Yes, I believe in marriage: Candace Bushnell

In her luxurious room at The Raj Palace, a haveli-turned-hotel, Candace Bushnell gets up to greet every journalist. Every lady journalist gets a goodbye kiss on the cheeks, and every male, a strong handshake. The 52-year-old creator of Sex And The City (SATC)  wearing a well-fitting black dress, the hemlines ending above her knees. Her heels are six inches high, and she walks with ease. And every time, someone picks up their camera, she is ready with a pose. According to media reports, she always is. Often described as ‘Jane Austen with a martini’, Bushnell, who is one of the speakers at the Jaipur Literature Festival, spoke to DNA Sunday about her life and works. Excerpts:

Many criticise SATC for stereotyping women and portraying them as weaklings who, despite career successes, need men to be happy.
This may be true of the TV shows and the movies, but not my book. I would suggest these people read my books. In my books, the characters don’t believe men to be the be-all and end-all of happiness.

For instance, The Carrie Diaries does not end with Carrie finding a guy. And in my next novel Summer And The City, which is a sequel to The Carrie Diaries, none of the female characters end up with guys. I know it is a good idea to end a novel with a couple together in the end. But I can’t do that. I don’t believe in that kind of end at all. I believe in the protagonist looking to completing themselves and making themselves a whole person.        

You don’t believe in marriages and happy endings?
I do. I absolutely do.

Where did the idea for SATC come from?
I’m 52 years old now, and when I was a young girl growing up in the 1960s, there were a lot of dos and don’ts. We, young girls, were told what was permissible and what was not, and how we were to behave and conduct ourselves. And I object to that. And this injustice has always driven me. SATC, with all the sexual liberation and freedom expressed by the women characters, reflects a society unfairly imposing itself on women. Sexism might appear to have decreased, but it is still around.

What is your next book about?
Summer And The City, which will be published in April, is a sequel to The Carrie Diaries. Carrie is now a young woman of 17. She moves from a small town to New York, wants to become a writer and, of course, like all 17-year-olds gets distracted by boys. She has suddenly been thrown into a world of adults and she is trying to survive and hang on.

What was it like, to make the transition from writing about 30-year-olds to younger kids?
When I spoke to my editor about the book, she sent me a copy of Gossip Girl. I was shocked at the amount of sexualisation. But the world now is more sexualised than in my times. I have friends who are mothers and they have daughters and they are not sure what is appropriate and what is not. My Carrie Diaries and SATC are not graphic like many of these other books. I try not to talk down to teens. I try to be as real as possible because teens these days are smart.

You have mentioned that Carrie Bradshaw from SATC is your altar ego. How close are you to the Carrie from The Carrie Diaries and SATC?
The Carries in both the books go through the situations I did. They grow up in a small town and move to New York, wanting to be a writer and struggling with their daily lives. But what happens to them are fictionalised.

Do you think SATC became a hit all over the globe because all societies impose restrictions on women?
I think it is more because young women, in their 20s and 30s are always asking two questions: what kind of life they have and what kind of life they want to have. And they identify with the book’s characters who seek to explore those very questions.

SATC has made you an idol to many. What do you plan to do in your future apart from writing?
I’m a novelist. I may do other things, but I am a novelist. Nothing else.