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- Between the Lines with Aparna Sanyal
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Descend into the deepest, darkest torture chambers of the soul, where rapacious dreams dwell and nightmares are forged. In these pages, the mind’s darkness lies revealed.
These stories are each named after a medieval torture device, and the true meaning – and impact – of every title bubbles up to the surface as the connection between the various instruments and their psychological counterparts are laid bare: whether it is an anguished man being drugged with hormones to ‘cure’ his dwarfism or a forbidden love affair that takes root in a place of worship.
Torn asunder, marginalized, existing at the edges of our peripheral vision, the people in these tales hold up to the reader the greatest instrument of torture yet: a mirror that looks directly into the subconscious.
Aparna Sanyal talks to us about her intriguing new book Instruments of Torture.
Q. What inspired you to pick the darker aspects of human nature as one of the themes of your book?
Aparna Sanyal: The entire idea of the book coalesced around a physical exhibition of medieval torture instruments, therefore darkness was not just inevitable, but central to the book. My mind immediately went to the collation of physical to psychological torture and each story idea took off from there. I have never shied away from discussing the so called ‘seamier’ side of life, in fact, most topics considered ‘taboo’ are the ones I feel need to be normalized in regular discourse. For this book, while I did try to be sensitive and mindful not to trigger or appropriate anyone’s lived experience, I nonetheless did not hold back from writing as honestly as I could about the ‘darker aspects’ of human nature, in the way that I perceived them.
Q. You mentioned that you saw an exhibition of instruments of torture. Was there any particular instrument that sparked the idea for this novel?
AS: I can’t recall any instrument in particular being the ‘Aha!’ instrument that set me on this journey. But by the time I exited the exhibition, I was entirely overwhelmed and completely sure that I wanted to write about this topic, if not directly, then in an oblique way. I knew there was a book there. Of all the instruments on display, I remember the Iron Maiden very clearly: a menacing apparatus that awed me by its sheer size. It was rusted at the hinges, but the spikes inside looked every bit as wicked and sharp as they must’ve been all those centuries ago. Just imagining this device being used in reality was terrifying.
Q. What did your research process look like for writingInstruments of Torture?
AS: Sobering and indepth online searches into the provenance of each device that the stories take their names from. Of course I researched many, many more devices than just the ones that made it onto the page. Finding meaningful threads to connect the characters and story arcs to their corresponding devices took some time too. Of course, I also researched the psychological illnesses, deviances and kinks mentioned in the book. I studied statistics where I could find them, although that literature, especially about ‘rarer’ conditions, is scarce.
Q. Which is your favourite story out of this collection and why?
AS: ‘The Judas Cradle’ is my particular love, not so much for its main characters, but for the character of the ‘Christian Teela’, the ex-railway colony and its people. I’m very attached to this colony, and the ‘Grotto’ is an actual place I visited often in my teenage years. I grew up in a ‘mixed’ household where religion was treated with insouciance and we didn’t prescribe to any communal identity. Perhaps that’s why it was such fun to write about the people of the colony, who are prone to ‘louche-ness’ if not kept on the straight and narrow by their priest. The entire premise of them being ‘unwilling penitents’ really appeals to my heathen heart.
The other story I love is that of ‘The Falaris Bull’, and that is for the character of Ratna. Ratna does not fall into the role of motherhood with ease. She is all angles and awkwardness and her fallibility, her sheer flawed, partisan humanity appeals to me on a deeply personal level.
Q. If someone were to use any of these instruments on you, which one would you prefer?
AS: Can I answer with ‘none of the above’ for this one? Or perhaps I would choose the Chastity Belt, for the simple reason that this is the one instrument from the book that does not have a reliable historical record, and may well come from the realm of historical fiction and myth. Therefore, by all means, use a fictional tool of torture on me, based on the premise that the trauma it does too would be fictional.
About the Book - Instruments of Torture
Descend into the deepest, darkest torture chambers of the soul, where rapacious dreams dwell and nightmares are forged. In these pages, the mind's darkness lies revealed. These stories are each named after a medieval torture device, and the true meaning…
About the Author - Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal
Aparna Sanyal holds an MA from Kings College, London. Recipient of the 14th Beullah Rose Poetry Prize by Smartish Pace, she was shortlisted for the 2018 Third Coast Fiction Prize.This book is her first foray into fiction. Her debut book,…
To read more, order your copy of Instruments of Torture, by Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal today!
₹ 399.0000
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