A myth-maker at work

Reviewed by Kalakeerthi Dr. Edwin Ariyadasa

“People don't go to the North Pole to fall off icebergs. They go to offices, quarrel with their wives and eat cabbage soup.”

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

Human history is replete with a hefty plethora of myths, legends, fairytales, fables and other creations of a lush creative imagination. In the dim past, during the dawn of humanity, the early men and women gave uninhibited rein to their thoughts to roam wherever they wished.

The outcome of this unrestricted flight of early human inventiveness is the vast treasuretrove of Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, Indian and other traditions of story-telling, that the modern man has become the heir to.

The Babylonian epic poem - Gilgamesh of the third millennium BC. is an outstanding product of the myth-making skills of the ancients.

Masses adored the myths and legends imputing to them a sacred and holy aura. Most of the stories had to do with gods and their divine prowess. The alluring mystery they exuded appealed to the people.

But, with the passage of time, literacy tastes underwent a massive transformation. Scientific thinking progressed in leaps and bounds. Advanced technologies of communication made literature available to the masses at large. The preoccupation with miracles, magic, mystery and myth began to wane.

They needed realism. Literature, the masses felt, should celebrate the matter-of-fact.

The staple idiom of the fiction of the modern era became the conjugation of the routine affairs of life. If a touch of mystery was added to this formula, it happened only very rarely indeed.

But, sensitive writers of the age of advanced technologies of sophisticated communication, felt a yearning to seek the unexpected and the mysterious, in a world propelled by computers that were mechanically logical. The throbbing of the heart had to relieve the regular, precise ticking of the digital.

In Sri Lanka, there was hardly any effort by creative men and women, to try and leaven the troubling monotony of a routine – driven society.

Fiction

Our literary works, especially the field of fiction, seemed to lack a pioneering spirit that would instil this enlivening dimension of phantasy and the mysterious to the realm of creativity.

But currently, a person of exceptional creativity has appeared, armed with an anthology of stones, in the urgently needed genre of fantasy.

And, what really matters is that the works in this collection do not have even the least trace of the amateurish.

They display a highly skilled narrative expertise and an all-round competence.

The anthology is titled Tahanamgahe Apple (Apples from the forbidden tree). The myth-making author is Bertram Nihal. Without any attempt whatsoever at overstatement, I can forthrightly aver, that the ten stories in the publication represent a flawless instance of creative story-telling. The language level, the measured tempo of the narrative progress and the predominant style, cumulatively contribute to the overall impact of the stories. The initial tale titled Vinodapala is built on the character of an itinerant entertainer who arrives at a remote village bearing a strange gift.

He has brought along a magic box. Clad in the motley of a jester, he displays the visuals of sacred sites to the devoted, unsophisticated rural folk. Soon the box gets transformed into an instrument of power and eventually, the literate itinerant vendor of entertainment evolves into a powerful leader. While underlining the irony of the emergence of power, the story-line hints at a mystery which is surprisingly resolved at the finale, adding a deeper dimension to the impact of the story.

The last in the series of ten stories in the work is an undoubted classic in twisted humour and mind-boggling mystery.

The work titled Miniha Vehunu Yaka (The devil possessed by a man) turns the usual phenomenon wittily on its head. What generally happens in this kind of story is a “Devil possessing a man”. Here the process is the other way about.

Nuances

The exceptionally ironical nuances of the story begin to come through overwhelmingly when the man who possess the devil turns out to be a politician.

The total series has been conceived with admirable care and discipline.

The shock-effect of the stories is very cleverly manipulated by the writer, leading the reader to an unexpectedly strange realm of literary appreciation.

In the story titled Nasaraniya the cultural character is a young man affected by a freak state of mind. The title implies “good-for-nothing.”

The efficacy of the writer's literary craftsmanship is vividly exhibited by the hypnotic allure he imparts to each story. Once you make your entry into his story-domain, you are helplessly caught up and you go along with its flow, hardly aware that you are so absolutely absorbed.

His Wavullu (The bats) is a work that grips the totality of the reader's being by transporting him into a region that is inexplicably beyond any logic. The vast horde of bats that taken over a human settlement seems the central idiom of a modern parable.

The work is so clearly exceptional and the effort is so admirably erudite that those who are really keen about a truly creative contribution of a new chapter to the continuing chronicle of Sri Lankan fiction, should make an in-depth study of this really innovative anthology of fiction.

Two elucidatory introductions enhance the value of this collection. These are by the author Bertram Nihal and by literary critic M. Edwin Pieris.

At this stage, while felicitating the author for an intellectually satisfying creative banquet, I earnestly request the alert students of modern Sinhala fiction to examine this work at seminar level.

The cover-art is an aesthetically advanced creative effort. The resounding outcome of all this is that Bertram Nihal is making an impressive debut as a pathfinder in modern Sinhala fiction.