He's a Zen Buddhist teacher, and has been an activist for the environment and rights of Native Americans for the last 40 years. He says he's most horrified at how America is leading the way in creating a "rapacious new global economy which is destroying the rights of the poor and ravaging the environment". In 1973, in the midst of personal grief for his dead wife, he set off on what became a voyage of faith, to find the snow leopard of Dolpo, "sacred elusive cat of the high mountain cathedrals". He didn't find the leopard, but discovered other truths. "I was very disappointed. But then it was perhaps my biggest teaching. Maybe I'd been too greedy, too eager to see it.... Perhaps there are certain things in the world it is best not to see."
And what about that trendy new group of writers, the Indo-Anglians? A few months ago, when asked to judge the best American short-stories for a volume, Doctorow says he found that the stories he had liked most were by Indians, Japanese, Caribbeans, Hawaiians, Koreans and Bosnians. "I didn't know where the authors of the stories were from because the names had been blacked out, but it turned out that most of the stories I liked were from these countries. There is an infusion of new voices which is very helpful for the cause of literature," Doctorow says. He adds a rider, though. "Indian writers are making their mark all over the world, but too much praise is bad for a writer."
Ask Matthiessen what he feels about the huge monetary advances handed out to writers by publishing houses and he tells you, "For every author who gets a large advance, there are going to be at least 10 other talented young authors who won't get a break because the publishers have spent so much money on one. And it's not even as if the publishers get their money back. Most of them even lose money." "Everything's bad for an author," Doctorow chuckles. "Too much money, too little money, too much publicity, too little publicity..."
Matthiessen says he's friends with Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy and admires Vikram Seth and also has many friends among the conservation and wildlife protection community here. Matthiessen, who's been here four times, believes that the refugees on the streets are possibly a result of the economic policies of the government, particularly from projects like the Narmada dam. "At this time in India's economic development, it's particularly important for governments to look after the poor."
They've spent two weeks in India, stunned at how nature has become a realm apart from human beings. "Nature was a realm we used to be a part of," Doctorow says. "Now we are no longer a part of it. We have to go somewhere to look at it." Yet, India's been an experience Doctorow wouldn't like to pontificate about based on just a couple of weeks. "All I want to say is I'll be back." Matthiessen says writers and activists have to speak out against the decay of the environment and state-sponsored social engineering. "America preaches to everybody else, yet my own country's treatment of Blacks and American Indians has been disgraceful. I love my country but I think we've demeaned ourselves."
They both grew up surrounded and enraptured by books. Much good writing, Matthiessen believes, comes from a personal relationship with a physical place and its history."You write better if you're personally involved and if you have fun doing it." Doctorow's Russian Jewish emigré family was poor but great readers and musicians—his mother was a pianist.He began to dream about writing books at the age of nine. "I guess nowadays mine would be called an 'enriched childhood', but in our days, it was just life," Doctorow laughs.
