The Signifyin' Woman (Charmaine Valere)

Her true womanness

I'm nearing the end of Marlon James's The Book of Night Women and pausing to focus on two moments.  The first is a moment in the life of Lilith (a black woman in slavery), and the second is a moment in the life of Isobel (a white woman living in Jamaica during slavery).  I don't yet know how things will turn out, but here's some of what may be the book's statement about the true heart of slavery's darkness for the two women:

First, Lilith, a black woman in slavery who falls in love with her white master...

She start to doubt her true womanness.  She wonder what kind of nigger she be and why her stomach don't go sick every time the Irishman drop him drawers and suck her tities.  She wonder what kind of nigger she be that turn fool every time Quinn take up lodging inside her . . . Lilith hate him, she know she do, she just didn't know that hate was goin' be just like what Homer [another black woman in slavery] say love be like.  That she would have to guard it, lock it up in a pen like wild animal, for every chance hatred get, it flee.  More times she have to just tell herself that she hate the man, she hate the man, she hate the man, goddamn.  He touch her back in him sleep.  Lilith curse herself.  She is the one who get whip but he is the one she feel sorry for.  She must be the most crossed and mixed-up nigger ever.  But is a diabolical thing when a white man show kindness.

Second, Isobel, a white woman whose nighttime sex and drinking sprees may be behaviour true to her desires, but behaviour that is damaging to her image as a lady...

Miss Isobel start to bellow out that she want more . . . the man laugh again and climb onto the bed.  He wave a mug over her and she grab at it like a greedy pickney.  She cuss for him to give it to her.  At once.  Quinn never hear her speak like a negro before.  She and the man who might be white or octoroon . . . Bitch does what she wants, as women do in the colonies.  That Humphrey is engaged to her, that's what sad.  Feckin' grievous.

________________

As I said, I'm not quite done reading it yet, but maybe part of Night Women's brilliance lies in its depiction of some of the true horrors of slavery for women (black and white)--horrors involving the desires they were unable to control. 

Look, Ruel Johnson...

Ruel Johnson comments on this post which places his most recent work--Fictions, Volume 1--on a list of worst Guyanese reads:

Lol...  You're in danger of becoming the Vishnu Bisram of literary polling.  While I'm flattered at my placement in both polls, there are of course several flaws: length of polling time (less than 24 hours); no available poll size data (100 participants polled or just 1);  qualification of persons polled (Ian McDonald commending 'Fictions' versus random idiot condemning it); and of course overall transparency.

(Is this guy operating in the real world?  Can he read?  His level of obnoxious arrogance is unbelievable.)

Look Ruel...

This was never described as an official poll.  It was a request for readers of this blog to send in their picks for best and worst Guyanese reads.  And as you can see the comments are still open for more picks.  Feel free to add yours.

When I initially issued the request you'd be amazed at how quickly people sent in their requests for one list or the other.  As a matter of fact, your Fictions was one of the first and most often suggested for the worst reads list.  Maybe that is some indication that some of the people who read this blog bothered to purchase and read your much-hyped book.  Who are they?  They are folks who like well-told stories with messages to which they can relate.  They are folks who don't care much for lengthy, arrogant, incoherent explanations from a writer about his or her hintellectual intent.  They are teachers, writers, literary critics, degreed folk, ordinary folk.  They are Guyanese and Caribbean people, and they have a healthy respect for the Caribbean literary tradition.

Some of them are older than you and know more than you about good writing and lots more.  Some are your peers and admire you and think you have talent, but they also think you need a good dose of reality.  They are the people to whom you have been peddling Fictions on facebook and elsewhere.  They have every right to give their opinion on your book.

They said (by email and by DM on twitter) that Fictions should be on the list of worst reads, and they also asked that their names be kept off the blog--a very understandable request, Ruel.  After all, the internet can be both a thing of beauty--a quick vehicle for spreading the word about good works by deserving writers, and a beast--a place where wicked people can spread nasty rumors about others.  And you of all people shouldn't be surprised that people who wanted to give their honest opinion of your book also wanted to stay out of range of your punitive wrath.  Who can forget the ugly way you attacked your wife and the mother of your child on your blog last year?  If you could do that to her, what wouldn't you do?

And, I have to agree with them.  Fictions was a huge disappointment in many ways.  For starters, it was unbalanced; the stories ranged from good to head-scratching bad.  I wondered at times if the same person wrote all of them!  That's how unbalanced the writing was.  Fictions was also poorly edited.  I couldn't believe something so replete with typos was offered up for an international audience at last year's Carifesta.  Shameful indeed!  I had the troubling task of reviewing it and focusing on its positives.  I did so, and said half of it is worth a read.

You see Ruel, Caribbean Review is a nice place, a supportive place for Caribbean writers at all phases of their careers, and I certainly felt you--still very much a writer at the beginning of your career--needed encouragement, rather than an upbraiding.

Now there you have it.  And if I were you, I wouldn't fret about not being reviewed in Guyana.  Consider that your friends in the media and elsewhere who are avoiding Fictions like the plague are actually doing you a huge favor.  Thank them.

Your best and worst Guyanese reads

The first notable note is that a few writers are on both lists.  Now I don't know whether this is evidence that you can't please readers all the time, but it appears some readers were quite disappointed in their initially favored writer's subsequent efforts.  The reasons for declaring a book eligible for a list of worst reads were too varied to identify any particular trend.  Some works were deemed boring, some difficult to read, some disappointing, and some poorly written (or edited) containing several spelling and grammar mistakes.

On the other hand, the reasons for declaring a book a best read generally tended to sound the same.  They were described as well-told stories...excellent writing...great imagery, and relevant to Guyana and / or the Caribbean. 

Last note...although I requested book suggestions, one person nominated Wordsworth McAndrew's poem "Ol' Higue," with a lengthy convincing explanation for its placement on any list of Guyanese best reads despite the fact that no "book" of McAndrew's work is available for us to read.  Can't argue with that.  Someone also suggested a poem by A. J. Seymour, but couldn't identify a particular book. So I listed his collected poems (2002), edited by Ian McDonald and J. de Weever.

Here they are in no particular order, your choices for best and worst Guyanese reads:

Best Reads

1.  Collected Poems, A.J. Seymour.

2.  Shape Shifter, Pauline Melville.

3.  Poems of Resistance from British Guiana, Martin Carter.

4.  Mercy Ward, Ian McDonald.

5.  My Bones and My Flute, Edgar Mittelholzer.

6.  Ol' Higue, Wordsworth McAndrew.

7.  Palace of the Peacock, Wilson Harris.

8.  Slave Song, David Dabydeen.

9.  Ariadne & Other Stories, Ruel Johnson.

10.  Wild Maami, Roopnandan Singh.

11.  Suspended Sentences: Fictions of Atonement, Mark McWatt.

Worst Reads

1.  Fictions, Ruel Johnson.

2.  Buxton Spice, Oonya Kempadoo.

3.  Molly & The Muslim Stick, David Dabydeen.

4.  The Ghost of Memory, Wilson Harris.

 

If you'd like to add a title and author to either list, please do so in the comments.

Lists: the best and worst of Guyanese writing

It occurred to me that I've been very neglectful of Guyanese writers on this blog recently, so I'm taking a brief break from Marlon James's The Book of Night Women (a great read so far) to pay a little attention to Guyanese writers. 

With your help, I'd like to put together lists of the best and worst of Guyanese reads--books only, please.  Send your nominations for either list (along with a brief explanation) to signifyinguyana[at]gmail.com.  I'll post updates as the nominations come in.

From ugly to pretty, from black to white

The other day I was in a conversation with other women who grew up in the Caribbean and the subject of beauty (outer beauty mainly) was raised.  We've had several lengthy conversations about inner beauty, but this time we focused on the face.  And while we had varying opinions on a woman's facial beauty, we (the dark-skinned women in the group) all agreed that the messages we received about our looks as we were growing up were conflicting.  In my house, for instance, I was told I was blessed with such and such, but as soon as I did something displeasing, those same features were soundly cursed.

It took me a while to learn to ignore the inconsistencies from others and arrive at a healthy view of my skin color and facial features.  But while I and other women like me struggled to find that healthy place to view our particular beauty, I noticed something.  The boys / men who looked very much like us seemed quite comfortable with their looks.  I say seemed because I can't imagine they could have been completely unaffected by standards of beauty which basically said (borrowing from James's Night Women) ugly to pretty went from black to white (or fair-skinned).  

See here's a little scenario that I remember: A group of dark-skinned young men sat huddled together in a classroom in one of the (then) best high schools in Guyana.  The year was...we'll say safely pre-facebook.  They were creating a list of the girls in their class which rated them from pretty to ugly.  Guess where the dark-skinned girls ended up?

And while you're guessing correctly, here's more from Marlon James's fictitious slave narrative--The Book of Night Women--set in Jamaica:

Lilith perplex a little, 'cause the girl lips thick and dark and her nose flat till it disappear between her eye.  She didn't have good hair and her skin too dark.  But the girl was the prettiest woman Lilith ever did see.  Lilith perplex, 'cause the arrow from ugly to pretty was from black to white.  

Get well

I ain't righteous either, so all I'll say in response to what has been said over at that blog (now gone) is I hope you heed the advice you've been given and get the help you need.

And to the supporting cast... except for this presumptuous, pied-tongue prick, I understand.  I too can't see where the genius ends and the madness begins.  Maybe they are one and the same...

 

Moving on to better things...

I recently added Thoughts of a Minibus Traveller to my blogroll.  Much of what he has written there so far is extremely enlightening.  Here, for example, is an excerpt from his latest post on mental health:

In Guyana, mental health has great stigma attached to it. Guyana has neglected mental health as a result and there are no Guyanese organisations which will focus on mental health or illness (and this is not about suicide prevention only). There probably is no funding available.  More here.

If (as it appears) we've lost Guyana Providence Stadium, then there's some comfort in the knowledge that positive things are still happening in the GYblogosphere.

A perplexing set of beliefs?

Taken from Marlon James's The Book of Night Women (a slave narrative set in Jamaica):

...they preach the same thing every Christmas and New Year's, niggers don't understand what a baby in the bush can do.  Seem that if baby get left in manger he would scratch up, bite up and dead by the third day.  But white people think this be the greatest thing.  The baby grow up and they kill him, and white people think that be even greater.  It make plenty sense that white people would get so much mirth and joy out of this 'cause nobody kill for fun like backra.  Preacher tell nigger that God is man and baby.  Then he say that God is baby in December but man only four month later.  Then he say that God is father and he is son and he is spirit.  That sound like he breed himself to get himself, then kill himself.  White man God perplexing like the white man.  Then when it be Easter, they say that people kill him and then he rise up from the dead and he in heaven now.  We still don't know what all that have to do with a God. God supposed to be God of things people can be or use or be 'fraid of . . . Preacher say there be only one God right after he explain that there be three God and look up in the sky when he say so.  Some people wondering what God doing up there so long and how come he no fall down yet.

Words of wisdom?

Guyana Gyal writes what I suppose she expects to be taken as words of wisdom, or at the very arrogant least, things she feels should be shared:

--Arrogant folks don’t know they’s being arrogant. They think they’s being open and honest and they’s bringing things out in the open.

--Education don’t teach we tolerance. In fact, with Guyanese here and Abroad, education make we more full o’ weselves.  More here. 

Here's what I (arrogantly) think she should add to her repertoire of knowledge:

--Silence in the face of wrong-doing is either a show of complicity, or foolish cowardice.

--No, tolerance isn't necessarily taught in the classroom, but is the "full o' themselves" people who are more often than not willing to get out there and fight with pen and sword for the rights of those who suffer from societal intolerance, while the passively complicit and otherwise snide folk remain locked safely in their homes.