"A Bend In the River" by V. S. Naipaul changed Ha Jin's life("The Writer
as Migrant"). The opening paragraph of book 2 where the stragglers from a
column of ants lose their way and die while the horde carry on oblivious, for
Jin, captures the "true relationship between the individual and the
collective" and thereby enabled him to see through his self-deceptive
aspiration of speaking for the unfortunate Chinese.
I'm not young anymore and have long given up speaking for anyone but myself.
My quest for freedom blesses me with no nostalgia whatsoever and wherever. In
pursuing truth and trying to understand the whole, I am no migrant. I read for
knowledge (which I have an incurable desire to acquire) and fun.
I borrowed the large-print version and thought it would be easier on my eyes.
Instead, the change in font size made words less certain and one glance felt
no longer enough to capture the meaning of a sentence. As a habit formed in
the exam-passing days, I kept double-checking to see if I misread and
frequently I did.
"A Bend in the River" was a slow read, about 100 pages a day. There were not
many new words but its contemplative narration commanded concentration and
thoughts. The author employs flashbacks often and has a way of repeating key
phrases and their reappearances can feel deep and funny at the same time. But
he does not overplay it. That is his style.
It is all very quotable but I was particularly impressed by the following
paragraph where Salim, who moved from the east coast to a post-colonial
central African republic, met father Huismans who explained a Latin motto
carved on a fallen monument.
Miscerique probat populos et foedera jungi. "He approves of the mingling
of the peoples and their bonds of union": that was what the words meant,
and again they were very old words, from the days of ancient Rome. They
came from a poem about the founding of Rome. The very first Roman hero,
travelling to Italy to found his city, lands on the coast of Africa. The
local queen falls in love with him, and it seems that the journey to Italy
might be called off. But then the watching gods take a hand; and one of
them says that the great Roman god might not approve of a settlement in
Africa, of a mingling of peoples there, of treaties of union between
Africans and Romans. That was how the words occurred in the old Latin
poem. In the motto, though, three words were altered to reverse the
meaning. According to the motto, the word carved in granite outside our
dock gates, a settlement in Africa raises no doubts: the great Roman god
approves of the mingling of peoples and making of treaties in Africa.
Miscerique probat populos et foedera jungi.
I was staggered. Twisting two-thousand-year-old words to celebrate sixty
years of the steamer service from the capital!
A nice recap of the Aeneid and sounds both funny and at the same time insightful!
In addition, I learned some refreshing perspectives:
- Europeans are bored with machines and factories. Asian people love them;
they secretly prefer factories to their family life.
- Americans: They are not a tribe, as you might think from the outside.
They're all individuals fighting to make their way, trying as hard as you or
me not to sink.
