Interview: Husna Rosli on Her Debut Novel, Women in Local Fiction and Feminism

This interview was originally written for our final project for Feature Writing class. 

In the beginning of Psikik, people from a nation called Kazier gather in an annual assembly, in order to witness a public execution. It somehow felt like witnessing the Salem witch trials in the 17^th century, with nooses replaced by guns, and the witches are now men who allegedly committed serious crimes. There were people from all ages – including mothers who stands patiently watching the execution while embracing their children. Each family living in Kazier must send a representative to be present at the gathering, and those who couldn’t attend are obliged to watch via television from home. The execution was brutal, and yet this was proudly dismissed as ‘a duty to the nation in order to eliminate those who oppress women’ by a lady named Karina – the president of Kazier. She shouts the chant ‘No Forgiveness, No Fear!’ in unison with the crowd. And within the crowd, a girl named Elina admires President Karina from afar.

Psikik was originally written intended as Husna Rosli’s submission for a contest organized by a local indie publisher, Buku Fixi with ‘FEMINIS’ as its main theme. It was not selected as the winner, but Fixi agreed to publish it during the recent Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair. There was a certain enthusiasm I had in me to interview Husna, and I couldn’t tell whether it was the fact that we would soon share the same alma mater as she is expected to graduate in Bachelor of Library Science, or perhaps it’s the theme of the book that excites me to interview her. I had high hopes that it needs to be the latter.

Whilst Pskik was initially written for a competition, the idea to write a story set in the dystopian future had been long buried inside her mind. Husna claims that young adult dystopian is her favourite literary genre, citing The Mortal Instruments as an inspiration, hence it would only seem wise that her debut novel centres on the same genre. In mid 2010s, there was a wave of resurgence in dystopian novels and movies breaking through the young adult market. Authors are suddenly intrigued in writing about the bleak future of dystopian society, and young adults everywhere are more interested in reading about fictional worlds of brutal regime and teenage post-war survivors. Although Pskik felt very The Hunger Games-esque, it still upholds authenticity that could yet been found in other local novels, especially in those who has young adults as its targeted audience.

When I think of novelists, I’d often myself fascinated by their daily routine. Discipline is suddenly injected to their lives and their work ethics are abnormal in comparison to others who works from 9 to 5 on a daily basis. I asked her about the discipline she puts herself into during the creative process of writing Psikik. “The first draft of the novel is finished in five weeks,” she said. “I wrote it during a semester break. I’d set a timer for three hours and write at least 3000 words each day. I feel the need to write every single day, not just when I feel inspired. Every writing session feels like an obligation to push myself forward in order to complete the book before the competition’s deadline.”

The novel was written from the perspective of a girl named Elina, who is a student of Institut Cahaya and is an adopted relative of President Karina. What I enjoy the most about her character is the growth that seem to only gets better in time. El is independent, strong and yet very curious, which leads her to unfortunate series of events that costs her the lives of her loved ones. Although the story is set in the distant future, the tangible familiarity that connects her character to the present world is what sticks to me till the end of the book. El is me. El is a female friend of mine. El gets in trouble for standing up for what’s right. El changes herself to society’s validation and later conform to the fact that her true self is the only person she should seek validation from. In other words, El is anything but what local authors would often get wrong about female characters.

I asked Husna about her female characters and how unalike they are from what I’d usually read in Malay novels.

“I want the readers to be able to separate the story from the author’s life, which explains why El is not an auto-biographical character; her characteristics aren’t based on me. My characters are purely fictional. They are invented as people that can be admired and become the sources of inspiration for me,” she said. “There is no doubt that we have abundance of strong women in our lives, but for some reason the media would glamorize our women as damsel in distress who needs to be saved by men in every situation. Even if there are strong women in local books, they would still be objectified and sexualized by men. I think it’s time for us to put strong and wise female characters front and centre in our literature world, so people would see the importance of their existence.”

It should be no surprise on how Psikik inevitably gives away evident feminist tone to the readers. The book itself is written for a competition with the theme of feminism. Even if it wasn’t written for a competition, the book heavily revolves around wise female characters and the never-ending fight for gender equality. Essentially speaking, Psikik is very much what a feminist novel looks like. But Husna never wanted the plot of Psikik to be relatable and realistic. She wants the feminism theme to be pushed to an extreme level, thus blurring the line between women fighting for gender equality and a new world filled with misandrists. “Women in today’s world are the oppressed group. We tend to feel less superior to men and we would always feel unsafe. So I’d like to imagine what would happen if it’s the other way around and I’d like to push the idea to its utmost,” she explained.

Psikik stands out in comparison to other local novels published recently because of its dystopian feminist theme. The subject of feminism is somewhat still taken lightly by many, dismissing its importance to women and their opinion would often justified by saying women in our country already has their fair share of equality. Feminism is too often widely regarded as a Western ideology that doesn’t belong in our society. So I asked Husna about her personal stance on feminism.

“Relatively speaking, I wouldn’t say the gender inequality in our country is as extreme as other countries. But you can’t deny that gender inequality is very much alive in Malaysia. Women aren’t allowed to hold higher positions in corporations because they are deemed as weak and unfit for the job. If you take a look at the rest of the world, people would have negative perceptions on feminism. They think it’s all about women conquering the world without the existence of men in their lives. To me, feminism is much more than just about empowering women in society, it’s also about getting rid of the dogmas that stereotypes both genders into specific characteristics. Both men and women can bring good or harm to the society, it depends on the individual and not their respective gender. It all comes down to the issue on how we were raised. If each one of us is raised to be respectful of others in spite of their gender, we wouldn’t be having the inequality issues we are facing today. We still need feminism, especially amongst our society today. If it weren’t for the feminists who fights for equal rights, women wouldn’t be having their freedom they have today,” said Husna.

Her explanation makes me wonder if there were any woman in her lives that motivates her as a woman. “My mother is a persistent woman, though she might not show her affection through hugs and kisses but her appreciation and love is felt with how she remembers the little things about me. There was also my aunt who has faced many hurdles in her life and yet remains indestructible and she’s appreciated by many when she’s around.”

Most young adult dystopian novels would only work as a series. This is arguably understandable as such fictional world needs to be built from scratch, with precise detailed on each characters’ lives. But Husna confirmed that Psikik is a stand-alone novel. She is satisfied with where Psikik begins and ends, though there is still much more to be said and written about the fictional world she invented. She has no intention in keeping the fictional world from the rest of us. Hence, she told me she is currently working on a hexalogy, or she’d prefer to call it as a ‘double trilogy’. The process would take longer time as she wouldn’t have deadlines to be met and each of the six novels would hopefully be published in many years to come. This future series is set to be revolved in the same universe as Psikik. A prequel perhaps? “More or less,” she answered. Nevertheless, as a bibiliophile myself and a hopeless believer in the future of local literature, I could only see Husna Rosli as a rising star that would only shine brighter among the myriad of local novels about forced marriages and women written as cardboard characters. The lack of dystopian novels in our publishing world would only motivate her to work harder for her next works, in hopes that it would be able to inspire young people out there to tell stories the way they want them to, just like she did.