#adiwijaya iskandar

[ventureadlaxre]

Review: Not So Stories, edited by David Thomas Moore

Review: Not So Stories, edited by David Thomas Moore

Published by: Rebellion ISBN 13: 9781781087800 Published: Jan 2020 (first published April 2018) Pages: 320 Format reviewed: eVersion from NetGalley Site: Publisher Site Goodreads: Book Page Stars: Four out of Five

One of my favourite books growing up was Just So Storiesby Rudyard Kipling. I especially liked How the Elephant got His Trunk, How the Camel Got His Hump, and How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin.…

[tsanasreads]

#ReadShortStories highlighting colonialism and other things (91 to 95)

In this batch there's three more stories from Not So Stories, raging against colonialism in their own ways, and a couple of randoms, including one that's a spin off from a YA series that I read the first book of in 2012. The Not So Stories stories are all a bit emotionally heavy so I expect I will continue to intersperse them with miscellaneous stories. Stay tuned. Queen by Joseph E. Cole — A story about slavery and human cruelty. Not exactly an enjoyable read but not a bad story either. It didn’t particularly grab me but it was still told in an evocative way (and I think I spotted several references to “Just So Stories”. Source: Not So Stories edited by David Thomas Moore Utopia, LOL? by Jamie Wahls — This story was silly and fun but also serious. In a post-singularity future, a cryogenic-frozen man is reintroduced to society by an easily distracted tour guide. Not perfect, but I liked it. Source: http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/utopia-lol/ The Department of Alterations by Gennifer Albin — Set in the same world as a YA series I read the first book of several years ago. I haven’t got around to finishing the series even though I love liked the first book (Crewel) enough to track down books 2 and 3 from the US. This story was a little confusing with the world building quite hazy in my mind. The emotional impact was still there, however. Source: https://www.tor.com/2012/09/27/the-department-of-alterations/

Best Beloved by Wayne Santos — A Singaporean guardian of the living against the dead has taken up with a British official while still finding time for her duties. Until those duties become more difficult and she learns more of what the British are up to. A powerful story of love and devastation. Source: Not So Stories edited by David Thomas Moore The Man Who Played With the Crab by Adiwijaya Iskandar — A father and daughter come across a westerner killing animals and demanding to be taken to their sacred crab so that he can kill it. A story that’s about as positive as possible, given colonial history. Source: Not So Stories edited by David Thomas Moore Content imported from Blogger https://ift.tt/2kw69ow. If you would like to leave a comment, please do so at the aforementioned link.

[zedecksiew]

Serpent, Crocodile, Tiger

“Not So Stories” (Abaddon Books; launching April 2018, but in preorder now) is an anthology of short fiction. Basically: a bunch of not-white writers respond to the Kipling's colonial-era “Just So Stories“. It's got so many cool people in it.

Also, it's got me!

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My story in the book is called "Serpent, Crocodile, Tiger". I'm pretty proud of it. I'm also realising that it is kind of full-on.

It's one long thing, split up into four things. Sequentially:

A how-the-leopard-got-its-spots-style etiological tale; A hikayat-like love story between a Minang princess and a crocodile; A Malaysian-student-in-London narrative; A rural fantasy set in a small Negeri Sembilan town.

With three lengthy excerpts from three separate fictional ethnographic texts from three different academic eras, interspersed.

So yeah. Pretty fucking full-on.

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While writing it I got deep into local Negeri Sembilan history. Obscure, out-of-print accounts of warring chiefs before Raja Melewar's ascension. Stuff like that.

I also discovered that the Linggi Valley has some neat shrines, some neat archaeological sites.

"Serpent, Crocodile, Tiger" is heavily inspired by one of these sites. A place that has:

The tomb of a Sufi saint; Plus pre-Islamic, probably-Hindu megaliths; Plus an entire court of Chinese folk deities -

All sharing the same space. Of course, there have been government efforts to "straighten out" such filthy syncretisms in the last three decades.

You could say the story is super site-specific.

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(Fellow Malaysian Adiwijaya Iskandar’s piece for “Not So Stories” is a direct response to “The Crab That Played With The Sea”, which Kipling based on Skeat’s account of a tide-governing crab, in “Malay Magic”.)

From the outset I knew "Serpent, Crocodile, Tiger" wouldn't really speak to a Western reader. Ironic, since it was written for an anthology primarily available in the UK market.

I wrote it to address my personal love of Kipling - a problematic fave! - and my love of Skeat, the Orientalist who wrote "Malay Magic", and one of Kipling's sources.

I think the story speaks to me. To people like me. Here, in the East. And my hunger, my deep need for a relationship with the West.

To measure against it; To be legible to it; To be acknowledged by it.

The Du Bois-ian double consciousness this creates. Who am I? Writing, living my life? I am myself. But also I am brown, read by whiteness.

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In the story, Tiger is an in-between creature. Maybe a tiger, or a crocodile, or a human being. Maybe a she, or a he.

Tiger appears in dreams and claims to be a god. Tiger changes shape, and tells stories, and lies. In front of a mirror, Tiger preens. For pleasure, for nobody but herself.

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(This story wouldn't exist without Simryn Gill, who took me to see the shrines, told me the stories, and let me borrow the books.)

(It would not have been published with the fine work of David Thomas Moore, its editor; and Zen Cho, who put us in touch.)