Before I get to my main thoughts on The Sex Lives of Cannibals, I have to say--Kay, if you're high maintenance, I'm super high maintenance. Crap food, and a hospital where people go to die! Eek! I don't think I'd even want to vacation there, much less live there.
Although, is it a vacationable location? p. 65: "Clean water was impossible to find... There were still palm trees on Betio, which provided coconuts and toddy, but there wasn't any shrubs left for firewood, which is a poor emitter of heat anyway. Everyone had worms. Every child had hepatitis A. Tuberculosis was rampant. There were lepers..."
THERE WERE LEPERS!
One resident's reason for moving away? "Too many people on Tarawa. And the smell is beginning to bother me." (The author is in complete accord with this assessment: "It was true. Where he lived, the fetid stench of sizzling shit at low tide was breathtakingly foul.")
The fetid STENCH! of SIZZLING! SHIT!
Diapers--USED diapers--bobbing by in the tide while one is going for a nice, refreshing swim... Shudder. Well, you get the idea. But, the ending topped it all, for me. On the final page, the author HIMSELF dangles his OWN CHILD over the sea so HE CAN POOP IN IT!
WHAT! (And, his wife laughs, "He's our little island boy.")
ACK! I couldn't believe it. He ENDS the book with aw-shucks laughter about shitting in the ocean? If you can't beat 'em, join em? The spoiler alert from my title isn't a warning about giving the ending away, it's a warning about... well, gosh. SPOILING everything! With our SHIT!
I found this tale of life in the remote Pacific quite amusing, at points... And intriguing. Such a profoundly different lifestyle. But, ultimately, I found it disgusting and discouraging and disheartening. They say, that in many ways, islands are microcosms for what's happening on a larger scale all around our planet. Luckily, much of the developed world has better sewage systems... Although we also dispose of much worse things than shit. Like, well, you know. Things that don't decompose. Poison. Nuclear waste. So. Fun times.
But I also noticed, in my dismay and discouragement and disgust, that I was resorting to blaming the island people, in order to relieve my discomfort... By which I mean, I vaguely thought, Oh, those PEOPLE suck. They should know better. Those problems are just a result of their being stupid, and wrong. They should get organized! They should fix things! Mere poverty, mere culture shouldn't stand in their way! They DESERVE their hellhole.
Because I strive to think clearly and respond compassionately in all things.
Of course, the decisions the islanders collectively make do affect the island, and their lives--but that's not what I was thinking. I was thinking, Why aren't they more like us, with our insanely overflowing wealth and plentiful resources and industrialized lifestyles, where we effectively HIDE our gross, disgusting messes and chilling destruction?
Paul says, my description of this book reminds him of the experience of listening to NPR for several hours straight.
Hideho! Good cheer! Time for a good dose of denial. Let's think about something else.
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I really need to start taking notes when I'm reading. These are very good points. I think I must have forgotten how bad the conditions on the island really were... a lot worse than a lack of fresh vegetables and running water. Not that I had any urge to live there by any means. I think I was trying to figure out if I would be mentally capable of living there. After your reiteration of the literal crappiness of it all, I realize that not only would I not want to stay there for any length of time, I also think my mental state would crumble very quickly.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever really blamed the locals for the state of their island. Granted, it is THEIR island, but I don't think they'd been given very good tools to work with. Most were uneducated, had never known anything different, and were trying to meet the basic needs of life. I think it would be hard for me to try and think about protecting the environment from pollution if I were starving and/or malnurished on a daily basis. I think pollution just hasn't become a priority yet, although ironically the lack of sanitation is causing a large portion of their health problems. It's kind of a catch 22. Spend your time and money cleaning up the island and starve to death, or use your time and money to feed your family and allow the island to go to hell. It really is sad, especially considering all the money we send to other countries to help out with this kind of thing. You'd think there would be more of an effort to help out these kind of people who have no way of helping themselves.
Right! I mean, about not blaming the locals for being absorbed with, you know, trying not to starve! I think, underneath, I KNEW that. I just wanted something simple to blame. A--scapegoat! So I didn't have to think about the true scope of the problem of cleaning up their island, and island Earth.
ReplyDeleteBut it didn't matter. I thought about it anyway.
Any solutions?