The Fabulous Feminist Quotes

“From Caliban’s Notebook They dreamed it. There was no storm, no shipwreck, nobody came. Prince Ferdinand was a rock or a tree. M dreamed it. She said to the tree, “Bow gracefully,” and the tree bowed with Ariel in it. As for revenge— the old man’s dream— even in his dream he could not change them, not utterly; they still plotted, still schemed— as though in a play— until Ariel once again was sent to intervene.           And they never got away, for here we all are, M and myself and doddering P, still islanded, still ailing, looking seaward               for company.”
― Suniti Namjoshi, The Fabulous Feminist

“It Was Not Pygmalion And it was not Galatea. It was you and me. And unlike Galatea, I was not perfect. I had to grow. And you were no sculptor. You were more like a gardener. And if so, then I was more like a shrub. I was a beautiful, little shrub in a well-kept garden. I had tender green leaves, and was most obedient. I would stay very still and your eyes would shine down like twin suns, until one night you caught me at it. I had uprooted my roots and was prancing about. I thought you were sleeping. You watched in silence. At last you said, “A plant with feet is not natural.” But oh mother, let me assure you, the effort required was very painful.   (From the sequence: ‘From Baby F With Much Love’)”
― Suniti Namjoshi, The Fabulous Feminist

“[Feminist Fables] uses the very power of language and the literary tradition to expose what is absurd and unacceptable.”
― Suniti Namjoshi, The Fabulous Feminist

“There was once a poet who thought she was a nightingale,       and another who thought she was a rose -       charming perhaps, able certainly, having found at least       a way to cope. Would the nightingale’s entrails       have been more powerful (as emblematic objects)       laid out on the floor of a room that you came to, and then       withdrew from, startled and amazed?       Oh the rose is bloodless, she is white with pain;       and Philomel wails in the woods again.       But there are the other more ordinary animals.       They are not literary.             They own their pain.”
― Suniti Namjoshi, The Fabulous Feminist

“Biped Now that you have hit me,           I must dab at my mouth and smile quietly,           or not smile at all, but in some way show           I am noble, not base. And the dog inside,           who whimpers so piteously,       and would like to lick your hands —it feels so out of favour—           that dog must be silenced before its howling           betrays disgrace. But I am that dog.           It was I who howled, I who was hurt.           I felt the pain. And it is I           who despised myself.”
― Suniti Namjoshi, The Fabulous Feminist

“The Incredible Woman raged through the skies, lassoed a planet, set it in orbit, rescued a starship, flattened a mountain, straightened a building, smiled at a child, caught a few thieves, all in one morning, and then, took a little time off to visit her psychiatrist, since she is at heart a really womanly woman and all she wants is a normal life.”
― Suniti Namjoshi, The Fabulous Feminist

“The giantess governed and there were no other women. The men were innocent and happy and carefree. If they were hurt, they were quickly consoled. For the giantess was kind, and would set them on her knee and tell them they were brave and strong and noble. And if they were hungry, the giantess would feed them. The milk from her breasts was sweeter than honey and more nutritious than mangoes. If they grew fractious, the giantess would sing, and they would clamber up her legs and onto her lap and sleep unruffled. They were a happy people and things might have gone on in this way forever, were it not for the fact that the giantess grew tired. Her”
― Suniti Namjoshi, The Fabulous Feminist

“The Beast considered these arguments circular, but she discovered also that she was unhappy. Boys didn’t interest her. She fell in love with a girl. The girl disapproved, and she found that she was now the object of ridicule. She became more and more solitary and turned to books. But the books made it clear that men loved women, and women loved men, and men rode off and had all sorts of adventures and women stayed at home. ‘I know what it is,’ she said one day, ‘I know what is wrong: I am not human. The only story that fits me at all is the one about the Beast. But the Beast doesn’t change from a Beast to a human because of its love. It’s just the reverse. And the Beast isn’t fierce. It’s extremely gentle. It loves Beauty, but it lives alone and dies alone.’ And that’s what she did. Her”
― Suniti Namjoshi, The Fabulous Feminist