Narratives on Humans and Inhumans

It is definitely difficult to create a good short story. But comparatively easy to create a good novel, commented one of my literature teachers a long time ago. Though I agreed with the comment, I now feel that these genres differ from each other, and both need to create perspectives and skills in imagination and expression.

The literature teachers all over the world face difficulties in teaching the structures, themes and other matters that go into the creation. I recall all these aspects of short story writing in the process of reading the maiden collection of short stories written by M Sirisena titled as 'Boomerang' (published by Godage 2012) consisting of seven short stories.

Creative skills

This collection has won the second place in the manuscript competition held by the Department of Cultural Affairs in 2010. As Sirisena says, it had not been his intention to win an award, but a test of himself in the creative skills. He has his own notions on creativity as recorded in the introduction.

Most central experiences embedded in the short story collection of Sirisena are drawn from individual observations on certain aspects of the government services in various state departments. It so happens that the narrator or narrators who retell the experiences too are the very same persons.

The story titled 'Forbidden Fruit', rather a long winding story, is such an example. The story revolves round initially around a family of teachers, a wife and a husband, who later find it miserable and forlorn to perceive what had really gone wrong with their teaching profession as they fail to realize some of the administrative paraphernalia that makes them miserable.

What happens in the end is a tragedy which may be a social reality, but I am not sure whether the narrator sees any depth that gives a vision to change the administrative format that exits. Should the good hearted hard working teachers be penalized for a trivial matter in their life may be a question one could raise.

Perhaps Sirisena could have created a mini novel ort of this human experience. It is believed that short story is a prose narrative of limited length. In one sense as literary historians point out, short story is as old as any literary form and must have existed for thousands of years before the art of writing was known.

Modern narratives

Stories of gods and demons fairies and witches may have come down orally transmitted into better known modern narratives. The title story 'Boomerang' which touches the inner purity versus the evil-mindedness is a reminder of how one individual could penalize another even at an elevated level of learning like in the university level of education.

As Sirisena hints that rivalry and conspiracy cannot shutter down and kill the inborn strength of a person who has inherited and cultivated piety. He also hints that examinations cannot judge the inner qualities of an individual in action.

'Flood Relief' encircles the malpractices and pilfering of finances on the part of a government official who is destined to get the retribution in his brief span of life. In many ways this is a story that traces the unethical behaviour pattern and the moral degradation of those who are given the power of judgment and supervision on those who are victimized by circumstances.

Sirisena hints that the pungent state of such people can only be averted not by any legal measures or punishment but by sheer injection of good moral deeds. They must be trained to perceive humanism as the guiding principle in their respective functions. There is also a wave of religio-spiritual vision running like a thread within the narrative. Sirisena uses certain type of Sinhala idiomatic expressions, perhaps deliberately to bring about a degree of humour in the narrative.

Have a look at this sentence: "I wondered as to who was bathing at this devils climbing tree hour in the dead of night".

Fact and fiction

One cannot rebuke the writer for such statements, instead it is necessary to know how they have entered the narrative. The writer believes as he points out in his introduction that fact and fiction are two things that are far apart. Then he adds that a fiction comes into existence as a combination of facts from life experiences and an intellectual concept or philosophy.

As a reader I felt that the opening story 'Motherhood' rests on a trivial matter that could have been left aside from the collection. The event as narrated about childbirth may be true to life, but it also discolours the same with a mild overtone of insensitivity. The storyline is a shallow visualization of a woman's faithfulness versus her inner struggle to be a mother. But the theme does not emerge vibrantly.