After having a good moan at the
New Straits Times for a lack of anything literary (and most particularly reviews on the pages) columnist Rehman Rashid
gives us not one but three excellent reviews of recently published local books (Dina Zaman's
I Am Muslim, Kam Raslan's
Confessions of An old Boy: The Dato Hamid Adventures and Antares'
Tanah Tujuh) with a promise of more to come next Friday. This is good news indeed.
Antares' book was also
reviewed by Shakeel Abedi in
Starmag yesterday.
Now I feel some rumblings of guilt. I've had the book sitting on my "needs-to-be-reviewed pile" for ages, with every intention of reviewing it, so please Antares forgive me for the tardiness of this post!
Tanah Tujuh (which literally means "seventh world" and refers to our earthly abode) is a collection of short pieces (including previously published articles, memoir pieces, and legends) in which Antares writes about the Temuan people he lives amongst with genuine warmth, clear sightedness ... and a deliciously wry sense of humour.
He recounts how he decided to get away from
.
... the monstrous machinery of industrialized society
by moving to an idyllic spot on the river in Pertak in Ulu Selangor in 1992 with the plan of building an "ecospiritual" artistic community.
His neighbours, the Temuan people had had had their lives radically changed by
"rapacious intruders". Antares recounts how man-made decrees had turned them into mere squatters with 99 year leases on ancestral land.
When the property changed hands, Antares moved to another perfect spot near a waterfall. Sadly the place was not to remain pristine for long, and it's impossible not to feel his grief and anger at the extensive environmental damage wrought by the timber companies. And then of course it was decided that work on
the Selangor dam would go ahead.
When Antares married Anoora Chapek in 1995, his close relationship with the Temuan was further cemented, and as an "insider" he was able to collect information about their legends and belief system. It was a race against time though, as many of the older folks who remembered the old stories and traditions were dying. But these rescued stories provide the richest material in the book, and I would have loved even more of them. (My favourite was the story of how Buaya the crocodile got his teeth!) The individuals who told the stories are also lovingly captured on the pages and in photographs. (You can find a gallery of Antares photos
on his website).
I also very much enjoyed the accounts of traditional healing practices which Antares recounts with a definite twinkle in his eye, and his hilarious story of Ramu and the tunnel of terror. Antares turns out damn good prose, and I have to agree with Shakheel's assessment that he's one of the country's best writers.
(So more please, Antares!)
If I have one criticism of the book, it is that it seemed rather bitty with the pieces differing so much in terms of tone and focus. I also found it hard to relate to the more esoteric passage relating to universal cosmology ... perhaps because I'm one of the most cynical individuals you could meet in any matters of faith.
Nevertheless it is an extremely valuable book which both entertained me and taught me a great deal.
I found myself thinking about Orang Asli issues recently when
I was in Pahang visiting schools and found myself watching my teacher-trainees teach classes with large populations of Batek children from the nearby national park area. It struck me, as it strikes Antares in the book, how hopelessly inappropriate the current model of education is for these kids ... but I saw how it's also true that if the learning is made fun and relevant they really do want to participate.
It also struck me how bloody patronising
these tourist trips to visit an orang asli camp at Taman Negara (to blow a blow pipe and watch these guys make fire) actually are. (One such trip was included in the package I took my sister and her family on last year and I really felt it was demeaning ... people are not anthropological specimens to be gawped at!)
A picture I'd rather hold in my head is footage of happy Temuan children playing in the river in a video Antares showed at the KL Litfest earlier in the year.
Authors who blog Antares (left) and Robert Raymer are among the bloggers caught by the Malay Mail's Cyberspot today. Robert says some nice things about this blog (which I'm grateful for!). Antares notes that blogging :
Antares emailed me some very welcome news this morning. He has started another blog where he is pasting up material from his previous (and now out of print) book Adoi! A Lipsmacking Ribtickling Taste of the Real Malaysia, which he wrote as Kit Leee.
Is this a party or a serious literary event?
Catching up with friends over a glass of wine.
The very supportive audience .
Brave Kenny went first, and it was his first reading. He read a piece he'd blogged for International Women's Day, called I am Woman, then 5 Pieces, and a quirky fairytale with alternative endings.
Jerome Kugan making us all stretch before he began! Jerome read some beautiful poems which he has compiled into a chapbook Imaginary Poems. (You can buy it from Jerome at just RM5)
I don't have to list them for you because you can just glance at the notes on Jerome's hand! My favourite was the Teapot Poem which he read last. Between the poems he sang acapella ... he has a magical voice and I hope it won't be too long before his album is completed.
Antares read from an unpublished manuscript (extracts of which you can find on his blog) Art Thou a Goddam Fundamentalist? which promoted most enjoyable engagement of the grey matter. One line that made me chuckle was about how religion provides a safe route from confusion to fusion with the one force of the universe. Antares is such an interesting thinker you just want to sit and listen to him expound at length. I intend to blog about his new book Tanah Tujuh as soon as I finish it ... and who knows but one of these days we might take "Readings" over to Magick River!
Chuck Kramer is a native of Chicago, now living in KL. He's an experience poetry slammer and last month we heard some of his poetry when he warmed the audience up for the slam with Chris Mooney-Singh. You can find a piece of his flash fiction published online here. He says that he has two unpublished novel manuscripts in his drawer, and he read from one of them - very good stuff I'd love to see on the page. (Write a novel set here Chuck, we need more good local fiction!)
Han was in last month's slam and came back to give us more of his work. Most of his poems are very short and he says he creates them like "found poetry" crafting them from phrases he likes the sound of and brings together. You can find more of his work on his blog and he has one of his poems in the present issue of KLue Magazine.
Sharanya insisted Kakiseni editor Zedeck Siew wear her rose and shawl. He's already getting called "pretty boy" and this won't do his reputation any good at all, I'm afraid! He read part of a short story "in progress" - I think it was called The Great Straights. Look forward to seeing the finished piece in the not-too-distant-future.
More local writers build a home in cyberspace. Antares needs no introduction and is someone who I admire for living life very much on his terms. He has long had a fascinating and sprawling website Magick River, and now has a blog of the same name with thought-provoking and very well-written content. (Am personally not at all sure about this 9/11 conspiracy theory but he makes the most convincing case I've heard for it!) You can of course catch Antares reading on Saturday at Seksans from his new book Tanah Tujuh which was launched at the litfest. (More about the book in another post.)
Shahril Nizam is a poet and illustrator (he designed the cover for Silverfish New Writing 6, and Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim, among others). His blog pelukismelukis is a treasure trove of absolutely delightful things. His art ... just melts me, and his poetry has a whimsical magical quality which reminds me of ... Edward Lear, Lewis Carol ... I would love a whole coffee-table book of his work!
He's an incredibly nice guy (and nice people always leave this grouch feeling most confused). His blog, Life for Beginners, has posts about the local lit scene, his training to become a Body Balance instructor, and much more. Best of all, he has put up a collection of short-fiction and poetry Broken Mornings, which you can download for free. Kenny, of course, is also reading this Saturday at Seksan's.