By Ashanthi Ekanayake –
Ashanthi Ekanayake
With a title reminiscent of Simone de Beauvoir’s Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome this most recent collection of short stories by Chandrarathna Bandara contains seven narratives which contain a sense of impending doom and loss, balanced with an ounce of hope. Simone de Beauvoir’s work was a scathing critique of the femininity and the essence of womanhood which was thought to be promoted at a time in France and indeed the western world when Brigitte Bardot was the ideal women were thought to aspire to. As a feminist de Beauvoir skillfully appropriated the title of Nabakov’s novel Lolita to drive home the point of her damning critique. Though the title is reminiscent of this well-known feminist work, it is only a coincidence and Bandara’s collection deals with the broader notions of aging, youth, mortality, sexuality, societal norms, as relevant to class and gender as well as broader notions of ethics of war and the brutal truth behind our notions of nationalism. In conversation with him he reveals the reason behind the choice of title.
Bandara’s most recent novel Piyasara Samaya recently received the Swarna Pusthaka Award and the State Literary Award and came to be nominated for the Vidyodaya Literary Award for the best novel published in the 2024 as well. He is accepted as a writer who has a unique and versatile style of language and chooses to write about societal issues which are immediate and of current relevance.
“The Seelawathi Syndrome” contains seven thought-provoking short stories which deal with certain important aspects of the human experience. The writer examines the complicated nuances of human relationships, the allowed and accepted legal and ethical frameworks within with we negotiate them and how individual liberties and societal norms turn out to be at odds. Though some of these stories are hopeful in their explorations of the politics of sexuality and sexual freedom and expression, some bring on a bleak sense of loss and a melancholy sense of hopelessness while bitterly questioning and challenging our accepted notions of what is fair and just.
Some of the narratives explore the themes of aging, youth and mortality and the vulnerabilities and complications which arise when men and women connect. With advances in the medical and pharmaceutical fields our life expectancy has risen but little can be done about how physically vulnerable one becomes as one ages. This aspect remains a recurrent theme in the collection and is most noticeable in the first story of the collection Though he has chosen a style of language lighter than is usual for him and one he has considered more suitable for a collection dealing with these themes, his choice of symbols and motifs remain unique as he refers to Greek and Hindu mythology and even draws from an English poet from the Victorian period in weaving his stories. These observations are true of the first story of the collection.
The second short story deals with two young women who have fallen in love and are being forced to part due to societal pressure from the patriarchal institutions carefully represented in the narrative. The author chooses to leave it unclear if they continue their relationship or not.
The third short story which has given the collection its name deals with the story of youthful love and how class and caste come into conflict. In this short story Seelawathi allows her lover to deflower her in an attempt to gain control of her fate. Though this twist in the plot looks like a tawdry attempt of a young and inexperienced girl to remain faithful to her lover in a certain sense, it has deeper connotations of a young girl being in control of her own sexual freedom. As always Mandaramgama which appears in many of his works again contains that sense of nostalgia of a place which always had a sense of impending doom over its sky as it is juxtaposed with the narrator’s experience in Cuba.
The next short story in the collection deals again with notions physical beauty and perfection which is given a certain value in society and how aging is seen as detrimental to someone seen as an epitome of feminine allure in her youth as “a star of the silver-screen”. It deals with how human relationships change as one comes to lack the value one had because it was only seen as present in one’s physical beauty. Sri Lankan notions of ugly and beautiful remain somewhat static specially in relation to women, The commodity value and symbolic value of beauty is something one thinks of in the transactions described taking place between the men and the protagonist.
The short story titled “The Ramayan” examines male vulnerability and how one perceives loyalty in marriage. The narrative highlights how a woman becomes caught between two men, with examples such as Rama, Sitha and Ravan, and even Maname, the Princess and the Veddah, which though acceptable considering the protagonist’s situation might appear to be a trifle naïve considered the somewhat phallocentric narrative. This naivete rings true only because of the sense of extreme and even “unacceptable” and even “un-masculine” level of vulnerability Samare displays.
“Cobwebs” as a story, deals with aspects of accepted notions of conjugal love, affection and connection between an aging or even middle-aged couple as prevalent in society. The narrative questions the situations which prevent communication and the societal mechanisms and dominant ideologies and trends which prevent living life together in an uncomplicated manner. In a very subtle and sometimes in a not-so- subtle manner the narrative examines how religion intervenes and causes a rift between a couple. The ease with which Sri Lankans observe westerners living together as they age though not directly mentioned is something one thinks of as they follow the thoughts going through the narrator/protagonist’s mind.
The final short story discuses a very deep and sensitive aspect of war as we knew it as a nation in the very recent past. The reader is forced to examine deep rooted notions of humanity and how one perceives childhood as civilized individuals and how these factors might come into conflict with brutal concepts such as raw nationalism in a civil war.
All in all, the collection reads well and gives one pause as it examines extremely intricate aspects of our society as we negotiate situations which are new and poses questions for which answers are not clear. Though the bleak aspects are laid unapologetically bare it is a rewarding read. Reading some of the short stories in the collection one cannot help but think of Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women translated and published in English in 2017. Interestingly Murakami’s work shares its title with a collection of short stories by Earnest Hemmingway.
