හින් දොස් මාලේ - සේපාලී මායාදුන්නේ

 සේපාලී මායාදුන්නේ ලේඛිකාවට නුවර කලාවියෙ යටගියාව ගැනත්, එහි චාරිත්‍ර වාරිත්‍ර ගැනත්, වන්නි පෙදෙස් වල මිනිසුන්ගේ ආදිතමයින් ගැනත් මනා වැටහීමක් ඇත. ඇය මේ පිළිබඳව නවකතා කිහිපයකම කතා කර ඇති අතර, මා ම කියවා ඇති දෙබෙදුම, අත්තාණි කණු යන නවකතා(1) වලට පදනම් මෙම පෙදෙස් වලින් ම ලබා ගෙන ඇති බවත්  ඒ ඇසුරෙන් අප මෙතෙක් නොදැන සිටි අප ඉතිහාසය බැඳි විස්තර දැන ගැනීමට ලැබුණු බවත් සත්තය. එහෙත් නුවර කලාවියේ විනාශ වී ගිය ඔලගම් ආශ්‍රිත වැව්ගම්මාන වල වැසියන්, ඔවුන් ව දීර්ඝ කාලීනව ප්‍රාදේශීය නිලමේ වරුන් පමණක් නොව, මහරජ්ජුරුවන් පවා, තම ඕනෑ එපාකම් වලට පාවිච්චි කර ඉවත දැම්මේ, කරපිංචා  කිනිති වලට වඩා වටිනාකමක් නොලැබූවන් ලෙස බව පෙන්වා දෙමින් රචිත දීර්ඝ නවකතාවකි, හින් දොස් මාලේ. එහි මුල් දිග පිටු පන්සියයකට ආසන්නය. ඉන් දුනුකාර මුදියන්සේලාගේ පරම්පරාවක් සෙන්කඩගලින් නුවර කලාවියට ඒමට වූ හේතූන් ද, සැමදා බලය ඇත්තන්ගේ කාමාෂාවන් සන්ත්තෘප්ත ඇතුළු සියළු උවමනාවන් ලබා ගනු වස් මෙම අවශේෂ ජනයා ගේ ජීවිත පවා තඹ දොයිතුවකට මායිම් නොකන බව ද පෙන්වා දෙයි.

"'නාන තොටේදි උඹව කඩු ගාන්ඩෙය කියල කුමාරිහාමි මට අල්ලස් දුන්නා...'

'ඒ අහවල් කාරියකටදැ...?'

'අන්නර  පල්ලෑ ගමේ පනික්කි කොලුවව විද මරන්ඩ උඹ මහ අදිකාරමට අත් උදව් දුන්නය කියල...'"
(25 පිටුව)

"'බද්ද රාල නුවර කලාවියෙ මයෙ වැයික්කියෙ නිලමක්කාරයෙක්, උන්නාන්සේ යටතේ උන්නු වැව්ගම්වල පුරුෂයො සිය ගාණකුත් ඔය එක්කම මරණයට පත්වුණා.' 

'සටනකදී සෙබළුන් මරණයට පත්වීම සාමාන්‍ය දෙයක්, ඔවුන් මරණයට පත්වුණා කියා අප ඔවුන්ට වන්දි ගෙවිය යුතුයි කියාද මහා දිසාවෙ කියා හිටින්නෙ...'

'තරහ අවසර දේවයන් වහන්ස... හටනකදී සෙබළුන් මරණයට පත්විම සාමාන්‍ය දෙයක්මයි, ඔවුන් වෙනුවෙන් වන්දි ගෙවන්නේ නැහැ. ඔවුන් දාසයන් නෙවැ... මා පවසා සිටින්නේ අප දෙපක්ෂයේම දාසයන් මෙසේ මරණයට පත්වුණා. ඔවුන් මරා දැමුවාට බද්ද රාල වැනි නිලමක්කාරයකුට දඬුවම් පැමිණවීම නොකළ යුතු දෙයක්.'" (430 පිටුව)

ඉතින් මෙම පිට 500 පුරාවට අපට හමුවන්නේ උක්කුවා නම්, "කිරෙන් බාල වූ" බඩපිස්සෙකු තම වටපිටාව ගැන කියන කතාව ද, තුන්වෙනි පාර්ශ්වයක ආඛ්‍යායනයක් ද මුල් කරගෙන කියන කතාව ද, ඇසුරෙන් ගම්වැද්දන් ලෙස දාස ගනයේ සැලකුණු විශේෂයෙන් සියඹලාව නම් වූ වැව් ගම්මානයේ මිනිස්සුන්ගේ දුක් අඳෝනාවයි. ඔවුන්ගේ මුතුන් මිත්තන්ගේ වාසගම් පමණක් ම ඔවුනට ඉතුරු වූ තිබුන ද, දකුණු ඉන්දියාවෙන් පැමිණි තවත් නායකයෙක්ගේ ආඥ්ඥාවෙන් ඒවා භාවිතය ද තහනම් විය. ඔවුන්ගේ සියඹලාව ගම පුලියන්කුලම බවට පත්විය. පුල්ලෙයාරේ ට තිබූ තැන තරමක් අයියනාරේ ලැබුණි. ගමේ තරුණ තරුණියෝ නිධන් ලබා ගනු වස් බිළි විනි. ඔවුන ට ලැබුනේ, පරංගි රෝගය පමණි. ඔවුන්ගේ ගම ට ආරක්ෂාව සපයනවා යැයි කියන බද්දෙ රාල වචනයකින් හෝ ඔවුන්ගේ සහයකට ආව අවස්ථාවක් නොමැත.

දුෂ්කර වන්නි ජීවිතයේ අහේනිය එහි වැසියන්ගේ ශරීර සෞඛ්‍යට කල බලපෑම් ගැන සේපාලි කතාකල පළමු අවස්ථාව මෙහි  නොවේ. පෙර සඳහන් කල දෙබෙදුම නවකතාවේද ඇය මේ ගැන ඉඟිකලේ එහි එන වර්තමානයට ආසන්න යුගයේ දරුවන් තම දෙමාපිය මී මුත්තන් ට වඩා පෘෂ්ඨිමත්ව වැඩී ඇති බව පවසමනි. මෙහි එන බද්දෙ රාළ උන්නැහේ නිසා සියඹලාව හෙවත් පුලියන්කුලමත් ඊට ආසන්න අන් වැව් ගම්මාන වල ඉතුරු වූ වැසියනුත්, ඒ අවට මුස්ලිම් ගමේ වැසියනුත් ගම් පෙදෙස් අතැර, වවුනියාව, ත්‍රීකුණාමලය, සහ කාත්න්කුඩිය ආදි පෙදෙස් වලට පදිංචියට යති.

නවකතාව අවසන් වන්නේ 'යාල්පාන වාරිත්තම්' නම් වූ කෙටි පටුනෙනි.  එහි තමන් ගංවැද්දන් ලෙස ලැබූ අපහාස හා කොන්වීම ගැන අමතක කොට අමිශ්‍ර සිංහලයක් ගැන කතා කරන බවත්, නල්ලූර් රජු හා එම පෙදෙස් වලින් පැවතෙන්නෝ තමන්ගේ සිංහල හා දෙමළ වැසියන් හා බැඳි මූලයන් ගැන කතා නොකිරීම ගැනත්, කාතන්කුඩි වැසියන් වන්නියේ සිංහළුන් හා දෙමළුන් හා සහෝදරත්වයෙන්  විසූ පිරිසක් වෙනුවුට  අරාබී මූලයන් ආරෝපනයක් ද ඇහිඳගෙන ඇති හෙයින්, නුවර වන්නියේ ඇත්ත ඉතිහාසය මැකී ගොස් ඇති බවක් පෙන්වා දෙයි.

"වන්නි හත්පත්තුවේ මුල් පදිංචිකරුවන් තමුන් කන්ද උඩරටින් පලා ආ ගම්වැද්දන් ලෙසින් කොන් කිරීමකට ලක් වූ ජනතාවක් බව පුරා කතාවෙන් මකා දමා තමුන් කන්ද උඩරට සිංහලයන් යයි කියා සිටියහ. දමිළ, සිංහල සහ මරක්කල සම්මිශ්‍රණයක් වුව ද ඔවුන්ගේ ජාතිය සිංහල යයි ද මහත් අහංකාරකින් කියා තිබුණි.

කාතන්කුඩි පදිංචි මරක්කල ජනතාව ද තමුන් අරාබි දේශයේ සිට ජම්බුද්දීපයට සපැමිණ එතැනින් මෙරටට ගොඩබට අමිශ්‍ර මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවක් යයි පවසා සිටියෝය.

වවුනියා සහ වන්නි හත්පත්තුව ඇතුළත් දේශයේ බෙදීම සිංහල, දමිළ හෝ මරක්කල ලෙස නොව නිලමක්කාරයින් සහ දුක් විඳි ජනතාව ලෙස වග ඉතිහාස පිටුවල සඳහන් නොවූ හෙයින් ම තමුන් ජම්බුද්දීපයට හෝ සම්බන්ධ නොවූ අමිශ්‍ර දමිළ ජනතාවක් යයි ද කියා සිටියහ." (494 පිටුව)

කාලය ඇත්තෙකු අත මෙම නවකතාව වඩා සාවදාවනව කියවීමක ට ලක් ව, මෙම ප්‍රදේශයේ ඉතිහාසයේ උපමාතෘකා ගැන හැදෑරීමට අවකාශ ඇති බවකි අප ගේ අදහස. ලේඛිකාව  ඊට අවශ්‍ය පදනම හොඳින් සපයා ඇත (අවාසනාවකට පෙර කලෙක කලා මෙන්ම, එක් කෘතියක් කියවා, ඉන් කුකුස ඇවිස්සුණු විට එය තව පොත් කියවීමට ඇති  දොළක් ලෙස ජනිත වීම, පෞද්ගලිකව  සිතා මතා ම මොට කර ජීවත වන හෙයින්, මෙහි එන අපූරු උපමාතෘකා වල කුකුස මෙම පිටු 500න් ම අහවර වනු ඇත).

ඉවසිලිවන්තව, සෙමින්, කියවන්නියට මහත් ආස්වාදයකු, ඉතිහාස දැනුමකුත් ගෙන ඒමට විභවයක් ඇති නවකතාවකි, මෙය.

ශ්‍රේණිය: ****
නිර්දේශ - 2021 වසරේ හොඳම නවකතාව - අවසන් වටය ( රාජ්‍ය සාහිත්‍ය; විද්‍යෝදය; ස්වර්ණපුස්තක) - අවසන් පූර්ව වටය ( ගොඩගේ)
ප්‍රකාශනය - Muses Books

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දෙබෙදුම: https://me-and-err.blogspot.com/2023/10/debeduma-smayadunne.html
අත්තාණි කණු: https://me-and-err.blogspot.com/2019/04/mayadunne-2017.html

Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver

slow suicide's no way to go

"Wake up young man
It's time to wake up
Your love affair has got to go
For ten long years
For ten long years
The leaves to rake up
Slow suicide's no way to go
Oh

Blue clouded gray
You're not a crack up
Dizzy and weakened by the haze
Movin' onward
So an infection not a phase
Yeah oh

The cracks and lines
From where you gave up
They make an easy man to read
Oh oh, oh oh
For all the times
You let them bleed you
For a little peace from God you plead
And beg"

(Wake up - Mad Season)

The above lyrics are from that one song that hurt  me most - nothing has come close to it for years. Its a song the late Layne Staley sang with his band "Mad Season" ( which was a side project of his which featured Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, and has in its origin a rehab).  Why the song hurts is due it its pleading, self admonishing, self reprimanding, self imploring call to wake up, for "slow suicide is no way to go", ( which was the way Layne ultimately did go ). The last minute or song makes obvious the level of helplessness, and the self admonishing, and the cry for help - hmm.... Anyway, while opioid related deaths are not uncommon among superstars ( read as that of Prince), this song came to mind (if it ever goes away), due to the way that Dori wastes away and lives the last year or so, feeding the monster that eats her away. Demon speaks of the addiction thus, as he suffers and loves his girl the only way he could by feeding the parasite:

"It becomes your job, staving off the dope sickness for another day. Then it becomes your God. Nobody ever wanted to join that church. Then it becomes your God. Nobody ever wanted to join that church. A bad day is waking up with nothing, no God, no means. Lying in your stinking sheets, smelling what you hope is yourself and not your girlfriend. Someone has beat the tar out of you, it seems, and crushed some bones. Possibly a person, this comes with the lifestyle, but more likely it was the junk putting its fists through all your personal drywall on its way out of the building. Empty, you are a monster. The person you love is monstrous. You watch her eyes roll back in her head and her pretty legs racking, like the epileptic girl we all knew in grade school, Gola Ham. We were terrified of Gola. I tried to quit, more times than Dori did. Thinking I was the stronger of us. That was me being stupid, she just knew more." (1)

In that sense, I think this for me is a book that shows the daily hell that drugs make of your life, and BK has not left out a word to make the reader ache less.

The David Copperfield connection 

"I’m grateful to Charles Dickens for writing David Copperfield, his impassioned critique of institutional poverty and its damaging effects on children in his society. Those problems are still with us. In adapting his novel to my own place and time, working for years with his outrage, inventiveness, and empathy at my elbow, I’ve come to think of him as my genius friend."

Above is an extract from the acknowledgement section of the book. By adapting his novel to BK's time ( the book is almost contemporary - 9/11 is mentioned, as well as Christine Aguilera, while MJ and Prince are referred to as classics from the 80s), she has captured a deep rooted problem of the USA. While David, despite all the hardships that he experienced managed to get his life in order comparatively unscathed, Demon had more organized corporations leaching the life blood of his generation - while the powers that be had largely looked away. BK also thanks Dr. Art Van Zee for "his groundbreaking exposure of dangerous prescription opioids, ultimately bringing the crisis to public attention." in the same acknowledgement.(2)

There are characters, matching mostly one to one with David Copperfield, of course adapted to suit the time and place of Demon's time frame. Hence if an interested reader, reads David Copperfield first, she may glean more from the comparison, than one who hasn't - I did with the help of an audiobook from the public domain ( incidentally my second reading of the novel) (3)

Hint of a conspiracy

There are hints of a long drawn out conspiracy against the 'land people' against the money earning people. Aunt June (a rare updated informed character in the book), hints of the conspiracy:

“it’s not natural for boys to lose their minds….It happens because they’ve had too many things taken away from them….No decent schooling….No chance to get good at anything that uses our talents. No future. They took all that away and supplied us with the tools for cooking our brains, hoping we’d kill each other before we figured out the real assholes are a thousand miles from here.”,

                                                      while Demon's best friend Tommy, the vociferous reader has this to say

"He claimed he was on the right track as far as the two kinds of economy people, land versus money. But not city people against us personally. It’s the ones in charge, like government or what have you. They were always on the side of the money-earning people, and down on the land people, due to various factors Tommy mentioned, monetize this, international banking that. The main one I could understand was that money-earning ones pay taxes. Whereas you can’t collect shit on what people grow and eat on the spot, or the work they swap with their neighbors. That’s like a percent of blood from a turnip."

Previously Tommy had been devastated by repeated insults to hill-billys and the like and their way of life. Together with Demon's upholding of country life, against that of life in the cities, one could argue that BK has put words into the mouths of her characters to share certain points of views. I can guess that some readers, especially from the United States arguing for and against these points of contention - myself in my ignorance will hold my peace.

A summarizing word

If David Copperfield could make your heart ache for some of the things that young David had to endure unfairly, then clearly Demon Copperhead is going to hurt more ( not necessarily because the latter is better - for I feel, if measured against its time David Copperfield is the more complete), for the cruelty is more, for society was far more knowledgeable in the 90s ( but then again quite less than today, with the internet yet to become a commodity). One specific incident is how Demon Copperhead gets all his money stolen right in front of a crowd and no one does a thing about it. Some of the characters, which were influenced from the older novel are right down cruel compared to the former ones (e.g. Fast Forward vs. Steerforth; McCobb vs. MicCawber). All in all it is a haunting novel, which shed light on a problem that we realized  less the gravity of. Maybe the social message had some small contribution for its recognition - having said that the book clearly has enough and more literature in it to fully qualify as a very good piece of contemporary fiction. Highly recommended for readers of contemporary fiction.

Rating: ****1/2
Pulitzer Award for fiction 2023
Women's prize for fiction 2023
Best 10 books of 2022 - The Washington Post ; The New York Times

 Photo Credits: https://www.litreadernotes.com

 

(1) This too reminded me of another Alice in Chains song, 'sludge factory' (which was about Demri, Layne fiance who predeceased him):

"You insult me in my home, you're forgiven this time
Things go well, your eyes dilate, you shake and I'm high
Look in my eyes deep and watch the clouds change with time
20 hours won't print my picture milk carton size
...

Now the body of one soul I adore wants to die
You have always told me you'd not live past 25
I say, stay long enough to repay all who caused strife"

(2)

“This region has been through a lot but the drug problem is the worst thing that’s ever happened in central Appalachia in terms of human cost and devastation to individuals and families. You’ve got all these families that came apart, children living with dysfunctional parents or went into foster care. Children who learned from their parents to take drugs from a young age. The devastation is going to go on for generations,”  

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/28/us-opioids-crisis-fentanyl-appalachia

(3)       David Copperfield : https://me-and-err.blogspot.com/2024/03/david-copperfield-charles-dickens.html

 

            

David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

 I read David Copperfield, as part of read-along, where we were to read this in parallel with Demon Copperhead, the latter which was inspired by the former. While I have progressed up to 61% of 'Demon', I have fast tracked Copperfield, upon discovery of an audiobook in the public domain - which I now recall was how I read ten and a half years ago too. Yes, the assurance that I had read this book before came slow to me, although the recollections came in bits and pieces - although at the start I knew as a fact that I had read the book. I think not till the arrival of Uriah Heep was I quite sure that I had read the book before. The knowledge that one can forget such large parts of a work one has read,  put me in some kind of despair. I now will type in the two paged essay that I had entered in my notebook with minimal modifications, for rereading it, I seem to have caught the summary of the book, and what I gleaned to by Dickens' objectives adequately. If the need be to add to this I will do so, noting it as such.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

03-07-2013

The preface to this novel states that this is 'the favourite of all his children'. For me too, this is the best book by Dickens. I came across since 'A tale of two cities'(1) - and I've read three in between - Hard Times, A Christmas Carol, and Great Expectations. Like the last two, I read this with the assistance of an audiobook.

The Narration of the younger days of Copperfield is probably the most heart yearning and the best part of the novel, I think. The hard times that Copperfield had to endure at the hands of the Maudestones, and the school master, Creakles - not to mention the hardships he had to endure at the counting house are examples.

After his fortunes turn for the better, with his arrival at his aunt, Ms. Trottwood, the book takes a different turn. It is beyond this point, that this work can be analsysed from a more socio-cultural point of view, that is somewhat customary of the author. Yet, prior to this point, such incidents as Steerforth's insulting of Mr. Mell - the teacher at Salem house, and Tommy Traddles' sticking up for the Mr. Mell are one noteworthy. But the wide gap between the gentry and the working class is an important observation in this book. The attitude of scorn with which Mrs. Steerforth regards Mr. Peggorty, the attitude of ridicule infested hate with which Rosa Dartle treats Emily are pertinent to be observe(2). But the author has insights of the various types of people aboard in the journey called life, as he introduces us to the ultimate villain of all, a villain who cannot be righted come what may, in Uriah Heep. 

In the case of Uriah Heep, if the cause for the births of 'Uriah Heeps' are considered, that there is a fertile ground for such seeds to take root is clear. His 'umbleness'(3) is an act of deception, which he uses till it leads to his objective. While the likes of Heap uses such deception to plot the downfall of the likes of Whigfield, Peggoty's of life accept their lot are proud of it and make it work, as best they can. I guess it is the Peggoty's of life that Dicken's respect and awes at.(4)  Joe in Great Expectations is another example. 

The novel is full of characters of many such characters, that the autor has painted with life - the blood draining MacCaubers, Maudestones, such genuine characters as Traddles, Dora, Agnes - all vivid ones which make the book near a masterpiece of its time. I for one would've felt I'd missed an important part of the author's work, with a deep carve into then life of Britain if I hadn't read this.

Rating: *****
First published as a book in 1850.

1- Since then I've read Oliver Twist and Bleak House to take my Dicken's tally to seven.
2- An aspect that I had not touched upon was Rosa's love for Steerforth, which automatically aggravates any dislike that Rosa would have for Emily.
3- Somehow I had missed the rock band Uriah Heep, and how they not only have taken their name from this fictitious character, but even their debut album is titled 'Very 'eavy... Very 'umble'. I, in fact checked to see if they had album titled 'number 27' - not so.
4- Am wondering if this is a British thing, to think that countrymen, and those who work with their hands are easier to deal with. Consider the lyrics of 'The Chamber of 32 Doors' by the Genesis.

I'd rather trust a countryman than a townman
You can judge by his eyes, take a look if you can
He'll smile through his guard, survival trains hard
I'd rather trust a man who works with his hands
He looks at you once, you know he understands
Don't need any shield, when you're out in the field