Here are a whole bunch of discarded alternate titles that I’m not using as “the title,” but that you, dear reader, may enjoy as a preview of what you’ll garner from this 2 hour and 11 minute conversation.
“Wish-Fulfillment and Repair” — “World-Building”
“Non-Eligibility for Love” —“Deeply Invisible”— “Fandom: The Rewrite”
— “Movie Cowboys in the Style of Henry James”— “Fanfiction as a Serious Art Form”—
“The Power of the Romance Novel”— “Snow Queen Ice Dragon” --“Extruded Love Product”—
“Only One Bed”— “Spreadsheets” —“It’s a Given that Ron Weasley is Terrible at Sex”
—“X-Files as a Diagnostic for Bisexuality” —“The Autopsy Shower Cap”—
“J.K. Rowling: The Joy and the Distress She Leaves in her Wake” --“New Faces Through the Internet”—
“Letting Go of Whiteness in Storytelling”—“Infertility, Closed for Business” —
“Aggressively Useless” — “Interrogate What You Hold True” —
“Broken Things Lurching Forward”
This interview was recorded on Janani’s 40th birthday, at her apartment on the Lower East Side of NYC on May 22nd, 2023.
I have known Janani Sreenivasan since we rode the subway home to Brooklyn together after an improv show when she was 26. Now she is 40. These are her thoughts on that milestone, on the parts of her life she’s reconsidering now that she’s hit that milestone, and how romance fiction and fanfiction are helping her in that process. She also talks about TV and movies a lot.
Janani has a magnificent brain and, unlike many distracted, sedated consumer citizens of our age, she is rigorous about fully using her imaginative intellect at all times. I enjoy how she places the rambling storylines of her life into one cohesive narrative. She is always growing and evolving and nothing she reads, studies or obsesses about is ever wasted on her.
I’m a passive interviewer here, but I gave her helpful nudges as needed to gear the convo toward what I knew would be most delicious to discuss. I gave her time, attentive silence and a cheap microphone. I wanted my readers/listeners to experience what I get to hear and witness when we hang out. Enjoy this window into how Janani observes the world.
Since we recorded this in May, Janani has fully produced and directed a full-length play for the first time. I was there for opening night and it was a terrific evening of theatre that excited and inspired me to start thinking bigger. I would like to be braver than I am and Janani leads that charge by example.
Janani’s life continues to take an increasingly defined path, actually… especially in the months since we recorded this interview, fed by all the people she’s met and the art forms she’s studied.
I’m always looking to the artists I admire to see how they solve the puzzles of a creative life. Janani is one such artist.
Here are ALL of the links, writings, ideas, art forms and Internet subculture happenings we allude to (and more!) compiled by Janani for your perusal and mental stimulation! If it hasn’t left your city, you can also see “Killers of the Flower Moon” at a theater near you.
Janani's mom, Viji, singing Carnatic music:
Sample commercial driving license test for the curious
Full text: Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain"
Full text: Henry James's “The Portrait of a Lady”
Full text: Jhumpa Lahiri's "Hell-Heaven"
Leonardo DiCaprio's Instagram account
Janani's work presentation on romance novels
TVTropes definition: Jerk With a Heart of Gold
What is the Cinnamon Roll Hero?
Monster Romance: Morning Glory Milking Farm
X-Files: A History of the Fandom
Archive of Our Own (begin your search!)
The Origin of the Mortifying Ordeal Meme
A timeline of J.K. Rowling's comments on gender
Dramione (Janani's Draco + Hermione Recommendations for newbies — please mind content warnings provided by the authors)
By the Book (Draco owns a Scottish bookshop)
Les Pélerins (they meet in France)
Lionheart (full series rewrite from Draco's POV)
Carpathian (Draco is a dragon tamer)
Manacled (inspired by “The Handmaid's Tale”)
In her quest to change how people see fanfiction and highlight its variety and potential, our guest has kindly agreed to share links to some of her fanfiction on the Archive of our Own website.
Want to ask Janani more (or argue with her) about any of this? She will respond joyfully to anything that arrives at janani.r.sreenivasan@gmail.com
The Rewrite: Becoming the Main Character