Neela Vaswani - Where The Long Grass Bends

Author Asks

Questions:

1) Structure and form interest me—the architecture of a story. I try to experiment and find new ways to organize narrative. In which stories do you see this at work? How do you think language affects the stories? How do you feel about encountering words from languages other than English? How do you think space, silence, and line breaks affect the structure of these stories, the way words are used?

2) Discuss the creation and representation of "family" (what/who is family?) in the stories.

a) How is love represented in the stories? How do these families love; how do they express their love?

3) Do you know the race/ethnicity of Eve in "The Pelvis Series?" Why do you think I chose not to state her race/ethnicity directly or initially? (This occurs in other stories as well—in terms of sexuality and race). How do authors generally let a reader know the race/ethnicity of a character? How are characters usually "marked" racially/ethnically in literature? Does this seem similar to the way people are "marked" racially/ethnically in "real life?" In the media? Ask these same questions in terms of sexuality.

a) How does culture affect or not affect the characters of these stories? How does race/ethnicity affect or not affect them—who they are, their perspectives, how they live and think?

4) "Blue, Without Sorrow," "Bolero," "The Pelvis Series," "The Excrement Man," etc. begin with the main characters as children and follow them through to adulthood. Do the child versions of the characters resemble the adult versions? Why do you think a writer would choose to illuminate a character first as a child, and then as an adult?

5) How do religion and/or belief systems affect these characters? Which characters in particular do you feel are shaped by their belief systems?

6) Discuss the role of animals in the stories.

7) I am always surprised when people describe my stories as "magical." Personally, I accept things that are sometimes considered "magic" as part of reality. Many of my characters also accept realities that are infused with "magic." Find and discuss occurrences of "accepted magic" or "magic" as a reality for a character or particular story. What do you personally accept as "magic" in your own version of reality?

a) Without using the words "exotic" or "mystical" or "magical" describe the stories in this collection. Can you think of a reason why someone would have prickly feelings towards these words—"exotic" in particular? What do these words mean to you? What/who is usually described this way in literature, television, movies, the media?

8) I write frequently about marginal experience; my characters are often people at the fringes of society for reasons of personality, in-betweeness, culture, etc. Which characters, if any, seem to you to be outside of "the norm" and in what ways do they seem "unusual" or "different" to you? Which characters, if any, seem to you to fit inside "the norm?" What is "the norm" to you?

9) Discuss the interaction of women and men in the stories. Are female/male relations depicted similarly or differently in each story? Discuss how the female and male characters seem to view gender and sexuality.

10) Many of my stories travel long distances. How do you think place and global movement affect the structures of the stories? How does dis/relocation affect or not affect the characters? How does varied movement in terms of place and time affect your reading of the stories?

11) Someone once commented on how my characters often come together in unexpected ways. Felix and Ilona of "Bolero" go from being strangers to being closely connected in a matter of minutes—through a seemingly "wordless" communication. Elizabeth of "Where the Long Grass Bends" encounters the Colonist, Jarasandha, and the rebel leader in random, chance meetings. Many characters do not actively speak to each other; they simply have an understanding or mental/emotional connection. How does this resemble (or not resemble) human interactions as you know them? How does this resemble (or not) human interactions in other creative venues—other books, movies, television?

12) With first person stories, writers often have an idea of "why now; why now is this character speaking? Why now is this character choosing to tell their story?" What do you think the "why now" is for the first person narrators of "Where the Long Grass Bends," "Twang (Release)," "Blue, Without Sorrow," "An Outline of No Direction," and "The Rigors of Dance Lessons?"

a) Why do you think I chose to use both first and third person in "Possession at the Tomb...?"



Pick a time and space from the above list and write a short story ranging from three paragraphs to three pages in length. Take a character and place them in one of the above spaces. Do not let the character physically leave this space for the duration of the story. Remember to allow your character to be affected (their emotions, actions, thoughts, what they see, smell, taste, hear) by the place they are in. Force the timeline of the story to fit into one of the above times. For example: write a story about a person in a closet for a week. Or a dog in a submarine for an hour. Or a skeleton in an empty field for a century.

2) Take a story about your familial history—something about your parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc. and turn it into a fictional short story between three and fifteen pages in length.

An alternative:

Think of a myth or fable (such as Persephone and the seasons, Birbal the Wise, Babe the Blue Ox, or something culturally relevant to you) and "recast" the narrative. Try to mold the general "plot" and "characters" to a contemporary setting—one that is familiar to you.