The Signifyin' Woman (Charmaine Valere)

Finally, a clear head on Monday

I spent the weekend in a fog, compiling final grades, nursing sick children, and over medicating myself on cold medicine, so I couldn't get around to completing my reviews of Molly and the Muslim Stick, and Wild Maami.  To those (the two of you) who were waiting anxiously for the reviews, on this clear-headed Monday, I renew my promise to bring you those reviews this week.  And I have a lil make-up something for the other two readers as well.

Plus this...

In my last post on Molly and The Muslim Stick, I said it's not a Caribbean novel (in my opinion), but I may amend that statement in an upcoming post on a particular character and his storyline in the novel. 

The character appears on the doorsteps of Molly's working class, Coventry home one evening, and she invites him in. She describes her initial encounter with him as follows:

The presence at my doorstep gave off such a smell that I stepped back instinctively.  Imagine a pigsty suddenly brightened by butterflies blown in by accident.  Frantically they seek exit, the panic of wings begetting a strange perfume.  Imagine the aroma of beating wings mingling with the vapour of swill and dung; an alchemy that makes even the morose swine raise their snouts from the trough and sniff the air delicately . . . His clothes were flimsy, pasted to his body so that he appeared naked, his crotch bulging against thin cotton trousers . . . I returned to the lounge with a tray of tea, bearing it as a tribute and offering to appease the savage's appetite . . . 'Wahwath kulla ara lish shana khadh mamla khadh,' he said . . . [Molly's stick interprets the man's language for her]: He comes from a place where people don't have names or reckon their ages.  Demerara, in the jungles of British Guiana.  I'm not sure how he travelled here.  If I understand him properly he flew in.  In Demerara people apparently are not merely human but also partly winged or four-footed or crawling.  All the creatures of the jungle are of one body, none of them are male or female, but neither and both.  It's probably all bullshit.  By the looks of him he's stowed away in the hull of a ship bringing a load of timber and bananas to this country.

(Molly and the Muslim Stick, p.89-92).

At first glance, it appears as though Dabydeen is giving us just another tired version of primitive Caliban-Carib man who may (or may not) rise up from his four-legged stance and show those white bigots he is a human being, not an animal damnit (you know the story line, right? BORING!). The events in the novel take place from about the first world war, to the second, and onwards, but Caliban-Carib man makes his appearance in the novel sometime after the second world war (modern times for the Western World, not so for other parts of the world). 

His presence and the way he is regarded and treated by Molly and other working class Brits may contain messages chiefly for an audience outside of the Caribbean.  Should that completely exclude Molly and The Muslim Stick from being considered Caribbean?  Shouldn't it be considered in some yet to be named (or existent) Caribbean literary category?  Although I won't like to see it competing for a local Guyana Prize or some such, I'm not so sure about my previous statement right now...not so sure Molly and The Muslim Stick is completely irrelevant to the Caribbean after all...

On Wednesday I'll conclude on Dabydeen's Caliban-Carib man. 

Get the flood-ing facts straight!

Living Guyana reports on flooding in Guyana, and attempts to sort out conflicting information on it.

Guyana Providence Stadium posts aerial pics of the flood.  And, Bryan Mackintosh gives a detailed report complete with pics here.

Christmas won't be Christmas without...

--listening to this song and singing along tunelessly without any knowledge of the correct words, at least 10 times a day.

--buying new underwear.  It's just something I've done every Christmas.

--my dad's ham.

--playing board games with my folks after we've all had a few and then some more.

****

Now you finish the sentence with your best three.  You can comment here and I'll post them, or you can post on your own blog.

Thanks for playing along.

Christmas won't be Christmas without _____________ .

****

--Raptus lists her Christmas goodies, and explains why nobody should expect a present from she.

--And of course Stolid gotta be extra.  Here's what his Christmas will be without.

Sample stories from The Caribbean Writer

Once again, in an effort to help you as you consider the length and scope of your stories for the 2009 short story competition, here are three stories published in The Caribbean Writer: "Guyana Stories," by Marina Tamar Budhos (Volume 3, 1989), "Uncle Obadiah and the Alien," by Geoffrey Philip (Volume 9, 1995), and Ian McDonald's "Pot O' Rice Horowitz's House of Solace" (Volume 5, 1991).

Inappropriate behavior?

As I sludge through this mess that is Molly's life, making my way through brain-searing details about sexual abuse, S&M sex in college, mental illness, human rot, and taking long breaks so that I'm not overwhelmed, I can't help but remember some of the seemingly (at the time they occurred) inappropriate sexual encounters I've had...though mine pale in comparison with what Molly experiences...  

There was the guy on a crowded bus to New York (from New Jersey that's about a two-hour ride in rush hour traffic) who insisted on pressing and grinding up against me for the whole trip, and when I finally made furious eye contact with him, he shrugged and looked away as if to say, "Hey, it's a crowded bus, a long trip, and I'm bored."

Then there was the professor who asked me to come to his office to discuss details for a student organization he was starting up (I was a student in his class at the time).  He closed the door (first sign that some inappropriate shit was gonna happen), and sat across from me talking, stretching, and ever so often caressing himself.  I left his office as soon as I could find a reason to, and headed straight to the registrar's office to drop the course.

And then there was the woman who invited me to a prayer meeting at her church and held and squeezed my hand several times during the meeting.  At first I thought it was normal, Christian, sisterly behavior on her part, but when she invited me back to her home after the meeting was over (I barely knew her, mind you, she was a friend of a friend), something just didn't sound right.  So I declined.

These days I am more amused by those encounters than annoyed, but that don't make 'em right...right?

Anyway, back to Molly.  

David Dabydeen may be a Caribbean man through and through, from the top of his many times anointed, well-oiled head of curly hair, to the soles of his well-traveled feet, but Molly and the Muslim Stick is not (in my opinion) a Caribbean novel.  I will review it, but my review will be PW (Publishers Weekly) style: short and crisp, as will be my review of Wild Maami, which (after reading more of it) I still think is a very mediocre book.  But that said, I am happy that Roopnandan Singh appears to have a readership, evidenced here for instance:

i'll tell u something. in december 1996, at around 8pm in the restaurant by the poolside of the tower hotel in georgetown, i saw david dabydeen at a table & invited him to join me & a friend for a drink. he declined, saying he wanted "to finish this book....want to c what's gonna happen to this girl, nadira..." ok, he was reading wild maami. on finishing the book, he came over & joined us & said how much he enjoyed the book. i later read it myself, and, u know what? i really enjoyed it!

sherry.

I'll post my reviews of Wild Maami and Molly and the Muslim Stick this weekend. 

Digging Seal's Soul

Been driving on that long stretch of 78 this morning, feeling soulful-blue (I usually am at this time of the year), and listening to Seal.  Good stuff.

 

Amazon.com: Soul: Seal: Music (listen to "A Change is Gonna Come," and "People Get Ready").

Cheers to Nicolette Bethel, Nadine Thomas-Brown, and Tongues of the Ocean

Nicolette Bethel announces Tongues of the Ocean:

...an online literary journal of Bahamian, Caribbean and related poetry. We’re an affiliate of the Bahamas International Literary Festival, but BILF isn’t responsible for what we decide to do (so don’t blame them!). We publish three times a year - in February, June, and October. We reserve the right to be picky about what we publish. For now we’re focussing on poems and poem-related material, but that could change. Interested in submitting? Read here for more details.

Here’s some of the stuff we’ll be including in tongues:

writers on writers - writers talk about the work of another writer. Like a review, only hotter. Bahamians & residents only, to begin with, but we’ll get friendlier as we go on. We’d like to start with a focus on Bahamian and Caribbean greats.

bredren and sistren - section for Caribbean and Southern US writers, for West Africans - for our siblings and cousins in the diaspora, and for our spiritual kin around the world. We reserve the right.

catch a fire - in every issue we’ll include a section inspired by word prompts, which we’ll post with the call for submissions.  For now, this is the only place we’ll accept fiction, and only flash fiction (for our purposes, fiction under 300 words). Prose poems are welcome. Transgress boundaries. Push.

Editor-in-chief: Nicolette Bethel
Spoken Word: Nadine Thomas-Brown

Congratulations Nicolette and Nadine!  I'm on/in line for a copy of the first edition, and more.

More good questions

In addition to blogging updates as your questions come in, I'm adding them to the "FAQs" link under "2009 Short Story Competition" (sidebar right).

Question: Can one person win more than one prize?

Answer: No.  Even if one person submits three superior stories, only one (the best in the judges' eyes) can win a prize.  That rule applies to group submissions as well, Stolid.

Question: Where and when will the writing workshop take place?

Answer: Ruel will make an announcement about that before the year is over. 

Thanks for the questions.  Keep 'em coming until all is crystal clear.

Sample stories from Calabash

Now that the sky's the limit (sort of), here are two stories of different lengths published in Calabash last year.  These may or may not give you some idea of how to think about the length of your stories.  Neil T. Greenidge's "An Accepted Child" (8 pages), and Diego Luna's "The Awakening" (3 pages).

Update: The 600-word cut off has been removed

In response to Stolid's complaint about the limitations of 600 words, and Nicholas Laughlin's nudging wish that "writers had the freedom to submit works of greater scope," as well as my own reservations about limiting writing, I have removed the 600 word cut off from the rules and regulations of the Short Story Competition.  Thanks for the feedback guys.