Madhuri Vijay on Cruelty as Righteousness
“I’m fascinated by cruelty in all its various guises—cruelty as negligence, as sadism, as self-protection, as misguided kindness, as accident, and, increasingly, as righteousness.”
Editor’s Note: Read Madhuri Vijay’s new short story “Hill Station.”
“Hill Station” is a new story by Madhuri Vijay. To mark the story’s publication in The Atlantic, Vijay and Katherine Hu, an assistant editor for the magazine, discussed the story over email. Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Katherine Hu: Your short story “” features an unhappy marriage where both parents have surrendered to their middle-aged fate. The detached tone of the story appears to echo their discontent. Why did you tell the story in this way?
