I found this story interesting, Tanuj. But I will be honest - I would not have read it through had I not already known of you and admired your work, especially the short stories. I like the skill on display, but I also wonder whether you are protecting yourself with the appropriation discussion. Then I realised that you must be doing it deliberately. So you are richly aware of the response a story like this will stir in a reader, and you have slotted your response into the story itself. A bit Escher, Charlie Kaufman-like. But, like you ask in the story, is it a story? I dont know, to be honest.
Hi Shankar, thanks for reading the story. I would say that being aware of the response the story will stir includes being aware of the uselessness of protecting oneself through said story. I wrote the Speer parts of this years ago, probably around 2017, and tried to publish them as a single story (to no avail). Then, after the events in Delhi in early 2020, and year 1 of COVID, the three single-sentence paragraphs got written, and I developed a sense that it all belonged together (they each took a very long time to come to the shape they have now). 'The three writers talk about writing' set up came later, to act as glue for what already was - but it ended up giving me the binding theme, and also the title, for the story. I guess it was always going to be this patchy, a-bit-here-and-there story.
Spot on with your comment on the awareness of the uselessness of protecting. Indeed when I was writing my feedback on the story I was reminded of the line in the story about how writers needed lower writers for feedback and sounding boards! So, it is a gift that keeps on giving. I love the largeness of the themes you take on. Patchy is ok, scope of ambition is rare.
I found this story interesting, Tanuj. But I will be honest - I would not have read it through had I not already known of you and admired your work, especially the short stories. I like the skill on display, but I also wonder whether you are protecting yourself with the appropriation discussion. Then I realised that you must be doing it deliberately. So you are richly aware of the response a story like this will stir in a reader, and you have slotted your response into the story itself. A bit Escher, Charlie Kaufman-like. But, like you ask in the story, is it a story? I dont know, to be honest.
Hi Shankar, thanks for reading the story. I would say that being aware of the response the story will stir includes being aware of the uselessness of protecting oneself through said story. I wrote the Speer parts of this years ago, probably around 2017, and tried to publish them as a single story (to no avail). Then, after the events in Delhi in early 2020, and year 1 of COVID, the three single-sentence paragraphs got written, and I developed a sense that it all belonged together (they each took a very long time to come to the shape they have now). 'The three writers talk about writing' set up came later, to act as glue for what already was - but it ended up giving me the binding theme, and also the title, for the story. I guess it was always going to be this patchy, a-bit-here-and-there story.
Spot on with your comment on the awareness of the uselessness of protecting. Indeed when I was writing my feedback on the story I was reminded of the line in the story about how writers needed lower writers for feedback and sounding boards! So, it is a gift that keeps on giving. I love the largeness of the themes you take on. Patchy is ok, scope of ambition is rare.
I am so fascinated with your stories Tanuj. Everything here on Substack and beyond. It always makes me think the meta aspects of how a story is born.
Thanks, Sanket. The Substack set isn't really representative, I would say. But it's true that I have gone to meta aspects several times.