Pia Bakshi

Read / Read Pia Bakshi

A writer writes. A reader reads. What about the character developed - the fulcrum of the story? Do they get written or do they get read? Read/Read explores the relationship between a writer and the character she develops in pursuit of completing a book. The writer is Elixir Banks, a 28 year old from Philadelphia, who has recently moved to Mumbai, India to finish writing a novel. What follows, is a creative process and a personal discourse that changes her and the work she produces, substantially. The character is Smith, lost on the pages of Elixir's diary and her screen. All through the mundane occurrences of her life, he is a constant. He has suffered birth, death, change, desire, hate and transformation all in the hands of Elixir as she creates and recreates him. The novella uses a relatable objective correlative, that of a novel, to extrapolate on the politics of identity and ownership of that identity- what one is reading and what has been read.