We have been talking about books written about life in Thailand by Westerners.
It is interesting to note that many of the ‘novels’ about Thailand or set in Thailand have not been published by established publishers. I cannot believe that is for lack of a decent agent or prejudiced publishers’ readers. It is just that most of the books are pretty unreadable unless you happen to want to read about yourself. It must be annoying to Christopher G. Moore, who presumably thinks of himself as a novelist, that his best book is Heart Talk!
But if I wanted to read fiction about the Far East ….
I would go for classic Japanese writers like Yasunari Kawabata, Junchiro Tanizaki, Yukio Mishima or The Philippine novelist Arlene J.Chai, Catherine Lim in Singapore, Fernando Toer in Indonesia. etc, even S.Tsow’s Jasmine Nights is better than Western fiction set in and/or about the East. There is now a wealth of great Chinese fiction in translation, too. There are better books too by US and UK Mbased Chinese and Korean writers. Kazuo Ishiguro, is I think, a great writer.
Apart from not being very well written, it is difficult to put a finger on what is wrong with ‘Thailand’ novels. I think partly it is because there is some attempt to ‘explain’ both Thailand and the Thais as well as the writer. Leather, Moore, Barrett, Needham all seem to be more interested in this explication than in telling a ‘good story’. The characters are all one-dimensional and the stories and settings banal, straining to capture the ‘essence of Bangkok’. It is not a recent phenomenon. There have been dreadful ‘Dusky Oriental Maiden’ books for decades. I collect them as they have wonderfully lurid dustjackets!
I suppose if I was Thai I would not want to read novels about the ‘adventures’ of Thais in Amsterdam or Paddington brothels. There seems, too, to be by comparison little about the bars of Angeles or Manila, though I should have thought there were as many westerners married to Filipina bar girls as Thais. So what prompts these books? Are there the same kind of books written in German and Swedish? Or is it a British/N.American genre?
I have a huge bibliography of ‘Oriental’ books. From the imaginative travellers of the 17th and 18th centuries, through to Post Modern academic stuff and sub-literary drivel. You cannot imagine the knots ‘theorists’ get themselves into when trying to ‘deconstruct’ ‘Gender in Modern Thailand’
Things I have liked over the years include these, but they are hardly beach reading
Turpin, M. Histoire Naturelle et Civile du Royaume de Siam 1771
Quaritch Wales.. Siamese State Ceremonies: Their History and Function 1931
R. Le May An Asian Arcady 1938
Cohen, E Thai Girls and Farang Men: The Edge of Ambiguity 1982
Brun, V Traditional Herbal Medicine in Thailand 1987
Chitakasen Thai Construction of Knowledge 1991
Tongchai Winichakul Siam Mapped 1994
Askew, M Bangkok 2002
Seabrook, J In The Cities Of The South 1995
Terwiel , B Through Travellers Eyes (19C Thailand) 1989
Klausner, W. Reflections on Thai Culture 1987
Connelly Touch The Dragon ?1990
Thompson Thai Food 2003
Anderson Plants and People of The Golden Triangle 1993
Phongphaichit, P. et al.Guns, Girls, Gambling and Ganja 1998
B has been on at me, again, about Pandora's Attic-never mind Victoria's Secret..though there are pieces of 1830's underwear catalogued away up there
So I said
Ah yes
Great Men Oft Die By Foul Bezonians n'est ce pas?
Qui a besoin, ce jour ci?
July 5..Found in 'The Attic', a place where most of what we
know of Lost Civilisations had been wrapped in cotton
wool, boxed, tied up in string and labelled..usually
with the note Very Precious Stone/Ring/Lalique Glass
Mascot/Faberge Topknot etc 'Broken To Mend' Origins
and Provenance often attached. By Millie
There was at one time a lot more of the July 5
type/pseudo Ossian nonsense but it got lost burnt or whatever.
Why?...This is spelled out in words even a Shakespeare
Scholar can grasp....To explain, as a beginning, to
the boy, why we are all mad, and in particular his
mercenary unloving grandfather whose fame will outlive
us all--well maybe not you--I mean famille--and
therefore I had better writ it out, longhand like...
Hence ringless fingers which is de pome version and
chill lips wot is de prose one...I will probably
rewite that....and I had to explain to him that his
mother's supposed father was not his grandfather, but
that his grandfather was a Portuguese Dentist from
Lourenco Marques, which is why he looked like a Dago
or a Half Thai Child.......but you probably found all
that out in the PRO already?
Clearly the Bard of Bardsey came on strong to Elsi
Eldridge, and who is averse to a bit of plagiarism if
it leads to bed?
I have just stuffed a Taiwanese Pumpkin, looks like an ordinary Pumpkin to me, BUT with Rice,Garlic, Onions, Lemon Juice, Pork, Chilis, Green and Red Pepper, and a few odds and ends....steamed for 2 hours...
Thais in traditional disbelief mode...Pumpkins are green-this one is
Orange...you could not possibly EAT that....And I go
on about the Yanks living by Numbers
So here are some nice Pumpkins...bit late for All Souls I suppose...
Why are there Taiwanese Pumpkins in Uttaradit?
