April 19, 2006
The narcissist principleLiterature
I recently checked out How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life at Crossword, a Barnes & Noble-like Indian chain with Barista-style upstairs cafés. The book is chick lit for teens, and the Indian cover interprets that so literally it shows a girl carrying both strappy heels and a stack of textbooks.
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UK/India cover |
The cover model for the UK/India edition could be desi, but her look is more toward the white end of the spectrum. Nor is Opal a common desi name. If I recall correctly (and I may be wrong — will double-check), there’s no mention of Mehta’s desi origins on the cover or in the official blurb (though the blurb for industry buyers is more accurate). Her desi-ness has been excised as neatly as was the turbaned actor from the Life Aquatic poster. To a casual browser it would almost certainly seem that Opal Mehta was just another white character, albeit with a funny last name.
I’m of two minds about this. In one sense it’s wonderful and somewhat subversive to have a desi character where her ethnicity isn’t made an issue. But in this story, surely Mehta’s upper-middle-class, post-‘65 desi American-ness is a key reason why her parents are obsessive about her academic life. The plot summary reads like a parody of Asian American parental pushiness. That she’s desi seems integral to the plot.
Not that this is the author’s fault. New authors have famously little say over the trade dress of the product, though later Rushdie books have conspicuously avoided sari covers. (One of the worst: a hardcover of former BBC India correspondent Mark Tully’s book The Heart of India; it has that overbroad title, a garish, hot pink cover, a woman in a sari and a border smothered in garlands.)
The narcissist principle, the desire to interact with people similar to you, drives a lot of book covers and advertising and a lot of this blog. It can be limiting, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. It only becomes objectionable when the work is misrepresented, the work caters to Neanderthal conquest fantasies, or the aspirations being pitched are inherently colonialist.
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U.S. cover: Mughal arches, fabric theme |
The principle is so widely understood that when it’s violated, it’s worth decoding why. In Bombay, ad campaigns often include random white people. A clothing campaign currently features a preppy-looking white guy in suit and tie smiling sheepishly at two hunched-over grandmas in saris. Another shows white people hovering pre-coitally around ice cream. This puzzled me at first. Then it struck me that white models are used in two kinds of advertising: aspirational and sexual.
White models are used in luxury ads because many Indians still aspire to wealthy, civilized, English babu-dom. Conversely, they’re used in bikini ads and ads with sexual double entendres because Western culture is associated with louche sexuality. Using white models both conveys a sheen of sex appeal and lets you show more skin than many Indian models would be comfortable with. It’s a kind of reverse colonialism, and it’s the same schizophrenia about Western liberalism you see in Saudi Arabia, only to a lesser degree.
Related post: Waris’ star turn, The subway series, Buzzword bingo, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, Girls, Girls, Girls
manish on April 19, 2006 02:25 AM in Literature, Musings · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
Using white models both conveys a sheen of sex appeal and lets you show more skin than many Indian models would be comfortable with
sure, without white ppl where would we get porn? asian porn is only appropriate as a "change up."
The narcissist principle, the desire to interact with people who are similar to you, drives a lot of book covers and advertising and a lot of this blog.
yeah, but there's a happy medium. how hoppin' a party that's just a schlong-fest :)
"...the Indian cover interprets that so literally it shows a girl carrying both strappy heels and a stack of textbooks."
I thought it was rude to have your feet or shoes touch books and stationery etc. I always got told off by my parents and to this day make sure I don't, but then again...a white model...hmmmmm....
Also the name of the author should sorta give the hint that it's at least written by an Indian if not the character herself is...
Difficult to get mangoes, curries, elephants and the whole arranged marriage rigmarole into the story with a title like that :p
Has anyone here read the book?? The amazon review gives it 1 on 5.
Nice post. So why are you a techie? I imagine the stuff under your mattresses wasn't porn, it was Rushdie novels and journals on literary criticism...
the LA times gave this book a bad review. likely will not buy/read it.
Here is a desi review from a random dude:
Pathetic attempt at chick lit..., April 6, 2006
Reviewer: A reader (london, england)
About a third of the novel is product placement for various make up brands, deisgners and teen TV series. the rest is full of stereotype characters stolen form The OC. The only original parts of the plot and its' USP (ie how an Indian girl in the US copes with teen-mall culture) is incorrect. For a start the Mehta family would be Gujratis-not from Chennai where Kaavya's own family probably come from. Secondly the names of the uncles and aunts are stolen from Bollywood film stars (Reka btw is a South Indian name not something a Mehta would use). Kali is the hindu goddess of destruction and death-which parent would call their child that? it's like a WASP parent naming their daughter Medusa! the hindi is also incorrect: case in point when one of her aunts is upset at being called a 'houri'. Kaavya dahling 'houri' is usually preced by the word 'Jannat' which means heaven-houri's are not the Hindi phenetic equivalent of the english word whore but rather 'houris' are the most perfect, beautiful women of heaven. why would any woman who knows hindi complain about that? I think asian parents will read this book and see what happens when a young girl has completely lost her own culture and thinks American culture can be found in a teen magazine. throw in a few quotes from a physics book and u think this is a novel? It's very bad chick lit and both Kaavya and her publishers should be ashamed to be associated with it. God help us if there's a sequel-more inconsistent and inocrrect views of asian culture will abound! Bend it like beckham worked because the Asian cultural aspects were so correctly portrayed along with women's football. Kaavya should be sued by The OC and Vogue and Elle and every other fashion and teen magazine. she stole everything!
Thanks, and sadly enough... :)
Transmission by Hari Kunzru, now there's a nice novel minus mangoes.
I wonder if she chose Mehta because it's less visually (and otherwise) threatening than say...Balasubramaniam, Mukherjee or Ahluwalia. Compared to those, "Mehta" is a much more friendly version of ethnic. Maybe "Mehta" was the only desi name which would work for this situation. Would people pick up this book if the protag had been named "Opal Patel"? Would "Opal Shah" summon thoughts of Iran, a country we're hardly fans of? I'm trying to think of other ubiquitous desi surnames (paging: Razib), the only others which come to mind are "Singh" and maybe "Gandhi" or "Reddy". Wrt the last two, "Gandhi" is obviously out of the question and "Reddy" doesn't sound brown enough to the uninitiated. As for "Opal"...I have no idea why or where that comes from and I have fleeting hopes that it's explained in the book. It's not like she's Malayalee, that would explain everything. ;)
Maybe it's because it's easier to pronounce (and spell) from a non-desi point of view, or at least that may be the assumption.
I skipped thru the book which obviously isn't geared towards me but was curious about the hype. I found so much verbal mayhem it could only have come from a young confused mind. 20 words were used where 2 would have been sufficient. It was very Disney Hillary Duffish with much too much Sex and the City imagery thrown in for good measure. Shit I didn't discover or know of Pradas till I started earning. Maybe high school kids are different now. There was some smart and sometimes misplaced political pop culture mentions in the book as well, thrown in for good measure.
But the one thing that annoyed (the desi in) me the most about the book was the lack of research that went into the names/cultures/background of Opal Mehta. The language wasn't just confused it was misplaced. A non desi wouldn't notice, heck even many desis may not notice, especially with that genra readers. Kaavya is obviously at least half South Indian (Viswanathan) so the Gujju stuff thrown in didn't always jive.
OK an aside...this perked my interest when I looked up what Crossword was:
Manish, There's a good bookstore called "Strand Books" somewhere north of Flora Fountain in central Bombay you might also check out.
It's not anywhere near as big as the Strand in New York, but there's an impressive collection nonetheless. (But no cafe.)
As for Opal Mehta, I'm waiting for the sequel: How Opal Mehta Got Married, Settled Down, and Got Boring Again. That's more my speed ;-)
Amardeep - you forgot the middle book "Where Opal Mehta decides to whine endlessly about whether to get an arranged marriage"
or....the end to the trifecta: how opal mehta online dated, went to marriage conventions, and ultimately opted to adopt a child on her own... the calista flockhart sydrome.
i'm guju and i have a guju aunt whose name is rekha *shrug*
actually i know a lot of north indian rekhas.
or does reka not equal rekha.
*shrug*
although i do agree that naming someone "kali" is a little weird.
I haven't read the book ... but do you think the reviews are a bit harsh because the reviewers aren't in the target age group? I'm assuming none of us are in high school, so I'm sure we won't be able to relate to her characters. I'd love to hear opinions from high schoolers.
Can I say how disturbingly skinny the girls on the cover(s) are? Check out the elbow on the model in the UK cover.
Replying to Anna's comments, I think Mathew wouldn't be bad at all. Opal Mathew kinda sounds cool too ;), But then it will make her a Malayalee or you will atleast think she is Malayalee.
Regarding names, I think times are different now and you see very less traditional Indian Names used, although some do like to have traditional names just so they can carry their Indian Heritage over. I haven't read the book, but if the character is being set in a location lets say outside India or even Modern cities in India comming from an upper middle clas family, the name Opal fits right in as it depicts the upper middle class "Modern" indian family's desire to be ultra modern and name their kids "cool" western names.
You also have to consider the author here. Amercian Desi from Harvard, I think she is still in her teens, who got $500000 and a two book contract even before she was ever published. She has big shoes to fill and I am sure she has made the book as interesting as possible and made it appealing to Mass audience other than just Desi's. She even claimed both her works will be "fictional". She will definitely add in experiences from life which usually every author does, especially being so young she has will definately have to rely on her personal experiences and take on life, but I dont think the book will depict her life per say.
Isn't there a law that limits the number of chick-lit genre books that can be published in a year. Well, there should be.
The hostility against her here is weird. It's just chick lit for teens. Why all the anger and dissing? She's too stereotypically Indian. She's not Indian enough. She's this. She's that. You guys are worse than TOI.
And the analysis of the Opal Mehta cover is completely paranoid, in my opinion. Maybe it's not Opal Balasubramanian because, uh, that's not the character's name.
Are you going to change your last name because it's not difficult enough for Westerners to pronounce?
Chill pill, people.
Nope. It's just a name.
I read the book a while ago. The book is very one dimensional--but no different or better or worse from other books in the teen chick-lit genre (i.e. Gossip Girl, The Clique, The A-List). Opal's Indian-ness is, IMO, *not* integral to the plot. She could have been any girl of any race with obsessive parents. The only time her Indian-ness is relevant is when the author needs to drop words like "sari" or "biriyani."
I do, however, think there were one or two scenes in the book that were interesting, and I wonder if that was the direction she wanted to go with the book, rather than the "packaged" version she ended up with. (I've read in several articles that she just pitched the idea and wrote a frist draft, and that the "book" was shaped in-house at Alloy [her packaging company] or Little, Brown [her publisher]).
P.
Many businesses in Chennai are owned by Gujaratis and Marwaris. I agree that Mehta family can be Gujarati (or Punjabi) but why cant they be from Chennai?? Whats the big deal?
I agree that Mehta family can be Gujarati (or Punjabi) but why cant they be from Chennai??
Yes, Why not even Parsi from Mumbai (example, Zubin Mehta)?
I do agree with ANNA on why a phonetically simple name was chosen for a chick-lit novel? You do not want high schoolers get to caught up in difficult details? There is nothing wrong with tactic though? In every profession - we make things for easy consumption - even in Science.
kai kya,
u go girl!
Can I say how disturbingly skinny the girls on the cover(s) are? Check out the elbow on the model in the UK cover.
I concur.
I read somewhere that Steven Spielberg has acquired the movie rights for this novel.
I'm in agreement with Pooja (#22) and Kai Kya (#21) - it just chick lit, TEEN chick lit at that (which, after working in the children's/young adult section of a bookstore I can say with authority, is depressingly bad.) I don't think that we should even hope to expect much of it.
if you want a truly horrific teen/chick lit book, try Born Confused, which as i found, flipping thru the book on a break one day, is rife with over generalizations, bad puns (DJ Gulab Jammin' for instance), and all over bad prose.
maya:
agree COMPLETELY with 'born confused..' that book was crap...i think i read 10 pages and had enough of the stupid puns.. pretty patehtic writing... if that can get published...anything can...
More crappy chick-lit. Whats new?
On a higher note, thank God Maddox is finally coming out with his book, The Alphabet of Manliness. The antidote to bad chick-lit that oozes out of book stores like cheese from Pizza Da Hut. The day it was announced for pre-sales on Amazon, it hit #1, which is unheard of. Thankfully, due to the internet, publishers are finally giving the male demographic some notice.
It is amazing how much some of these writers get paid. There is a novel coming out in the UK soon called Londonstani by an Indian guy called Gautam Malkani for which he was reputedly paid £380,000, which in US dollar terms is way over half a million. Damn. Either I write a novel or rob a bank. Maybe I can rob a bank and then write a novel about it. How Black Belt Jones Robbed a Bank to Pay For His Arranged Marriage. Stick a mango on the cover and that's it. Booker Prize here I come.
Re:
"...The hostility against her here is weird. It's just chick lit for teens. Why all the anger and dissing? She's too stereotypically Indian. She's not Indian enough. She's this. She's that. You guys are worse than TOI...."
While there may be a tendency to overanalyze, I think everyone has a perfect right to comment. I mean it IS entertainment, and everyone always has an opinion about entertainment. Plus, she was hyped in a lot of magazines and newspapers (brown included), so it's understandable that people will have even more expectations.
here's the first chapter, on the publisher's site. i think it's cute.
peace
It is only modestly better than the exceptionally ill-conceived "Born Confused"
Kali visits destruction - and not death but effects rebirth - when all the other deities have failed (or granted boons to malcontents unthinkingly like Shiva and Brahma always do). She is terrifying but also easy to please, as her devotee Kalidasa did, looking at her many heads Kalidasa mischievously asks, "wonder what happens when you catch a cold?". Kali Puja comes at the end of the Dashera season - after Bijoya - and coincides with Dipavali. So much of Kali - so what if a girl is named Kali - not at all impossible. And I quite like the stress on achievement in Opal's family as well as Kavya's. Kalidas or Kali is common among men in Bengal as well as in parts of the South as in Kalidas Gupta; Kali Sengupta: KaaLiappa.
The cover model for the UK/India edition could be desi, but her look is more toward the white end of the spectrum.
Yeah! And especially nettling when one considers that the author herself is a beautiful shade of brown.
i did read the book, and if you go expecting it to be predictably easy going, teen chick-lit, its worth a read. took me about 3 hours to finish it & there are some genuinely funny moments... i think its pretty cool that a 17 year old wrote the book. the character's name is sort of explained - opal = (semi?)precious stone. and if you're talking about names, all the american ones in it are predictably stereotypical. Finally, the UK/India cover is sooo insipid. do they not want it to sell there?
Hmm, I saw it here in Boston at Barnes and Noble and it had a different cover (oops, see you've added it). I think the drawn figure is sort of breezy and fun. She's quite pretty (the author, I mean) if you go by the glamor shot on the back cover. Anyway, it's silly chick-lit, a bit young for me, but I can see enjoying the book. Sometimes you just want to read something light-weight and easy. I enjoyed all those Shop-o-holic books, so who am I to talk? Anyway, chick-lit is very comforting. It's like having ice-cream if you are in a bad mood, it's a little confection to feel light-hearted and happy for a moment or two. It doesn't have to be all Proust all the time......
chickpea:
after reading it, i had a personal vendetta against "born confused" during my bookstore days - i used to actively steer unknowing brown customers away from it and towards ghosh, roy, and the other more acceptable south asian authors that were available then.
"Kali is the hindu goddess of destruction and death-which parent would call their child that?"
I've known a few Kalis in India. They weren't named after 'Kaali' the goddess of destruction but 'Kali' as in a budding flower.
Oh, and one more point regarding the 'authenticity' of it all - since when is chick-lit know for being realistic in any form? I'm sure there are lots of Mark Darcys looking for Bridgets out there. Happens all the time....
Ooops, one last comment! I read that excerpt (thanks siddharth m) and it is cute. The whole, "and he pays as much attention to me as a teapot," is very, very cute.
I gotta admit, I loved Born Confused. Not in the literary genius kind of way, but remember when you were 16 and the only desi in HS, and all you had to read was Judy Blume, and Nancy Drew and as ok as they were they never really spoke to you? Born Confused was simple and it spoke to the me of 16, that was confused and trying to figure out life. I would never recommend this book to people our age, but when I bought it for my sister when she turned 17, it was the perfect present. We were able to bond over it, that ghosh and roy wouldn't have created a bond over. I'm sure Opal Metha will have the same appeal.
I just read the excerpt (thanks siddhartha) and I thought it was adorable! It's fluff, but it's totally a book I would have loved in high school, a fun fantasy for nerdy girls. I sort of want to read the whole thing now.
I too liked "Born Confused." It was one of the first young adult, realistic, contemporary novels, set in a specific South Asian culture. And because it was successful, it also made publishers realize there was a market for this sort of young adult book (as opposed to historical fiction or stories with teens set on the Subcontinent).
I am not sure how I feel about "young adult" literature. Its either good literature or its bad literature... If you're old enough to read "Born Confused", you're old enough to read Rushdie or Hemingway
im a teenager, and im sure part of the demographic that the book is geared towards. frankly, i find most books geared towards my "age group" extremely condescending. they assume that we all have some kind of deep seated anger towards our heritage/parents. they refuse to acknowledge the vast majority of well-adjusted mature teenagers that think for themselves and know there is wisdom in adults/parents/heritage, but also has the sensibility to separate the good in it from the bad. also, all of do NOT do drugs, get drunk at crazy high school parties, and get knocked up. oh, if only there was a realistic depiction of my life which involves shitloads of hw, kind/friendly teacher and mean/nasty teachers, friends who are supportive yet mildly annoying, mom who loves u, but does not get your "american" sense-of-humor, and yes, parties, but sans alcohol
yup! And that Nancy Drew was every desi parent's dream: always got straight A's in school, and never kissed her boyfriend, Ned. Hell, I doubt they even held hands! I was sick of her being so perfect - not even her way-too-often-described-as-slightly-chunky-but-still-pretty friend, Beth, could make up for Nancy's goody-goody ways. I think Nancy could learn something from Opal.
The non-desi-indie-girls are all nostalgic for their drew mysteries, though.
Thanks for the link, sid m. !
Taz:
Of course I would have never recommended adult books like those to a teen looking for something to identify with. my problem with 'born confused' was essentially the over generalizations and stereotyping that i felt the author fell back on in order to connect with the reader which made her writing feel forced and made it obvious that the author was not in the mindset of a teen (excuse my vagueness, it's been four years since i've read it). perhaps, i'm biased because i am obviously not the target demo for the book, but in my experience there are plenty of wonderful teen and children's books that deal with issues honestly without falling back on cliches or and talk to teens on their level without trying too hard. i just wish there were more for south asian teens.
You're all just jealous because I'm at Harvard, have loving parents who earn six figure salaries, have every blonde hunk and hot stud on campus fawning over me and my Prada-Gucci lifestyle, have an IQ of 250, am heart stoppingly beautiful with Bambi eyes and the cutest slimmest curvacious body.....so get over it twentysomething and thirtysomething ABCD's.....whilst you were getting cellulite and bald....I got kissed (amongst other things ;-) got a life and got WILD!
I can't be the only one here who got flashbacks to the famous "Mere paas Ma hai" exchange between Amitabh and Shashi Kapoor from Deewar when reading "Opal Mehta"'s post above ;)
are beti,
You told me that you will not get wild and stay away from the White chokras. didnt I tell you u are engaged to Sumitra ben's son Heman. He is a good match for you. So don't be foooling around with the Goras.
Love
Your Paaapa
My 2 cents here,
(1)There are non gujrati mehtas. I'd like the judge to add that in record here.
There are haryanvi mehta and punjabi mehta toos.
I wouldnt be surprised if there were UP mehta.
One can dig up the history of gujrat and they will see its named after gujjar tribe
it had fair amount of hindu punjabi move in ~500 years ago and become pukka gujrati
(2) i looked at the cover and i am not sure if she is desi or not
i know plenty of desis who look like that, so dont know what the fuss is about.
Again for the record i saw the book mentioned in a few of my feeds, It did not
appeal to me that much....
You know I only flirt with them Daddy *flutters eyelashes*
And you do know that Heman is gay, don't you?
And can I borrow your American Express Platinum for next weekend? I've been invited to a party in the Hamptons and need first class tickets and a new pair of Monolo Blahnik's.
Pyaari Beti Oppoo, he is not of the gay, he is what they call a METRO. He only does his eyebrows and dresses in Banana Country clothes. That is Y u think he is the gay. Oh The Hamptons?? Ok I will book the tickets and We can go shopping together. Your Mother and I are planning on coming with you.
Love
Your Paaapa
I enjoyed chick-lit when I was in elementry/middle school. I read a lot of the Ramona books as well as Harriet the Spy. That's some good stuff. Other than that I read mostly sci-fi/fantasy. I'm a secure individual or else I wouldn't be admiting any of this :)
OMG too much...hahhahahaah
Daddy, you better take a look at this picture of Heman I took when he dropped by as you asked him to, and asked if I could take him to the best women's lingerie stores in Boston. I always knew something was wrong since the time he asked me if I thought he'd look good in a sari.
siddharth thanks for the link, i was suprised to find that our resident geekgod (manish) had failed to find the fatal error in the very first line of the book, an error so egregious that undermines the whole plot of the book, and may be even questoins the truthiness of the entire chicklit genre.
i quote-
I started my count at one.
By the time we got out of the car and began walking toward the sign that said Byerly Hall: Admissions Office, I was at nineteen. Reciting my prime numbers always helped me relax. It was an old trick I used for getting through important tests or presentations. It was what I did before every cello recital and Mathletes scrimmage.
23, 29.
1 is not a prime number!
Holy and Sweet Swami Narayan!!!
I could not Believe my ankhennn. Now i wonder why he always liked to come to the steam room with me. Sumitra ben and Rakesh bhai will have a heart attack on the spot when they see this.
You better NOT be lying to me or ur mother. This better not be a creation of the PHOTOSHOP.
Love,
Your Paaapa
It isn't Manish's fault. We rely on our trained monkeys to bring egregious errors like that to our attention. Rest assured that they will be lectured. How the hell did Opal Mehta even get into Harvard is what we must now ask ourselves.
abhi -
i consider neither ramona quimby nor harriet the spy to be chick lit in the least! as one of the oldest beverly cleary fans ever, i commend you on your childhoold literary tastes.
pretend i spelt childhood correctly. ramona gets me excited.
GGK,
I'm glad you could infer all that from a self-deprecating comment. From previous comment threads you know how well I think you understand Americans.
i also really liked born confused, though i have noticed there seems to be some generational divide in who enjoyed this book and who didn't. as in younger people seem to view it as cliche, though when i read it, it was one of the first few books that dealt with things which are more unique to the south asian american experience...
:) So much criticism about a teen chick litt book written by, wait, a teenager? I am trying to remember what was I doing when I was a teenager myself - but then maybe I should'nt be judging rest of world based on my mediocrity (when as a teenager, that is).
This rings a bell. I was so annoyed about Amitabh Ghosh's article in the New Yorker just before the Iraq War, and didn't find out until much later that the NYer editors had made a mush of his original submission, played hardball negotiating what he had to change to get published etc., so I have no doubt Little, Brown would do the same. Meanwhile, having directed my annoyance at AG, when I heard the npr interview where he talked about it years later, I felt stupid and at the same time quite sorry for him, since I couldn't have been the only one making the same mistake.
a little late to the party, but anyway ;)
I couldn't even finish this book. Granted I'm not a tween, and I didn't go into it expecting any Vikram Seth, but it was atrocious. Born Confused wasn't awful, but it was still fluffy at best. Not all chick-lit sucks, but some of it does-- if the back cover says "the ultimate beach read" you can pretty well bet it's shite. As was the case with Kavita Daswani's "For Matrimonial Purposes"... what a thoroughly unlikeable whiner for the protagonist. I'll take Saleem Sinai any day...
On a sorta related note, I have invested in "The Icarus Girl." Anyone read it yet?
Neale.
Since we were discussing desi book covers, I just finished reading Nadeem Aslam's "Map For Lost Lovers". Great book by the way - a little bit on the obtuse side (trying to hard to be like Rushdie) still a good exposition of a Pakistani immigrant community in England. The cover of the copy I have shows a lady in bright yellow sari. This is interesting because no female character in the novel ever wears a sari in the whole book. In fact, one female protagonist comments on how the sari is more of an Indian outfit, and goes against Muslim Pakistani sensibilities. So the publisher put this cover art to appeal to stereotypes regarding Indians, but without even taking into consideration the actual content of the book. Go figure
No way, you too? Not only was I reading this in elementry/middle school, I continue to do so today. "The Devil wears Prada" was absolutely FABULOUS, and Sex in the City re-runs are the best.
Neale, I haven't read "Icarus Girl" yet, but a girlfriend *highly* recommended it.
DesiDancer,
Where have you been?
You stopped visiting once Bong Breaker took off on world tour.
DesiDancer,
I will now stick my nose in IG.
Manish,
Of bookstores and books in India, if you get a chance check out a publishing house called 'Katha' .Website http://www.katha.org. Lots of decent anthologies by Indian writers, many translated. I discovered them in a bookstore called Broadway in Panaji,Goa.
BTW, I have nothing further to say about book "dhakkans" :-)
Neale
Desi Dancer!
girl, where you been? i've been all alone here repping the miscegenated!
also, i'm moving to nyc... contact me, ennis and cicatrix have my info...
peace
coincidence? hmmmm.
siddhartha- word!
I'm kinda happy to see that opal's made the SM radar - well properly, at least :) okay, I'll admit it, I happened upon the book in my local bookstore (and noticed it only because of Abhi's initial post on the book) and happened to read it right then and there in a couple of hours...(so it was a rainy west coast day and I didnt have much else to do :) but I have to say, for all the hype, its certainly not a bad book, its utterly predictable, and certifiably chick lit..but none of the above is a crime..I think its great that kaavya got an unbeliveable deal on the book at the age of 17, because it opens the doors for many young aspiring desi writers to keep writing, get their work read, and succeed in whatever genre they choose, even if its good ol' chick lit...nothing wrong with that...
What's more, I read in an interview with kavvya that she had inititally written much darker stuff on the same topic and her "packaging" company working with the publishers wanted her to write more "fluffy", commercially palatable stuff, so they worked to create the "opal mehta" brand...in fact, in reading parts of the novel, you can see these sparks of clever observation and description, such as when she describes Edison - an Indianized suburb of New Jersey - it's almost easy to tell that that is Kaavya's voice, not Opal's coming through...
What's up with the weird names in desi fiction? They're trying to hard to be american which I know is essential since they shouldn't try to scare away customers, but the names barely sound desi. They sound "exotic" by the boring uncultured American point of view but that's it. The book Born Confused by another desi author has a character named Dimple. Can Dimple really be classified as a desi name at all?
I think I read about kannadiga sikhs(native) before. can someone verify this(paging razib)
also tamils(not sure about other si's) have lingam as part of their name which is the male genitalia. although it may be deeper than that. paging somebody more knowledgeable than me.
Oh god yeah Dimple is like Buffy or Bunny with desis. Along with Pinky and Binni. I personally know two patel sisters Kay Lynn and Marissa!! Not kidding. The couple was born here but both are pure Patels from desh. I've lost track of the number of desi babies in recent years (that I know personally of) named Dylan. The angolicized desi names is no longer unusual. A lot of people are doing it.
Hey, I like exotic Americanized names for desis ;)
Just kidding. But I think Dimple is tooootally desi. Just going by semi-immediate family (grandparents siblings and all their kids) my family has at least 3 Dimples. Of course, when they're all in the same room then they get even more ridiculous nicknames, including Bunny, Biloo, Bunti, Baby, etc. I feel like any of these names would fly, really.
I saw this book at Borders and the cover was different and looked indian to me.
Hey DesiDancer,
Welcome back ! I was wondering what was going on -- for a while there I thought I might have accidentally scared you off SM with my pretend-lothario jokes. I've been behaving myself in the intervening period, as you may have noticed ;)
Great to have you back on SM anyway -- the Mutiny wouldn't be the same without you.
Noma - a person growing up in America (albeit of desi parentage or birth) may actually consider him or herself to be a 'boring uncultured American'. I know I consider myself just that.
PS: I know of plenty of Dimples and Bunty's etc, etc, and was even married to one, at one time :)
i remember a c-span interview with kaavya and her saying that the character's name was shortened by her editors from gopal to opal because they felt gopal was too gay
You learn something new daily. I never thought that women would be called Gopal. It's not a gay name..it's just masculine. Unlike Krishna which is unisex.
I wonder if she chose Mehta because it's less visually (and otherwise) threatening than say...Balasubramaniam, Mukherjee or Ahluwalia. Compared to those, "Mehta" is a much more friendly version of ethnic. Maybe "Mehta" was the only desi name which would work for this situation. Would people pick up this book if the protag had been named "Opal Patel"? Would "Opal Shah"
^
Actually I disagree, in the Harry Potter books, there are indian twins who's last name is Patel.
vivo: "lingam" in names refers to Lord Shiva. and the male genitalia. don't you love hindu symbolism?
BrownGirl (#95),
Phallic worship in general is a result of assimilation(or growth)of fertility based faiths.
Also [Lingam]
Regards
There's no way the girl on the cover is Indian.
No Indian would put a shoe on top of a stack of books and then be photographed -- can you imagine how much trouble you would get into with your parents for something like that?
Really? Too gay?! How bizarre.
What else did she say? pal podi please share the dirt!
This is actually quite common. Remember the (80s was it?) television show "The Incredible Hulk?" The main character (the Hulk) was named David Banner even though the character in the comic book is Bruce Banner. The television show producers though the name Bruce was "too gay" so they changed it for television audiences.
I couldn't help but think that Bruce Wayne and his Dark Knight alter ego would have been pissed off at this stupid move.
I see that for a male name (not that I think it any less stupid) but for a woman?
Ridiculous and offensive as it all is, I can see Gopal being shot down for being too foreign-sounding, un-relatable, not feminine, even dorky sounding, to mainstream American chick-lit readers... but gay?! What the hell..
if a male name is chosen for a lead female character in the novel, that makes it somewhat gay, dont it? i mean, man-like female = mainstream perception of gayness, rite?
No because masculine or non-gendered names usually lend a rather smart-chic aura to female characters. From Scout in To Kill a Mockbird to more chick-lit protagonists named Alex than I can count...
Eh..no matter. I just want to know more behind-the-scenese stuff about the packaging of this book ;)
ok, i'd better come clean before someone (times of india?) takes this too far... i made up the gopal/gay thing. sorry citrix- for the bubble burst, but you're probably right about the alex/scout phenomenon..
btw, for those who grew up in 70's-80's madras, gopal palpodi(pal-teeth,podi-powder) was quite a popular brand of...well toothpowder...hence the handle..
There's nothing like a good knock on Times of India now that CSF is gone :) Kudos, I say!
How do you KNOW these things????
as mj pointed out in the blog mutterings... she might have ehem..copied someone else... oh... heavens... how would this look?
chickpea,
is that article for real? The similarities are uncanny - that really stinks. If the allegations are correct, she is even more desparate to please than even her Opal character. Yikes!
metric:
that article is from the crimson (the newspaper at harvard and is REAL)... it stinks for kaavya... damn.. maybe harvard needs to reopen her admission files and make sure she didn't copy her admission essay from another place (if these allegations are really really correct which i presume that they are)... maybe she was that desperate.. i don't know... anyhow, she's under severe scrutiny now..and i'm sure other papers/magazines will soon follow... pretty sad... maybe another book should be written... 'how kaavya got into harvard, plagerized a book, and tried to pass it off as her own..but got caught'
okay.. i'm being a bit mean... but to copy another persons work and call it as your own and cash in on it isn't good... doesn't bode well with me at all..
Wonder how much Kaavya had to do with it, and how much her editors/publisher did. The similarities are too strong to overlook -- I wonder what will happen from here.
Chick Pea,
Other national newspapers have followed your story too.
I think this might be another example of trying to be MacRenaissance on a short order.
thanks kush.. i'm sure the rest are soon following as the story was out in the crimson today..i don't know if dreamworks will be pleased along with her publisher...right now i'm pretty damn sure she isn't sleeping so well...
oh gosh.. there is already a blog about this... woah.. i think the storm has just started brewing..
what i wanna know: how does a college sophomore get a 2-book deal??!?!??!
also, is she any good??
great finds, chick pea -- endless procrastination =)
anything to keep me studying for my boards.. sigh. anything.
glad i didn't waste any money buying it.... did you click onto that blog link? i giggled out loud...people are going to be pissed.... someones title was... 'how kaavya got freyed'.... that i laughed at as well... gotta love it.. this day and age with blogs, word is spreading like FIRE.. gone are the days of newspapers and waiting till the morning...it's a 'now now now' deal...
No, I don't think you're being mean. Plagiarism is wrong, and I can't believe she had the balls to get it published on an international level!!! Is she in denial? or whaaaat? On one hand, I understand the pressure to please/impress at that age, but having the book published is outtacontrol!!! Is this a case of a little white lie that went too far?? I don't know..... It's funny that her story is about a girl who learns to let loose and live a little - plagiarizing and pretending you're someone you are not is the exact opposite. This is even more sinister than Opal's character, who lives and breathes Harvard and does all the right things to get in: If the allegations are founded, it seems this young author has decided that perceived success is all that matters - not the journey - and to take whatever means necessary to get to that status of perceived success. I'm not impressed!
ps. I hope she gets the counselling and help she needs to get her through and past, what will be undoubtedly, a very trying time. Moreover, I hope she gets help dealing with whatever moved her to plagiarize in the first place.
It can be a depressingly enron-ish world at times!
A $500,000 book contract is so rare. For that, the author, of whatever age and experience, had better be good (not "good for a 17-year old" or "good for a new author"). There are so many deserving authors who never make that much money off their work.
And any features of the book should primarily be the author's, not her "handlers'."
It surprises me that even a chick-lit book would be considered to be so marketable that it would have gotten such a large deal. Maybe they thought that all Indian families would buy a copy for their daughters? In hardcover no less?
Considering the subject matter, I doubt your average desi uncle and auntie would want to give their darling daughters such a book in case it gave them any "funny ideas" ;)
Vivo
>I think I read about kannadiga sikhs(native) before. can someone verify this(paging razib)
Yep. They're mostly in Bidar, Karnataka, close to the border of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. They're not just Kannadigas but also Telugu speaking people. Guru Nanak is supposed to have travelled through Bidar on his way to Sri Lanka, and most of the Sikhs there were converted locals, and not Punjabis. I have a friend who's one such Dakhni(Deccani) Sikh. Their food habits are closer to the locals'.
Another interesting Sikh I met was a from a Hindu Maharashtrian family. In their family one male every generation follows Sikhism. The story went - some ancestors of his had allowed a couple of Sikh soldiers to stay in their house for the night. That night the house was attacked by some dacoits, and the two soldiers fought them off, protecting the host's family. In gratitude, the family promised them that one son would follow the Sikh faith every generation.
No.