<b>Book</b> review: The Heart Radical | anna spargo-ryan - Blog Novel Malaysia |
- <b>Book</b> review: The Heart Radical | anna spargo-ryan
- Allah controversy: A <b>Malaysian</b> Inquisition? - ALIRAN
- Stephen King dan Neil Gaiman <b>Melayu</b> | Dewan Sastera
| <b>Book</b> review: The Heart Radical | anna spargo-ryan Posted: 27 Jan 2014 02:00 PM PST The Heart Radical NB: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for consideration for review. "Told primarily through the captivating voice of a young girl awakening to a world at war, The Heart Radical is the stunning new novel from the author of the bestselling Amber Road. " Boyd Anderson's first book, AMBER ROAD, was set in Singapore in the 1940s and told a love story to the backdrop of war. Boyd Anderson's second book, THE HEART RADICAL, is set in Malaysia in the 1950s and tells a love story to the backdrop of war. The construct is eerily similar, but the latter lacks the characterisation and emotion of the former. THE HEART RADICAL shows, from three viewpoints, the horror of The Malayan Emergency–a guerrilla war fought between Malaysia's communist party and Commonwealth armed forces in the time after World War II. The civil unrest is palpable in parts, with scenes of despair and hopelessness through the eyes of a very young girl (Su-Lin) being particularly confronting. It unfurls around her as told by her extended family, many of whom are directly affected by the continued presence of the Japanese. There is a lot of history in here that I had previously only heard of in minute grabs. The chapters told through Anna Thumboo's memoir are compelling. The emotion and imagery is expertly executed. Here is a strong woman, alone in the world with a young child, doing what she can from her position as a doctor, and being made to suffer for it. Parts of her narrative were exceptionally moving. The third point-of-view character, Paris Thumboo, is inherently unrelateable and two-dimensional. His role in the story is really just to bring the two women's stories together, and to serve as an earpiece for Su-Lin's reflections on the Anna chapters. He doesn't add anything except disorientation and confusion. I don't care about him. I want him to leave so I can find out what happened to Anna. He is a device, and not a good one. Stylistically, it's not that the writing isn't sublime–because some of it truly is–but it's relentless. Throughout the book I struggled to orient myself. Su-Lin's reflections jump wildly, offering flashbacks within flashbacks that are difficult to keep organised without making physical notes (PRESENT DAY -> FLASHBACK -> CONVERSATION IN FLASHBACK -> FLASHBACK RELEVANT TO CONVERSATION -> FLASHBACK FLASHBACK CONVERSATION -> etc.). For example:
It is full of passages like these, where the time and place is unclear. Sections of the book are told in a past perfect tense that pulled me out of the story and into a spreadsheet with columns like "What year is it?" and "Is this the same uncle as that other one who did the thing with the jungle?" The first two parts offer little opportunity to pause for dramatic effect or reflection. Scene after scene beat me over the head until I had to take a physical break in another room. Part Three of the book details the past court case (not the current court case, which I still don't really understand), and this is where Anderson really hits his stride. It is fast-paced and interesting, and the characterisation that has been (slowly but steadily) developed throughout the book is revealed through actions in the courtroom. The culmination of these scenes is a satisfying and mildly surprising climax that tugs on the heart strings. Ultimately, I found the story was often swamped by the construction. Mostly it's a shame that Anderson chose to tell it through the eyes of present-day characters. Instead of creating the character of Su-Lin as a child, Anderson feeds her part of the story through Su-Lin the adult lawyer. The immediacy of the experience of The Emergency is lost because they're jammed into this modern day story about the son, Paris Thumboo, and a "maybe we were always meant to be" love story, instead of being allowed room to shock the reader. There is power in the space between the words, and this could have used a little more. Having said that, I learned a lot and was definitely compelled to keep reading. 3.5/5 This book is scheduled for release on February 3 About the Author |
| Allah controversy: A <b>Malaysian</b> Inquisition? - ALIRAN Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:07 AM PST Just like in medieval Spain, in the Allah controversy it is the superior religion of the majority that is deemed to be under threat from other religions, observes Melati Timur.  The Inquisition Tribunal The latest Petronas festive advertisement predictably continues their expected mushiness. This time elderly men in an old folks' home are adopted by an employee for a Deepavali day out, complete with climbing up Batu Caves, beautiful vistas of Malaysian mountains, a durian pit stop and a festive family meal. As always, viewers have reacted positively, touched to tears by the sweet relationships on show. But there is something different about this advertisement. The elephant in the room has not gone unnoticed. The group celebrating Deepavali consists of a young Indian woman, two elderly Indian men and their Chinese friend. Malays are conspicuously absent from the celebrations. The only Malay we see is a young lady behind the counter at a gas station. She is friendly and tolerantly amused by the old men's antics, but she is not included. She is not their friend and she is working on a religious holiday not her own. In fact, there are no Malay residents at the old folks' home either (because, of course, no Malay would abandon their parents, right?). The reason for this is all too obvious for those of us who have lived through the changes in Malaysian society since the 1980s. Despite all the talk and pride in being a multi-religious, multi-ethnic nation, Malays have increasingly been segregated and even self-segregated themselves from taking part in the lives of other races, especially anything remotely religious. Perhaps the producers of this Deepavali advertisement were being intentionally subversive. More likely, they have, instead, internalised the inter-religious rules hardening in our society today, rules that would never countenance a Malay in a Hindu temple, much less being blessed with pottu on the forehead by a Hindu priest. The media is very sensitive to these written and unwritten rules that they judiciously self-censor. A Malaysian director told of a Censorship Board staff, unofficially informing him that had he made his movie about non-Malays, he would have had no trouble getting certified. But with Malay characters, the officials were uncomfortable even when nothing in the broadcast guidelines would rule out the fairly innocuous plot. And so Malay movies are now reduced to gangsters, hantu (ghosts) and virginal ustazahs who fall in love with their rapists. We still deify those wonderful P Ramlee movies with their social commentaries running through the slapstick comedies and the overwrought dramas, but we are no longer allowed to make them. Like many Malaysians, I grew up with unthinking acceptance of open houses with all races eating together, celebrating one another's festivals. In fact I grew up in Penang, dancing behind the Thaipusam parade, going to churches for weddings, crying loudly at Chinese funerals (admittedly for money) and lepaking (loafing) at the Thai temple grounds because their gardens are lovely and the Buddhist priests were friendly. But now all these things have become problematic – a minefield of nervous non-Muslims worried that invitations to meals would be rebuffed as their cutlery would be deemed 'unclean' and nervous Muslims afraid of raids, arrests, social opprobrium and legal harangues simply for entering a church or temple, working for non-Muslims, allowing another faith to worship in a surau or caring for dogs. Analogues to the Inquistion? It reminds me of a 'funny' period in European history. To my mind, Malaysia is now showing all the signs of becoming medieval Spain. Perhaps there's a thing or two we can learn from a brief comparison. Under Muslim rule and early post-Muslim Christian rule, Andalusian kingdoms were often models of tolerance where cultures were shared and different religions could live side-by-side in relative peace and harmony. And they were not completely separated communities; despite maintaining their own identities and rituals, they interacted richly, creating a flowering of culture, arts and science. Most famously, Greek science and philosophy flowed into Europe through this channel, an effort that involved Muslims, Christians and Jews. There were hybrid foods, art forms, institutions and culture. Christians under Muslim rule read scripture and chanted liturgy in Arabic, not Latin. Muslims still read the Bible and Torah side-by-side with the Qur'an. Jewish synagogues had verses of the Qur'an on its walls. Consider this example: A legendary Christian king died a saint and his tomb was inscribed with four languages representing his multi-religious subjects. Five generations later, his great-great-grandson, another Christian king, would employ the best Muslim artisans in the land to upgrade the palace in Seville, replete with inscriptions referring to the "Sultan" and invoking Allah, including over the front entrance. And everyone from every religious group, in every language, competed to write the best poetry! So much of Western culture (including pop music which owes much to the invention of the Spanish guitar), science and philosophy has roots in this lively, vibrant, multicultural Spain. But the tide turned. By the time Ferdinand and Isabel conquered Granada, the Spanish Inquisition was already underway. The Reconquista, as the slow takeover of Spain by Christian kings was branded, involved sporadic forced conversions of Jews and Muslims as well as threats of exile should these communities not convert. Unsurprisingly, these forced conversions created great anxiety as to the nature of the faith held by the new Christians. This, in turn, powered the Spanish Inquisition. With jurisdiction only over Christians, the activities of the Inquisition disproportionately concentrated on the Conversos and Moriscos as Christian Jews and ex-Muslims were respectively called. Of course, this reaction is understandable in the framework of what was happening: If you are forced to convert (by threat of death or expulsion), it would only be reasonable for anyone to suspect that your newfound faith was less than sincere. And there is a related anxiety – if Christians are not allowed to convert to any other religion (i.e. your faith is forced upon you), then in some ways, even the religion of the majority is suspect. So a society is created of Christians who cannot change faith surrounded by possibly 'fake Christians' who have been forced to convert. And all these Christians are under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, an authority that tortures and even kills Christians for not being true Christians. So any association with non-Christians or even new Christians becomes problematic, carrying with it the always present possibility of straying. Since the religious sincerity of everyone is in doubt, then any activity, no matter how innocent, can be deemed a real threat. Neighbours started accusing neighbours over the smallest things. Any slight deviation from the norm or even previously accepted practices became suspect. One man was dragged before the Inquisitors for greeting a long-time Jewish friend who was walking in an annual Jewish religious procession, something he had done unmolested all his life. But now, this simple act of friendship, became the basis for him to be denounced to the Inquisition. His Jewish friend, the so-called source of "corruption", however, could not be prosecuted because the Inquisition could only go after Christians. The pyschology of inquisition There are lessons to be learned from my brief example. Malaysia too has a religious majority that is not allowed to convert. They are governed by special religious institutions with non-democratic authority over all aspects of the private lives with the authority to fine, imprison and even beat them. Sound familiar yet? We can see how similar psychological implications from the Inquisition would follow. If Muslims are not allowed to convert (i.e. your faith is forced upon you), then their faith must be fragile, suspect even, ready to fall at the slightest whisper. And thus you see the anxiety in Muslim communities. Any contact with non-Muslims would, of course, be dangerous to this delicate faith. Reading the papers, you would think the danger of murtad (apostasy) is ever present. You cannot allow Muslims to do anything for fear of murtad! So you have a lady who cares for dogs being interrogated for fear that she is insulting Islam. You have a Muslim woman working for a bookstore owned by non-Muslims arrested for selling a not-yet banned book because the authorities have no jurisdiction over non-Muslims. And you have the government-sanctioned witch hunt on Shias as a deviant and devious cult. The Kalimah Allah case is particularly telling. You have another religion, Christianity, wanting to use the term Allah to refer to God in its Bible in a country where 'Allah' is synonymous with the Islamic religion. Logically, it would be the Christians who might be confused, and thus 'accidentally' attracted to Islam or some such. But instead you have the successful legal argument that it will confuse the Muslims instead, and thus menggegar iman (shake/challenge the faith) or, in other words, it could lead to murtad. Why is the Muslim faith deemed the more fragile, more in need of protection? Aren't we told all the time how superior this faith is, this faith of the majority and of the political elites? If it is so superior, why is it that our confusion is considered so inevitable compared to people of other faiths? Are you saying there is actually something wrong with our faith, something so close to the surface that the mere use of an Arabic word that means God by Christians will reveal all and thus turn us away from Islam in droves? And just like in medieval Spain, it is the superior religion of the majority that is deemed ever so close to corruption at all times, especially from other religions. So inevitable is this deviation, that a special body was set up for centuries whose sole jurisdiction was prosecuting religious unorthodoxy, and whose very existence actually ended up creating unorthodoxy out of thin air. Hundreds of thousands of people were arrested. It was extremely difficult to escape some form of torture, humiliation and stripping of wealth, regardless of whether you were found guilty or not, especially as torture was a form of interrogation, not legal sanction. The price of purity So many familiar tropes from the Spanish Inquisition are being played out in Malaysia now. Increasing hurdles for those who want to convert, to "prove" their sincerity. The demonisation of 'the other' in terms of being untrustworthy, of being betrayers and of using money to grease their way to domination. A relentless burial of any historical references, cultural rituals or identities that speak of traditional hybridity or syncretism. The banning of books, films, dances etc. The battles over language and liturgy. The obsession with purity and so-called Bumiputera rights to define the nation. The increasing rigidity of identity and its shallow accoutrements (what you eat, what you wear, where you hang out, who you talk to, where you go to school etc.). And the silencing of anyone who dares to step out of line. Just like the Spanish Inquisition, what we have in Malaysia is actually a process of forced nationalisation. A rigid monolithic monoculture nationalism. And religion is one of its most powerful weapons. Spain became a battlefield to redefine who was allowed to be a Spaniard. Who counts? And the answer was racist, intolerant, harsh, violent and extremely rigid. Those who did not fit, those who clung to previous traditions – even in the tiniest of ways – were hounded, tortured, expelled and killed. The many hybrid cultures, the fluid identities and multifaceted rituals had to make way for only one way of seeing the world. Yet this worldview is non-traditional and (en)forced. Thus it is always insecure, in danger of dissimulation at every turn. So eventually in Spain, when someone was described as an expert curer of pork, it was actually a euphemism for a secret Jew. Lessons for Malaysia Don Quixote, the world's first modern novel, beautifully illustrates this act of collective forgetting, the erasing of history and culture, of meaning itself. The forced creation of a rigid Spanish identity was shown at every turn to be a stubborn illusion. The book is a satire on the myths that sustain a national identity. Dangerous myths that are no more than tilting at windmills and serve to destroy culture and history. And all based on a lie, a dream of a pure past. Everywhere in the book are reminders of how this forgetting, this rewriting, happens – the burning of books, over-demonstrations of identity (Dulcinea, our mythologised Spanish heroine is "an expert salter of pork"), the loss of languages, and how easily myths can be constructed to become the basis for history. In fact, the very idea of chivalry was probably derived from Arab influence. So even that most traditional Spanish trait – that Don Quixote devotes his life to – is not "pure". As Maria Rosa Menocal writes of the book,
The "first-rate place" she refers to is Spain before the Inquisition. A time when cultures, languages and faiths mixed among the people as easily as they mixed with each other. Of course, it was not a utopia. There were conflicts, constantly negotiated differences. But it allowed for those differences to not only exist but shape society. A tolerance that was taken for granted. It was unimaginable in those days that Spain would ever be a place of only one people, one language and one rigidly defined version of only one religion. I truly hope I do not live to see the day when Malaysia's Don Quixote is written. It would probably be banned anyway. Melati Timur is the pseudonym of the author of this article. Source: New Mandala (Visited 2,354 times, 2,354 visits this week) Subscribe to our free weekly e-newsletter Close to 4000 concerned readers are staying in touch with us to find out what is really happening behind the news in Malaysia … shouldn't you be? Please refrain from personal attacks, unnecessary racist slurs, inflammatory or hate speech, crude language and libellous comments. Comments are entirely the commenters' responsibility and are subject to moderation. |
| Stephen King dan Neil Gaiman <b>Melayu</b> | Dewan Sastera Posted: 28 Jan 2014 09:20 PM PST AMIR MUHAMMAD, pengasas syarikat Buku Fixi, baru-baru ini ditemu bual oleh Nicole Idar, editor umum (Malaysia) majalah terjemahan sastera antarabangsa dalam talian, Asymptote. Buku Fixi merupakan sebuah penerbit novel urban kontemporari Malaysia yang ditubuhkan pada tahun 2011. Label Fixi Novo menerbitkan novel fiksyen picisan (pulp fuction) dalam bahasa Inggeris. Label Fixi Retro pula menerbitkan karya lama yang tidak dicetak lagi. Label Fixi Retro yang baru dilancarkan oleh Amir pada tahun ini menerbitkan novel laku keras (bestseller) antarabangsa yang diterjemahkan kepada bahasa Melayu. Nicole: Bulan Januari ini, Fixi Verso telah menerbitkan novel Joyland karya pengarang terkenal dunia, Stephen King dan Lautan di Hujung Lorong oleh pengarang fantasi terkenal, Neil Gaiman. Stephen King dan Neil Gaiman sudah lama dikenali sebagai penulis yang laris di pasaran, mengapakah novel King dan Gaiman sahaja yang dipilih untuk diterjemahkan untuk pasaran Malaysia? Amir: Sebenarnya saya terfikir, takkanlah tiada seorang pun yang mahu menterjemahkan buku Stephen King dan Neil Gaiman?Mengikut pengalaman kami, susah nak cari orang yang ada bakat dan stamina (dalam dunia penterjemahan) — novel mengambil masa yang lama untuk diterjemahkan. Dalam novel Joyland terdapat banyak slanga, untuk mendapatkan maksud yang paling tepat, agak susah. Neil Gaiman tidak sesusah King, novelnya pendek. Dua buku itu sebenarnya sedikit lewat… Terjemahan novel Stephen King memakan masa lima bulan, manakala terjemahan novel Neil Gaiman lebih kurang tiga bulan. Nicole: Bagaimanakah Fixi memilih judul laku keras untuk diterjemahkan? Amir: Saya lebih tertarik dengan buku-buku penulis yang saya pernah baca, dan saya pernah minati. Sedari masa saya berumur 15 tahun lagi, saya banyak membaca novel Stephen King. Saya lebih mengenali Neil Gaiman melalui komik Sandman; saya mungkin ada membaca Neil Gaiman tetapi lebih lewat sedikit. Ketika membesar dulu, saya kenal mereka (King dan Gaiman). Saya rasa salah satu fungsi penerbit buku ialah untuk mempelbagaikan jenis buku; kami terbitkan banyak novel Melayu yang berbentuk ngeri (thriller) dan sebagainya, maka saya nak buat sesuatu yang lain sedikit, nak cuba sesuatu yang baharu … saya nak pancing golongan muda dengan novel-novel ini. Nicole: Mengapakah setakat ini Fixi lebih menumpukan perhatian terhadap novel fiksyen picisan? Amir: Saya bermula dengan genre fiksyen picisan sebab ianya adalah suatu yang mudah untuk merebak – semacam dadah! Karya genre jenayah Jim Thompson edisi vintaj Black Lizard saya kumpul sebab kulitnya menarik; pada mulanya saya diinspirasikan oleh genre noir. Oleh sebab itu Fixi menerbitkan banyak cerita berkenaan pembunuh psiko (ketawa). Kami pernah terbitkan tiga novel fiksyen sains, satu berjudul Gergasi oleh Khairul Nizam Khairani, tentang robot transformer yang bergerak dari zaman Melaka. Robot ini cuba membantu hulubalang Melayu untuk menewaskan penceroboh Portugis sekitar tahun 1511 hingga 500 tahun hadapan, dan 500 tahun hadapan lagi ketika negara China dianggap sebagai superpower. Tetapi genre fiksyen sains tidak begitu popular dalam pasaran tempatan. Kalau dalam bentuk filem kita nak tonton, tapi nak baca, kita malas! Yang paling popular di Malaysia ialah genre cinta, dan untuk Fixi, bukan kami tolak novel cinta tapi genre ini bukan tumpuan kami. Saya mulakan Fixi supaya penerbitan ini menerbitkan buku daripada genre yang lain. Nicole: Bagi Buku Fixi, novel apakah yang paling laris? Amir: Kelabu oleh Nadia Khan. Kisah cinta, tetapi ada unsur-unsur gender dan seksualiti yang mungkin tidak ada dalam novel cinta biasa. Adakalanya kami ada sedikit masalah dengan kedai buku yang enggan menjual sesetengah daripada novel kami, sebab ada novel yang menggunakan bahasa kasar, tetapi kedai-kedai ini turut mempromosi novel Fifty Shades of Gray (ketawa). Novel Asrama oleh Muhammad Fatrim juga laris. Cerita hantu, juga merupakan novel laris untuk Fixi. Kami menjual lebih daripada 10 ribu naskhah setiap judul. Nicole: Adakah Fixi merancang untuk menterjemahkan buku bahasa Melayu ke dalam bahasa Inggeris? Amir: Pertamanya, Fixi ada buku bukan fiksyen berjudul Why Malaysia Has Never Reached The World Cup (Cerita Malaysia Tidak ke Piala Dunia) oleh Lucius Maximus (DuBook Press), yang merakamkan kisah kegagalan Malaysia, dari tahun 1974 sampai sekarang untuk melayakkan diri ke Piala Dunia. Buku ini mengikuti perkembangan dunia bola sepak setiap tahun sampai ke tahap gagal; versi Melayunya dicetak dua tahun yang lalu. Nicole: Mengapakah Fixi memilih buku itu untuk diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Inggeris? Amir: Kami nak mengambil kesempatan sebab bulan Jun nanti pertandingan Piala Dunia akan bermula. Sebenarnya, saya bukan peminat bola sepak, tetapi saya memang peminat pertandingan Piala Dunia! Lagi satu projek kami, Fixi akan menerbitkan novel yang diinspirasikan oleh Piala Dunia, dan khususnya negara Brazil. Fixi sudah menaja seorang penulis Malaysia untuk tinggal di Brazil selama sebulan untuk menulis novel di sana. Nicole: Apakah cabaran menterjemahkan buku bahasa Melayu kepada bahasa Inggeris? Amir: Buat Cerita Malaysia Tidak ke Piala Dunia khususnya, kami mencari penterjemah yang dapat menguasai laras bahasa penulis asal dengan tepat. Kelihatan "laras" nada buku ini memang mesra, tetapi oleh sebab tema buku ini adalah kegagalan, laras ini perlu sedikit mengejek, sedikit menyindir. Kalau (saya) hendak menterjemahkan novel Melayu kepada Inggeris, mungkin lebih susah; ada kemungkinan kami akan terjemahkan cerpen dulu. Ihsan Asymptote. Terima kasih Patty Nash dan Nicole Idar. |
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"A representative from the printing company based in Shah Alam told the Malay Mail Online in a telephone conversation that 
