cricketscorer
New Member
Does anyone have any idea how to link Michael Ondaatje's "Anil's Ghost" to anything remotely connected with Crime Fiction? I have a few ideas, but it would be good, I think, to bounce them off others...
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Anil's Ghost (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter cricketscorer
- Start date
J
jhakka
Guest
I think the use of forensics, etc is the only real connection to crime fiction. That book sucked.
cricketscorer
New Member
Yes
I completely agree with you. I found Ondaatje's THE ENGLISH PATIENT insufferable, and to me this book seems like he just masturbated across the page and forced the publishers to print it.
Ugh.
I completely agree with you. I found Ondaatje's THE ENGLISH PATIENT insufferable, and to me this book seems like he just masturbated across the page and forced the publishers to print it.
Ugh.
persephone
Active Member
it's not that bad. It relates to crime fiction because a crime has bee committed and someone is trying to solve it. It breaks conventions thus expanding the boundaries of the genre by not restoring order as seen in the ambiguous ending. Important point: it expands the boundaries of the genre. that's what it does that's why it's on the bloody list.
P.S: it does suck, i lied, it is that bad...
P.S: it does suck, i lied, it is that bad...
cricketscorer
New Member
Yeah, I'm happy to see that the book is breaking conventions, and in a way I think that order is restored, because each of the characters come to a personal truth, and the concept of "truth" has replaced that of "justice" in this particular crime fiction, I think. But my theory is that Ondaatje is a genre leech, because he is a poet and needs some sort of formal constraints to keep his novels in check. "The English Patient" used the conventions of the Romance novel, but it wasn't really a romance; Ondaatje just wanted to say something about post-colonialism. And then in this novel, he wants to say something about Sri Lankan history - something he moreover has a personal stake in - so he uses the conventions of the crime novel to make sure that he doesn't overflow and write entire chapters about the wind (a la "The English Patient") but in the end he produces something that is much more about the collision between East and West, and about people just in a cultural mess than about crime fiction. Which, unfortunately, makes it hard to discuss as crime fiction.
And you're right, it does suck.
And you're right, it does suck.
persephone
Active Member
besides the fact that it does suck does anyone have any notes for it? techniques? examples of conventions? etc.... Trials are soon and extension english is my last one so i have plenty of time to study for it but anil's ghost .... i have no notes for it and since it's a new prescribed text there is like no notes for it anywhere so help would be really good!
pam17
like heaven to touch
We're doing Anil's Ghost as well and I thought it was pretty bad too, guess that's general consensus. My teacher completely deconstructed the novel for us so I can post up the notes if you'd like.
J
jhakka
Guest
What was with the statue thing at the end? That made no sense to me.
persephone
Active Member
yeah, what was that? so ananda wore sarath's shirt and he fixed the statue, big deal? where's the crime fiction element in that?
J
jhakka
Guest
I have the feeling there is none.
nicktheslayer
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2003
- Messages
- 1
Anil's Ghost was a great book.
It's crime fiction because there is a crime. Anil is the female detective investigating the crime. She doesn't have a badge, but she works with a humanitarian organisation and she's investigating. I think you could describe the book as a ultra modern hard crime fiction. The presense of reality, and the 'big picture' that hard crime fiction posesses, can be found is Anil's Ghost.
It doesn't fit squarely into the hard crime fiction genre, but it's still crime fiction. It possesses many elements of crime fiction, a detective, red herrings, clues, blah blah.
It's crime fiction because there is a crime. Anil is the female detective investigating the crime. She doesn't have a badge, but she works with a humanitarian organisation and she's investigating. I think you could describe the book as a ultra modern hard crime fiction. The presense of reality, and the 'big picture' that hard crime fiction posesses, can be found is Anil's Ghost.
It doesn't fit squarely into the hard crime fiction genre, but it's still crime fiction. It possesses many elements of crime fiction, a detective, red herrings, clues, blah blah.
Gregor Samsa
That Guy
Can't you discuss it as 'Post-Modern' Crime Fiction? I mean, as in displaying multi-genericism (Hence it not being entirely CF), intertextuality, and so-forth. Equivalent to Snow Falling on Cedars in that respect. Its an evolution of the genre, maintaining its conventions while simultaneously making social commentary. Call it an appropriation of CF if you will.
wow this book doesnt suck - its actually extremely well written...well that is to say it is very intellectually and cleverly written. ondaatje has an interesting grasp on imagery that i quite enjoy, he also writes in a "complete" style ie not one word wasted - not very precise but the only word i can think of.
as for it being a crime fiction, its pretty clearly crime fiction as far as i can see - anil's purpose in sri lanka is as a un rep investigating alleged crimes against humanity by the sri lankan government. forensic anthropology is a branch of criminal investigation. ultimately, as crikketscorer said (i think), the book was written by ondaatje to explore the issues surrounding the civil unrest in sri lanka. its extremely easy to discuss this as crime fiction - note that one of the generic features of crime fiction novels is the way they so closely reflect context and values - the context of this novel basically defines every other characteristic of it, and also the values the author is expressing tie in with the context seamlessly (often the case in crime fiction). now consider that basically the narrative in anil's ghost exists as a device for exploring the setting and expounding some political and social values. this focus on setting vs character - note that ondaatje even makes anil appear contemptible thru things like the whole cullis thing and her incestuous "aquisition" of her name as a means of alienating us from her and bringing the locals + their society into sharper focus - is one of the principal ways the text stretches the boundaries of the genre.
thats just a start, im sure you'll be able to think through the rest by yourself. just give the book a chance eh?
edit: oh and jhakka as far as i can see, the "statue thing" was another example of ondaatje displaying the setting/context/culture, plus it was tieing off the only loose end in the narrative - ananda.
as for it being a crime fiction, its pretty clearly crime fiction as far as i can see - anil's purpose in sri lanka is as a un rep investigating alleged crimes against humanity by the sri lankan government. forensic anthropology is a branch of criminal investigation. ultimately, as crikketscorer said (i think), the book was written by ondaatje to explore the issues surrounding the civil unrest in sri lanka. its extremely easy to discuss this as crime fiction - note that one of the generic features of crime fiction novels is the way they so closely reflect context and values - the context of this novel basically defines every other characteristic of it, and also the values the author is expressing tie in with the context seamlessly (often the case in crime fiction). now consider that basically the narrative in anil's ghost exists as a device for exploring the setting and expounding some political and social values. this focus on setting vs character - note that ondaatje even makes anil appear contemptible thru things like the whole cullis thing and her incestuous "aquisition" of her name as a means of alienating us from her and bringing the locals + their society into sharper focus - is one of the principal ways the text stretches the boundaries of the genre.
thats just a start, im sure you'll be able to think through the rest by yourself. just give the book a chance eh?
edit: oh and jhakka as far as i can see, the "statue thing" was another example of ondaatje displaying the setting/context/culture, plus it was tieing off the only loose end in the narrative - ananda.
J
jhakka
Guest
Is the first bit just a nice way to say it was boring?sammeh said:
And I see where you're coming from on the Ananda thing, though I found that Anil's fate was left up in the air a bit... if I remember correctly. I only read it once and when this year started she said she hated the book and decided to do Real Inspector Hound instead. Haha.
olay
Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2003
- Messages
- 532
- Gender
- Female
- HSC
- 2004
i think the rebuilding of the buddha at the end represents destruction and renewal, as well as art and culture.... which are all pretty much core themes/values of anil's ghost.jhakka said:
i like this book much more now, didn't really like it at first. i LOVE 'in the skin of a lion' though!!!!!! [oh i remember why i didn't like it at first - i thought WTF what a crap way to end a book. then i realised the significance of it and went 'orrite, there's purpose behind it...it's not that crap'
]
cricketscorer
New Member
The End
The fact that the book may be well written doesn't, in my view, justify it being crap, and not really providing much to work with for Crime Fiction. Anyway, the ending is, as someone said, representing disaster and renewal, but it also contributes to the ambivalence of the text. I mean, the fact that the Budda was destroyed represents the continuing crimes in Sri Lanka, but Ananda himself finally feels "the sweet touch of the world" (That's the last line) at the end, so he has come to some sort of personal understanding - like the other characters - even amongst all this violence. The whole book is ambivalent, here's what I wrote in the trials:
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Michael Ondaatje’s novel Anil’s Ghost is essentially an exploration of the effect of the Sri Lankan civil war on the people of that country, but it explores this through the forensic investigations of its protagonist, Anil Tirissa. Primarily, the investigation concerns the search for an identity of the body dubbed “Sailor” by Anil and her government partner Sarath, but it also chronicles each of the protagonist’s searches for their own identities. Sarath has “evolved into a privacy he had perhaps never emerged from”, he always “tried to lose touch with the world around him” and the fact that Anil is continually unsure of his allegiances reflects his own confusion; he has conflicting loyalties – Anil asserts toward the end of the novel “you like to remain cloudy, don’t you Sarath, even to yourself”. Anil herself had a “lost childhood” and her name is a subplot in the novel: “Anil’s name – the one she’d bought from her brother at the age of thirteen – had another stage to go through before it settled…she was taut and furious within the family…the problem resided in her name.” Gamini, Sarath’s brother, is scared of intimacy; he experiences only “the intimacy of walking across a road with a cup of tea for someone”, he was referred to by his family as “the mouse”. This loss of identity is compared with Leaf’s loss of memory with Alzheimer’s, which in turn becomes synonymous with life: “[Leaf] was starting to lose her memory, fighting for her life.” But by the end of the novel, the characters have come to conclusions about themselves, so it can be said that here, good triumphs. Ananda, lost in his grief for his missing wife for most of novel, finally feels “the sweet touch of the world” to close out the story. Sarath asserts himself dramatically, sacrificing his life so that Anil can escape with her research. In some of the final moments of Anil’s presence in Sri Lanka, she gives a speech which concludes: “‘I think you murdered hundreds of us.’ Hundreds of us. Sarath thought to himself. Fifteen years away and she is finally us.” It is only at Sarath’s death that Gamini realises that he has kept himself apart; he finally recognises who he is. So the search for identity in the novel is successful, so in a way good does triumph over evil.
To Ondaatje, the primary source of evil in Sri Lanka is the government, and what it is able to hide is the truth. This means that the novel concerns itself too with the search for absolute truth, for what truth really is. Palipana says to Anil early in the novel: “there was nothing to believe in with certainty. [Prehistoric kings] didn’t know what truth was. We have never had truth.” She responds simply, ““The truth shall set you free.” I believe that.” This becomes an essential tenet of the novel. “Sarath believed in truth as a principle”, he couldn’t see how it existed in reality in Sri Lanka, so “he would have given his life for the truth if truth were of any use” in the situation he was in. In the end, he does give his life for the truth to get out, for Anil to be able to reveal the true identity of the body ‘Sailor’. In escaping Sri Lanka with his body, with the evidence that “some government forces have possibly murdered innocent people”, Anil escapes with the truth. And after all, “one village can speak for many villages. One victim can speak for many victims”, so a broader victory for truth is represented in this. But this is a much less clear-cut victory for the forces of good – President Katagula and Sarath have both been murdered in the name of truth, and the novel has foreshadowed what might happen after Anil leaves: “American movies, English books – remember how they all end?…the American or the Englishman gets on a plane and leaves. That’s it. The camera leaves with him.” The real crime in the story is that the number of people go on, and this is left unresolved also, so Anil’s Ghost is much more ambivalent than either The Big Sleep or Chinatown [SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT] about the triumph of good over evil, even if there are reassuring aspects to its conclusion.
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The fact that the book may be well written doesn't, in my view, justify it being crap, and not really providing much to work with for Crime Fiction. Anyway, the ending is, as someone said, representing disaster and renewal, but it also contributes to the ambivalence of the text. I mean, the fact that the Budda was destroyed represents the continuing crimes in Sri Lanka, but Ananda himself finally feels "the sweet touch of the world" (That's the last line) at the end, so he has come to some sort of personal understanding - like the other characters - even amongst all this violence. The whole book is ambivalent, here's what I wrote in the trials:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Ondaatje’s novel Anil’s Ghost is essentially an exploration of the effect of the Sri Lankan civil war on the people of that country, but it explores this through the forensic investigations of its protagonist, Anil Tirissa. Primarily, the investigation concerns the search for an identity of the body dubbed “Sailor” by Anil and her government partner Sarath, but it also chronicles each of the protagonist’s searches for their own identities. Sarath has “evolved into a privacy he had perhaps never emerged from”, he always “tried to lose touch with the world around him” and the fact that Anil is continually unsure of his allegiances reflects his own confusion; he has conflicting loyalties – Anil asserts toward the end of the novel “you like to remain cloudy, don’t you Sarath, even to yourself”. Anil herself had a “lost childhood” and her name is a subplot in the novel: “Anil’s name – the one she’d bought from her brother at the age of thirteen – had another stage to go through before it settled…she was taut and furious within the family…the problem resided in her name.” Gamini, Sarath’s brother, is scared of intimacy; he experiences only “the intimacy of walking across a road with a cup of tea for someone”, he was referred to by his family as “the mouse”. This loss of identity is compared with Leaf’s loss of memory with Alzheimer’s, which in turn becomes synonymous with life: “[Leaf] was starting to lose her memory, fighting for her life.” But by the end of the novel, the characters have come to conclusions about themselves, so it can be said that here, good triumphs. Ananda, lost in his grief for his missing wife for most of novel, finally feels “the sweet touch of the world” to close out the story. Sarath asserts himself dramatically, sacrificing his life so that Anil can escape with her research. In some of the final moments of Anil’s presence in Sri Lanka, she gives a speech which concludes: “‘I think you murdered hundreds of us.’ Hundreds of us. Sarath thought to himself. Fifteen years away and she is finally us.” It is only at Sarath’s death that Gamini realises that he has kept himself apart; he finally recognises who he is. So the search for identity in the novel is successful, so in a way good does triumph over evil.
To Ondaatje, the primary source of evil in Sri Lanka is the government, and what it is able to hide is the truth. This means that the novel concerns itself too with the search for absolute truth, for what truth really is. Palipana says to Anil early in the novel: “there was nothing to believe in with certainty. [Prehistoric kings] didn’t know what truth was. We have never had truth.” She responds simply, ““The truth shall set you free.” I believe that.” This becomes an essential tenet of the novel. “Sarath believed in truth as a principle”, he couldn’t see how it existed in reality in Sri Lanka, so “he would have given his life for the truth if truth were of any use” in the situation he was in. In the end, he does give his life for the truth to get out, for Anil to be able to reveal the true identity of the body ‘Sailor’. In escaping Sri Lanka with his body, with the evidence that “some government forces have possibly murdered innocent people”, Anil escapes with the truth. And after all, “one village can speak for many villages. One victim can speak for many victims”, so a broader victory for truth is represented in this. But this is a much less clear-cut victory for the forces of good – President Katagula and Sarath have both been murdered in the name of truth, and the novel has foreshadowed what might happen after Anil leaves: “American movies, English books – remember how they all end?…the American or the Englishman gets on a plane and leaves. That’s it. The camera leaves with him.” The real crime in the story is that the number of people go on, and this is left unresolved also, so Anil’s Ghost is much more ambivalent than either The Big Sleep or Chinatown [SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT] about the triumph of good over evil, even if there are reassuring aspects to its conclusion.
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cricketscorer
New Member
Yeah, I agree, but when you're studying "The Skin Beneath the Skin" as well, then you don't have much choice in what you write about. Anil's Ghost is quite interesting in terms of studying CF becuase it isn't actually CF.
Candypants
Member
It's on the syllabus because of the way it stretches the boundaries of crime fiction - as everyone has already said - and markers are looking for new ways to test our understanding of genre. So, pick an aspect, and argue it. That's what they want to see.
I wouldn't disregard it as 'crap', rather it's a hard read, or that's what I found. A bit all over the place, a bit rambling, the language was a bit ... not what I'm used to. And of course, my favourite line from the book, "days of battle and fuck". But it's good to talk about and derive thesis' from. In ways, it's very similar to Snow Falling on Cedars.
Ultimately, it's got a crime in it, and therefore, it's crime fiction.
I wouldn't disregard it as 'crap', rather it's a hard read, or that's what I found. A bit all over the place, a bit rambling, the language was a bit ... not what I'm used to. And of course, my favourite line from the book, "days of battle and fuck". But it's good to talk about and derive thesis' from. In ways, it's very similar to Snow Falling on Cedars.
Ultimately, it's got a crime in it, and therefore, it's crime fiction.