Getting to know Shani Mootoo
“(From a young age) I learned not to be intimidated by large blank surfaces, to fill them, to throw myself across them with wonderful abandonment,” reflects visual artist, writer and video maker Shani Mootoo.
Shani is the much-loved author of the novels Cereus Blooms at Night, which was shortlisted for Canada's prestigous Giller Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; He Drown She in the Sea, which was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award; Valmiki's Daughter; and a collection of poetry The Prediction of Or.
Born in Ireland and brought up in Trinidad, she now lives near Toronto. Her latest novel is the Giller nominated Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab.
You’re a visual artist, writer and video maker. How did these passions come about?
When I was a very young child I lived with my grandparents, my mother’s parents, in Trinidad, while my parents were in Ireland so that my father could attend Medical school there. My grandfather played the horse racing pools daily, and used to give me his discarded pool papers - large sheets, the backs of which were blank. It was a way for two older people to keep a little child busy, I suppose, but the result was that from elementary school age, I learned not to be intimidated by large blank surfaces, to fill them, to throw myself across them with wonderful abandonment. Ma and Pa were indulgent. Everything I did, was to them, a masterpiece. Perhaps it is the early instilled mix of freedom and praise that keeps me both longing backwards and painting onwards. As for words- I understood very early that just as one could ‘hide’ one’s specific thoughts behind painting, behind colour and gesture, it was also possible with words, with properly understood grammar, the structure of a sentence or a longer story- be it a child’s fib or fantasy- to be extremely explicit about what one wants to say. I love how, by picking and choosing the right words, their right ordering, one could actually spend a great deal of time honing even the simplest idea. It’s like getting to the very back of an idea, unraveling it, and putting it back together so that it’s crystal clear. The videos are a natural medium for combining images and words. But film and video handle and play with time (time periods within the work itself, and the length of time it takes for the viewer to engage with the work) in way that neither painting nor writing can.
If not these, what other career would you have chosen and why?
I’d probably have ended up in a kitchen. I don’t have a business bone in me, so it would have been ill-advised for me to open my own restaurant. But I love the whole process of turning ingredients into something that is a breath-taking experience for all the senses. It’s starts with thinking about the environment: supporting growers, breeders, fisheries, business, that have environmentally sound practices. Then it’s about choosing ingredients and cooking and eating seasonally, then about the science of food and cooking - from how to perfectly boil an egg to preparing, say a fillet of fish with skin that is crackling and crisp and flesh that is firm yet moist, tender, and flavourful without losing the essence of the particular specimen of fish. Then it’s about losing one’s self to the preparation of a dish. Then it’s about serving it to your loved ones, to a party of friends, and watching them look, smell, taste, oooh and aaaah, and ask what, how, how long, why, etc. But I wouldn’t want to be tied to a menu and have to do the same thing everyday. So it’s a good thing that I can write and paint. A different book, a different painting, each time.
3 things no one knows about you?
The telling of an untruth is inherent in the answering of this question. The moment I reveal something it will no longer be an unknown. Here is something that I didn’t know about myself until recently: that you could fall in love with a bird, and that a bird- in my case, parrots- can take you in as part of their flock, and want to be held by you and engage with you… all day long!
Out of all your works, what’s your most favourite and why?
I always like my most recent work best. Because the construction of the work is often in conversation, sometimes in reaction, or just in response, to the concerns- architectural, intellectual- of the work/works that preceded it. This internal, problem-solving conversation is what excites me most.
Tell me about Cereus Blooms at Night. How did it come about?
I had not intended to write a novel, but I was encouraged by a publisher to do so. Taking the opportunity, I decided to approach the writing in the same way I approached my painting- organically, expressionistically, line by line, until a form, or subject, a sense emerged. I had written a paragraph about an old woman who was boiling emptied snail shells on a pot on her stove to get rid of their fishy smell. When the publisher asked me for a novel, I decided to try and find out who this woman was, and what she was doing. She turned out to be Mala, the main character of the novel.
Tell me about Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab. How did this come about?
Having been encouraged by a family member who is a highly regarded author to write ‘away’ from personal experience, I wanted to try and understand ‘snow’ through the writing of it- even though I’ve lived in Canada for 30 years, I had not been able to find words to talk about snow. I began with writing a Trinidadian woman of South Asian decent walking one morning in a blizzard in a Toronto neighbourhood. This writing went on for weeks, detailing her experience of the snow, the storm, and soon enough she began to talk of longing in such a storm to hear the cry of a monkey, or the sounds of a cricket match coming from a radio in a house she passed. Her experience of the snow and the landscape was always in relation to her previous homeland. Eventually I had to figure out why she chose to take such a walk- and a much larger, rather unexpected story of immigration, of family, friendship, love, longing and identity emerged.
An author you’d like to meet and spend a day with?
If certain very influential tomes are the word(s) of God, I’d love to hang out for a day with Him/Her/Them, and listen to His/Her/Their feelings about our interpretations of these words, and hear what She/He/They had originally intended, and if a new, contemporary edition were to be published, who the publisher might be, and what, if any, revisions might be made. It would have to be a conversation in person, not one held in quiet internal, one-sided contemplation as tends to be the norm with God, but I’d want a really back and forth conversation, now, not over the course of a lifetime, but, as this questionnaire says- over the span of a day. Of course, at least one meal, cooked at home will be involved. I’ll cook. Or better yet, we could do it together. Can you imagine what a cook this God would be? Then we could eat out- at a restaurant, or from a street vendor, of Their/Her/His choosing. Failing this, my second choice is J.M. Coetzee.
Expectations for GLF 2016?
I look forward to meeting other authors, to meeting Sri Lankan readers, and to sharing my work with them.
Expectations for Sri Lanka?
Everyone I meet who has been to Sri Lanka says I’ll absolutely fall in love with the country. I am looking forward to the break from winter, to the warmth, to sunshine, to the sounds of the tropical island. To the birds, to the food, to the landscape, the sea, and to meeting people.
Future plans?
Nothing out of the ordinary. More novels. More paintings. More fun. Good times.
Shani Mootoo is one of the many authors participating in the Fairway Galle Literary Festival, happening right now (Jan 13- 17).
Interviewed by Jennifer Rodrigo
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