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| Sunday, 20 July 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Muller does it his way! 'Exodus 2300' by Carl Muller Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2003, There has been no stranger writer of fiction than Carl Muller. He sees it all his way and appears to be vastly indifferent about what people say of or think about him. He can be full of wisecracking humour, regale us with the sort of stuff that is most unparliamentary, write with scant respect for anybody and can also produce epic-style books that are the fruit of passionate history and over-enthusiastic research, then descend to unspeakable ribaldry, then soar out of these cesspits of his own making to sing other songs in a softer tone. That is what makes him so unpredictable. And now, to make confusion worse confounded, he takes us into the future - a not too distant future at that - to the last days of this planet, its final destruction and the salvation of the remnant good. Sir Arthur C. Clarke has said that he is pleased the way Muller has put his story-telling talents to producing 'science fiction' but is this book really that? It makes a fast-paced cracking good read. It could be most unreal in spots, totally mind-boggling in patches, but it also remains so down-to-earth that one wonders whether this new 'Book of Revelation' according to Muller is not the more acceptable. He has this knack of making reality of what is thought mythic and yet, as the story rolls on from one country to another, one continent to another there is a rationality about it all that makes it spy-fiction, science-fiction and futuristic fiction. It is also closely connected with what the sacred texts describe as the Apocalypse, the Kalpa Vinasa, the final Armageddon, the end of the world. Muller orchestrates it all with a hard grip on the Biblical texts as well as the way he stage sets his novel. It is hard to understand how a writer can first conjure up the end of his story, then begin at the beginning. Perhaps this is a new literary device, but if the world is going to end up in an all-engorging Black Hole the Black Hole has to be first created. The second part of the book is a sort of descent into a maelstrom, the destruction of every petty ideas sown in our minds by those propounders of the organised religions that have made the world a veritable circus. Suddenly, the skies are filled with the thought-sensitive ships of the stars, the moving of a planetoid to dock with the Earth, the awesome final battle between good and evil. The religious symbols become literary symbols with an ease that unnerves. It took three-and-a-half-days for Christ to die on the cross and rise again. It takes the same time for Satan to arrive in person, driven out of his command post on Mars. The beast is identified with the 666 centres he causes to be built across the world and the 666 massive UFOs that form dark umbrellas over the world's cities. The Ark of the Covenant is the end-time bomb that shatters the dreams of all Earth-kind and yet, salvation is assured and Sri Lanka becomes the island of refuge. Muller has obviously no truck with the religious humbuggery this world is steeped in. This is why, when the good are ferried away to the stars, he gives us an 'After write' that will surely upset a lot of religious apple carts. What he is trying to tell us is that there are no 'chosen people.' Everybody merits salvation, an afterlife of joy. Love is the key, the operative word. He does not readily say: "This is a miracle." Even Jesus Christ returns to set his feet on Sri Pada. he is no god, but a star-being who is seen by the assembled remnant of the world, yet each human, in his faith, sees this star-being as the saviour they have been conditioned to believe him to be - as the Buddha Maitreya, as the prophet of the last as told in the Quran, as the Christ of the Bible. In this strangely-twisted and incredibly imaginative novel, Muller insists on the oneness of all - that there is a Paradise for all who live according to their faith. The second book of the novel puts us squarely with the resistance in a secret hideaway in Polonnaruwa and brings into focus the new 'champion of the stars' - the President of Sri lanka, propelled by an unearthly courage that can only come from the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha he so heroically preserved. The final battle, the face-to-face, no-holds-barred battle between the Sri Lankan President and the Demon is mind-blowing. At the end of it all, one can only look around, see a truly miserable, corrupt world and think: "Carl Muller has done it again!" He has now given us a New Testament of faith that has every right to be read, not only in Sri Lanka but the world over. He has given us religion in his own way and his mind seems to be spinning among the stars. He has even given us the thoughts of the greatest mystics and philosophers thought that accompany each chapter. I said at the beginning, there has been no stranger writer. There is yet another thing. I think, wildly enough, that this is the sort of film material that will not only put Sri Lanka on the map but will make box office records everywhere. I hope some film-maker will give it earnest thought. ######### Encyclopedia in a series Amazing World - Vol. 2 By Mihindukulasuriya Susantha Fernando Price Rs. 295 In today's world the ability to manipulate and interpret information is a key to individual and organisational success. To meet this requirement the role of an encyclopedia need not be over-emphasized. Mihindukulasuriya Susantha Fernando has taken it upon himself to continually improve and refine the process of reviewing selecting,organising and presenting new and revised information in his Amazing World series which has captured the market with the very first volume. The book published both in Sinhala and English covers a wide spectrum of subjects such as history, science, technology, archaeology, mystery, exploration, travel, adventure, discovery, invention, mythology, beliefs and nature. In all the areas of human activity swift changes are taking place almost everyday. In such a situation, no encyclopedia can keep pace with the changes. However, when a series is published at regular intervals, readers will be able to buy each copy without incurring much expenditure. Although the flood of knowledge unleashed during the past decades has far outstripped the capacity of any man-made reservoir of information storage, Mr. Fernando's attempt to educate the reader on world events is commendable. The compilation of an encyclopedia involves not only writing but also graphics where they are useful to the reader. On the other hand, a good encyclopedia should generate a desire in the reader to do further research on a given subject. Amazing World shows that it is an on-going project that is highly complex in nature. As such, an encyclopedia has been compared to a living creature on more than one occasion. For instance, empires grow and then die. New knowledge gives way to old knowledge. This inevitable pace of constant change can be accommodated when the encyclopedia is published in a series. Being a seasoned author, Mr. Fernando has been extremely careful with grammar, syntax and vocabulary. His language is lucid and easy to understand. The writing is directed towards the learner who has had no previous exposure to a standard encyclopedia. He has presented only the bare essentials leaving out unnecessary details. His lavish use of graphics new typographic standards, formats, art and maps adds colour to the whole exercise. All this leads to a fine visual display of important facts for an ever-widening readership. The current volume gives basic information on pyramids, the Marfa mystery lights, Nazca lines, Galileo Galilei, space shuttle, advanced technology for waging war, Ester island, human body in outer space, fulfilled prophecies of Nostradamus, weather satellites, Indian civilisation, the universe, special effects in movies, mysteries of the human mind and many more subjects. Amazing World is a wonderful series you cannot afford to miss. ######### Are Asia's political leaders capable of sustaining democracy? Democratic Transitions in Asia Democratic Transitions in Asia focuses on political changes in the Asian region. Since the 1997 economic crisis, countries of the region are seeing greater demands for the accountability of leaders. Symbolic of the region's continuing struggle for democratisation, the President of South Korea, Kim Dae Jung, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000, joining other recent Asian Nobel Laureates, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Dalai Lama, Bishop Carlos Belo and Jose Ramos Horta. What are the challenges the Asian political leaders face? But where does this region stand in real terms with regards to democratisation? In the Philippines, popularly elected President Joseph Estrada was forced to step down by "People Power 2" when the impeachment process failed. In Indonesia, President Abdurrahman Wahid who became Indonesia's president after the democratic elections of 1999, facing multiple challenges was removed from power by the impeachment process. In Thailand, in the first elections held under a new democratically drafted constitution, millionaire Thaksin Shinawatra was popularly elected as Prime Minister while under investigation for failure to disclose assets. In Malaysia, the political scene is till coloured by the sacking and conviction of former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim. In Singapore, there is much talk of civil society, but tight government control remains. Meanwhile, in Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has for the second time been released from house arrest, Vietnam and Laos make only tentative steps to open up and the politics of violence continues to plague Cambodia. In this volume, politicians, civil society activists, journalists and academics talk about how to translate democracy into practice. They examine the reforms needed for democratic transitions in Asia: democratising political institutions and processes, human rights, the rule of law, free media, civil society, decentralisation, demilitarisation, local economy and the development of a free market. The contributors to this volume identify the obstacles their arguments for how the transition to democracy can proceed. It goes beyond the usual academic discourse and talks about practice. The way politics should be. Students, observers, commentators and promoters of democracy will find this volume crucial to their understanding of this region. (From the dustcover of the book) ######### A collection of poems with fact and fiction Rhymes of The Times - Fact, Fiction and Farce by James A. A. Senaratna A collection of 54 poems, 66 pages The most touching line in this book I found not in the verses but in the acknowledgement - 'man and beast can live peacefully together.' That gives an inkling of the thinking of James A. A. Senaratna who has after much persuasion put together his 'Rhymes of the Times' a readable mix of Fact, Fiction and Farce. It is upto the reader to bring to bear his own 'knowledge of the world' to categorise the over 50 poems under the three F's. James appears to have given the game away where in his understandable desire not to be seen as letting down the side lists the poem on 'Copped' as 'fiction' when it is generally known that cops especially the Traffic Cop was known to say 'To save you cash and law's delay Pay thirty bucks and go your way." Be that as it may, James is an entertainer. In 'Appendicectomy' he says: They swiftly sewed me up once more And just to even things by heck When the westering sun is setting When those days we used to wander 'Neath the palms we paused together, Time has passed and you have married, In 'Salute to The Observer' James comes to terms with reality. While saluting the old stagers Tarzie, Collette and other Columnists of old he welcomes the new. 'All Editors must go their way, He takes on another, known for his doggerel then, and derides him for ridiculing those who transcend the realms of spirituality. James' poems are not confined to the themes of one religious faction alone. He crosses, borders to write on 'The Enlightenment', 'The Crucifixion' and sees merit in all religions. James the patriot denounces the marauding colonialists in no uncertain terms in 'The III White Wind' They came, they saw, they plundered, now they're gone And leave the looted blacks to carry on.' So there is Fact, Fiction and Farce in the Rhymes which are at times limited in foresight eg. 'To J.R.J.' but such limitation are swept away in most other pieces. His biting irony and stinging wit runs through most of his poems. Here is an example: Naomi The office girls are all a whirl - Factotum ######### Worlds with their own calendar Inheritance by Jean Arasanayagam - Published by S. Godage & Brothers, Colombo. It may sometimes appear as if Jean Arasanayagam's stories take place in a world where a calendar, quite of its own, is valid. Of course the reader is now and then called back to the order of contemporary history, and a date or some other detail seems to prove that we actually find ourselves in the Sri Lanka that the daily news tells about. That is a Sri Lanka characterised by the bloody conflict between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority. But it is as if the writer wished to bring home how ambiguous history is, how different worlds may continue to live on - sometimes almost without touching each other. Old and odd worlds may be doomed and it is questionable whether they deserve any regret at all, but so far they are not gone. In Inheritance they are gradually conjured up in a meditatively repetitive prose - sometimes sad and subdued, sometimes suggestive. The perspective of the stories is almost exclusively female. The strange first short story depicts a sheltered, or rather confined, life of a young girl in upper class setting - and how a marriage with a sexually uninterested man offers the young girl a paradoxical freedom from all bonds. In the second story a world with almost Victorian values stands out. In a strongly anglified upper class the old colonial masters' example lives on. The actors themselves have aged but stiff hierarchies and a ruthlessly stern moral have remained - like the silence surrounding a disgraceful secret. Some short stories deal with the high caste Tamil clans that Jean Arasanayagam herself has got to learn by marrying into and has depicted in prose as well as in poetry. Like many times before the hidebound mother-in-law appears. Here it becomes obvious how divided Jean Arasanayagam is in her sympathies. She has often depicted the conditions of outsiders and knows how many who in fact were excluded by the hierarchic order of the old society. Her new family never accepted herself and part of the pain probably originates from the fact that this affected her also as an artist. She was never allowed to make the story of the Tamil family hers, never quite allowed to step into it. But it would not have been Jean Arasanayagam if she would not time after another have tackled this enterprise - like for instance in Peacock and dreams (1996), built upon the childhood experiences of her Tamil husband. In addition to that she sees how the rules of the old order themselves have been set aside by the development, and she is capable of depicting the old mother-in-law's isolation with empathy and warmth. Sometimes a long-time-ago-countryside is conjured up - abandoned homes of childhood and fields, trees cut down, general decay. However, Jean Arasanayagam does not only write about an upper class left behind In Inheritance you may for instance find the servant woman dreaming of leaving Sri Lanka and therefore repeatedly sending letters abroad - to ever new addressees and with a new, made up identity each time. One story gradually and carefully outlines a portrait of the deeply despised and deeply wronged Mudiyanse - a man that has been robbed of his land in a family conflict. Last but not least it is an unusually beautiful book that S. Godage & Brothers have published, decorated with a photograph of a family that could have been taken directly from one of the short stories. - Anders Sjobohm |
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