With five fictional novels (and one non-fiction piece about her love of cooking) under her belt, Charlotte Wood's most recent novel 'The Natural Way of Things' was released late last year.
Having already received critical-acclaim, the book takes a harrowing look at misogyny in Australia that Wood describes as being just “one side step from reality”.
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For those unfamiliar, 'The Natural Way of Things' is the disturbing story of a group of women kidnapped by men and taken to a strange sort of prison camp in the outback. The men (and one woman) shave the heads of their captives, make them wear strange clothes, lock them in boxes, and force them into hard labour. The story focusses on two women in particular – their friendship, their struggle to survive and escape. The confronting misogyny of the harsh universe the characters live in reflects the rampant misogyny in our own culture.
'The Natural Way of Things' is meant to be disturbing, and when talking about the more horrific elements of the novel Charlotte describes “a systematic problem” when it comes to violence against women and misogyny in general. “Often when these things happen, when something terrible is said or done to a woman, there's a reaction of, 'oh isn't this terrible'. As if it has never happened before.”
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Charlotte says with 'The Natural Way of Things' she aimed to show that awful behaviours like those are not a one-off thing, and because her book is “slightly surreal” it lets people look at the issues of the novel and of the world in general with fresh eyes. She wants her readers to see the similarities between this fictional world and ours, especially when the link between the women who have been captured is revealed.
Misogyny is talked about in the media a lot more often than it used to be, but when discussing the topic Charlotte is fully aware that not enough is being done to combat it. “Nothing seems to change... You hear a lot about it, but it still seems to go on.” She is grateful for the fact there seem to be a lot more young women interested in feminism and fighting misogyny in their lives. “I feel like there is a wave of opposition – among young women especially – that's becoming more powerful. I think misogyny is very widespread though, and it can be depressing for women to see how little has changed in 20 or 30 years.”
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In discussing the themes of her novel and her writing, Charlotte also talks about another trend among young women, one not nearly as positive – the reluctance to use the word feminist and self-identify as a feminist. “I absolutely proudly call myself a feminist,” she says. But she adds that she doesn't care if other people call themselves a feminist or refuse to use the word.“If you believe in equality, human rights between genders, then you are a feminist whether you call yourself that or not.”
To Charlotte it's basic. Take the recent scandal over new 'Star Wars' toy sets not including the main character of the film, Rey, presumably because she's a girl. “She's the main character and they leave her out – it just defies all logic” Charlotte agrees, saying she couldn't understand why these things were still happening so regularly.
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Some of these little, daily slights against women in the world might seem trivial (while others certainly aren't), but could things ever get as bad as the chilling vision of brutality against women in 'The Natural Way of Things'? Wood has received messages telling her how plausible the story feels, but she says bringing flickers of reality into the novel, “has helped give some readers this idea that it could be real, and that has made it more horrifying to them.” The setting was inspired by a real place – The Hay Institute for Girls, under operation in the '60s and '70s. The Hay Institute was a sort of reform school for girls where the discipline was incredibly strict, bordering on cruelty. In 'The Natural Way of Things' Charlotte shows a universe far more cruel, but still not so far from reality.
Adelaide Writers' Week runs 27 February - 3 March, as part of the Adelaide Festival Of Arts.
