Remembering Lloyd

Kee Thuan Chye refers to his friend Lloyd Fernando in today's Starmag as :

... truly a scholar and a gentleman ... a man of grace and polish ... (who) loved literature and imparted his knowledge to his students with such passion that it made an indelible impact on their lives

He describes how Lloyd achieved his own education under difficult circumstances, migrating with his family from Sri Lanka when he was 12, and then during the war years having to work at a succession of menial jobs (including trishaw rider - can you imagine?) before he could continue his studies.

He completed his Senior Cambridge exam, and then worked as a teacher before he was able to enter university at the age of 29 and became an assistant lecturer at Universiti Malaya. He did a PhD with Leeds university and became a full professor in 1967. (Later of course he also became a lawyer and set up in practice.)

His contribution to Malaysian literature was enormous :

He was really the only person at the time visibly promoting new writing in English. He edited the landmark anthology 22 Malaysian Stories (1962) that gave recognition to fiction writers, the most outstanding of whom was Lee Kok Liang. Deservedly, that volume has seen numerous reprints and been adopted as a text in literature classes. It was even reissued more than 40 years later, in 2005.

Lloyd also brought attention to Malaysian playwrights. He edited New Drama One and New Drama Two (both published in 1972), which presented the works of Lee Joo For, Edward Dorall, Syed Alwi, and others. Without these two volumes, some of the plays of our pioneering playwrights might have now been lost.

Chye goes on to talk about how Lloyd:

... often spoke about his vision of a multicultural Malaysia transcending race and religion. That was something we had in common, together with our concern for racial integration and equality.

He dealt with these themes in his novels, Scorpion Orchid (1976) and Green Is the Colour (1993). Some have criticised his style as being too academic in its detachment, but the message shines through nonetheless.

I regard the novels as two of the most important works of Malaysian fiction in any language. They came from a writer who loved his country enough to advocate eschewing narrow tribal concerns in favour of humanism and harmony.

Lloyd once told me that one of the challenges he encountered in his writing was his constant attempt to find ways of expressing himself in English without sounding “English English”. He avoided stock epithets and turns of phrase. He strove for Malaysian inflection. Those who mistook him for a patrician professor of English – no doubt reinforced at one time by his pipe-smoking penchant – never saw the colloquial Malaysian side of Lloyd.

I think Shirley Lim's tribute to him is particularly apt :

If Malaysia had more like him, our history would have been very different, and as a people and a nation we would be in a much better position.

Professor Lim Chee Seng in the New Sunday Times calls Lloyd :

... the man who can be said to have shaped the Department of English at the country’s oldest university. He also calls him a literary activist (a term I really love) and mentions his setting up of the Malaysian Association for Commonwealth literature and Language Studies (MACLALS) which is still active to this day.

He says of Scorpion Orchid and Green is the Colour :

These novels focused on the theme of nation in ways which stimulated thinking on the urgent questions of what it means to be a Malaysian and how significant it is to be thoughtful in approaching the issues of living together in a multicultural society, in which demagogues and propagandists can sometimes usurp and sometimes distort the public discourse about the profoundly important issue of building the nation in prosperity and harmony.

Prof Lim says that he intendeds to celebrate Lloyd's life and work with a

... festschrift* volume with the working title, Essays In Honour Of Lloyd Fernando, which will feature academic essays, poems, reminiscences and even photographic work to honour a deeply influential and much loved professor, novelist, friend, husband and father.

And I reckon the best way for the rest of us to commemorate Lloyd is to read his novels.

(Ignoramus me didn't know what this word meant and had to look it up.)

Redrawing Shakespeare

John Mullan is the Guardian finds Jon Howard's graphic fiction version of Macbeth:

... a jarring experience

But notes that it is:

... something more interesting than just another attempt to make the Bard look flashy and relevant. The graphic novel helps the unschooled reader see that Macbeth - extraordinary as its language might be - is not just words. Every frame has people acting and reacting, pressed by events. Pupils reading the play often have difficulties simply understanding what is happening. Here, the illustrations will let them see, and leave them (you hope) free to absorb the words.

Graphic fiction representations of the bard are taking off in a big way as some of you will realise from attending events organised by the British Council when Paul Duffield and Emma Schofield were in town.

But how do the literary purists feel about this? Shakespearean expert Professor Lim Chee Seng of University Malaya is all for it, in this very nice review of Duffield and Schofield's manga interpretations on the Kakiseni website.

Me? I think it looks great fun and I love to see Shakespeare interpreted in new and interesting ways. (By the way, I love the series of BBC dramas based on Shakespeare plays that were shown here last year.)

Such interpretations never harm the original. Shakespeare's work was meant to be performed and not poured over on the page. And every performance is of course a reinterpretation.

It Really Is Time for a Tiger!

Something that I've wanted to happen for a long time is going to happen on January 14th, and perhaps you would like to be part of it?

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you will know that have posted several times about British author Anthony Burgess (real name John Burgess Wilson) who was a teacher at the Malay College in Kuala Kangsar in the 1950's.

Something that made me sad when I taught there in the 1980's was that no-one on the staff, and none of the students knew anything about him or had read his books. Burgess' first novel, Time for a Tiger (the first part of The Malayan Trilogy) was set in Kuala Kangsar and the town is also mentioned in Earthly Powers, considered to be one of the most important literary works of the last century.

Many of the old boys of Malay College remember Mr. Wilson with fondness, even if not all of them were aware that he was later a famous author. (My husband, Abu, did not make the connection that his Worsley-driving hostel master with the pretty wife was Wilson/Burgess until just a year or two ago!)

We are just bit late with our fiftieth anniversary celebration of the publication of Time for a Tiger (published 1956), but well, never mind!

Several things have come together:

First, meeting Rob Spence via this blog and persuading him (it wasn't hard!) to come to Malaysia to talk on Burgess.

Rob is a Mancunian like Burgess, brought up in the same district of Manchester (though some years later!). Currently he’s Associate Head of Department. English and History at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancs.

Burgess was the subject of his PhD thesis, and he is planning to write a book on the author. He has published articles on various modern and contemporary writers including Robert Nye, George Mackay Brown, Penelope Fitzgerald and Jane Rogers, and has a book on Louis de Bernieres forthcoming.

Secondly, Professor Lim Chee Seng of University Malaya who made is possible for Rob to come. (Rob will also be giving a lecture there.)

Thirdly, the wonderful wonderful guys in MCOBA, in particular Mustapha Bakar, who took my sketchy idea and ran with it. I think that this will be a really interesting evening!

This then is the event:

Time for a Tiger
(A tribute to Anthony Burgess)

Date: 14 January

Venue: Wisma Sejarah, Jalan Tun Razak. Just before National Library if from Jln Pahang (Map)

Admission: Free or small charge (we are currently trying to get sponsorship) but by invitation only as places are limited due to size of the hall. Please contact me by email if you would like to attend. (sbakar@streamyx.com)

Tentative Programme :

7.45 pm Cocktail

8.15 pm Opening Address by President of MCOBA

8.30 pm Introduction of Speaker by Sharon Bakar

8.40 pm Address by speaker Rob Spence.

9.30 pm Q & A and discussion

10.15 pm Supper and networking

Update (30/12):

The response for this has been fantastic (much more than I could have anticipated!) and I have now filled the seats I have available. I have replied to those people whose names are definitely on the list. Very many thanks!

Bringing Characters to Life

First I'm going to rap some knuckles.

Sad it was indeed that so few people turned up for the MPH Writer's Circle* meet on Saturday even though so many people SAY that they want to write the great Malaysian novel!

We were talking fundamantals really - how do you craft great characters and make them live on the page? We had three very good speakers, one academic, two published authors and the dialogue flowed between them.

Professor Lim Chee Seng of Universiti Malaya (below) spoke more broadly about how writers bring their characters to life through names, dress, physical features and drew on the writing of Balzac, Shakespeare, Lawrence Sterne, Tolstoy ... and even the bible for his examples!

Nizam Zakaria (below) has now turned full-time writer. He reckons that characters will die if they are not close to what readers can relate to. He writes for TV and is often asked if his script is plot driven or character driven: but he finds it impossible to separate the two things out - they really go hand in hand. Some of his characters, he says, are based on aspects of himself. He also said that he describes his characters minimally, but likes to reveal his characters through what other characters say about them.

Kam Raslan (below), author of Confessions of an Old Boy, not to be out done by Professor Lim's literary references very nicely drew on examples from Jackie Collins and the film Titanic to show:

the ancient tussle between character and plot ...

Good characters create the plot and must relate to events in:

predictably unpredictable ways

and must be able to justify what they are doing. No character can ever be simply a foil for the main character.

The conversation was opened up even more when the audience joined in. It was really great too to have yet another very successful Malaysian novelist come along to the session, Beth Yahp, who talked about how her characters emerge from scraps of conversation recorded in her notebooks.

A couple of issues came up in conversation which interest me greatly:

Why don't Malaysian authors don't reflect the racial diversity of the country in their fiction, seldom creating characters from other racial backgrounds in their writing?

Should Malaysian authors use of Malaysian English in dialogue. (Prof Lim believes there is:

no need to mangle our English and make it laughable ...

while I'm pretty undecided on the issue.)

These are questions are v. much on my mind and the desire to write a thesis to explore them (and other fascinations) in an academic context grows ever stronger.


*Didn't know about it? Perhaps you should contact MPH to be put on the mailing list. (Call up the Marketing Dept @ (603) 7781 1800 or the Customer Service Hotline @ (603) 2938 3818 for more information.)

Malaysia's Top Ten

The people have spoken! These are Malaysia's Top Ten Books according to a survey carried out by ReadsMonthly in Starmag:

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

5. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

6. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

7. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

9. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

218 readers contributed lists, most of them, not surprisingly from the Klang valley, although there also appear to be enthusiastic readers in Kuching, Sarawak.

As Daphne Lee says in her article, fantasy is clearly a favourite genre. What also strikes me is that so many of the books are the kinds of classics typically read by young readers, four of them are children's books (Harry Potter, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, The Chronicles of Narnia). (I use the term children's books advisedly, before legions of Potter fans accost me, because I know that older readers enjoy them too!)

The Catcher in the Rye and The Lord of the Rings trilogy typically find their most enthusiastic readership among teenagers, while To Kill a Mockingbird is a typical college choice. (I've taught it to matric students.)

Now this could represent the demographic of the survey (most readers were under 35, but I wonder how many were under 20?) ... or it could represent the fact that older readers hold on to their childhood friends ... for comfort or nostalgia or simply because a busy life has meant that they haven't had time to read since. Or, more worryingly, (and here my neck is stuck right out!) it could mean that a Malaysian readership is not really maturing? Mind you, there are some interesting similarities with the list produced by British readers, where To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter books also hold sway.

Of course, plenty of other books were nominated - most receiving just a single vote.

My own list of favourites looks a bit stuffy and dead-white-male-ish though:

1. Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. A Hero of our Time – Lermentov
3. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
4. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
5. The Shipping News – Annie Proulx
6. 1984 - George Orwell
7. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
8. The Malayan Trilogy – Anthony Burgess
9. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
10. True History of the Kelly Gang – Peter Carey

My criteria? These are books that constantly live in my head, and I keep needing to reread, whole and in part. (I'm not a reader who rereads very much, so these books have to be special.)

Only one woman on it (and a woman who writes like a man, at that!). But I got conniptions of the heart yesterday when I realised that I hadn't included Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea which I've read three times.

And should I have had An Equal Music instead of A Suitable Boy? I truly love both.

And shouldn't Atwood have been there?

Dilemmas!

Besides the result of this survey, ReadsMonthly has some very good reviews, including a couple by guest reviewers. Lim Chee Seng reviews Raise the Red Lantern by Su Tong (and there's a 25% off voucher from Kinokuniya) and Gerry Liston (Acting British Council Regional Director) writes about The Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace. There are also another couple of reviews I plan to link to later ...

MILS and Book Boon

Oh the frustration! Nurjehan Mohamed's articles in the Learning Curve section Sunday Times today haven't been put up on line, so I can't link to them and can't do a quick cut and paste of the interesting bits. Here though are highlights.

(Note: have since found links thanks to Lydia!)

In a piece called Bringing Reading to the Masses, Jehan interviews Raman of Silverfish and Professor Lim Chee Seng about the setting up of the Malaysian International Literary Society (MILS) which co-organised the KL Literary Festival (KLILF).

Prof. Lim said the organisation wants to help Malaysians cultivate the reading habit.

He says that one of the ideas the group keeps coming back to is to collaborate with Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Malayan Railways) to provide a "travelling book box" which will be transported to small towns along the line and then opened by a volunteer with a key so that "local children who never the privilege of handling a book, will have a chance to read one."

MILS also plans to conduct a range of workshops "for teaching, storytelling and writing."

Lim talks about setting up the Malaysian Shakespeare Society (MSS) to introduce Malaysians to the bard through the sponsorship of performances and readings. Raman adds that MILS want to set up mini-libraries in the suburbs and small towns, have literary events in other towns.

A round of applause for anyone who promotes books and reading.

Jehan's other piece (The Familiar and the Unknown) is an overview of KLILF itself The feedback from participants she spoke to (including me!) is very positive.

Still am wondering why only the education section of this national newspaper bothered to cover the story. It's heart-breaking when folks have put so much effort into organising an event like this.

(All pics nicked from the NST. Top Raman and Prof. Lim. Bottom Brian Castro with KLILF participants.)

Dead Crows or Inspiration?

Nurjehan's story in last week's Sunday Times about the introduction of literature into the English syllabus for Malaysian schools was interesting (well certainly for me, with my teacher-training cap on).

The literature component was first introduced in 2001 at lower secondary level. The feedback to it in the article is extremely positive. I was particularly interested to learn that one of Universiti Malaya Professor Lim Chee Seng's postgraduate students, who is doing a study on the teaching of literature in the English language syllabus for the national curriculum:

... found that about 70 per cent of students across Malaysia love the literature component that has been inserted into the English language syllabus.

70%!

That statistic interests me, and I'd love to take a look at the methodology used to arrive at that figure.

In my previous reincarnation I was preparing my students to work with those texts in the classroom. So many of the pieces chosen for the syllabus were gloomy and too far from the kids' own experience to really be accessible without a lot of help. Just to give one or two examples:

A Samad Said's The Dead Crow might be a much better poem in the Malay original, but it's very limp in its English translation. Haven't stronger poems been written on the theme of pollution?

While Macbeth's Life's Brief Candle soliloquy is great stuff, will young adolescents be able to take on board the utter despair of it, and what more when it is taken completely out of context? (Who is this bloke Macbeth anyway?)

Don't get me wrong, I do whole heartedly believe that Shakespeare should be taught in schools, but the only brush with the bard at Upper Secondary levels is Sonnet 18. I've sat at the back of innumerable classrooms watching sweating kids kids under ceiling fans struggle with the concept of finding a hot, sunny day desirable (when, of course, they long for cool overcast ones).

I've watched students struggle with a particularly gloomy choice of text Emily Dickinson's There's Been a Death in the Opposite House, not so much because the description of the funeral is so foreign to our Malaysian kids, but because it necessarily opens up some painful discussion in the classroom ("Tell me about a funeral you recently attended") which needs to be handled sensitively.

I'm not arguing that young people should not be exposed to texts that are difficult or outside their own experience - literature should stretch us all, should take us to places we've never been before. But if for most kids the component is going to be their only brush with literature - why shouldn't the texts be enjoyable and accessible and directly relevant?

As it happens the component is currently being reviewed. I was asked to go and take part in the selection of texts, but got waylaid by other things I'd promised to do. I'm very proud to see that the team includes one of my former teacher-training students, and I'm sure they will do a good job.

Methodology - how the subject is taught - is another issue, of course.

While I was goggling around I came across this piece by Amir Muhammad which originally appeared in the New Straits Times in 1999 about the literature component (and it gives a complete list of texts used at different levels at the end). Amir raises one of the most important questions - teaching literature in the classroom effectively demands a move to greater democracy in the classroom, a move away from the teacher as font of all knowledge. Personal response and personal opinion, matter far more.

But how far is this possible when students are examined on their knowledge of the texts? Most of the questions (as I remember) are multiple choice. I've also heard (from a chief examiner) that in the open questions brighter students who give imaginative answers run the risk of losing marks because they don't give the examiner what they expect! Just regurgitate what your teacher told you and you will do fine.

Having thusly ranted, I must say that I am still glad that literature is on the syllabus and I'd like to see teachers making even more use of literary texts in their classes - for fun, for enjoyment, to touch the students' hearts. Because no one (apart from parents) can build the initial love of books as teachers can.

I'd particularly love to hear from some of the younger readers of this blog who have studied the literature component in school - how did you find it? Would you consider yourself in that 70% that love it? Why? Why not?

Parents, teachers ... anyone, your views are very welcome too.

KLILF Hanger

Yesterday, of course, the media launch of the The KL International Literary Festival (which now goes by the acronym KLILF!) at Bangsar Village which is to be held in various venues in Bangsar 28th March - 1st April.

The guest of honour was YB Dato' Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Minster of Women, Family and Community Development, who also happens to be the MP for Lembah Pantai (the constituency which includes Bangsar). She turned up a fashionable one hour late, as Ministers are always wont to do. For me the time was well spent, though, chatting to Saras, Dina, Adam, MPH's Dato Ng and others, and getting a Starbucks caffeine fix to propel me through the morning.

Here is Shahrizat making a grand entrance. The others are (left to right) Professor Lim Chee Seng, Raman, Tunku Halim with his back to the camera, Datuk Shanmugalingam (with the beard) and (in the corner) Dato' Ng Tieh Chuan of MPH.

Professor Lim introduced the event, and then Ronald Quay Ong Guan (above) the President of Bangsar Baru Business Council made a speech ... not only pointing out that Bangsar is a great venue for the festival but also asking for a community library for the area.

Ronald is the proprietor of the pub Ronnie Q's - the sporting pub where all my rugger bugger friends hang out on match nights. Now it's going to be transformed into a venue for Literature!

Dato' Seri Shahrizat's speech was nicely delivered and natural. It seems that she, Raman and Prof. Lim were all students at Universiti Malaya's Fifth College, at the same time. She also talked about the intellectual depth of Bangsar residents (haha!) which made the area an ideal one a litfest.

Professor Lim then read some favourite poetry ... and what a nice thing to have happen midweek just outside the supermarket! We had a sonnet by Petrach in Italian, Shakespeare's Sonnets 18 and 130, a Chinese student read poems by Li Po and Su Shi. Prof. Lim added a little John Donne, Tagore and Usman Awang much to the bemusement of pass-by shoppers, and then it was time to eat.

The lovely food was catered by the Hilton, but I was so busy gossiping to a whole range of people that I didn't eat much and went home hungry afterwards. Above, Raman with Eoin Duggan, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Ireland.

I'm glad Raman and Prof. Lim decided to use Bangsar as a venue (which I suggested to them both way back - common sense, innit?). The venues there should be more relaxed and informal than in some impersonal ballroom of some stuffy hotel, and dropping out to have a nice coffee or meal and gossip will be easy too. I'm glad too that the dull academic part of the festival has been dropped and there is no utterly confusing pricing structure this time.

In fact I'm looking forward to the festival. Have you registered yet? Get in before March 15th to get an Early Bird discount.

There are incidentally much better pics on Raman's site. Watch the slideshow and see how many faces you can name.

Oh and yes, here's the flier to pass on and stick on your blogs. Doesn't seem to be on Raman's site yet.

Professor Lim's First Lines

Meanwhile, in Starmag today, Prof. Lim Chee Seng, looks at novels with opening lines that grab the reader's attention, including Kafka's Metamorphosis, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Rani Manicka's The Rice Mother. There's 25% off his selected books at Kinokuniya - an interesting collaboration between an academic, a newspaper and a bookstore, and if it encourages folks to read, I'm all for it.

Related Post

Great First Lines (4/2/06)