JAIPUR: When American novelist JD Salinger sketched the first few novellas about the Glass family after the phenomenal success of the Catcher, he described them as a family of 'settlers' in twentieth-century New York. The connotation was hard to miss as it brought out an image of unchartered places and hardship. Salinger had spent years drawing characters into the Glass family but it was only in 1955, with the publication of 'Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters' that the members of Salinger's 'settlers' assembled as a unit. The New Yorker's editor William Shawn worked the year round with Salinger on this seminal work about the Glass family.
The World order has changed. And the literary scene has changed so dramatically that forget characters even authors do not like either the charge of being homeless or that of settlers and prefer the wider definition of 'Global Souls'. At the Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday, Pico Iyer, the British-born author of Indian origin who lives on a tourist visa in Japan, said home, increasingly, was a moving target, dependent on the friends that one made and the places that brought out a sense of belonging.
Agreeing with Iyer, Iranian American novelist Laleh Khadivi likened herself to the migratory bird that called home every place it has slept in. "I could almost say the entire Northern Hemisphere is my home," she said. It's their body of work, the authors believe, that stands enriched by being global souls. "It is as if there is this library in my head, from my many travels, that I draw from when I write. I wonder, sometimes, why people don't leave from their places," Khadivi added. Living away from one's country or city of birth, the authors agreed though, is not always by choice.
Physician-turned-author Abraham Verghese said circumstances forced him to leave Ethiopia, the country of his birth. "There was a civil war that broke out in the country as a result of which I was forced to move," he said. Pondicherry-based author Akash Kapur, who studied in the US, said being a global soul could also refer to living a life in exile. Though technology is increasingly bridging the gaps between continents and, in turn, people, Kapur also said he anticipated a more global people in the next 10 years.
Though most panelists agreed home was a changing concept, lawyer, author and travel writer Sadakat Kadri disagreed. "Home is important. I grew up in Britain in the 1970s when racism was a big issue. To define my identity, it was important to belong and I took comfort in saying I was from London."
If there are advantages of being global citizens, there are disadvantages too. Verghese said most migration was a result of economic forces and more migration was only normal. Salinger is gone and so have the times when authors like him (He almost lived like a hermit in his estate 20 miles west of Cornish, in Barnard, Vermont) could live and write about the dangers faced by 'settlers'. In a way, it's good news if a writer can feel at home wherever there is a typewriter.
New order: Global souls ‘displace’ settlers
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New order: Global souls ‘displace’ settlers
