Archipelago Magazine Summer 2009

Alfred Birney's River Lossie, contemporary version of an Indian myth

This article was previously published in Archipelago magazine , summer 2009.

River Lossie is the comeback of the writer Alfred Birney stage. The built in thirty chapters novella is a story of an Indian man on his roots trip to Scotland. During a walk along the Lossie crossed the path of the protagonist that of an unknown woman. Supported by the song The Ferryman's Daughter of the Scottish folk singer Donovan Leitch, move main character, woman and river closer together. A popular legend shows something to do with it. This Birney has a contemporary variation on the Indian myths and sagas introduced without lapsing into obvious parallels with Indonesia. In conversation with the author I explore the many dimensions of this page turner.

Serials
Alfred Birney (1951) picks up a stack of yellowed issues of the Hague Courant there, when I ask him the origin of the River Lossie. As a newspaper columnist that he heard that the HC would get lost in the Algemeen Dagblad. Birney: "After 130 years the newspaper would be lost. Unbelievable I thought. And I would not go. My columns were too difficult, too Indian, not enough RTL4. I decided then that I wanted to close my career as a columnist as feuilletonnist. Newspapers have grown by serials, also in the Dutch East Indies. Write something in the HC was partly gambling, I did not know exactly when the newspaper would stop. I got the time to get it right off, but I've finally given a serial. "The series is finally the first version of the River Lossie become.

Donovan
In the River Lossie is an Indo looking for his Scottish roots. This is a particular choice. Most go to Indonesia today. Alfred: "I'm a bit strange Indo. Before I went to my Indonesian roots search, I became absorbed in my Scottish side. And I was always football for Scotland. In the 60s I learned folk know. I loved it. Most Eurasians listened to at that time Santana and fusion, I listened to folk. That's how I came in contact with Donovan and The Ferryman's Daughter. That was never released on a legal LP, I found him alone on a bootleg. That piece is the birthplace of the River Lossie. It is a tribute to Donovan. He plays so tight dude, that guy. Later I discovered recently that he was Scottish. "Birney put the LP for me. Cracking the Scottish voice I hear us sing in a four-four time, which I recognize the story of the novel: the river as a symbol for eternal life.

Birnie
I leaf through the old newspapers on the table. In the 18 episodes I recognize the framework of the novel on the table, with a different end of the current slot and a protagonist in the he-form instead of me. Amazingly not. River Lossie has quite a few metamorphoses undergone: it has ten versions, is written in four years, checked by three markers and edited by two editors. "Only in the last version I decided to use real name Birnie. In the nine previous versions I mentioned that area always B. "Alfred trust me. "I have increasingly felt that I myself need to hide behind a fictional character. The hero, my alter ego, is now guitarist in my latest novel, The Lost song he was a pianist. I had many reasons to hide, but I've no need for a fictional character. That's a liberation. "

Kaki Tiga soy sauce (Source: www.aziatische-ingredienten.nl)

Three
Compared to earlier novels is that the father figure in this novel a much smaller role. "Yes," admits the author, "that is true. The father disappears. "On the main post, anyway men play no significant role in the novella. The only characters who are named are three women: Mrs.. MacMillan, the landlady, Margaret Bishop, the Scottish who cooks for him and Hazel, the protagonist woman who unexpectedly gets to know the river. When I ask him why men and three women play no role well, he looks at me in surprise. "Since I was not aware, but it can not be coincidence. The men play the role of principal, the women make the story. I have opted for three, three is the number of legs in the arms of the Birnie clan, three brothers play a role in the life of the protagonist in The Ferryman's Daughter, three is typical of the kaki tiga bottle and this novella is the first of a trilogy. Why I wanted 30 chapters, it had to end in three. "

Choices
The protagonist is a descendant of a Scot who ever chose to fight for the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies. Why his father for that choice made, the main character to know, I think. Birney cradling his head thoughtfully. "That's possible, I leave to the reader, I love that open. I like to write about the mysteries of life, I'm not a writer who tells how it is. The protagonist discovers that for him the important archives in The Hague, where he comes from. Actually, he wonders what he is doing in Scotland. He recognizes nothing, feels nothing special if he is on Birnie Road or at the Birnie Kirk, he only has doubts about his identity. There is nowhere so often asked me where I come in as my own country. People can assume any identity on the Internet today that they want, but in fact you can only live for 10 to 15% control. Everyone has a childhood love where they are not married. Why is that? Because you know that until later that the love of your life. "That thought reminds one of the most striking passages from the River Lossie," I'm always late. Or too early. Never on time. And if I'm ever on time, I realize that until years later. "

River Lossie - Alfred Birney (In Knipscheer 2009)

Other people's story
The biggest mystery in the book is the way the three women received the narrator. "Can you not remember ever having been here before?" Hazel asks him if she and Lossie along the river walk and Margaret seems to know more: "A man never know why he is somewhere." Mrs.. MacMillan even says "You are always in someone else's story, which applies to everyone. Only know that most people do not. " Will this novel on reincarnation? "I play in this novella is a certain idea of ​​reincarnation yes. I have long opposed it, I thought it was nonsense. You must redeem your karma and if you've done that, you can return to the earth and that is a cycle. This is rather childish and silly. Still, that for centuries has been told. I am going to deal with heredity in the time that DNA was in vogue. In Western philosophy, the human heart. According to the Oriental's all connected, people are connected with everything else. By combining these views, I have come to believe that I as a man already had a reminder before I was born. "

River Lossie. Alfred Birney . In publishing the Knipscheer (2009). Hardcover with dust jacket (16,50 euro), 104 pages.

Related posts

• March 23, 2010 - Totokkinderen in the Netherlands
• February 10, 2009 - bruised egos and cold tea
• October 10, 2008 - Two minutes
• July 18, 2008 - Puberteske expectations Indonesia

Tags: Alfred Birney , Archipelago magazine , Donovan , River Lossie , Scotland

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