Breaking out of the gloom
Written by Admin on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
Breaking out of the gloom
SEA Write nominee Siriworn Kaewkan on addressing the region’s problems through fiction
Story and photo by ANCHALEE KONGRUT
Two bodies, a young Muslim woman and a Scandinavian man, are tossed up and down in the tumultuous sea, surrounded by debris and other dead bodies in the wake of a calamitous tsunami.
An ageing Muslim lady is crossing a street. Facing her from the other side is a Buddhist monk. The setting is Pattani province - a deep-South town where violent attacks have become part of daily life and bombs can explode any minute, anywhere.
These intriguing plots are part of Kao Karn Hai Pai Khong Ariya Lae Rueang Uen-uen (News of Ariya’s Disappearance and Other Stories), one of the books short-listed for the SEA Write Award this year.
Although missing out on the coveted literary prize, the book holds merit as an aesthetic record of tragedies in Thailand’s South in recent years. Considering the rather dark theme, one is tempted to imagine the author, Siriworn Kaewkan, as perhaps a serious, brooding artist.
Delightfully, no. At 40, Siriworn would rather remind you of a Thai folk singer - the likes of Caravan or Carabao guys with their signature long hair, caveman-like moustache or beard, and a face that can intimidate thugs.
In person, the poet/writer Siriworn is surprisingly soft-spoken. Having had a recent shave, he turns out to be quite endearing with his pug-face, beady eyes and a smile that can disarm people. Asked how he could handle a series of “heartbreaks”, having missed out on the SEA Write awards five times already, Siriworn just laughed.
“It would be embarrassing if I’d won this year because my works cannot compare to some of my friends.”
Is his humility too good to be true?
“Okay, I feel upset … It is irritating when you come close to getting something repeatedly but finally you can’t reach it,” he admitted.
“But I am not torn apart emotionally. At least it is a game and if you understand its rules you will be able to be a good sport and not take things personally,” said Siriworn, who described himself as a guy who does not take life nor himself seriously.
Is he really? His works speak for themselves.
“Look at my story on the tsunami. At the end, thousands of people reached the same destiny,” he said.
“Why do we have to fight each other? Why is there war, greed and struggle when we will end up in the same place?” the writer mused.
Much of Siriworn’s book plays on the issues of conflicts, racial or religious, and collisions, be they Islam vis-a-vis Buddhism, the gaps between old and young generations, and so on. His obsession with multi-cultural issues, he said, may have come from his mixed background - Siriworn’s ancestors were originally Brahmin migrants from East Asia. Over time, the Kaewkan family adopted Buddhism and eventually settled down in Nakhon Si Thammarat, in the predominantly Islamic region of southern Thailand.
Trained in painting and sculpture at a provincial art college, Siriworn, or Worn among his friends, said he wrote poems during his student years and found he felt more comfortable with words than with colours and canvases like other classmates.
“I no longer feel challenged when I paint; it is not my form of communication,” he said.
Siriworn moved to Bangkok over 15 years ago. He remembered his first day in Bangkok, when he stopped at a book kiosk in the Onnuj area.
“I flipped through a magazine and saw my poem printed there. I realised then that writing is what I’d like to do,” he said.
Still, until recently he had to rely on painting or doing sculpture to pay his bills. But then his books started to earn recognition, being nominated for SEA Write and several other awards. His previous book, Kadee Kattakam Toh Imam Sator Pa (The Murder Case of Toh Imam Sator Pa), was shortlisted for SEA Write in 2006. The novel, about distrust and conflict in the restive South, was branded by the Thai state as undermining national security and at the same time drew criticism from Muslim sentimentalists (or fundamentalists???). Last year, Siriworn received the Silpathorn Award - another prestigious prize for contemporary artists. Writers praised Siriworn as a maestro of creative narration.
“He is so innovative with his narrative style and does not shy away from trying new writing techniques,” said Watchara Satjasarrasin, his friend and this year’s SEA Write winner. But what makes Siriworn stand out from most other local writers, Watchara said, is his fascination with history and current events in Southeast Asia.
“He keeps reminding us to pay more attention to the world outside and to learn more about our neighbours. In my view, he feels more like a Southeast Asian citizen,” said Watchara.
Not many writers in Thailand have an interest in the region’s geopolitics. Some prefer to focus on familiar, parochial territory and to hone their narrative skills and word craft. Many touch on particular subjects - postmodernism, emotional conflicts or human tragedy. Siriworn said he plans to write a story on problems along the Mekong. Last year he travelled to Laos for vacation and to do research for his next project.
A close friend describes Siriworn as a news junkie. He reads newspapers every day and has his own files of news clippings on subjects as wide-ranging as Southern violence, various problems in Southeast Asia, Chinese mega-dam projects on the upstream part of the Mekong, to name a few.
A prolific writer, at the moment he is busy polishing up his next poetry book: I Want to Sing a Song.
“In the midst of problems, I think most of us may feel like singing a song. This book will reflect the feelings of people who want to break out from the surrounding gloom,” he said.
Siriworn is also working on another piece of fiction, hinting that it will be full of incantations - that surrealist, magical element that has somehow become his signature.
“The story will take place at a village by the sea when, one day, an unusual disease breaks out and suddenly every villager loses their olfactory sense - they can no longer smell the scent of the sea.” Siriworn’s eyes squinted and his face grew puckish as he shared his plot.
Hmmm … it certainly smells like potential book-award material. It certainly does.
Bangkok Post
