The Periplus of Spur Tank Road
(By Rick Harsch)
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| Author | Rick Harsch |
In his introduction David Vardeman wrote: The physical body evolves and at the same time assumes a moral position, depending on the use to which it is put, which is only to say that the physical and spiritual will always be linked. The question of use always involves its effect on other people, other species, the environment. The missing piece of Darwinism is that it addresses not at all our moral and intellectual evolution, if such can be said to exist. Pagan would say un-happening. It is the genius of this periplus to address all that. This chilling exchange sums it up:
Rick: When the monkeys were watching, did they know what they were seeing?
Pagan: We know what we see.
Rick: We think we do.
Author of Oskar Submerges, Zachary Tanner observes "There's more packed in here than in most 900-page novels. Three lines of dialogue and I beheld Darwinian simians emoting."
Steven Moore read the book and wrote:
"Well. I just finished reading The Periplus of Spur Tank Road, and liked it better than the only Krasznahorkai I've read (The Melancholy of Resistance, which I abandoned halfway through). Allowing for the premise that a bonnet macaque could learn to communicate in English, I wondered why his language was so elaborate (so Urquhartian, so Carlylesque), and had trouble following some of your superheated sentences (like the one that occupies most of p. 39), but overall I enjoyed it, so thanks for challenging me to read it.
As ever,
Steve"
I replied:
"...I just read page 39 and it is precise to me, though I think given the bit of Tamil required and the thought that must follow mine it is reasonable to consider it too much torture for readers. The answer to my own mind of the language of our monkey is that Indian English is very Brit still, so his language is an echo of the high degree of colonial detritus that remains in the Indian person."
I asked if I could use his letter and he wrote:
"Sure, you can use my statement any way you want, though it sounds bland to me...You might consider enveloping it in your remarks above."”
