Carl Muller is someone who has lived most of the life that he writes about - and dreams up the rest of it. He truly deserves the sobriquet of Sri Lanka's 'enfant terrible des lettres'. Though, come to think about it , 'enfant' isn't possibly the best word to describe someone who is his age - he's 62. Here he talks about the critics, his passions and his books. Minus some unprintable anecdotes, libellous slanderings and scandalous episodes from his chequered past.
How do you deal with your many critics?
Look at it this way. You write a book. Who is the critic you know, the qualified critic who can take your book and look at it and write either charitably or uncharitably about it ? Who has come through a school of criticism ? Who has got a diploma in literary criticism, right? When an author writes a book, invariably, the author sends a copy to the newspaper, who calls a sub-editor or reporter and says, " Here, I've got this book. Review it," and bang comes a review. Now there are all kinds of reviewers . There's one I know who is a staunch Buddhist and he can write about the subject as an authority . But if you give him "The Jam fruit Tree", he's going to damn it. For one thing, he couldn't relate to it. He doesn't know anything about it. He may not even know that side of life. He'll be shocked by it. He might even bang it on the editor's table and say, "This is a dirty book, I'm not going to write anything about it." Another thing, I don't see why they should try to destroy the younger writers.
If the younger writers see the older writers getting hammered like that they are scared to publish. They think the same fate awaits them. So critics have got to have a sense of reason in what they do. OK, you don't like me, come to my house and insult me. Send me a letterbomb. But don't take your anger out on what I write. I feel the anger comes out against me, not what I write.
What you're saying is that the best criticism comes from a layman?
The best criticism is the type of letters that come from the readers. They can say what they like. Now, I've had so many people who read 'The Jam Fruit Tree' They sent their letters through the editor. There were letters that damned me, that cursed me. One man even said I'm not even a Burgher - "with that name he must be some German".
That's OK. What I raised in my books was a bit of a hornet's nest which is why the newspapers got rather worried about what they should say about me and what they shouldn't. People talk about it, people shun me at parties. Oh that is Carl Muller - don't go and talk to him - you don't know what he'll say. I am what my books are. Now that can be a dangerous thing for an author, because people judge you by what you write. They don't see the fiction in it or the faction. They see you in it. Now that can be a problem, but I don't think Harold Robbins had that problem, neither did Hanif Kureshi - I just finished reading his "Black Album" - fantastic.
Now there's "A Nice Burgher Girl" by Jean Arasanayagam - would you agree that yours was an accurate portrayal of Burgher life, or was it only one specific part of Burgher life ?
I would say that by and large, what I wrote was a generally accurate idea of Burgher life - the middle class which is where most of the Burghers belong. You see there were very few who got into the upper crust. They got in by way of going to England and studying and becoming professionals. In the railway, there were the Burghers who just drove their locomotives up and down , drank, played cards, came home......went to bed- that's all they were worried about. When land was 25 Rupees a perch in Colombo, my father who was an engine driver never bought one perch of land, but he wanted a bottle of arrack every day on his engine. You see, so that realisation came only to a few who actually thought about a future in this country. They went up to a very high level of living.
There were Justices, Chief Justices, the Burghers have been in the top rung. Magistrates, famous Veterinary surgeons, doctors. My Uncle was a Harley Street specialist and a plastic surgeon.
Do you get positive feedback from Burghers ?
Yes I have, especially from Australia. I have someone who wrote to me today who said please sign all your books and send them to me, they will be kept as treasured possessions not only for my children, but also my grandchildren. There are people who love it and these are the hard working Australians , young boys and girls who have to start by carrying crates of apples and learn how to get on in that country the hard way - they don't forget . The others who went with black market money and got their funds into Australia and settled down the easy way - they forget. But they still write to their relatives and say send me some katta sambol , send me some ambul thiyal - they can't do without that.
They pose - OK you got money, you got wall to wall carpeting - but why don't you think about what you were, where you came from. If you came from a small suburban house in Dematagoda, why don't you say that instead of saying that you had dinner every night at the Intercontinental - this is what some of them say. And now when they come , they bring things for the poor beggars they left behind. Second hand clothes, the watches, the rubbish they pick up there, the t-shirts , visit Australia 1996 t-shirts,calenders on cloth, this is what they give.
But they don't give respect ?
They don't give respect . They think that they have done their duty. Oh we have helped that poor family who couldn't come to Australia, must be their blood . But as for me there is only thing which can be a redeeming feature. I have never left this place This is my home, this is where I will die. I have gone abroad and worked, but I did that so that my family could have a future . These roots are very strong - that is what some people do not understand. Oh , another Burgher bugger, drifting around, writing some muck , earning some money and living.
What's coming out next ?
Now there's another Von Bloss book coming out in October which takes the Von Blosses into the navy and it's got the whole history of the Pacific War, and it's quite a big book - say about 400 pages . They don't want me to forsake the Von Blosses. They say, now the readership want up because of this family. Keep the family going.
I can keep it going for a long, long time, because I'm writing from memory, I'm writing from my own experience. And I have friends who write to me and remind me, "Hey do you remember the day you hit that bottle man ? " And then I thought about it and said "Yes, that's what my father made me do. He was angry that I was a bit of a 'sothiya'. He was looking out of the window, shaving and said, "Here there's a bottle man going on the road, I don't like his face, son, go and hit him."
Now this bottle man was a huge man and I was a little guy of about fifteen, and I went and pulled his sarong down and when his bottle basket fell, I hit him, and my father applauded. Crazy, but that was the way my father was. Let me show you some work in progress - one is science fiction. It's called 'Exodus 2300' , about when the world ends and people have to migrate to another planet. That's finished. I've started a book about my seven years in the Middle East - Ashley Halpe was horrified - you're a Muslim you may be horrified too - but I was actually going to call it "Dollar-hu-Akbar" .
Then you'll have two ethnic groups after you …..and I think the Muslims can muster up better firepower.
(Bursts out laughing) Maybe , yes, maybe. But I am calling it 'The Jawbone of West Asia' , seven years of my life as a journalist. I went into Iran, at the time when the Shah was doing a bunk, I was at the Pahlavi prison when they were taking out all the guys who were put their by SAVAK. Fantastic stories. I just wrote to Andrew Kidd who is the editor of Penguin UK and he said send me the book. England loves books on the Middle East, so maybe I can have my first Penguin UK book by1999.
Then I have a sequel to "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Cemetery" and they are titling it "Carl Muller Still on the Way to the Cemetery" - I hope I don't die before that. Then "The Jawbone of West Asia" , and then a science fiction book 'Exodus 2300'. And then I have a book which is going to shock everyone. The title is "Nice Old Uncle Eustace". I'm talking about a sex talker, a man who is a child abuser and a molester. I have been talking to people who have these hang ups - what makes them do it ? For the last few days in Kandy I have been following a man who while he walks on the road, swings his hand out to touch a little girl. He's got something really wrong with him. I had another friend of mine, who travelled with me to Colombo by bus one day.
He was sitting by the window and he was counting one, two…….by the time we reached Gampaha he had reached two hundred and forty eight.
I said what the hell are you doing ? You know what he told me ? I have been counting all the schoolgirls on the road.
This is a very dark side of human nature that I want to bring out. I want to make Uncle Eustace the nice old uncle whom everybody trusts and who ravages anything he gets hold of. This is a book I have to write. I am making this a very deep psychological study of human nature. I was abused as a child. I was abused by my own uncle when I was just ten years old. I did not know …….this old man just got up from his bed and came over to my bed at night. What makes a man a child molester or an abuser ? What makes a man go ga ga when he sees a young girl of seven or eight years ? There is something wrong here.
Homeosexuality is something which has been known of in this country for generations. Why the prudery about it ? Why the screen ? It is by screening this for donkeys years that it has gone on rampantly without anybody checking it . It is only now that writers can write about it, and make it public, so people can become aware of the dangers their own sons and daughters face. Then is this wrong , the fact that I'm writing about it ?
Are we talking about the dangers caused by homesexuality or child abuse?
Homeosexuality is a part of it . There are the grown up men who can only have homesexual relations with little boys. Anybody their age does not appeal to them.
But homeosexual sex between consenting adults is OK ?
As long as it's that that's their business I don't see why not. After all , you have the yin and the yang , and if you want to have the yang and the yang , or the yin and the yin , let them do it. I know when I was in Thomas Cooks, I knew a couple of German lesbians having a good time in Polonnaruwa Resthouse. The housekeeper broke his leg - he put a ladder up to see what was going on in the room and he fell !! In 'A Funny Thing', I have one story of a German tourist who was so enamoured of an old coconut plucker who was old enough to be his father ……. So what causes these hang ups - and what the hell is wrong with good , honest sex ?
It's how we all got here…..
This is the point. What's the harm in good honest sex ?People say, Oh god you're awful. You say the most godawful things. I enjoy saying it because none of you have the spunk or the guts to say it. So I say it. You don't like me , don't invite me for your parties. So that's what it is. I am still trying to understand myself. My father says he could never understand me. None of the people I know seem to understand me. What you don't understand you normally either deride or fight with it, you put it down. So I got lots of people trying to put me down, squash me and I'm a fighter, I don't give in.
Jith Peries wanted me to ask you if you'd consider writing a play…….
Not yet. But I've had an inquiry from a Bengali film producer who wanted to turn the trilogy into a film, I've referred him to Penguin - they've got the copyrights.
When are you going to write a history of Kandy?
That had to follow Colombo. In fact I've decided to call it "Proud Heart". It is the heart of the country, it also has its own sense of pride as the last kingdom of the country. In fact in my mind I have already decided how to start the book with the huge Buddha statue up on Bairavakanda and with it comes the legend of Bavandakanda - the girl sacrificed to the demon etc. Kandy is a must - I've got to do it. Which is why I've already assembled the reading I want. Sketch of the constitution of the Kandyan Kingdom, Geoffrey Powell's 'Kandyan Wars'. I've taken in all the books I want, all the background that I want so that I don't make mistakes - I can't afford to make mistakes when I'm dealing with my country. Then I've got 'Children of the Lion' in July , then 'City of the Lion', a 1400 page sequel , right up to the fall of Anuradhapura.It is a practical down to earth story of the Sinhala legend . It has a foreword by the Ven. Sorata Thero, high priest of the Elagolla Vihara , Kandy and an introduction by Dr. Nissanka Wijeyratne, ex-lay custodian Dalada Maligawa - sound backing don't you think ?
If you had a dinner party at the end of the world - what five people from any era in history would you invite ?
In fact I had made out a list. I'd like to have Apuleius - the author of "The golden ass". I would also like to have Giovanni Giacoma Casanova. I think Cleopatra would be a very nice person to have at this party - And I like to have princess Diana just for the fun of it and the Marquis de Pompadour, because he had a very Ceylonese approach to everything he did especially when it came to aphrodisiacs. He recommended coriander, curry leaves, all the things we have growing here.
You seem like the kind of person who enjoys being a pain?
Yes, I love it. So, what else is there? I have a damn good time, I lead a very happy life, I make my money the way I feel like it, I edit a business newspaper for the chamber of commerce in Kandy, it's called the Business Voice.
I also edit children's newspaper - the only English children's paper that comes out of Kandy, it's called the Beacon.
The Business voice is done by the Chamber of Commerce. From July, 2000 copies of it are going on Airlanka's flights all over the world. It's one of the best edited business newspapers of this country, and I do it all alone.
You see those pages, that's paste up, I'm doing it now on this machine. That is the June issue of Business Voice, I write every word myself. I have not been a very healthy person - I ingested some sulphur in my lungs and that still causes problems. But I am too old to get a job - I think I must be the only person that you know of that lives full time by writing. I am writing all the time , hoping to do something with these books. I want to ensure that my family is OK , the day that I kick the bucket. I'm 62, I have four kids, two married, they both live with me. One boy is employed in a tourist industry , the other is still studying. So I got a long way to go. I can't afford to look to my convenience , so this writing has become a compulsive thing now. I have to go on. I think my main thing is to do what I can and get out, not with a whimper but a hell of a bang.
Continue to Mirror Magazine page 4 - * The White Witch comes to the forest, * History of the Galle Fort, * Who are the "Ruminants"?, * Let's have a complete education
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