Bipin Aurora, author of Notes of a Mediocre Man was interviewed on Bloom.
The questions increasingly entered my mind: Who am I? What am I? How do I fit into this world? I began writing fiction at age twenty-seven, and the second thing that I wrote, way back in 1981, became, appropriately, the title story from my first collection, Notes of a Mediocre Man. The first paragraph summarizes nicely what I was feeling:
I am a product of my age: mean, jealous, vindictive. I hate my neighbors, I hate their successes. I hate Justices of the Supreme Court: I find them dull. I hate schools of government: I find them silly. I hate law schools: I find them limited. I hate Aristotle: he would, if living, be a professor of law—at least on a part-time basis. I hate the black and women’s movements: I find them aggressive. I hate movements in general: I find them vulgar. I hate The New York Times and The Washington Post: I find them smug. I hate people who ride bicycles and go to museums: I find them phony.
The style and tone of these words is, of course, borrowed from Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground. (Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are both writers whom I admire greatly.) In the rest of this story, the narrator talks explicitly about this “culture of success” and what it means to live in it. The style continues in quite the Dostoevskian vein: angry, ready for a fight, yes, but also self-mocking, ironic, and even funny. So, to answer your question directly: No, I never wanted to “write and publish fiction.” America, this culture of success, pushed me into the field.
Read the full interview:
https://bloomsite.wordpress.com/2022/07/19/stories-of-the-overlooked-an-interview-with-bipin-aurora/