,
I was determined to negotiate with the
world on my own. There were no
parents, no uncles, no aunts; I was
completely responsible for myself."
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Adult Life and Career
left home at 16 and lived in a squatterscolony in Delhi
The Delhi School of Architecture
marriage (Gerard Da Cunha)--divorced after4 years
a role inMassey Saab
The Banyan Tree--TV series screenplay--In Which Annie Gives It Those
Ones /Electric Moon
a critique ofBandit Queen
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Kerala and the Meenachil river
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Influence ofKerala
A lot of the atmosphere of A God of SmallThings is based on my experience of what it
was like to grow up in Kerala. Most
interestingly, it was the only place in the
world where religions coincide, there isChristianity, Hinduism, Marxism and Islam
and they all live together and rub each other
down. When I grew up it was the Marxismthat was very strong, it was like the
revolution was coming the next week.
To me, I couldnt think of a better location
for a book about human beings.
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The Rural Environment
I think the kind of landscape that you grewup in, it lives in you. I dont think its true
of people whove grown up in cities so
much, you may love building but I dontthink you can love it in the way that you
love a tree or a river or the colour of the
earth, its a different kind of love. Im not a
very well read person but I dont imagine
that that kind of gut love for the earth can
be replaced by the open landscape.
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The God of Small Things
Completed in May 1996
published in 4/4/1997 by
Random House
the Booker Price--Oct. 1997
(Indias 50th anniversary of
independence)--the first
non-expatriate Indian authorand the first Indian woman
to win the price
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Arundhati on Writing the Novel
inspiration--the image of this sky bluePlymouth stuck at the railroad crossing with
the twins inside and this Marxist procession
raging around it
so much of fiction is a way of seeing, of
making sense of the worldand you need a
key of how to begin to do that. This was
just a key. For me (the novel) was fiveyears of almost unchanging and mutating,
and growing a new skin. Its almost like a
part of me.
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Biology and Transgression
I have to say that my book is not
about history but biology and
transgression. And, in fact is that
YOU CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND
THE NATURE OF BRUTALITYUNTIL YOU SEE WHAT HAS BEEN
LOVED BEING SMASHED. And the
book deals with both things--it dealswith our ability to be brutal as well as
our ability to be so deeply intimate and
so deeply loving.
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The Title
To me the god of small things is theinversion of God. Gods a big thing and
Gods in control. The god of small
thingswhether its the way the childrensee things or whether its the insect life in
the book, or the fish or the stars--there is a
not accepting of what we think of as adult
boundaries. This small activity that goes onis the under life of the book, All sorts of
boundaries are transgressed upon.
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Its a story that examines things very
closely but also from a very, very
distant point, almost from geologicaltime and you look at it and see a
pattern there. A patternof how in
these small events and in these smalllives the world intrudes. And because
of this, because of people being
unprotectedthe world and the socialmachine intrudes into the smallest,
deepest core of their being and changes
their life.--a last minute title
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Characters
The Ipe family
Papachi (Benaan John)--Mammachi (Shoshamma)
Margaret--Checko Ammu (1942-73)--Baba
Sophie Mol Esthappen Yako (Estha) RachelBaby Kochamma (Navomi Ipe)
the Untouchables: Vellya Paapen Velutha Paapen
Comrade K. N. M. Pillai
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Language and Structure
Repetition I love, and used because it made me
feel safe. Repeated words and phrases have
rocking feeling, like a lullaby. They help take
away the shock of the plot.
...for me the book is not about what happenedbut about how what happened affected people.
in some way the structure of the book
ambushes the story. In the first chapter I moreor less tell you the story, but the novel ends in
the middle of the story.--p.32 Suddenly they
become the bleached bones of a story.
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Syrian Christian Community
less than 5% of Indians population
more than 20%-1/3 in Kerala are
Christians
the Syrian Church is one of the
oldest branches of Christianity--came to India with St. Thomas in
52 CE.
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Controversy England--derivative--about India
India--communist critique from E M S
Namboodiripad--Anybody who attacks
Communists anywhere in the world will be
welcomed by the captains of the industry ofbourgeois literature in the world. + sexual
anarchy
+ obscenity case--Sabu Thomas-- affront Indiantradition, culture, and morality; excites sexual
desires and lascivious thoughts; hurts the
Syrian Christian community
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Women in Kerala
Relative freedom for women in Kerala
assertive, energetic, courageous
women
instances of patriarchal oppression
How are the women being
characterized in the novel?
(Mammachi, Baby Kochamma, Ammu,
Rahel)
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Timeline 1969--communist march (p.62-69);
Sophie Mols visit, death, and funeral;
Ammu and Velutha; Veluthas death
1973--Ammus death (31), p.5 aviable die-able age
1992--the narrative present--Estha
(the quietness, re-Returned); Rahel(divorced, back for the States); Baby
Kochamma (satellite TV and diary)
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Children--Two-Egg Twins P.4-5 In those early amorphous years when
memory had only just begun, when life was full
ofBeginnings and no Ends, and everything was
Forever, Esthappen and Rahel thought of
themselves together as Me, and separately, asWe orUs. As though they were a rare breed of
Siamese twins, physically separate, but with
joint identities.--now she thinks of Esthaand Rahel as Them, because, separately, the two
of them are no longer what They were or
thought Theydbe.--p.81-82
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Chapter 2 (1)
time: 12/1969 (the day before SophieMols arrival)
place: Ayemenem-----Cochin
pop culture: The Sound of Music (1965);Elvis puff, Love-in-Tokyo p.37
language: p.37 Malayalam vs English
(PreNUNsea ayshun--example ofsmall transgression)/ cuff-link p.50
p.38 the Terror--p.74
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Chapter 2 (2) Ammu--life had been lived p.38-44 Unsafe
Edge (p.44)
The fate of the wretched man-less woman. (p.
44-5)
Paradise Pickles & Preserves
Mammachis pickles (and violin) vs
Pappachis moth (p.48)--colonized/ power and
knowledge
other (post)colonial issues: CCP and
Anglophile p.50-51
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History
The History House (p.51-54)
Chackos--an old house at night. (p.51)
childrens--Kari-Saipus house
--in 1990s: Toy Histories for rich tourists to play
in. Like the sheaves of rice in Josephs dream,like a press of eager natives petitioning an English
magistrate, the old houses had been arranged
around the History House in attitudes of deference.Heritage, the hotel was called. (p.120)
geological time: the Earth woman (p.52)
K
urtz and the Heart of Darkness
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Symbolic Language--questions
Rahels watch (p.37) frogs (p.42)
Chacko--airplanes and pickle baron (p.55-56)
reading backwards--Satan in their eyes (p.58)
ambulance (Sacred Heart Hospital) and wedding
party (p.58)
Murlidharans keys and cupboards, clutteredwith secret pleasure (p.61)
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Marxism in Kerala
The first Communist government in the
world was elected in Kerala in 1957, and
from then on it became a big power to
contend with. I think in '67 the
government returned to power after
having been dismissed by Nehru, and so
in '69 it was at its peak. And it was as if
revolution was really just around the
corner. + (GMSp.64-65)