Sep2021 - "The Translator, at Low Tide" by Vajra Chandrasekera

[Jim]

The September 2021 short story is The Translator, at Low Tide by Vajra Chandrasekera. It is a 2021 finalist for the THEODORE A. STURGEON Memorial Award & is available on Clarke's World in both text & audio formats here:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/chan...

[Jim]

The story was good, fairly short, & mightily depressing. Not an easy read. I had to search out a few things.

manioc is another word for cassava, a root that is a staple in much of the world. I know it best as what tapioca is made from. It was also mentioned in a book I read recently as poisoning poor people when its price goes up. Apparently they wind up selling all they've processed because they need the money & eat the unprocessed root which is toxic.

après moi sounded familiar, but I couldn't define it. It's part of an expression "après moi le deluge" attributed to Louis XV describing people who behave as if they don't care about the future, since the "flood" will happen after they're gone. His ineffectual rule contributed to the outbreak of the French Revolution 15 years after his death.

cetiya are objects & places used by Buddhists to remember Buddha.

I wondered about the location since it was quite generic at first. The names didn't narrow it down for me. It wasn't until I tried searching on the foreign script about loneliness that I could nail it down to (view spoiler)[Sri Lanka since it's Sinhala. Indeed, the end note says the author is from there. (hide spoiler)]

[Jim]

I want to thank Ed for giving me the link to Clarke's World's free Awards & Recognition page where I found this story.
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/awar...

[Peter]

Too grim for me. This scene is just after a book-burning:
"For a while, the children experimented with burning each other. They would select one of their number through a counting chant, whose rough melody evoked old memories but that I couldn’t quite place. That chosen child would allow themselves to be bound and burned. If they screamed in the fire...."

Yuck. The End, for me. Good Lord.

[Ed]

Jim wrote: "I want to thank Ed for giving me the link to Clarke's World's free Awards & Recognition page ..."

I gave him that link a while back. To be clear: I did not choose this story.

I like it a little. I like the poetic nature of the language. I like that it is a description of a post-climate-change world from a non-Western location. It feels like something Ballard might have written.

I like this bit, describing the work of a poetry translator: "This work is a little like being a hatter in the days of mercury: long-term exposure sinks into the skin, pools in the organs. Poetry causes delirium and weakness. It burdens the heart."

It is very grim. I wonder whether this guy also writes some less grim stuff.

[Peter]

Ed wrote: " To be clear: I did not choose this story. ...

It is very grim. I wonder whether this guy also writes some less grim stuff"

I wondered the same, I'd be a lot more interested in something else!

[Oleksandr]

I've read the story when I was choosing nominees for Hugo and it was interesting and unusual, but it hasn't 'struck' me as a good SF short usually does, it was more like sharing a gloomy mood, which it done great

[Ryan]

This was almost purely an exercise in world-building, of a world ravaged by climate change. It was fairly evocative, which is good, because there was essentially no plot. I hope we never end up here but I am not confident we won’t. This reminds me a bit of the Wind-Up Girl, which had a similar near-future world ruined by climate change.

[Peter]

Ryan wrote: "This was almost purely an exercise in world-building, of a world ravaged by climate change. It was fairly evocative, which is good, because there was essentially no plot. I hope we never end up here but I am not confident we won’t. This reminds me a bit of the Wind-Up Girl, which had a similar near-future world ruined by climate change"

Good comparison. I HATED the Wind-Up Girl, and I've HATED most of the other of the (few) Bacigalupi stories I've tried. Not a cheerful writer!

[Oleksandr]

I absolutely loved Wind-Up Girl, but I agree that Paolo Bacigalupi isn't a cheerful author and too much to the Left for my liking, but his texts are quite strong (for me)

[Peter]

Oleksandr wrote: "I absolutely loved Wind-Up Girl, but I agree that Paolo Bacigalupi isn't a cheerful author and too much to the Left for my liking, but his texts are quite strong (for me)"

No question that he is a good writer! I hadn't noticed his politics. But I just hate his stuff! Most of it. Not at all to my taste....

[Ryan]

From what I've read, I don't think any other world-building has been quite so strong and gloomy as Wind-Up Girl, and this story was reminiscent of that.