Fondness for Dystopia

It is hard not to be optimistic in Spring when there is life all around you. There is rain in SoCal, the Say's Phoebe's babies have successfully fledged, the terns have arrived, the kangaroo paws blooming in my yard are attracting so many bees, our daughter shot up a couple more inches, and despite my neglect my tomato plant yielded me a bounty. Sounds like utopia, right?


The books I've been reading the past month and a half on the other hand have left me very unsettled. Dystopian worldview ("Bone Clocks" by David Mitchell), loss of species ("Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert) , loss of a way of life ("The worlds of a Maasai warrior"  for OBOC - Tanzania by Tepilit Ole Saitoti) and political turmoil in Illustrado for OBOC-Philippines by Miguel Syjuco is as good/bad as it gets.

Of these books I loved Sixth Extinction the best. No wonder it has won accolades as the best Science Writing for 2014. If there is one nonfiction you plan to read this year let it be Sixth Extinction. Starting with the golden Panamanian frogs, moving onto Great Auks, the Sumatran Rhino and countless other species that are lost to us forever, Kolbert's book is a very important one for this Anthropocene era. Part travel book, part dystopian non-fiction this book asks us some tough questions and what it means to be the superweed species on earth taking over everything and in the process cutting down the very limb we are standing on.

I missed the entire "cloud atlas" wave and vaguely remember sleeping through the movie version too, so  I was nervous to commit myself to "Bone Clocks", but I am glad I persevered. Following the life of Holly Sykes from 1984 to 2043 the novel is written from the viewpoint of multiple characters who are all connected with Holly in some way. Holly is also a pawn caught in the bigger war between two groups of immortals - the Horologists and Anchorites, and so you have a bunch of fantasy fiction thrown in for good measure alongside the dystopian view of 2043. 2043 seemed very bleak - the Chinese are calling the shots, gangs steal solar panels, kids born after 2039 don't know what the Internet is or have never seen an airplane, and all kinds of diseases are back in full form. At my day job I spend a good part of my time re imagining the future with technology and then I read dystopian novels in the night - i guess i see both sides of the coin.

For OBOC, I have given up all manner of order and sequence and reading books in the order of what I find. Illustrado was my pick for Philippines. It is a Man Asian Award winner, but unfortunately did not do much for me.  The author is digging into the life of his mentor, Crispin Salvador the most famous writer from Philippines shortly after his death which remains a mystery - homicide or suicide. More importantly what happened to the book that Crispin was supposed to be writing that would embarrass so many of the leading Fillipino families? As the author tries to unravel this mystery we get a view of Philippines from different lenses - the life of Crispin, the life of Miguel, the autobiography that Miguel is writing about Crispin and the fictional world created by Crispin. The moment you call something post modern you have to expect a higgledy piggledy approach to the novel. Narratives are intermingled and some of the pieces are very well written, but again this is not a form I enjoy, so it was a huge effort to complete the book.

For OBOC Tanzania I picked "The worlds of a Masai warrior" written by the "Man of Serengeti" Tepilit Ole Saitoti. This is a short autobiography of how the writer went from Masai land to getting his education from some of the prestigious schools in the US and how he is caught between two cultures. It is a great insight into the culture and ways of the Masai, their relationship to the land and the animals, their view on modernization and education.

I am not going to do a Freudian analysis on why I (like countless others) enjoy dystopian literature. But I am certainly relieved to be reading them than living them, and maybe these worst case scenarios actually help me appreciate what I have today more earnestly.


Overall has been a great month for reading although I managed only 1 woman writer. Hope to fix that soon. I have began reading "Station Eleven" by Emily St Mandel John - another dystopian novel set in the future with Shakespeare to the rescue. Interesting premise and loving it so far. Have been reading the Bard too for a class on Coursera and read 3 of his plays after a really long time, and I am a much better person for having read him. After all we will always have Shakespeare no matter how the world changes!

Black Dolls

Such elaborate outfits!

The Mingei International Museum's exhibit on Black Dolls was just breathtaking. I spent close to 3 hours gazing at these dolls that had so many stories to tell. In a day and age when Barbie (who incidentally is banned from our house), and Disney Princesses have become the defacto choice of dolls for little girls everywhere it was refreshing to see dolls with a different skin tone, from a different time.

Coconut shells for heads!

Apparently the models started crying, and so they ended up as crybabies

Were these dolls made by the slaves for the white children left in their care, or were these dolls made for their own children? We don't know for sure. It seems highly unlikely white children in late 1800s, early 1900s were given these black dolls as playthings, although there was one photograph to prove it was not completely out of the question. It was also nice to know that sometimes boys too got these dolls as gifts.

Some of the dolls were so elegantly dressed. Were these the aspirations of a suppressed population? Other dolls seemed to have a patchwork quilt of an outfit - i was told that maybe the mothers let their young daughters make these clothes as a way to teach them sewing.

Look at the wrinkles on her face. No Botox can create such a beauty!

But what was remarkable was the variety of materials used - whether it was coconut for a head, leather, wood - the unknown artists managed to evoke so many variety of expressions from these dolls.

Wooden dolls that were used for entertainment. Reminded me of the Indian "marapachis"

In many ways this is an exhibit every child should see. It is a celebration of diversity and a discussion around the definitions of beauty.  Many thanks to the Mingei Museum for all the work they do that reflects and celebrates the Multicultural society that we live in.