Confessions of a book collector - Art of Children's books and variations by SK (Shehan Karunatilaka) - [ Please don't put that in your mouth (PDPTIYM) (2019), Where shall I poop (WSIP) (2022) and Those Sneaky plants (TSP) (2022) ]

 

I may be the first person in his thirties to forget about 'Chinaman' and 'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida' and to read SK's children's books because I am a book collector and that was because they consume less time. 

When Anuk Arudpragasam got shortlisted for Booker in 2021 I got so obsessed, I purchased both his books  (The story of a brief marriage [2016] and A passage North [2021]) the same year from Sarasavi Gampaha branch and online bookstore. 

As usual, when Shehan Karunatilaka won the  Booker prize in 2022 I purchased most of his books from Sarasavi online bookstore. ( The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022), Please don't put that in your mouth (PDPTIYM) (2019), Where shall I poop (WSIP) (2022) and Those Sneaky plants (TSP) (2022)) 

That's how I got hold of his three children's books. 

They are thematically Paradoxical since many of his messages are for children who can't even read. (PDPTIYM & WSIP) 

But artwork by his brother Lalith Karunatilaka (for PDPTIYM and WSIP) and Ruwangi Amarasinghe (TSP) are very colorful, bright, and childish which gives life to the stories powerfully. 

The 'PDPTIYM & WSIP' books have beautiful rhyming phrases and have a very Sri Lankan style involved. 

Books are printed in high quality and some are even hard bound which makes them very valuable. 

As a bad uncle due to my babyish obsession with books, I didn't give these books to my 2-year-old nephew and kept them in my library. 

The Sex Book (TSB) : A joyful journey of self-discovery - Leeza Mangaldas : A sex-ed nightmare

 

As a conservative, unmarried, thirty-one-year-old introvert, TSB was a liberal nightmare because of my lack of exposure in many areas discussed in the book.

But as a Sri Lankan what our neighboring country (India) has to say about sex life is quite an eye-opening and valuable exposure.

As I read the erotic Sinhalese novel trilogy, 'Faculty of Sex' by Chinthana Dharmadasa concepts like 'Swingers' and threesomes are exposed in this book and they are considered sexual fantasies.

And also the author has given so much weight to 'consent' which I respect her for.

As a person who prefers conservatism using 'lube' and 'sex toys' did make me uncomfortable.

But it also unlocked me to understand the modern trends in the world and what we see in porn has a scientific background.

Though some things we can't accept in the world, knowledge about it can unlock us to learn about them and avoid mistakes related to those areas.

A hard punch in the face that unlocks us into the modern trends of the world.

My 4 surprisingly high star rating is due to the book's honesty in revealing many aspects related to modern sex life.

Nudutu than (Unseen places) / නුදුටු තැන් - R. Pallewela : Exposing a hidden thought collection from the 1950's

 

"Sithuwili Wanshaya" ( සිතුවිලි වංශය ) or "thought collection", is a word to which I was exposed through Jackson Anthony's novel titled 'Kanda Uda Gindara / කන්ද උඩ ගින්දර / Fire in the mountain top.

Nudutu than (Unseen places) / නුදුටු තැන් can be considered as a book that has gathered a thought collection of a writer in a post-independent nationalistic Sri Lanka.

This book is out of print in the present and can be considered as a revelation of a thought collection of the 1950s in front of me.

When I searched about the book in "Google" and the author, an article from the 'Sarasaviya / සරසවිය / University of Cinema' was revealed with a description of the popularity of the book in those days. (1950's)

The introduction of this book was written by R.Pallewela and the preface was written by Sri Chandrarathna Manawasinghe.

The book has mainly four parts.

(01) සමාජය / Society

(02) වැඩ කිරීම / Work

(03) විවාහය / Marriage

(04) විවේකය / Leisure

Though the book is not very successful vivid aspects of society are exposed by the author about Sri Lanka during the period the book was written. (1950's) The book reveals the thought process of the 1950s and also the psyche of a rationalist rather than the common people.

This book is written by combining the thoughts of the author on the above four topics.

The book cost only LKR 2.50/= back then which is surprisingly low and reflects the rate of inflation in Sri Lanka.

නුදුටු තැන් - ආර්. පල්ලවෙල : සැඟවුණු සිතුවිලි වංශයක් එළියට පැමිණීම.

 

සිතුවිලි වංශය යනු 'කන්ද උඩ ගින්දර' නම් ජැක්සන් ඇන්තනිගේ නවකතාවේ පෙරවදනේ තිබු වචනයක් අහුලා ගැනීමකි.

නුදුටු තැන් කෘතියදී නිදහසින් පසු ජාතිකවාදී බලවේග බලය හොබවපු යුගයක කතුවරයකුගේ සිතුවිලි වංශයක් ලෙස හැඳින්විය හැක.

දැනට මුද්‍රණයේ නොමැති මෙම කෘතියේ පැරණි මුද්‍රිත පොතක් අප ගෙදර තිබී හමුවූ අතර මෙය 1950 දශකයේ පැවති සැඟවුණු සිතුවිලි වංශයක් මා ඉදිරියේ විදාරණය වීමකි.

පොතේ නම සහ කතුවරයාගේ නම හරහා Google හරහා අන්තර්ජාලය පරික්ෂා කල විට හමුවන්නේ 'සරසවිය' පත්‍රයේ ඇති කුඩා ලිවීමක් පමණි. එමඟින්ද සටහන් වන්නේ කෘතියේ එකල පැවති ප්‍රචලිත බවයි.

මෙහි සංඥාපනය ලියා ඇත්තේ ආර්. පල්ලාවෙල වන අතර පෙරවදන ලියා ඇත්තේ ශ්‍රී චන්ද්‍රරත්න මානවසිංහ අතින්ය.

නුදුටු තැන් කෘතියේ මුලික වශයෙන් කොටස් හතරකි.

(01) සමාජය 

(02) වැඩ කිරීම 

(03) විවාහය 

(04) විවේකය 

අතිශය සාර්ථක නොවුවද සමාජය තුළ පැවති විවිධ පැතිකඩයන් හරහා ශ්‍රී ලංකා සමාජයේ හරස්කඩක් මැවීමට මෙම කෘතිය සමත් වේ. 1950 දශකයේ සමාජය ගැන අවබෝධයක් මේ කෘතිය කියවන විට ලබාගත හැක. නමුත් එය බොහෝ විට සාමාන්‍ය ජන මනස නොව තරමක් දුරට හේතුඵල වාදී චින්තනයක් හරහා බිහි වුවක් බව සිතිය යුතුය.

මෙය ලියා ඇත්තේ කතුවරයාගේ සිතුවිලි ඉහත කොටස් හතර ගැන එකතු කිරීමකි.

මෙම පොතහි මිල රු. 2.50 ක් වන අතර එය වර්තමානයේ පවත්නා උද්ධමනයේ ශිඝ්‍රතාවය ඒ හරහා ඉගෙනගත හැකිය.

මෙම පොත තුළ ඉතාමත් වටිනා උදෘත විශාල වශයෙන් දැකිය හැකිය.

ඉන් එකක් මම පහත දක්වමි.

"බණ්ඩාරනායක ආණ්ඩුව බලයට පත්වූ හැටියේම කළේ සිංහල භාෂාවේ මාර්ගයෙන් දැනීම දියුණු කොට ඒ අනුව භාෂාව දියුණු කිරීම නොව කිසිම මනුෂ්‍යයකුට සහනයක් නොවන විකාර කිරීමෙන් රටේ භේද ඇතිකොට අහිංසක මිනිසුන්ගේ ජීවිත නැතිවන තැනට මග සැලසීමයි. මහා බුද්ධිමත් නායකයින්ගේ මාර්ග දේශකත්වයෙන් සිදුවුයේ මෙයයි."

-පිටු 179-

Animal Farm : George Orwell - The power of allegory

 

I started reading 'Animal Farm' due to its fame.

The book reminds me of Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) and his allegorical tactics and his attention to detail in describing the stories.

George Orwell (1903 - 1950) openly criticized Joseph Stalin (1878 - 1953) the then Political leader of the USSR (United of Soviet Socialist Republics), a socialist country and it impacted the publication of the book negatively. But it bought him into the spotlight in that period and made this book a dystopian allegorical masterpiece.

The book is a metaphorical depiction of the cruelty of political leaders in colonial countries.

Countries like where I live, (Sri Lanka) have a bad history after the independence from the British and it is very close to what is reflected in this book. The political leadership and the thought process of the people are like a blueprint of 'Animal Farm', which is quite disturbing. Hence the book becomes a timeless classic.

My three-star low rating is due to the political biases of George Orwell only to attack the USSR and not respect the commonality of the theme.