A few short days ago, I offered a not-so-theoretical, not-so-hard-hitting look at Vendela Vida's new book Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. Instead of displaying for you all my critical & analytical prowess by doing a proper book review, I simply mused on her sentence structure and her words. In particular, I mentioned Pankaj, Clarissa's fiance in LTNLEYN.
So. Pankaj. Say it with me now. Pon, kajjjjjjj. Pahn, kajj. It strikes me as such a perfect name for the exact character that bears the name in her book. It is just the right mix of lovely-to-say and yet kind-of-nerdy...emotionally unavailable. Shifty, perhaps. Whatever it is about that name, I feel it suits her book perfectly. So perfectly, that I've wondered how she encountered the name in the first place. Really. I have spent a good deal more time than I'd care to admit thinking about this very issue. It's like a silent movie always running in the background. Well, perhaps less silent movie and more...like norton anti-virus doing it's daily routine at the exact moment it's most inconvenient for it to do so.
Yet it seems I need look no further than this month's Believer (yes, a treasure trove of blog posts to be had in this issue, truly). On the cover, front and center, is the proclamation that the issue will contain a "crystalline interview" with someone named Pankaj Mishra. This Pankaj is listed as a novelist/journalist. Hmmm, I thought. I see, I said. This must be the link, the answer to my norton anti-virus running question, the how & the why of this person with the same name who ended up in Vida's book. Or is it?
Further investigation shows that this alleged Pankaj Mishra is, in fact, a person. He is also, it seems, a "maverick-scholar" who regularly contributes to the New York Review of Books, the New York Times, the Guardian and, lest we feel he is simply sitting on his duff, the New Statesman. Hmmm. Harumph. Not quite what I had in mind for Clarissa's Pankaj. Not at all. It seems this Pankaj has also written several books. They have titles like: The Romantics. Or: And End to Suffering - The Buddha in the World. And lately: Temptations of the West - How to be Modern in Inida, Pakistan and Tibet.
It is at this point in my story that I must pull the switch. It would seem that I should investigate further. Find out more about this maverick Pankaj, research dates that he and Vida (editor at Believer) may first have met, construct elaborate timelines to determine when/if, during the writing of her own novel, their paths might have crossed and find some way to intuit what the name represents for her. I could read more heavily into the fictional Pankaj - his philosophy degree, his endless work on the never-finished dissertation. Was Vida commenting on these qualities in the real Pankaj? Simply having a laugh? None of the above?
I could research these things. I could. But I have my own Pankaj to create. And I'd rather not know. Instead, I'd like to simply highlight what I found to be an interesting aside, an odd little tidbit. A question posed and seemingly (at least partially) answered in the background, between so many other things my mind is mulling over, picking apart and reconstructing. In media res, if you will. Something to chew on while real work is getting done.
Carry on.
