In Conversation with Shivani Sivagurunathan
Shivani Sivagurunathan is both a seasoned Malaysian author and lecturer at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. Having published several artistic and academic works, she has released her latest novel, Yalpanam.
With Yalpanam, Shivani takes us through the rich spiritual atmosphere coupled with the roots of Malaysia’s history. Set in an old colonial house on Coal Island, Yalpanam explores the unlikely friendship of Maxim Cheah, an eighteen-year-old neighbour with Pushpanayagi, the one hundred and eighty-five-year-old recluse amidst the supernatural.
In this interview, Kishaun Xavier unearths Shivani Sivagurunathan’s writing process of Yalpanam, her experiences and difficulties as an author, and the possible lessons it posits for us.
Kishaun Xavier (KX)
Yalpanam allows both Malaysian and foreign readers to conceptualise the idea of exploring Malaysian history, its folklore, culture and world in a different light by incorporating the spiritual and supernatural. Was this your intention when you were writing it? What inspired you to write about Malaysia differently from other Malaysian English literary works? And what do you hope readers will gain from it?
Shivani Sivagurunathan (SS)
I followed the characters as closely as possible and saw what they wanted to express and how best to make that happen. So, that was my primary commitment rather than actively intending to fashion a supernatural or spiritual context in the novel. You could say that this was my intention on the purest level, as a writer. But, there was also my intention as a reader. I wanted to read more works within Malaysian Literature in English that dealt with familiar topics like race, culture, nationhood and so on, in ways that also expanded them to include existential subjects, and because I didn’t see much of that, except for some of K.S. Maniam’s and Wong Phui Nam’s work, I wanted to broaden the range of topics and themes within this field.
I want readers to see that there are many ways of exploring and talking about subjects like identity, race, culture, politics, and multiculturalism. These are not divorced from larger, universal, metaphysical concerns that affect all human beings. I am interested in the play between surfaces, what holds up surfaces, and how deep, multilayered, and complex reality is. When we talk about ‘reality’, for example, what exactly are we referring to? Reality as we perceive it through the five senses? Reality as perceived by which person, which community, through what lens of perception, and when?
The supernatural’s always been part of my writing mainly because my imagination gravitates towards the unseen and extraordinary. And how these connect with the visible and the seemingly ordinary. Seeing how invisible forces like psychical and immaterial influences may shape outer events, and how the inner and the outer, the personal and collective, are all interconnected is deeply interesting to me. I hope the novel will evoke questions in the reader’s mind and take the reader into a reflective space where their own curiosity about human relationships, purpose, and meaning can arise and be free to explore.
KX
The novel also has a wide range of characters with wildly different personalities and backgrounds, from the eighteen-year-old Maxim Cheah in a suburban household to Pushpanayagi, the one hundred and eighty-five-year-old recluse. Which character did you find the hardest to write?
SS
Definitely Pushpanayagi! She was a complex character from the moment she appeared in my mind’s eye—compelling, enigmatic, incredibly alluring, yes, and also extremely difficult to understand. It took me eight years to at last feel comfortable and confident enough to write from her subjectivity and sensibility. I had to go through my own life experiences over those years to gain the level of maturity needed to faithfully and accurately tell her story.
She’s 185 years old and has something of the mythic about her. I was very aware not to write her in an explicitly allegorical way. When you have a character this old, the easiest thing is to write as though she were a symbol of something. She may very well represent a deeper aspect of her culture, ethnicity and so on, but I wasn’t thinking of that while bringing her to life.
One of the most complex parts about writing Pushpanayagi was seeing what was ordinary about her. Because there were so many extraordinary dimensions to her, sensing and feeling what was human and familiar in her took tremendous empathetic leaps on my part. A lot of the time, I also had to let go of preconceived notions I had about her, and this was a long process of allowing myself to enter into mysterious and often uncomfortable terrain.
KX
I’ve also found that your first book, Wildlife in Coal Island, explores Malaysian context through the use of a fictional setting similar to what is portrayed in Yalpanam, set in a fictional setting grounded in the Malaysian context. Why do you choose to explore rich context in a fictional setting? What are the experiences that you intend to convey which requires the need for a fictional setting?
SS
I first created Coal Island as a means to write about home (Malaysia, in general, and Port Dickson, in particular) through a decidedly imaginative lens. I found that I could explore and expand my insights in a freer and more fluid way than if I had written about these places in a literal sense. My imagination was able to open up, and I could write about important and prevalent topics in the Malaysian context, such as multiculturalism, pluralism, identity politics, race relations, racial politics, national belonging, etc.
I did not intend to continue using Coal Island as my setting for other stories, but I found myself returning to the island in every other story that followed Wildlife on Coal Island. I realised Coal Island was bursting with life and that it had so many more stories that were waiting to be told by and about a range of wild and intriguing characters. It became glaringly clear that my imagination was a lot more yielding when I was using a fictional setting for the stories. I think creating a fictional setting to explore issues that are very much steeped in a contemporary and local context helps to create distance for both the writer and the reader. I think it also helps to contemplate possibilities for topical events and circumstances that a more direct and literal setting may not be able to do.
KX
What was the biggest challenge you faced when writing a novel or any form of literary work?
SS
The biggest challenge is often getting out of the way! What I mean by this is that I have to let go of attempting to control and manipulate the characters and the story, and allow myself to discover what the characters and the story are trying to reveal. This ‘letting go’ requires patience, deep listening, acute attention, and surrender to the unknown, and doing this is a practice in itself. It’s important and challenging to identify what’s true and right for the story instead of what may seem true, but could be a case of lazy writing or taking the route of a quick fix. Attuning to my intuition is another vital part of the creative process. It is also a challenge because it’s not something we’re taught; it is also a profoundly unique process for each person and is a continuous journey of discovery paved with mistakes. I’ve realised that you become intimate with your intuition through a series of trials and errors. Befriending failure has been one of the most difficult and also most liberating parts of my growth as a writer.
KX
Which authors or books have proven to be your greatest inspirations on a personal level and in helping you develop your own writing style?
SS
There have been many diverse books and authors that have influenced me. The most notable influences would be Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys, K.S. Maniam, Carson McCullers, William Faulkner, Flannery O’ Connor in terms of authors, and in terms of books, I’ll name a few that stand out as influences: The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie, Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, the magical realist novella Pedro Paramo by the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey, The Way to Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa, The Counting House by David Dabydeen and many others.
KX
Lastly, in discovering your greatest inspirations from authors and books that have helped to motivate you and inspire you to be a writer, do you have any advice for the aspiring writers out there, trying to find their voice and be heard in this widening sea of literature?
SS
Write what moves and interests you, even if others do not find those same things interesting or moving. Find out what your most intense obsessions are and tirelessly pursue them in your writing, until you are (reasonably) satisfied.
Discover what makes you curious and follow the scent of your own questions. Trust your imagination. Trust your passion. Trust your intelligence.
Send your work out to magazines, journals and anthologies, and allow yourself to go through the motions of familiarising yourself with the ups and downs of the writing life, which includes getting rejection letters. Do not be disheartened when you receive those letters—cry, eat cake, scream into a pillow, talk to a friend, do whatever it takes to soothe you in the moment, and after that period of hurt has passed, continue writing and sending your work out. This builds your strength and integrity as a writer.
Note: this interview was conducted via e-mail.