Storyteller dominating the humanist
Is it yet another long-drawn story fitted to be a Sinhala mega
teleplay series? Or is it yet another story that had reached the point
where it had surpassed the barriers of a human interest story? Whatever
it is I found these questions lingering in my mind after reading the
latest Sinhala novel of Yamuna Malini Perera. The novel is titled as
Pupuru (Sparks) published by Kinkini creations 2010.
Prior to this effort Yamuna has written several other novels which I
have missed. She is more known in the local literary scene as lyricist
and a poet. But she has now gradually emerged herself as a short story
writer and a novelist. The forms of narratives take various types in the
hands of the creator. Some are still willing to be serious storytellers
while some other happen to be introspective investigators attempting to
join some of the better known writing styles of the modern English
reading world.
On reading this work, perhaps the eight novel of Yamuna, I felt that
she is inclined to be a storyteller with an eye on the exposure of the
social corruptions and their links with individual factors such as
adultery, moneymaking, debauchery and extramarital activities. In
several long chapters the writer probes into the human depravity of two
families. In the first instance the reader is introduced to a
businessman named Hector: how he had risen up gradually to the pedestal
where he is depicted as a go-getter of the first order, spinning money
on family lecherous deeds. His family members consist of a wife, son and
a daughter who sense his actions, but fail to communicate.
His main pitfall seems to be the fitting of his own wife and children
by having links with another woman, who in turn knew all his actions.
But the women, the wife and the other woman, are equally cheated in turn
for his benefit in the form of culpritism and cruel wickedness. The son,
who had a dispute with father, lives separately and comes to know later
that he is not his actual father. Then again he also finds faults of his
own mother who had succumbed silently to the misdeeds of the man who she
had got married killing his actual father, a downtrodden man.
All these factors go to say that there are stories within stories. A
reader discerning would find several main plots and subplots that would
go into the making of a so called mega tele-series that would run for
years and years. In a way I felt sorry as a general reader for the
effort made on the part of the writer toiling so hard to yarn spinning
over and above the expression of complex layers of human standpoint.
But may it be said in good earnest that now I have reached a point
where I have lost interest in mere yarn spinning. It’s for me necessary
up to a tolerable point to retain the spirit of continuous reading. As
for me I see the overflow of the popular unpudownable style of local
writing styles more inherently entering the structure of this narrative.
Some critics may not agree with me for commenting in this manner, as
they would alarmingly say that a narrative sans storytelling structure
is worthless. In fact it is an ongoing debate.
The two women portrayed in the work stand out as two types of woman
who kindle the issues of anger and hatred for the sins of their own
fault. In this manner there emerges a thin layer of religiosity within
the framework of the narrative I felt that the embedded major human
factor that lingers in the central narrative is the failure to gauge
one’s own self. Yamuna, as a creator, utilizes more situations than
authorial comments or commentaries. This I felt is a plus sign for the
creation.
Everything culminates in a predictable nature where the protagonist
is killed by enemy as a measure of necessity some crude form of
political entry too is observable in the structure. I am not sure this
entry helps the continuous flow of storytelling. On further enquiry I
found that this is one of the present day laid down models in Sinhala
narrative style.
Almost all sorts of social issues are selected as ingredients in the
making of a hotchpotch narrative which sustains a mere storytelling form
superseding the humanist in the narrator. I don’t want to belittle the
achievement of Yamuna Malini, but instead all I observe is a common
trend as found in the modern Sinhala fiction which may be a detrimental
hallmark as a standard pattern.
I am not sure how one could appropriately convince a creator as how
h/she should communicate the desire intention in the best form. All one
could stress is the need to know how better creative works are born in a
given literary field. When comparatively faulty creative works are
awarded prestigious literary awards at state literary festivals and
hailed by the university dons, it’s a pity to watch how imitable a
creator could be. I wish Yamuna may not fall into this category
henceforth. May she possess the power of discrimination and spearhead in
her field taking into account how a better creative work looks like. At
least it is better to reread a selected few works over and over again,
or be independent in the vision.
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