Nessie School of Languages

BRIEF INTRODUCTION
 

    We believe that the 1985 Booker[1]-prize-winning
novel, The Bone People, was published (after lots of corrections)  to basically start an immediate
communication  with all those New
Zeelanders who are highly concerned with their national identity, as it
definitely gives them the opportunity to 
change completely their traditional conception of their society by
adopting back the ancestral  Maori values
and spirituality. This difficult novel allows freely the introduction of a
great deal of opposite principles, in order to contrast both Maori and modern
European values, which, we reckon, that lots of times might be confusing the
reader. The author also plays brilliantly with dreams that strongly contradict
reality, and make us enter in a mysterious world full of fantasy, in which we
may come across all kinds of vain events: enchantments, supernatural facts,
nightmares, connotations between night and day, and so on. The novel is then
supposed to be full of dichotomies between Maori and Pakeha cultures and myths,
Christian and regional spiritualism, earth and water, male and female, light
and darkness, and above all, the eternally existing idea of past and present.

    The plot deals with the life of an
unconventional female artist, who lives isolated on a coastal town  of New Zeeland, after breaking her
relationship with her biological family, and 
tries to make up for this emptiness by thinking about the past and
collecting objects from a happier time. Her life starts to change when she
meets a blond young boy who is mute. Moreover, they run into another important
character, an angry Maori widower who is all the time grieving for his wife?s
and son?s death. The three protagonists, who have little in common, are
introduced in a mysterious world, where night falls upon them as a nightmare.
Darkness mirrors death, that?s why they are really frightened when the sun
sets. They have strange problems of adaptation and behaviour, but their close
friendship gives them enough strength to overcome all kind of obstacles. The
fact that there are two artists in the story, Kerewin Holmes and the old man,
is also remarkable, since artists? presence seems to be highly regarded within
the Maori community, because of their straight communication with the gods.
They are privileged because they can see things in a different way. Kerewin is
one of these artists, although she is going through a bad time. She uses art as
a way of isolating herself from the rest of the world and to maintain contact
with her homeland, which she has been forced to leave. She paints and sculpts
according to her momentary wishes.

    From the very beginning, Keri Hulme uses
spirals[2], which are an old motif in
Maori culture. They appear in nature and are frequently shown in shells and
snails. Already in page seven, we find the image of a house, a tower with a
main spiral staircase which connects all the rooms. Many reviewers point out
that they are a key symbol in this novel, as they have an ancient philosophy
bound to, which is crucial  for the final
resolution of the main protagonists? problems. These characters are the ones
who let off a vast combination of positive and negative feelings, related
to  human weaknesses and strengths,
frustration and amazement, satisfaction and awes. As an anonymous critic[3] stated: ?This is more than a tale of child abuse and
disattachment. It makes you ache for the child, while at the same time causes
your heart to nearly burst with empathy for him?.

MAIN ISSUE:

TECHNIQUE TO GET

THE READER?S ATTENTION

    After reading The Bone People and a
large number of  reviews about it, we
have learnt that Keri Hulme is highly interested in framing the journey of the
human soul to truth, through the mind of her characters. Therefore, she uses
the famous ?stream of consciousness? narrative technique, through which, we can
follow a character?s thoughts in a very free way in order to find the inner
truths. She appears to be following legendary James Joyce?s and Virginia Wolf?s
steps, although there are obvious differences among them, specially as far as
the issues the New Zealander author writes about are concerned. We must take
for granted that Joyce would  have never
accepted Kerewin?s rejection to become a solitary artist, which was one of his
most devoted ideas, and would be totally against Hulme?s final solution to get
rid of the three protagonists? problems through their total  integration in the society. However, there
are also some similarities, as Hulme?s characters also experience the constant
flow of their thoughts and feelings, as we can notice in lots of paragraphs
where there is no punctuation at all and dialog has totally disappeared,
because these personal sensations are strong enough to move into one another.
At this point of the explanation, we shall add Hulme?s own words, which may
help to verify what we have just affirmed:[4]

    I
have a theory about how you engage readers? attention, and it?s basically as a
result of the reading I?ve done and the things that work for me. And I find
that there?s a sort of a way of not being completely straightforward with what
you are writing but using emotionally loaded material that will grab people.
And the way that I play with words and bend them slightly – or just outright mutilate
them – tends towards to work in that context.

    All those pioneer modernist writers who
followed this psychological technique were always trying to grasp things that
were in people?s minds and the ways they worked. As far as  Hulme is concerned, she also puts a huge
emphasis on making the readers guess the meanings of dreams, as they belong to
the deep heart of the native mythology of her country. Therefore, her main aim
seems to be forcing a proper interpretation of them, which, it goes without
saying, is in no way an easy matter. Moreover, she masters the use of symbols
in this novel, which may definitely serve her to deepen in her tireless search
for the truth and the controversial discovery of the self. And what is more,
sometimes we aren?t even able to notice whether the character is thinking or
speaking, as the writer loves being subjective all the time and again does
force  free interpretation. As we said
before, there is a total lack of oral transmission, and that?s the way the
writer seems to long for locking utterly all the doors to reality. Sometimes we
do find long chats about nothing, which makes the readers feel the nonsense of
it all. Most times, it is the supranatural what she is keen on exploring[5], as we can see in
the following flow of sentences (we dare not mention the word dialog), in which
she plays with the meaning of words to show again the great difficulty of a
proper communication:

    WHAT
DO YOU SEE AT NIGHT?

    ?In dreams??

    He shudders
and shakes his head emphatically.

    ?In the dark
you mean? What do I see in the dark??

    No. He waves
the paper. WHAT DO YOU SEE AT NIGHT?

    ?Okay, what
do I see at night? Stars??

    No.

    ?The night
itself, like darkness)?

    No, no.

    ?Ah you mean
something that can?t be seen, like ghosts??

    Hulme creates very strange characters that
will not discover their personality until they feel totally free. On the one
hand, Kerewin distrusts everybody and is afraid of anything, as she feels an
outcast everywhere, just because she has been separated from her natural
background, her fama (family). Her
understanding comes when she loses her isolation. On the other hand, Joe has
failed everything he has tried in his long painful life, and hasn?t even found
out who he really is, until he gets the revelation he is a carver. According to
the most precious Maori values, from now on, he will achieve his proper place
in society, so we have already got the answer to all the devastation he has
suffered. This constant trip to the knowledge of the self has led them first to
their personal acceptance, and later to happiness. That comes when the writer
seems to want them to pronounce loudly:  Ka pai (Thanks mate) and Kia Koa Koe (wishing you joy).

MY PERSONAL VIEW

    As far as I am concerned, highly-awarded
Keri Hulme?s The Bone People is unquestionably the most difficult novel
that I have ever read in a foreign language. What is more, I must admit that without
the help of some of the didactic literary reviews I have been carefully
checking, I wouldn?t have understood much of the plot and, consequently, nor
would I have been able to write any single comment about it. The novel is
soundly based on  Maori spiritual myths
and rural life, so quite a bit of knowledge of their principles is badly
necessary in order to follow the plot properly. I?ve learnt[6] that several Maori
cultural practices are still kept alive nowadays in New Zealand, and most
formal meetings and celebrations tend to use their ancient language in action
songs, and receive visitors accompanied by the hongi, or pressing together of noses on greeting. They also cook
food in earth ovens (haangi) on
preheated stones. Carved houses, which serve as centres of reunion and ceremony
in their villages, are still being built. Although for many Maori people the
most significant issue in the country remains that of the land ownership,
conscious of the terrible injustices they suffered with the European land dealings
in the 19th century. This strong rooting to their territory is bound to be
found in most chapters of the story, as it is the actual basis of the conflict
between the Pakeha and Maori society. In this way, the novel does become a
great celebration of Maori spiritualism, and handles a rich  mixture of subjects that combine realism and
fantasy, comedy and pathos.

    On the other hand, now I?m willing to play
the literary commentator so as to locate this novel into  the varied trends of the narrative written in
English in the 1980?s. I daresay it deals with the kind of fantasy known as
magic realism[7], which is supposed
to move beyond the usual limits of the story so as to bring in a new range of
experiences. These kind of novels enjoy a strong plot, in which daily realistic
episodes mix with unexpected ones, which cannot be explained and might belong
to a dream, fairy-story or myth. This is a genre developed and improved by
quite famous writers such as Angela Carter and Salman Rushdie, whose writings
have also tried to bring together east and west.

    Just to finish, I can?t avoid mentioning
that Keri Hulme has been the only New Zeelander, male or female, to receive the
prestigious Booker Prize, which was very important for the
right international projection of this country?s literature. I have also read a
few reviews complaining about Hulme?s not being a prolific writer, which means
her literary work is highly expected by readers who enjoy psychological stories
and are able to understand such complicated plots, led by the stream of
consciousness technique.  As a review[8] by a university
teacher points out: ?Some students hate
it because they thought it was impossible to read. And it assure that this book
takes time and it?s worth reading?.

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