The Opium Clerk

Kunal Basu

Published by Phoenix, 2001

I first grabbed this book off the shelves because it struck me as an extremely interesting story line: a boy is born during the 1857 Mutiny on the same day his father, a Brahmin Priest, is killed accidentally by British soldiers responding to the mutiny. Hiran, our hero, is taken to Calcutta by his mother to return to their ancestral home. He is raised there, but takes his values from his cosmopolitan uncle, who reads the European newspapers, takes young Hiran to plays, and dreams of visiting Europe.

Young Hiran has also been instructed how to read palms. Eventually, Hiran lands a job working as an opium clerk, ensuring the paperwork for all the differing shipments traveling throughout the Empire land at their appointed place. Hiran is noticed by the British Head of the Auction House, the opium shop, and is instructed to help him with translating some Indian epics. Quickly becoming something of friends, Mr. Crabbe requires Hiran’s assistance in China. There Hiran assists in the destruction of the rebels who were opposing the trade of opium in China. Back in India, Mr. Crabbe is arrested for stealing from the Auction House and Hiran adopts Crabbe’s child, Douglas, who was previously adopted from an orphanage.

Douglas grows up, gets in trouble, and leaves for Borneo, where he becomes the town constable and customs inspector.

Seriously, that is the plot. That’s all you get. It is, well, really sad.

Basu’s images are powerful. His characters are intricately interesting and complex. In the first half of the book, Hiran struggles with his identity since he is only a low man in an industrial game while his father was a priest. However, Hiran never develops. He never becomes more robust as a character than he is fighting with students in his school. Moreover, the book simply is just a story of events happening to a character. Many of them interesting, some of them reflect back to earlier events, but really, at the end, one is left going….huh. And that’s not a “huh?” with a question mark, but “huh.” with a period and lack of wanting any more understanding.

But Basu isn’t finished with just giving us one really boring character. He provides us a second with Hiran’s adopted son, Douglas. Douglas is living with his father when he is forced to leave India. There he lives the normal life of constable, dealing with police issues and inspecting ships. He finally falls in love, something Hiran found annoyingly impossible. However, in Douglas, Basu had an amazing background to create a great tapestry. Douglas was adopted by the Crabbes, but given to Hiran. So he spent his very young years in a rich white imperialist household, and then the bulk of his life until the age of 20, living in a modest, Hindu area with a Hindu family, even though he was white.

Basu only gives us one scene where Douglas revolts against the oppressors that he works for, going for a naked swim and sitting around a campfire all night. This is a man who lived under British Imperialism, and now upholds it, but he’s white. The internal conflicts must be powerful, but they aren’t expressed.

The most ridiculous thing about this book is the last chapter. Like all unfinished journeys, the characters must keep moving. However, Basu, explains the outcome of every single character. Douglas decides to leave Borneo, and his wife asks him where they are going. Not providing an answer would be a great way to end the story. Even a story as unmemorable as this one. However, Basu must reiterate the lack of ingenuity in his story by giving us the place name. And if you make it to the last chapter of this book, you too will realize one could not think of a more boring place.

Two Melons out of Five

I must begin by admitting that I was biased against liking Othello from the very beginning. When I read the play in my high school English class, I thought that the characters were universally flat - even Iago, whose personality is just clever evil rather than dumb evil. I had no sympathy for Othello’s inner struggle, because I am fundamentally disinclined to give jealous men any sympathy, mostly because their “solution” to feeling jealous is to murder their female partners. Rather than, you know, talking it out. There’s an idea!

I’m also disinclined to like stories about jealous men and their psyches, because their jealousy stems from a belief that a woman’s sexuality is owned by men. And they also believe that a woman’s worth is fundamentally determined by the extent to which she closes her legs. This attitude contrasts with some modern interpretations of sexual jealousy, which place its source more on a breaking of trust; that is a much more legitimate reason to be jealous. Shakespeare’s Othello on the page sources Othello’s jealousy from the women-are-property standpoint, but of course theatre is written to be performed, not read. So I went to Seattle with my housemates, knowing my regard for this play was going to be an uphill battle, but trusting that the Balagan just might get beyond that substantial yet not insurmountable hurdle, that it might prove to me that this play is rich and deep and still a relevant display of genuine human feeling.

It failed.

The tiny Balagan is an intimate blackbox theatre, where of necessity the set must be imagined more than shown. In this type of theatre the relationship between the audience and the actors constantly moves back and forth, and individuals in the audience itself can feed off each others’ reactions. The setup for Othello (which ended December 13) cut the audience into two portions, facing them at each other across the stage. The set consisted of large wood blocks scattered around the stage. Only Iago, played by Mike Dooly, touched these, moving them about as he orchestrated the progression of the play, until the last scenes in which all of the blocks formed Desdemona and Othello’s marriage bed. By the end of the first act, the bed was only partially created, indicating that the result of the play was not inevitable and the course of action was not set. This, though, was contrasted by the acting, which guaranteed the ending almost from Iago’s first treacherous suggestion to Othello.

Before I slam the play too harshly, I should note that it has a lot of good points. Dooly’s Iago was not an incarnation of the devil, nor was he entirely in control of every other character. He was a human being whose own insecurities drove his actions, not his supposed inherent evil. He was likable, even when we descended into the depths of his private thoughts. Iago and his wife Emilia genuinely loved each other, an interpretation I had not picked up when I read the play or saw the last 30 minutes or so of the Samuel L. Jackson version of Othello. This, in turn, made Emilia more likable, since her part in Desdemona’s death was truly an accident born of love and trust. Terri Weagant’s Desdemona herself was a very strong character. She was not some flighty idiot who defied her father out of whim, but a woman who knew the consequences of her actions and had a strong moral compass. She was in tune to the movements of politics and knew her value as a politician in her own right. Actually Weagant had to play against the stupider things that Shakespeare wrote for Desdemona, such as in the following:

Emilia: (reacting to Othello calling Desdemona a whore) I will be hang’d if some eternal villain,

Some busy and insinuating rouge,

Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,

Have not devised this slander; I’ll be hang’d else.

Iago: Fie, there is no such man; it is impossible.

Desdemona: If any such there be, heaven pardon him!

Or at the moment of her death:

Desdemona: A guiltless death I die.

Emilia: O, who hath done this deed?

Desdemona: Nobody; I myself…

Jesus, Shakespeare. She’s forgiving and virtuous. Gag me with a spoon.

To be fair, excepting Johnny Patchamatla as Othello, the actors did a good job of making their characters into whole people. I especially liked the relationship between Cassio and Bianca. Not only was it kinky, but Cassio was a switch. Hot.

But the weakest performance of the play was Patchamatla. Othello, as written, was supposed to be old-ish and somewhat homely. Not so Patchamatla. He was young and delicious, and we all knew it. During his first monologue I watched him look into the eyes of a pretty audience member and fluster her completely. Patchamatla played a good noble Othello, but a poor agonized Othello. Within one conversation, Patchamatla’s Othello is completely taken with the idea of Desdemona’s affair with Cassio. The times he hides and watches innocent conversations are not moments where he is gradually convinced, through manipulation and coincidence, of her guilt. He already knows. It’s a masochistic impulse that makes him watch. With this, of course, Iago’s role as a manipulator is extinguished; Othello has already fabricated the evidence for him. There is no process of doubt; there is only certainty, for it is clear here that a woman who deceived her father to marry a suitor is without morality, e.g. “honesty.” Honesty’s meaning, in Shakespeare’s plays, depends entirely upon the gender of the person with it. Iago has no honesty because he lies and is disloyal; yet Desdemona is honest because she does not have extramarital sex.

And, I am convinced, it is impossible for Othello’s murderous jealousy, by the words of the play itself, to be an expression of broken trust. It must only be an expression of wounded ownership. After Iago first suggests Desdemona’s disloyalty, Othello muses:

…I am abused; and my relief

Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage,

That we can call these delicate creatures ours

And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,

And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,

Than keep a corner in the thing I love

For others’ uses….

So perhaps it is unfair to blame Patchamatla’s performance of Othello exclusively on a lack of skill. True, there is no process of belief, and there’s a lot of unnecessary writhing on the floor, but he cannot change the words of Shakespeare himself to fit modern conceptions of his character’s struggle. Othello thinks of Desdemona as his possession. The only, only reason his murder of her is wrong is because of her innocence. If she were not, the story would still be a tragedy, but the lesson would be “Well, you shouldn’t have gone and married that lying slut anyway.”

The director’s statement asserts that this play is about choice. If so, it is entirely about male choice. Desdemona, Bianca, and Emilia have no efficacy when it comes to how their men treat them. Their offstage - and, therefore, inevitable - choices do move the course of the play. But it is the choices of men to decide whether or not these women continue to breathe, and they are powerless to affect these essential choices.

So what value does Othello have to a modern audience? The reason we still perform Shakespeare is because his plays have something that still moves us, something that still speaks to our human realities despite the difference in time, place, and culture. For its time, Othello was stunning. It had a Moor main character who was good, and a bad white guy (although it wasn’t too surprising, since Iago is a Spanish name and the English of the time considered the Spanish to be rather evil). The stereotype of the raunchy Italian woman was countered. Emilia’s perspective on why a woman might cheat is one of the best I’ve seen by a male author. It is reasoned and sympathetic, and Emilia is still given the privilege of being a virtuous woman.

But these stereotypes relevant are not today. We have moved beyond simple discussions about race; it should not be surprising to us that minorities are not inherently devilish people, nor that white people are sometimes evil. We do not hold women to the same codes of chastity, though we still occasionally kill them for not being chaste.  And since that is the case, Othello is not relevant to us today. Othello’s agony is illegitimate. It is illegitimate to kill a woman for her sexual choices - and it is clear to the audience that Desdemona’s death would have been righteous if she were guilty. Thus this play need not continue to be performed. To do so would only legitimize the feelings of people who feel they can abuse their partners. If we should keep Othello around, let it only be taught as a part of our heritage, but no more than that. Do not let it come to life onstage. Any small value in the subplots are overshadowed by the illegitimacy of its central plot. Put on, instead, a Shakespeare play that actually has something worthwhile to say about life today.

Let Othello rot.

Following the Prop 8 legislation that banned same-sex marriages in California, people from all fifty states turned out to march for equal rights this Saturday in their respective cities. Seattle and Olympia were both on the march. One of my friends, Melissa, went to Seattle and brought some pictures back for show-and-tell.

Me: Even thought Prop 8 was California’s bad deal, why were people marching for equal rights in Seattle?

Melissa: Although the majority of the states have motioned to define marriage as “a union between a man and a woman”, Prop 8 was unique in that it took away same-sex marriage rights that had already been granted by the California Constitution. Just because it happened in a different state doesn’t mean we can’t process a thought and take action.

Me: You snapped a photo of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels speaking at the rally on Capitol Hill. What did he say and what does it mean that the Mayor, Senator Ed Murray, King County Executive Ron Sims, and several others in government positions are supporting the cause?

Melissa: Nickels denounced Prop 8 as a hateful measure and said it should have never made it onto the ballot. He also declared November 15th Marriage Equality Day in Seattle. We have support from politically influential people; it means a lot to have that kind of support, especially when the viewpoint you’re fighting from isn’t necessarily the popular one.

Me: How did you meet Fabulous K.J.?

Melissa: Fabulous K.J. and his two friend were the only other people I saw at City Hall that morning, the original meeting place. I didn’t get the memo about the rally being moved to Volunteer Park and obviously neither did they, but I suppose it was an organized venue change because it was pretty much just the four of us. We tripped around together for a bit, confused, and then split up. My friend Leo looked things up online and messaged me that the happenings were at Volunteer Park. I don’t think I would have made it if it weren’t for him. I forwarded the message to K.J. and we reunited during the march.

Me: Who is the saxophone guy in this picture?

Melissa: Oh, Kevin - he wasn’t associated with the Prop 8 happenings. I just recognized him as one of my brother’s classmates and decided to be oddly extroverted. He invited me to join his band. I guess that’s flattering.

Me: Who is the naked lady on the balcony?

Melissa: I wouldn’t have a clue, but everyone on the street loved her. I don’t think the guys in the next balcony over realized that the sudden surge of whoo hoo was due to naked-support, rather than the usual clothed-support, but, well, you know. We’ll take any support we can get, nude or otherwise.

Me: When you got to Westlake Center you were met with anti-anti-Prop 8 protesters. What was their deal?

Melissa: Oh, the typical burn-in-hellers. They were citing Bible verses and saying we should repent or else. I know the big “or else” thing is a common thread amongst Bible-affiliated religion, but I really don’t think there is any choice associated with being gay, lesbian, or otherwise.

I’ve heard about ex-gay programs… they’re really unhealthy; the American Psychiatric Association (APA) doesn’t approve at all. Doesn’t that mean anything to the people advising gays to repent?

I met a Christian woman on the bus ride home and we talked pretty much the whole time. She said if people want to get married they should get married, and we’ve got bigger things to spend our time on than fighting over that.

Me: Beautiful picture! Last question: the Washington State Supreme Court upheld in 2006 the definition of marriage as “a union between a man and a woman”, and in 2007 Governor Christine Gregoire passed the Domestic Partners Registry which explicitly bans same-sex couples from marriage. What’s it going to take to wine same-sex marriages in Washington State?

Melissa: What the exact logistics of getting same-sex marriage legal in Washington State are, I don’t know. I think the organization and the peacefulness of the event this past Saturday speaks volumes about our community. There were tables to write to legislators and such about how people in attendance disagreed with ban on same-sex marriage. Domestic partnerships and civil unions just aren’t enough.

Me: Thanks, Melissa!

Everyone’s favorite NW hip-hop duo, the Blue Scholars, keeps pushing the envelope of making it huge on the music scene.  This time they’re on Current.tv touring Seattle and spreading community love.

If you haven’t heard on of the Blue Scholars cd’s, most recently their full compilation Bayani, or are not a fan of hip hop, the Blue Scholars will show you the light. Promoting respect, equality, love and community, the Scholars are setting the tone for a new kind of rap, and a new kind of culture.

Spotted by Tashi

This past Sunday evening, community members gathered outside Masa on 6th Avenue with painted faces, masks, and paper mache figurines for the 4th Annual Day of the Dead procession. An alter with traditional imagery was set up to allow participants to honor the dead, and after the procession a ceremony was held.

Interviews with participants will be put up later this week.

These figurines, made by Tacoman Kassie Mitchell, were my favorites. The cat is in memory of her late pet, the center figure is just a “Mexican-like guy”, and the one on the right is in memory of all the hot dogs they have eaten. Beautiful.

I have been posted to India for the last month. Partially the reason my beer reviews have been in less supply (there is only so much you can say about Kingfisher) but I have been given access to Satellite TV. So I have started watching TV. And some of the commercials.

Now the weirdest part is that some of India’s commercials, especially if you get onto any of the native language channels are really bad. Think public access cable bad. Only a select few are actually decent. Though, the weirdest part is that the best two commercials I’ve seen are ads for AMD processors staring a Chess God. I kid you not.

Anand AMD Train Commercial

Anand AMD Cricket Commercial

The weird part is that Vishwanathan Anand (and you have to watch the first commercial to figure out how to pronounce that name) is actually a horrible, but good actor. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Peyton Manning’s add last year in which he discusses a “6′ 5″ 230 pound quarterback with a laser-rocket arm.” Manning is bad. He’s not a good actor. But he’s hilarious, and well, he sells that he is playing as himself. In these ads above, Vishy (as his friends apparently call him) cannot act. He’s bad. But he’s hilarious. His face at the end of the train sequence is epically hilarious. It’s bad acting, but it is great acting. Anand is without a doubt, playing himself.

So my introduction to Anand came when I saw his ads on TV, and I had no frickin clue who he was. So I had to look him up and see what the big deal was. And he’s actually a very cool story. And one hell of a chess player. And then this article pops onto the cover of The Hindu this morning. Front cover. A story about Chess.

More importantly, this article obviously took the place (on the front page!) of this story on the cricket team. Now, imagine that you have a country 4x the size of the US, but instead of having three major sports as the US does right now (football, baseball, and …..oh yeah, basketball) it has 1.5:  Cricket and occasionally soccer (futbol to the rest of the world). Now imagine that that US team was pounding the crap out of one of their most bitter international rivals. Now imagine that story getting knocked off the front page BY A CHESS STORY!

Full Disclosure:  This article was written entirely on computers employing Intel Core Duo Processors.

Photo credit - http://flickr.com/photos/eustaquio/

6:30 - Due to technical difficulties, no posts by the author were allowed. Hopefully things are better now.

6:25 - Moderator makes an excellent remark regarding negative ads. Both candidates dodge the question. McCain plays the victim card, Obama says he’s not attacking. Both lies.

6:30 - Who is this joe the plumber?

6:32  -McCain keeps playing victim, Obama says that he’s been focused on differences.

6:33 - Oooh, they’re arguing at one another.

6:34 - McCain playing the “better man card” whilst complaining about t-shirt slogans. Obama curiously not addressing the behavior of his occasionally fanatic fans.

6:45 - More unforeseeable technical problems plague the author. Meanwhile, the debate veers towards the VP comment, but Obama doesn’t unload in Palin. Not sure why so few big politicians are willing to blast her as idiotic.

6:46 - Energy and Climate Change. Moderator wants specific numbers. Neither candidate apparently has a stats report or any plan.

6:50 - McCain pinpoints Obama’s eloquence, muddles own answer.

6:53 - Hey an untouched topic! Columbia! A totally corrupt government! A scary prelude to our own?

6:54 - Obama: The way of the future? For the auto industry, maybe. Brining back jobs to America that left in the early 90’s for foreign countries.

6:56 - McCain says Obama is lying to everyone, and the Moderator promptly changes the topic. Nice.

6:57 - Back to the insurance plan. Obama’s rhetoric has not changed one iota.

7:02 - Obama actually providing details on the insurance plan, making good points combating McCain.

7:04 - McCain: Willing to pay for, well…eh…most of your insurance. On Average.

7:05 - Ari sez:  Remember back in the primary when Obama was attacked by Hillary for not having a mandate? I I do.

7:06 - Now it’s time for abortion! Moderator asks an extremely pertinent question about Supreme Court appointments. McCain says he would never appoint a judge that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Obama says he wouldn’t provide litmus test, but counters McCain on his federalist stance. Good counter.

7:11 - McCain wants to change the culture of America. To what? To applesauce eating war veterans? No thanks.

7:13 - Obama doing a very good job countering and explaining during the later half of this debate. Really impressive actually. Playing it concise and explanatory.

7:15 - Oh -ho, education! A good selection of questions for (finally!) a good debate between the candidates.

7:18 - Education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century? What the hell does that mean?

7:20 - Chris sez (disagreeing with the author): 

The education question is loaded and fraudulent. The US does not have a math/science problem. we continue to lead the world in tech innovations, medical achievement and new consumer products. These tests serve no purpose other than to undermine education.

7:21 - Obama for more education funding, a no brainer.

7:23 - No Child Left Behind (which most teachers loathe) is not a good idea. By re-authorize, I hope you mean gut the stupid thing and make better changes.

7:25 - Obama takes McCain to task for vouchers. McCain gives a naked mole rat smile.

7:27 - Closing remarks.

McCain: I’m for change. I’m a Maverick! I’m a friend! I’m you’re drunk maverick friend who comes up with wacky ideas to solve common problems! We need change! I’ll be humble!

Obama: McCain is a tool. A big fat tool. I’ll bring the change you so desperately desire, but you have to play too.

Well, that’s the end folks. Sorry about the technical difficulties that prevented the smooth posting of this debate. We’ll keep providing plenty of coverage of the campaigns in the upcoming weeks.

Our goal at the DNC and RNC conventions was to cover what was happening in the streets, not to obtain passes for the scripted and superficial showcases going on inside the armored fortresses. This included a 10 to 15 minute daily video dispatch as well as blogs from each convention. The daily video dispatches are viewable online and were also aired on cable television via Free Speech TV.

Ground Noise and Static was a week-long editing effort between several members of PepperSpray Productions and was directed by Franklin Lopez from subMedia.

This documentary will be shown at UPS, WWU, TESC, and possible UW in the next couple of weeks. I will keep you updated on that.

For those in the mood for daring live theatre, the Book-It Repertory Theatre’s production of “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues” fills the niche for theatre that still pushes the envelope.

Based on the 1976 Tom Robbins novel, “Cowgirls” follows the hitchhiking travels of Sissy Hankshaw and all the vibrant characters she finds along the way.

Blessed with abnormally large thumbs from birth, Sissy is “the one great passenger” for all the great drivers in the world. From New York City to North Dakota, Sissy roams earning money when she needs it by modeling for The Countess (Brian Thompson), a transvestite tycoon of vaginal perfumes. It’s The Countess who steers Sissy towards Julian (Chris Maslen) a full blooded Indian, though he doesn’t look it. Here, Sissy faces her first real dilemma. She’s enchanted with the freedom the American Indian represents, but her own personal Indian becomes a shut in, unwilling to show Sissy’s huge thumbs in public. Through the rest of the play, Sissy continues to fight for her right to live the way she wants, despite all efforts to get her to conform.

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