One Big Damn Puzzler
There’s a novel written by John Harding, called One Big Damn Puzzler. If you like
Shakespeare, Anthropology, Magical Realism, or anything fun, you need to do
yourself a favor and go read it. Immediately.
If you didn’t heed my warning and go read that book (I’m
assuming, then, that you’ve already read it), let me re-summarize the premise
and relate it to this class. The book starts out with the village elder
translating Hamlet into their native language, which is essentially a broken,
dumbed down English – “To be or not to
be? That is the question” quickly turns into “Is be, or Is be not? Is be….One
big damn puzzler!” The British came decades earlier, imparting the English
language, Shakespeare (despite the fact that the village elder is the only
individual who can read or write), and copious amounts of landmines. In comes a
lawyer from America, who tries to seek reparation money for the islanders, as
almost all adults have only one leg via landmine incident. However, the
aboriginal peoples do not understand the concept of currency (they have copious
amounts of one dollar bills, but see no purpose for the paper save for wiping
their asses).
SPOILER ALERT (for those of you who, for whatever reason,
were silly enough to not listen earlier): not that it is much of a spoiler, as
it seems pretty obvious the direction that Harding is going…After repeated,
painstaking conversations describing currency, they finally adopt the system;
it becomes their downfall. The paradise they once had turns to shit, violence
and unethical practices break out, and they all become fat (the villagers were
originally noteworthy for their athletic physiques and good diets, as well as
their scarily consistent bowel movements). When I was reading Perelandra, it reminded me of this
novel, as it becomes the book I think about for the topic of spoiling paradise.
However, the methods are much different. There is definitely a different feel
to paradise being spoiled by man and his greedy practices (the former), when
compared to a devil-like force (the latter). It certainly creates a different
dynamic, as the devilish presence has a more ominous feel, whereas the humanity
collapse is more unexpected.
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