Peregrinations into the jungles
Ainon N is on a pursuit of truth seekers
The Storyteller, Mario Vargas Llosa, Penguin Books
As I walk through bookstores typically authors known to me grab my attention. I also lack reserve when it comes to browsing book titles; an indulgence that I have not been able to overcome. On one such occasion while my eyes were scanning the shelves, the title Storyteller attracted my attention. Aren't all writers storytellers? To my pleasant surprise, the book by Mario Vargas Llosa had a different story to tell, not what one anticipates in a fiction. I marveled at the finesse with which the author committed his pen to bring us the tale of moral judgments that are tag-ons to laws of development. In this case, it is the story of integrating the Machiguenga tribe into the 'modern' world, the mainstream culture of Peru. The writer sensitizes us --- that the world views of people are social constructs which are subject to change inherent to time and place. Simultaneously he also leads us to the edge of questioning whether the principles of right conduct are a good framework to understand the logical world of other people. The story begins with the narrator, a Peruvian scholar who walks into a quaint art gallery in Florence, only to find to his pleasant surprise a photo exhibition of the Amazonian tribe, the Machiguenga. Among the displays he also discovers the photograph of his college friend Saul Zuratus. Saul, nicknamed Mascaritus (Mask Face) is the central character of the story. His identity comes alive only through narratives of the events-teller. He describes Saul as having two anomalies: a facial birthmark which covers half his face and he is a goy, born of a Jewish mother and Christian father, a fallacy by the standards of religious fanatics. These are markers that isolate him from others and keep him away from social interaction. While at the University of San Marcos neither law nor liberal education catches Saul's fancy. Instead, he is driven by ethnology. Only during sporadic interludes does the narrator discover Saul's compassion for the tribes he visited during his trips to the jungle. Primitive practices of the native Indians, their habits and customs, their ways of living in harmony with the natural world had a deep impact on Saul. His quiet evolution and the coming of being into their culture and religion were due to the fact of "human lack of conscience, irresponsibility, and cruelty, to which the men, the trees, the animals, and the rivers of the jungle had fallen prey…" Gradually, during the years at university, Saul becomes withdrawn, isolated, shielding himself from the 'intrusion of others' without letting anyone have a 'glimpse of his intentions.' His personal convictions ultimately lead him to disapprove of the processes of conducting ethnological studies as well. The two friends eventually move on to their own course of life. Such is the prologue Llosa sets up for his readers. In the story he embeds both Saul and the Indian tribe as "…aberration(s) that other people ridiculed or pitied without granting it the respect and dignity deserved by those whose physical appearance, customs and beliefs were not normal. Both he and they were anomalies in the eyes of other Peruvians. His birthmark aroused in them, in us, the same feelings, deep down, as those creatures living somewhere far away…" Llosa's writing style parallels the sayings of now (accounts of the narrator) and the past (tribe's worldview; folktales and myths of their animistic belief system), intertwining plots in a manner that holds the reader's attention. Even though it may seem that certain sections of the book stand apart from the story or the characters, in fact Llosa sets it up as parables of modernization. A pleasant read is the segment on how the world was in the eyes of the Machiguengas; their gods, retributions, dealings of the tribe, their communion with nature, their method of handling external threats. The habladores --- storytellers --- educate these people on how the world in the beginning was abundant, 'in peace and quiet'. The sun held the earth together, and then one day it started 'falling'. At that point Machiguenga people became walkers, which was their survival strategy against threat from nature, exploitation from other tribes, and outside people. They became nomads. As 'truth seekers' they always walked away to live in harmony with the natural world, always adjusting to changing circumstances and thus surviving long. The story continues. The narrator, whose name is never revealed, ventures on an expedition to Alto Maranon, supported by the Institute of Linguistics. As he experiences the Indian tribes' inability to repugnate the forces of discrepancies introduced by the civilized people, he re-engages in silent colloquy with his absent friend Saul, finally understanding his fascination for this untamed world. He discovers that the Machiguenga are a small tribe of approximately five thousand who are 'split apart.' Few were exposed to the white and mestizo world, who thus become entrenched in a hybrid culture; while others were almost totally insulated from outside world. While visiting Pucallpa the narrator learns from his hosts about the discreet presence of the hablador a storyteller who goes around among the disunited Machiguenga tribes telling them the stories of their gods and the world, weaving them into one society! Twenty-three years later, after his first peregrinations into the jungles of Amazonia, the narrator, who is now a producer of television documentaries, once again is invited by the Institute to travel there and film the lesser-known tribes. His choice: to discover the evanescent story teller among the Machiguenga. Over the years, through the sporadic writings of anthropologists, ethnologists and the missionaries, he read accounts of the tribe's kinship structure, work methods, symbolism, sense of time, myths and songs, customs and beliefs, but never did he come across any reference to story tellers. The Machiguenga are a real Peruvian tribe. The story, of course, is cast as fiction. However, the unfolding of the story at attempts to 'modernize' the Machiguenga by creating the so-called enabling environment through permanent settlements, farming, development of trade relations, translation of the Bible into their language, study of their culture and language --- all create a nexus of external contacts that impacts the integrity of small marginal communities. The paradox remains. Should or can they be left alone? The ability of any author to insist on truth which others find challenging to debate, calls for moral courage. It is that courage which transforms blind beliefs of the modern person and the clichés of rights and wrongs. As a reader I honour those who remind us to define and hear our own stories, lest we forget. To enjoy this book the reader has to be one with the natives to listen to their mythologies, and understand their erudition in context of her/his own belief system. After all, we have our own theological doctrines which may seem bizarre to others --- take on the role of one who recognizes the necessity of primitive practices for their survival; be one in sync with the anguish of displaced population, as well be cognizant of development outcomes; and finally keep an open mind to acknowledge the finesse of an argument that has no definitive answer. The characters in the story also do not bring a closure on how modern people are supposed to relate to natives left on the sidelines of civilization. The Storyteller, of course, is none other than the mask-faced Saul Zuratus! Indeed, it is a beautifully written book, elegant in its message, a book worth reading and pondering on. Finally, as I closed the book I could not but reflect on the sayings of W. Collins, "…story telling is common to all civilizations. Whether in the form of a sprawling epic or a pointed ballad, the story is our most ancient method of making sense out of experience and of preserving the past."
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