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Seth II (A Novel in Verse) by Kevin Martin Synopsis Seth II, attempts to show the identity confusion common to several Anglo-Indians. It is set in Calcutta, Darjeeling and Lucknow and spans India's fifty independent years. It opens with the rape of a young Indo-Nepali girl, by two departing British sailors, on the banks of Calcutta's Hooghly river. It follows her pregnancy, and marriage of convenience to an introverted Anglo Indian boy, Dax; the birth of twin sons, Seth and Job. Job, born genetically defective, is stolen at birth, survives life as a child rickshaw puller, is adopted by another childless Anglo-Indian couple and migrates to England. He discoverers he is gay and enters unknowingly into a relationship with a sailor who raped his mother. The book is Seth's and Job's quest for their sailor father. They think when they find him they will find their identity. The twist in the end might suggest otherwise. |
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1 Extracts from Job's diaries 1971 "Eugene Onegin! There's no Russian Like Pushkin! Read his verse for hours. It lifted me above the crushin' Piedra del sol - forgive me, Paz. I'm liberated; so light-headed. Henceforth, all entries will be threaded Like beads, in rhyme, upon gold strings; Light, sequenced, patterend, coloured things; Delightful bars before a cavern That only I have glimpsed; Within Where harpies wait in watch and grin With frothy lips, as in a tavern Do beer-drinkers, biding time 'Tween jugs. Meanwhile, I fizz.....I climb.... |
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2 .... A slender Jacobean ladder Of hope, my digits crossed (some feat!) Rose, John (and Sue!!) would be much gladder... Ring, 'phone! This Vodka burns a neat White hole into my cerebellum Suspending action. Where the hell am I drifting off too? Diary, Be patient. Pushkin's fiery, Volcanic outflow scalds me senseless. I deviate, avoid the point. Sue secretly filched my last joint Today. I need one now. I'm restless. Auditioning's a strain, you see. Much worse, if it's the BBC. |
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3 Well, there! or, here, anticipating A call, am I. From Ralph Prescott. The name behind 'Six Queens in Waiting'. A tele-serial. Its plot Revolves around - (The door! Now, who knocks? ...Land-bloody-lord! ... I'm back.) - six eunuchs In China, 1420, when Chu Ti, most feared Prince of Yen, Put zzzzzzzing into the Ming empire. His Tung-ch'ang (secret eunuch cops) Helped Chu Ti pull out all the stops Until mass fear flowed like fire In Yangtze blood. My half-slit eyes Will help. Meanwhile, I theorise. |
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4 Eight Months Later I'm hooked. Again. Insane on Cocker. Ash Mallick sang Joe's Woodstock hit Repeatedly today, the Locker Room set his stage. He's quite a wit. In between takes he'd drawl, "Hey, Kiddo, Watch me." Then holding Nan King's dildo, For mike, he'd purse Mick Jagger lips Seductively, gyrate wide hips And belt the blues. I'm sure the crescent On Pakistan's green flag is Ash. I'll stake brocade - my Chinese sash. But lo! I wander from the present... So much to tell, it overflows And voices tempt: "Come, write in prose." |