Aamer Hussein, an author of Pakistani origin and one of the most prolific literary writers from South Asia, speaks on the intricacies of writing – as a form and as a career:
What is writing?
That's an impossible question. The need to go beyond ourselves, to explore new horizons, or to chronicle and recollect.
The difference between good and bad writing, highbrow and lowbrow?
Personally, I've enjoyed some low or middlebrow writers in my life. I grew up reading Ben Hur, Gone With the Wind, Rebecca and various books by Maugham and Christie as a child and a teenager. I think books can be good – as in enjoyable, entertaining – without being philosophically profound or delivering a moral message. And I find some of what passes as literature today, for example the recent work of Khalid Hosseini, quite middlebrow. Bad poetry is another matter, it's quite unbearable. Good fiction, I think, goes beyond the mere motive of telling a story: it aspires, perhaps, to music, painting or philosophy, and perhaps claims elements of all of these.
What is South Asian writing?
Whatever comes from the entire region, in any language. Then there are those of us who, though based elsewhere, continue to identify with literary or political aspects of it.
Are non-native speakers of English, the ones who write in English for a pan-western audience, judged/reviewed differently from western/native speaking writers?
I think it depends on the particular writer. I imagine they’re usually expected to deliver the political goods or at least unveil the societies they write about. I wonder whether that places an unconscious burden on the writer, as though s/he’s constantly aware of a presence hovering behind. I’ve read indigenous writers who are much, much less concerned with being representative.
What is your writing process like? And your editing process?
When a story takes hold of me, it usually comes very, very fast. A first draft’s usually done in a day or two, though there are stories I’ve abandoned for months. I can write nearly non-stop for hours, though, stopping only for a coffee or a cigarette. The editing process is what I probably enjoy best. It can be as long as the time that’s given me to edit, as I usually write to editorial deadlines.
Can writing be taught?
I’ve never attended a writing class as a student. I learnt from reading. As a teacher, I can suggest subjects and structural changes, locate the particular strengths of individual writers, and above all teach students to polish and edit their own words and pay close attention to the words of others.
As someone who identifies himself as Muslim, do you think Islam is judged differently?
From Christianity? The discourse has been hijacked by leagues of bigots on both sides, I’m afraid. But there are some intelligent commentators, both Muslim and not, who continue to try to cast light on obscure issues. Critical Muslim, a journal for which I write, is part of a project of clarification and reclamation.
Do you feel that you need to defend your religion in a way that others don't?
I don’t know about others, but there are elements of my religious heritage – philosophical, aesthetic, metaphysical – that are an integral part of my mental landscape, and often my writing portrays those elements, obliquely or directly, depending on its genre.
Why do you write?
Usually because I feel I owe it to someone, sometimes because I have material stored up, very rarely because I feel an urgent need to put something on paper, and never if I have nothing to say.
What advice would you give to a young Aamer Hussein if he were starting out in 2015?
Do something else! No, at present I’m mentoring a young writer – find a guide who understands what you’re doing, and don’t be in a hurry for money or success. And keep your day job!
Is writing a wise career choice?
I think writing is a vocation, not a career.
Why do so many people want to become writers?
I wonder. Glamour? Fame? Fortune? All hard to come by. Perhaps a real love of books, and wanting to be part of a world of books?
What are some of the challenges that a writer from the subcontinent faces?
Finding the right publisher.
Can you elaborate?
That's a hard question. I started writing in the West, with Western influences, and only gradually became aware of my identity as an Asian writer. Options were fairly limited at the start; my writing wasn't immediately considered 'accessible' in the west once I'd found my voice. And I wouldn't say the early years of my career were full of encouragement or ease, there were no magic wands or fairy godparents around. Life's different now, with the virtual world making it easier for anyone who wants to become a writer to publish, in some rudimentary form.
How do you react to reviews?
Usually with unconcern, sometimes with laughter, occasionally with surprise that I’ve been made aware of something I didn’t know about my own stories.
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What is writing?
That's an impossible question. The need to go beyond ourselves, to explore new horizons, or to chronicle and recollect.
The difference between good and bad writing, highbrow and lowbrow?
Personally, I've enjoyed some low or middlebrow writers in my life. I grew up reading Ben Hur, Gone With the Wind, Rebecca and various books by Maugham and Christie as a child and a teenager. I think books can be good – as in enjoyable, entertaining – without being philosophically profound or delivering a moral message. And I find some of what passes as literature today, for example the recent work of Khalid Hosseini, quite middlebrow. Bad poetry is another matter, it's quite unbearable. Good fiction, I think, goes beyond the mere motive of telling a story: it aspires, perhaps, to music, painting or philosophy, and perhaps claims elements of all of these.
What is South Asian writing?
Whatever comes from the entire region, in any language. Then there are those of us who, though based elsewhere, continue to identify with literary or political aspects of it.
Are non-native speakers of English, the ones who write in English for a pan-western audience, judged/reviewed differently from western/native speaking writers?
I think it depends on the particular writer. I imagine they’re usually expected to deliver the political goods or at least unveil the societies they write about. I wonder whether that places an unconscious burden on the writer, as though s/he’s constantly aware of a presence hovering behind. I’ve read indigenous writers who are much, much less concerned with being representative.
What is your writing process like? And your editing process?
When a story takes hold of me, it usually comes very, very fast. A first draft’s usually done in a day or two, though there are stories I’ve abandoned for months. I can write nearly non-stop for hours, though, stopping only for a coffee or a cigarette. The editing process is what I probably enjoy best. It can be as long as the time that’s given me to edit, as I usually write to editorial deadlines.
Can writing be taught?
I’ve never attended a writing class as a student. I learnt from reading. As a teacher, I can suggest subjects and structural changes, locate the particular strengths of individual writers, and above all teach students to polish and edit their own words and pay close attention to the words of others.
As someone who identifies himself as Muslim, do you think Islam is judged differently?
From Christianity? The discourse has been hijacked by leagues of bigots on both sides, I’m afraid. But there are some intelligent commentators, both Muslim and not, who continue to try to cast light on obscure issues. Critical Muslim, a journal for which I write, is part of a project of clarification and reclamation.
Do you feel that you need to defend your religion in a way that others don't?
I don’t know about others, but there are elements of my religious heritage – philosophical, aesthetic, metaphysical – that are an integral part of my mental landscape, and often my writing portrays those elements, obliquely or directly, depending on its genre.
Why do you write?
Usually because I feel I owe it to someone, sometimes because I have material stored up, very rarely because I feel an urgent need to put something on paper, and never if I have nothing to say.
What advice would you give to a young Aamer Hussein if he were starting out in 2015?
Do something else! No, at present I’m mentoring a young writer – find a guide who understands what you’re doing, and don’t be in a hurry for money or success. And keep your day job!
Is writing a wise career choice?
I think writing is a vocation, not a career.
Why do so many people want to become writers?
I wonder. Glamour? Fame? Fortune? All hard to come by. Perhaps a real love of books, and wanting to be part of a world of books?
What are some of the challenges that a writer from the subcontinent faces?
Finding the right publisher.
Can you elaborate?
That's a hard question. I started writing in the West, with Western influences, and only gradually became aware of my identity as an Asian writer. Options were fairly limited at the start; my writing wasn't immediately considered 'accessible' in the west once I'd found my voice. And I wouldn't say the early years of my career were full of encouragement or ease, there were no magic wands or fairy godparents around. Life's different now, with the virtual world making it easier for anyone who wants to become a writer to publish, in some rudimentary form.
How do you react to reviews?
Usually with unconcern, sometimes with laughter, occasionally with surprise that I’ve been made aware of something I didn’t know about my own stories.
