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Ribald Tales of Guyana Vol.2

by Haslyn Parris

246 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0516; ISBN 1-55369-703-0; US$22.00, C$29.05, EUR18.90, £13.10

The second of an intended 10 volume series of fictional tales of life, past and present, in Guyana, a multi-ethnic developing society in the Caribbean. Individuals pursue their dreams in a turbulent sea of ethnic prejudices and developed world aspirations.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts and table of contents      catalogue info

About the Book This second set of truly ribald tales, like the first set (Ribald Tales of Yesterdecade), is not intended for children! Nor is it recommended for adults who have already ascended into the righteous cocoon of easily shocked respectability. It is intended for thinking adults whose ability to fantasize and be heretical still enjoys free reign, whom ribaldry does not faze, and who can still enjoy the discomfort of fiction sailing close to the wind of the unrealism of truth. Mentally mature adolescents will be fascinated! The fascination to which I refer is not likely to be restricted to Guyanese, nor to those who are familiar with Guyana. Yet, the tales themselves are inspired by past and present events in Guyana, and by the cultural paradoxes of Guyana; including particularly those deriving from Guyana's rich ethnic diversity, and from the reactions of ordinary citizens and politicians in the context of Guyana. Guyana, like all societies, is an example of a complex adaptive system, with all agents in the society reacting to each other, to events outside Guyana, and to the perceived imperatives of survival in an unpredictable non-benign world driven by genes and memes.

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About the Author

The author is a former Deputy Prime Minister, Planning and Development, who demitted office in 1991, after a quarter of a century of intimate involvement in problems of development in a newly independent multi-ethnic third world country. His formal training was as a mathmetician and economist at graduate and post-graduate levels, and he currently works on problems of governance and constitutional change in Guyana.

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Sample Excerpts and Table of Contents

PROLOGUE

This second volume of Ribald Tales follows the format of the first. It continues to deal with otherwise serious concepts in a vulgar fashion - not obscenely, but in a manner that would appeal to the vulgus. It however goes further than its predecessor in its attempt to provide entertainment and perhaps educate. Each story contains puzzles of arithmetic, or of logic, or of history or geography that the astute inquisitive reader can spot. The puzzles in the stories (and in this prologue) take the form of deliberate internal consistencies or inconsistencies and inaccuracies of an arithmetical, or a logical, or a historical or geographical kind; and each story can be read for the pleasure of identifying the puzzles.

For instance, the story entitled "The Irreverent JOHN ADAMS - A Dangerous Man" contains several of these. Seven are listed below:
(i) Tobago has neither a primary school, nor a Catholic Church,
and has never had either. It's a very poor community in
which "Clap Hand" churches predominate and the Catholics
cannot get a foothold.
(ii) No person from Tobago would bypass the closer communities
of Hosororo or Kumaka, and head for Mabaruma to shop
routinely for weekend groceries.
(iii) Is there a flaw in the miles of penis calculation; or in John's
derivation of his genetic mix?
(iv) There has been at least one Amerindian Saint ! She is the
Blessed KATERI TEKAKWITHA of the Mohawk Indian
Nation ("Lily of the Mohawks"). Born in Ossernenon (now
Auriesville, New York), she was baptized on Easter Sunday,
1676 in Fonda, New York. She died on April 17, 1680 in Caughnawage (now La Prairie, Canada) and was declared "Venerable" on January 3, 1943 by Pope Pius XII. She was "Beatified" on June 22, 1980 by Pope John Paul II; and her statue adorns the Great Bronze Doors of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, New York City. So the Popes weren't all bad boys and Amerindian types weren't totally neglected by the Church in the race for veneration. You might still ask, however, why a developed country got there before Guyana?
(v) Is the Loko version of the Lord's Prayer accurate, or is it just
a bunch of mumbo-jumbo contrived for the story ?
(vi) Oaru, Pehporo, and Pietu are Wai Wai and not Arawak names.

Hopefully, the reader will find these hidden "puzzles" as entertaining as the straightforward reading of the stories themselves. As in the previous volume, the main caveat to readers should continue to hold. For the sake of completeness it is repeated here: "If,....by virtue of what you know, or think you know, you find that characters and behaviour patterns in these tales remind you of the living or the dead, please be assured that the kernel of facts around which the stories are built is not adequate evidence to pinpoint any persons you know." "Is not one dog name Pompey."

CONTENTS Humbert's Best Friday..................................................................3
The Concert of Yesterdecade........................................................14
Tin Tin's Structural Adjustment..................................................36
The Irreverent John Adams - A Dangerous Man............................43
Christmas Blow Blow...................................................................92
Coolie Tom Puss..........................................................................104
Snuffy and Stirabout....................................................................114
The Professional..........................................................................125
The Demons of Jonas....................................................................141
Knot Neil......................................................................................163
Prof Wilson .................................................................................180
The Blacks and Whites of Brasted - A Cautionary Tale...................199

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Catalogue Information

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