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Space Gulliver: Chronicles of an Alien
Boldly playful, ingenious, associative and mercurial, Sampurna Chattarji's new poems careen through varied terrain, geographic and linguistic, in a dizzy journey of defamiliarization, as the alien protagonist, Space Gulliver, extends and challenges habitual ideas of what constitutes the mundane. In the process, she proceeds to recover for herself the sense of 'first-time-ness', the art of being 'vulnerable to every body that rests against mine, vulnerable to the word "eagle", the idea of the scar that the knife has left around the heart'. She also recovers the art of living on the edge - 'a good place to sit when you wish/ to regard the world you had insanely loved/ and now feel only a puzzled affection for'. Here is a book that blends intellectual enquiry, a taste for whimsy and a love of language into challenging and audacious poetry. -- Arundhathi Subramaniam
128 pages, Paperback
Published January 25, 2020
About the author
Sampurna Chattarji
29 books11 followersAlthough born in Ethiopia Sampurna Chattarji grew up in Darjeeling, India and graduated in English Literature from New Delhi. She worked in advertising for 7 years before becoming a full time writer in 1999.
She is a poet, novelist and translator. Her nine published books include three poetry collections— Absent Muses, The Fried Frog and Sight May Strike You Blind; and two novels— Rupture and Land of the Well. Her translation of Abol Tabol: The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray is now a Puffin Classic titled Wordygurdyboom! Her poetry has been translated into German, Swiss-German, Irish, Scots, Welsh, French, Tamil, Manipuri and Bambaiyya; and her children’s fiction into Welsh and Icelandic.
Sampurna is the editor of Sweeping the Front Yard, an anthology of women’s writing in English, Malayalam, Telugu and Urdu. She was the 2012 Charles Wallace writer-in-residence at the University of Kent, Canterbury.
More about her writing can be found at sampurnachattarji.wordpress.com.
She is a poet, novelist and translator. Her nine published books include three poetry collections— Absent Muses, The Fried Frog and Sight May Strike You Blind; and two novels— Rupture and Land of the Well. Her translation of Abol Tabol: The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray is now a Puffin Classic titled Wordygurdyboom! Her poetry has been translated into German, Swiss-German, Irish, Scots, Welsh, French, Tamil, Manipuri and Bambaiyya; and her children’s fiction into Welsh and Icelandic.
Sampurna is the editor of Sweeping the Front Yard, an anthology of women’s writing in English, Malayalam, Telugu and Urdu. She was the 2012 Charles Wallace writer-in-residence at the University of Kent, Canterbury.
More about her writing can be found at sampurnachattarji.wordpress.com.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 19, 2021
"Thank you, she said, for the trance, elation.
For the click click click of words falling into place.
For the clack clack clack of the knitting loom.
Breath is a silver fog. Birds build palaces.
Cross the lake. Join the jungle.
I see it!
Is that not what you said?
Let me try again. There was a city I left behind.
It drowned in rain.
Insect girls lived in jars, buildings walked on stilts.
The name had a bomb in it, had a mum in it.
Had a bay in it, had a bye in it...
Does that ring a bell? No?
Fragments of a word.
Brob. Ding. Nag.
I beg your pardon? How many languages do I speak?
Two, she said, pointing to her eyes
and her heart. Just two. And you?"
// Space Gulliver VI
It isn't wrong to categorize this collection of poetry as sci-fi, in a loose sense of the genre. The book is conceived as a continuous running sequence rather than discrete poems. There are no titles but page breaks are frequent & Chatterji uses three different styles as far as I could discern: sparse minimalism, rollicking free verse, and fluid prose poetry. The influence of Jonathan Swift is obvious from the name itself but the verses use literary references ranging from Thomas Pynchon to CS Lewis to Roald Dahl. It's a startling human inquiry, using language in fascinating ways to look at who or what qualifies as an alien, home & the search for a place to belong. It steadily develops, slowly building up its pieces to render a surreal image of our world. Unfortunately, I just couldn't connect to it in any capacity, dragged to the finish.
For the click click click of words falling into place.
For the clack clack clack of the knitting loom.
Breath is a silver fog. Birds build palaces.
Cross the lake. Join the jungle.
I see it!
Is that not what you said?
Let me try again. There was a city I left behind.
It drowned in rain.
Insect girls lived in jars, buildings walked on stilts.
The name had a bomb in it, had a mum in it.
Had a bay in it, had a bye in it...
Does that ring a bell? No?
Fragments of a word.
Brob. Ding. Nag.
I beg your pardon? How many languages do I speak?
Two, she said, pointing to her eyes
and her heart. Just two. And you?"
// Space Gulliver VI
It isn't wrong to categorize this collection of poetry as sci-fi, in a loose sense of the genre. The book is conceived as a continuous running sequence rather than discrete poems. There are no titles but page breaks are frequent & Chatterji uses three different styles as far as I could discern: sparse minimalism, rollicking free verse, and fluid prose poetry. The influence of Jonathan Swift is obvious from the name itself but the verses use literary references ranging from Thomas Pynchon to CS Lewis to Roald Dahl. It's a startling human inquiry, using language in fascinating ways to look at who or what qualifies as an alien, home & the search for a place to belong. It steadily develops, slowly building up its pieces to render a surreal image of our world. Unfortunately, I just couldn't connect to it in any capacity, dragged to the finish.
January 13, 2022
Knowing this was written on Sampurna Chattarji's Charles Wallace Trust fellowship at University of Kent gives this added context a whole layer of meaning.
It reminds me of shared experiences of blankets, beer, boots and bluebells.
In the poems, while Space Gulliver is constantly moving, time is apportioned to breathe in , observe and capture huge moments of significance.
The presence of seabirds and ladybirds, of grasses and dalmations, the weather and sky are all captured in a swirling universe yet noted with clarity in a precise local and close proximity that we can see and smell.
The form if the book as a whole is playful, variable and surprising with some poems placed after the acknowledgments yet a clear narrative of chronology emerges in the book. The journey is charged with the imprint of the places Space Gulliver travels through and some significant objects make the journey possible- the utility of furniture and umbrella, the necessity yet affection for well-worn boots and the acknowledgement noted for pen, notebook, screen. People, named and anonymous, wield their protection and friendship, strangers and friends are invoked to highlight the experiences and deepen the journey's meaning. The Canterbury Cathedral is a recurring architectural presence which orientates most of that city's exploration, seen from afar and above , yet always visible around every corner on the ground, in glimpses, as bricks or spire, in heard by bells. A strong and sure collection, full of warmth and acceptance. The alien feels at home. Check out this great conversation about it.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5nyY...
It reminds me of shared experiences of blankets, beer, boots and bluebells.
In the poems, while Space Gulliver is constantly moving, time is apportioned to breathe in , observe and capture huge moments of significance.
The presence of seabirds and ladybirds, of grasses and dalmations, the weather and sky are all captured in a swirling universe yet noted with clarity in a precise local and close proximity that we can see and smell.
The form if the book as a whole is playful, variable and surprising with some poems placed after the acknowledgments yet a clear narrative of chronology emerges in the book. The journey is charged with the imprint of the places Space Gulliver travels through and some significant objects make the journey possible- the utility of furniture and umbrella, the necessity yet affection for well-worn boots and the acknowledgement noted for pen, notebook, screen. People, named and anonymous, wield their protection and friendship, strangers and friends are invoked to highlight the experiences and deepen the journey's meaning. The Canterbury Cathedral is a recurring architectural presence which orientates most of that city's exploration, seen from afar and above , yet always visible around every corner on the ground, in glimpses, as bricks or spire, in heard by bells. A strong and sure collection, full of warmth and acceptance. The alien feels at home. Check out this great conversation about it.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5nyY...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews