Nikesh Shukla
Meatspace is 300 pages long. I have asserted my moral right to be the author of the book. There is a catalogue copy available in the British Library. No, but seriously, I wanted to write a Wodehouse-esque farce about the difference between our online and our offline personas and how when we curate who we are on the internet to be a better version of ourselves in real life, eventually someone who doesn't know you will meet you and expect you to be that better version. This is a book about storytelling and identity and all the things that show us that much as the internet can bring us together, it can't make us not lonely. I know that sounds depressing, but it really is a funny book. I mean, there are three jokes in there that always make me laugh!
You have written many short stories so do you have a preference between this and novel writing?
Short stories are harder because there is a preciseness you have to be good at. You also have to be more careful with where you start and end stories, how much information you drip-feed in them and what fragments of a life you show. I feel like if novels help me to ask myself big questions, short stories allow me to live in other peoples' shoes for short bursts to try and understand who they are, how I see them and how they see themselves.
Your first book Coconut Unlimited was nominated for 2 awards, so how did this affect your confidence as a writer?
I finally got some praise from my family for my artistic endeavours. Which is all I ever wanted. Actually, it knocked my confidence because everything before Coconut Unlimited was about getting it published and throwing everything I could at it. After that, I had to write another thing and the goalposts changed.
Please tell us about the character of Kitab.
Kitab is in stasis. His first novel did ok. His girlfriend left him because she was more familiar with the top of his head as he hunched over an i-phone. He lives in stasis. His brother and he are always reaching for their phones. It's easier to Google than it is to leave the flat. And he's burning through an inheritance. So he's at a point in his life where he needs an inciting incident (thank god, cos that's most novels and films) and them his Facebook namesake turns up on his doorstep and suddenly he has to be pulled towards meatspace!
The character is also writing a novel so how much of you is in him?
A few similarities. He is in a darker place than I ever was. I could have been. My mother passed away the week my first book came out and I could have gone to quite a bad place but I was surrounded by friends and family and also the ability to use art as catharsis. I don't think Kitab is there yet. We're both struggling and we both have similar thought patterns but Kitab is definitely someone I wouldn't want to be.
Where did the inspiration for the novel come from?
I wrote a short story for Radio 4 about having to delete my mum's Facebook when she died and how her digital footprint was harder to bury than her body, and that got me thinking about our interactions with technology. Also, my friend Rob and I were once in a pub doing research on tattoos to make him look smart. We looked up bow tie tattoos and found Rob's internet doppelganger. Within five minutes, we had found all his social streams and knew a lot of facts about him. He seemed interesting. We thought about tracking him down. And at that point, my writer brain kicked into gear and I thought, I'll write about it.
You have ben compared to the likes of Jennifer Egan and Junot Diaz, so how does that feel?
It's all lies.
What is next for you?
I have a third novel and a feature film that I'm working on and a baby due in September so probably nothing after that.