Jaipur Literature Festival: Helen Fielding on creating Bridget Jones, chick lit and number one dating advice

Ishita Sengupta | Indian Express – January 29, 2018

Helen Fielding, the author of Bridget Jones Diaries, was attending the Jaipur Literature Festival and answered questions the audience had in store for her. From doling out “the No. 1 dating rule” to talking about the #MeToo campaign, Fielding left the audience wanting for more.

Helen Fielding, creator of the famous Bridget Jones series, recently met, interacted and laughed with her fans in India. The author was attending the Jaipur Literature Festival, answered questions the audience had in store for her. From doling out “the No. 1 dating rule” to talking about the #MeToo campaign, Fielding left the audience wanting for more.

Jones, who eventually became one of the most iconic literary characters of the twentieth century, was first created by Fielding anonymously when she was writing for a column. Later, as it is well-known, Fielding wrote several other novels on her and a film too was made. While speaking on the ways of the modern world, she said, “there is so much focus on perfection that what is inside is completely neglected.” It is perhaps this constant need to preserve such an artifice that makes Jones still such an enduring character. “Bridget is the gap between how you are expected to be and how you actually are.”

Exhibiting impeccable charm and wit, Fielding said that though ‘problems’ in her novels and the problems people face today are similar, “technology has made them ever more complex.” She revealed how recently she spent hours interpreting texts and found the three dots – that give an illusion of a reply from another person – confusing. “They are not only confusing but they disappear too,” she added.

Having written Jones for years now, Fielding admitted that her voice has become synonymous to Jones’ character. And Jones’ staggering popularity also revealed how women, all across are intrinsically similar. “We use humour to get by tough situations,” she said. What makes disparate women similar too is their shared experiences and perhaps this is why Fielding emphasised on the importance of the recent #MeToo campaign. “#MeToo made some people reflect how the culture they live in affects the way they behave with others.”

But having said that, Fielding is extremely confident in her identity as a woman and as a female writer. She does not mind one bit if her novels are clubbed as chick flicks – a genre that is often dismissed and frowned upon. “I don’t care if the cover of my book is pink. I will not run away from it,” she said. When asked if she is considered any less important as an author owing to the novels she writes, Fielding falls back upon humour again. “Once my novel was described by a reader as ‘a transcendental study of existential despair’. I was later told it was the fault of the translation, but I am sticking to it,” she said. “I am very deep that way,” she added, in her self-deprecating style.

And this explains Fielding’s enduring status as a writer to whom several readers have turned to in solitude and despair. She can laugh at others and also at herself, with the same enviable ease. She is also ready with a word of caution as and when needed by her readers. And the one she believes has remained unchanged as the No. 1 rule of dating is: “Do not text when drunk.”