Books
REVIEW:
Thoughts of Martin Wickramasinghe made explicit
by Professor A. D. P. Kalansuriya
Editor: Dr. Ranjith L.Abeywickrama
Title : Thun kal vinividha dhutu koggala pragnaya
Publisher: Malpiyali Publishers, Dankotuwa
Year of publication: 2006
No. of pages: 310
Price per copy: Rs. 200/-
Dr. Ranjith L. Abeywickrama's book entitled "Thun kal vinividha dhutu
koggala pragnaya" is a timely volume which runs into 312 pages. The
author has assembled an impressive set of scholarly papers written over
a period of 25 years on the foresight-oriented concepts, the techniques
and the methodology of the celebrated Martin Wickramasinghe, the Koggala
Genius.
It is timely because Sri Lankan society today has arrived at a
sign-board-less junction in education, economy, politics, culture, etc.
In all these spheres, there are 'talks' but very little action is around
on every side.
So the appropriateness of Martin Wickramasinghe's views and
direction. The whole book is full of easy-to-understand vivid concepts
of Martin Wickramasinghe on Sri Lankan identity, culture, language and
Buddhism.
To a great extent, Wickramasinghe's widely applicable views directly
challenge the unfitting conceptual structure brought forward to us
during the last four decades by hypocritical Marxism-oriented
intellectuals within the narrow precincts of the Sri Lankan University
system.
Martin Wickramasinghe not only was a novelist and short-story writer
but also a critic who paved the way for genuine critique of Sinhala
literary work (PP. 27/-8). According to the author Sinhala Vichara Maga
was published 35 years ago. More or less it is a source book of
methodology for the genuine critique of sinhala literature.
Hitherto no other book of this nature has sprung up. Hence its
techniques and methodology are valid for today also.
Dr. Abeywickrama notes: "A genuine critic is neither a logician nor a
traditionalist but a critic who accepts the critique as its basis"
(P.67). Further he goes on to note: "That there is not a universal
pattern to perfect literary criticism.
However a moderate procedural guide can be worked out for Sri Lankans
following T. S. Elliot, George Lucass and Martin Wickramasinghe (P.71).
In chapter 08, the author is of the opinion that a genuine path of
literary criticism, though made explicit by Wickramasinghe, an honest
effort is not yet made for additional work by others in this area of
thought.
Nevertheless, 35 years have elapsed since. I presume, Dr.
Abeywickrama's lament here as justifiable.
In chapters 04 and 05, Dr. Abeywickrama, the author, makes clear
Martin Wickramasinghe's deep understanding of the common man's language,
experiences, attitudes and thinking modes. He refused to be aligned with
any 'isms' or schools of thought and expressed his own original views
boldly as an independent thinker.
This has made him an exemplary and an illustrative innovator,
unparalleled. Though not an expert in the contemporary sense, in any
discipline, his contributions to language, literature, linguistics,
sociology, Buddhism, Archaeology, culture, novel, critical thinking,
evolutionary theory, criticism, poetry, politics are unique in both form
and matter.
The idea mooted throughout the early chapters up to the 12th chapter
is the negativistic thought of Martin Wickramasinghe. It is highlighted
in chapter 12 by the concept of "Malady of Aravinda."
This too is timely and appropriate. Martin Wickramasinghe being an
expositor of Sinhala Buddhist key ideas in the deep South of Sri Lanka,
the melancholic attitudes to life of Aravinda, the main character of his
triology are unacceptable to the author.
I presume Dr. Abeywickrama is very genuine here because these
melancholic attitudes of Aravinda have had unfortunate influences on
such writers as E. Sarathchandra, Gunadasa Amarasekera, K. Jayatilleke,
Sunanda Mahendra, Madawala S. Ratnayake (PP.89-90).
These writers, though were mainly novelists and brilliant literary
men, did not create progressive Sinhala Buddhist characters in their
works. To Dr. Abeywickrama the character of Aravinda does not display
the mental constitution and habits of Sinhala Buddhists of the deep
South.
Instead of a revaluation, the result is simply devaluation (P.95).
The author also takes the opportunity to rebuke criticisms Set against
his characterisation of Aravinda as a store of melancholia marked by
ill-grounded fears (PP.97-115).
The point is made explicit as follows: In his book entitled Nava
Kathanga Ha Viragaya, 1965, P.144, Martin Wickramasinghe remarks that
Aravinda's character is disciplined by the village-oriented Sinhala
Buddhist culture and its environment in the deep South. Our author, Dr.
Abeywickrama, however, disagrees with this view and makes explicit the
genuine nature of the Buddhist Culture pattern in the deep South.
Accordingly, Aravinda is not the genuine embodiment of Buddhist
culture (pp.99-100). I tend to agree with Dr. Abeywickrama's reasoning.
Together with this critique our author takes up an interesting issue
pertaining to the celebrated novel, Gamperaliya when moulded into a
film, its producer intelligently handle to preserve the intrinsic glory.
When moulded into a teledrama Dr. Abeywickrama, however, rejects it as
not fitting to the accepted conceptual qualities in the book. His proof
as noted on PP.50-55 is reasonable.
On P.111 the author positively notes the criteria of genuine literary
criticism and takes us to a higher paradigm. In this context, Dr.
Abeywickrama rightly rejects norms of Marxian oriented Dialectical
Materialism in this area of thought. I appreciate this point.
The author begins to develop some of Wickramasinghe's positive
concepts as from chapter 15 on wards. One significant fact is Martin
Wickramasinghe boldly shattering Sir Ivor Jenning's (first vice
chancellor of University of Ceylon, Peradeniya) idea which depicted Sri
Lanka (then Ceylon) as a Sinhalese cultural desert (P.117).
Dr. Abeywickrama, our author, esteems highly the timely revolutionary
break-through. Such well-known sociologist and anthropologists as
Malinovosky, Margret Mead, Morris Ginnsburg, Robert Lovis, E. Adams
Gobbel etc. have directly influenced Martin Wickramasinghe in his
academic views on culture and civilisation. Hence he was on a sound
footing according to the author.
Martin Wickramasinghe wrote during a time-period in which
western-oriented culture was being worshipped by a section of Sri
Lanka's population on the one hand and condemned the agro-old cultural
pattern of Sinhala people; on the other.
Wickramasinghe rebuked these borrowed decadent conceptions (Sinhala
Lakuna, 1947 and Manava Vidyawa Ha Sinhala Sanskrutiya, 1950). The
Sinhala man was portrayed as one who not only avoids mad-speed and
extremes but also follows the middle path (P.120). The base of any
culture is the environment.
The people who are disciplined by the environment build up a culture
of their own in accordance with it. Should the environment be different,
so also be the culture. Not only the cultured people also the Veddas
have a culture of their own. The difference is characterised by the
relevant environment. On this basis, Martin Wickramasinghe did not
condemn the cultural pattern of the urban people in the country.
However, he often appreciated the Sinhala man's culture which is on a
par with any other culture in the world. The Sinhala man's hidden
ability not only is noted by him but supplied also with a clever
procedural guide to raise in rank among other people in the world. In
this sense, Martin Wickramasinghe was an initiator of enterprise. This
significant point is well established by Dr. Abeywickrama in his book
(PP. 117-190).
The author highlights the arguments of Martin Wickramasinghe
(PP.191-95) against the new hybrid class of English-oriented people in
Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). This is blind adoption. Its direct outcome of
disaster was brought into prominence during that time by Piyadasa
Sirisena, Ananda Kumaraswamy and Martin Wickramasinghe.
The first two writers satisfied themselves with writing a few
articles only. However, Martin Wickramasinghe continued his onslaught,
according to the author, by way of articles, papers, talks and books. It
was a heroic struggle which culminated in the cultural and political
revolution of Sinhala people in 1956.
To our author, Martin Wickramasinghe was born in Sri Lanka due to the
Sinhala people's previous good deeds as entitling them to future rewards
(jatiye pina) P.224. Not only he according to his own methodology
searched and found the very nucleus of the Sinhala man and his culture
but also inspired the Sinhala nation to get the best out of the
historical achievements of ancient Sinhalese men associated with the
Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods.
The author's approximation is timely and very well appreciated.
The writer is Former Professor of Philosophy, University of
Peradeniya and SAARC Professor of Philosophy Jawaharlal Nehru University
(1999-2000), India
Human condition under the microscope
Professor D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke
Title Moonstone
Author Daya Dissanayake
Published by Sarasavi Publishers, Nugegoda Price
Rs. 350.00
Daya Dissanayake's novel is significantly titled "Moonstone". The
title requires the kind of knowledge of Sinhala which everybody
possesses. It reflects the names taken by the hero to suit the three
roles he adopts.
In what he refers to as his first life, or role, in Sri Lanka, he is
called Chandraratne - in Sinhala, 'moon gem'. In his next role, as the
super rich global IT businessman based in Seychelles, he calls himself
Sandaruwan - a 'hela', more euphonious version of Chandraratne. When he
returns to Sri Lanka and chooses a life of simplicity, virtually a life
of deprivation, he calls himself, appropriately, Chandare - a common
name, yet meaning 'moon'.
The names link his three lives and signify that he is one and the
same man though following different life-styles.
Daya Dissanayake as a novelist is with it - both trendy and alert. He
blazed a trail by using the new information technology to publish
novels. In fact, he published the first electronic novel from Asia, "The
Saadhu Testament", in 1998.
In "Moonstone", the new information technology is woven into the
texture of the novel during Sandaruwan's life as an IT typhoon rivalling
Bill Gates - being able to operate his global business empire from his
house on an island in Seychelles, with no office staff as such, while
his offices scattered over the globe run with a skeleton staff yet
efficiently and with perfect adequacy.
The setting of "Moonstone" is the whole world. It brings in many
countries by reference to scenes set there and by other kinds of
reference, including food items from diverse cultures. The novel is,
from one perspective, philosophical and takes, as its philosophical
context, world thought, both past and present.
I wish to draw your attention to a sample of the stream of
consciousness of the hero, the writer's main preoccupation - on page
166. "Chandare was Romiel. A younger Romiel in a worn-out pair of shorts
instead of a loin cloth, living on a coconut plantation instead of a
small vegetable plot. Romiel was the son of Chandare. Chandare was the
son of Sandaruwan. Sandaruwan was the son of Chandaratne. Chandaratne
was the son of Romiel.
Yet the chief philosophical basis for the novel is Buddhist thought.
Daya Dissanayake's is a modern mind contemplating Buddhism and he
conceives new, even startling ideas.
In "Moonstone", the central desire of the hero is for his father to
be reborn as his son. The hero is prepared to become a parricide to
carry out his plan. Various reasons for his desire occur to the hero but
none conclusively, thereby involving the reader in sorting out motives.
In his preoccupation with ideas, Daya Dissanayake recalls Bernard
Shaw. Yet Dissanayake's aim is not only to take the reader on an
intellectual journey. I wish to draw your attention to the thoughts and
observations of Chandare on a beach - on pages 149-150.
"When he saw the fish caught in the net, struggling as they
suffocated out of the water, his sympathies turned towards the fish. It
was a slow death for most of the fish. Was their death painful?...yet
the fish were luckier than the men who caught them".
Dissanayake reveals his sensitivity to the inescapable human reality.
His sharp eye for the human condition is the ultimate justification for
the reading, and writing, of "Moonstone".
(Excerpt from the speech made at the launch)
Powerful argument against early nostrums
Title- Communication Day to Day
Author- Roy Seneviratne
Published by- Roy Publications
Price- Rs. 350.00
Dr. Tilokasundari Kariyawasam
It was long felt that a comprehensive book on communication skills in
English and Sinhala was a desideratum. Roy Seneviratne's book
Communication Day to Day is an unfailing source of learning to teachers,
students and educationist on this aspect. I presume this is the first
book of this kind.
This book is characterised by a quality of intellectual strength, a
sinewiness which might seem more appropriate to our present times.
Acquiring communication skills makes a kind of difference to an
individual.
As a process, acquiring language is something we all go through;
because it is usual we are inclined to take it for granted. It is only
when something goes wrong somewhere that we realise how pervasive are
the effects of language, how hampered we are if language skills are
stunted.
Teachers often express themselves as being at a loss, not knowing how
to deal with the children whose language is inadequate in communication
skills.
In this book, Roy Seneviratne, a veteran model eloquent English
teacher and writer attempts to help us in this situation by taking into
account the concept of what language is, and how it is communicated. He
treats it as inseparable from an individual's notion of how he acts,
perceives, thinks, feels and knows.
In particular it appears to be one of those rare books on teaching
that have something in the disciplines of psychology to turn to useful
account. The whole book stands as a powerful argument against many of
the early nostrums that are being peddled at the moment in the name of
improving the quality of education. In this respect it makes an
important and spirited contribution to contemporary education.
In the book there are two comprehensive sections, one for English
language and the other for the Sinhalese language, which can be adapted
to all situations involving personal, social, intellectual, cultural and
emotional.
The author expects vocabulary development as an important aspect of
education. He gives precise instruction in developing the intellect of
the reader in acquiring a relevant vocabulary in communication.
The most significant feature of the book is Seneviratne's conviction
that a foreign language is never fully developed unless the individual's
use of his native language grows with him, throughout his life.
He has considered this growth very effectively in the book, which is
the key note, leading to purposeful communication skills. The author is
beginning to define and devise methods for the teaching of English which
has made a major contribution based on his experience. It is remarkably
a fresh book on English teaching, associated with intellect and with
personal growth. |