Mohsin Hamid on the Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Ending

• The point at which the reader becomes aware that they have been creating the novel as they read
• To engage and reflect the readers politics
• Books are a way in which people are able to create

Fundamentalism

• Fundamentalist ideologies are ideologies that say here is something that is intrinsically right
• He is reluctant to be part of a company that is based on fundamentals
• The belief systems are parallel (terrorists and appraisers)
• Both destructive
• We are all born with a sense of empathy that rebels against fundamentalism

Underwood Samson

• Changez not empathising with the American but trying to put his feet into a pair of shoes he has already put out
• Hamid worked as a management consultant and learnt about different ways of influencing people
• Narrator that says one thing and means/thinks another (beggar scene)
• Idea of an unreliable narrator but Hamid wanted an unreliably unreliable narrator - know he is unreliable but don't know when

First Draft vs the Actual Novel

• First draft finished in July 2001
• Originally all about janissary idea
• Written as a quiet fable - agent didn't really like it
• Two months later agent had changed his mind
• About a man who must decide between embracing his hybridity or trying to re-purify himself
• What complicates it is that the hybridity is coming about in a corporate world that tries to deny empathy
• What changed was that 9/11 happened
• 9/11 and the connotation of violence
• Although even in first draft had idea that growing a beard would be off putting to people
• Tried to keep 9/11 out of the book - didn't want the politics to swamp the novel

Writing Process

• Wanted to make it reasonable even by people that don't read
• One way he did this was to make it tense and compelling
• Also made it small
• Wrote over 1 thousand pages of manuscript - became 180 page book

The Title

• Title suggests one thing and is another
• Does come to be perceived as a religious fundamentalist despite nothing about him being particularly religious
• Only mention of religion is when says thank you god after getting the job
• So far as we can tell he is a secular humanist
• Changez finds himself among people of Arabic descent that found themselves suddenly being perceived as potential fundamentalists
• "Reluctantly he comes to be seen as a fundamentalist"
• Title suggests a certain meaning
• The idea of fundamentalism came from Hamid's own experiences as a management consultant
• Something Quasi spiritual about it - look at the world through these eyes