The Reef, The Reef, The Reef Is On Fire

The time has finally come when I can catch-up and get ahead on my upcoming assignments. It's a relief not to have school for a week - I'm a clutz, so I'm not very good at this balancing game. At least I have the time to focus on my next assignment - a presentation on Romesh Gunesekera's Reef - for my South Asian Literature class. Luckily I have read this book once before - at the behest of Vivian - so I have a rough sense of how it goes.

Since I have free reign on what I will present, my plan is to explore the intertextual elements of the novel. I want to look at the references to 'The Tempest' (island, politics, fantasy) in the epigraph, Garden of Eden, Noah's Flood, Godwanaland, and Age of Aquarius throughout the novel. All of these references tie in to the image of Sir Lanka in the novel as this "fallen" Eden - though I remember reading an article contesting the sort of utopia imagination that Romesh Gunesekera is alleged to use, which I will have to re-read to take it into consideration.
So far I am noticing a few predominant themes: Islands, Foundation, Politics, Nationalism, Fantasy, Utopia (Eden), and Apocalypse. I know it all ties together, but my project is to figure out how, and be able to explain it. While researching the 'Age of Aquarius' I noticed that this astrological concept is akin to the Christian notion of the Apocalypse or the Book of Revelation. The only difference is the language - astrology speaks in terms of planets and stars, while Revelation harkens to Jewish prophecy (Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc.) - the basic concept is the same. The same goes for this notion of a "Foundation Myth", especially for an Island - tied to Eden, Godwanaland to be spoiled by violent, political struggle for power (Adam and Eve and the Serpent, etc.). Another thing I've noticed is how these different narratives intertwine in the novel - how the sea is viewed as this "Deluge" or "Flood" like force, which has a voracious hunger and yet has the power to regenerate civilization , like in the case of Noah's Flood or the Age of Aquarius. But then I think the character's attempts to realize these myths, or force them upon the human or "earthly" world (trying to play God, perhaps?) is purposely foiled to demonstrate a point. How these human narratives always come undone, unlike divine narratives. Hmm....

That's enough musing for now. I need to go re-read The Tempest...

UPDATE: I hope you don't mind my stream-of-conscious blather - this is just part of the brainstorm process that I have unfortunately decided to reveal (and I find writing it on a blog helps!). However, I am reading Huxley's Island part project-work, part pleasure-reading. I am very glad I chose to read this novel after studying Futurism and Surrealism and people like Ginsberg and Burroughs - now I understand it better.

EXTRA UPDATE: I can't exactly shrive this post--censorship would just be wrong, and manipulative--either way you see how in the beginning the presentation was without form and floated over the deep....sorry I couldn't resist. If it wasn't for the flash of my bookish knowledge sometimes I swear people would realize how simple and impotent I am - a full-fledged doofus, when it comes to writing. I wish I could write like Vivian, who comes with grammar and diction and all those lovely rules of language built in to her brain. It's a crying shame that I can't naturally write proper sentences with good syntax, grammar, etc, without Vivian's help - AND I am still managing to get A's and B's in University. Sometimes it makes me sad to see that I--a language fiend, who knows not the true and narrator path to Godly writing-- can prevail over my fellow students despite my writing handicap.