The Hindu Lit Fest 2024 | Interview with stand-up comic Kanan Gill on his debut novel ‘Acts of God’

Kanan Gill's debut novel, Acts of God, is a witty and existential comic sci-fi exploring storytelling and philosophical ideas.

Kanan Gill’s debut novel, Acts of God, is a cool, convivial work of comic sci-fi. Best savoured as a meta-discourse on storytelling — or comedic language (‘A word by itself just means what the word means, but a single word paragraph? Oof’) — the book unfolds in an unspecified future where humanity has blighted itself in nuclear warfare. In this post-apocalyptic post-land, Dr. Krishna, a brilliant but bereaved scientist, is running simulations of the entire universe. His attempts at emulating god were initially noble and exploratory in nature. Of late, though, he’s been checking out of Hotel Sense. The novel tackles big philosophical ideas (and some standard science fiction ones) with the wittiness and gentle existentialism Gill brings to his stand-up routines. Edited excerpts from an interview:

A: I studied both Chomsky and Erdos in computer science in different contexts and it’s been rattling around in my head for some time. The Chomsky quote — ‘Colourless green ideas sleep furiously’ — speaks to the idea of a sentence being grammatically sound yet completely nonsensical, and to me it signals the freedom to use language in any way I wish. A big part of the joy of writing the book was constructing sometimes preposterous sentences. Erdos points to the spooky arbitrariness present in many aspects of physics and mathematics. Some constants hide in our understanding of the universe, almost as if someone put them there. Other than that, I enjoy moments of humour from otherwise ostensibly serious figures.

A: It’s an incredibly flattering comparison. I’m not sure it’s entirely deserved. I first read the trilogy in four parts in college and it made my head spin. To me, TheHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the hardest kind of novel to write. Each situation the characters find themselves in is so compelling and bizarre and unique and hilarious that their inner worlds don’t call to be explored. In fact, I always start out desperate to write out-and-out farce, but then it becomes what it has to become.

A: It’s a fascinating idea, if somewhat of an untestable hypothesis. I think if we are to hypothesise about what could lie outside our understanding, then simulation theory is an exciting prospect. Personally, I have some doubts that god is a true computer scientist because he hasn’t published the source anywhere. Even though the subject of simulation theory is well-known, I think the more exciting notion than whether everything is a simulation is, why would it be? To what end?

A: The world is full of impossibly cruel people who allegedly subscribe to theologies of peace. The most gentle and kind ways of being are easily co-opted by malicious people for evil ends. So ideas, whatever they may be, burn up on entry into selfish atmospheres. So in the world, as in the book, someone takes a message of gentleness and carves it until they can hurt other people with it.

A: My personal philosophies barge into anything I want to make, stand-up or fiction. It’s almost never the plan, and yet it’s what it ends up becoming. There were many years when I was sinking within myself and searching for some way out, and I think I am now subconsciously compelled to share ideas that have brought me peace. Maybe I write what I need to hear, or maybe I want to make my sales pitch: freedom from suffering is truly possible — now for an attractive price of ₹399!

A: Looking back on the book after writing it, I realise every character is an expression of some part of me. Dr. Root, I’ll say, is a more serious and capable film reviewer than we were.