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Song of Kali by Dan Simmons

1 review

mahtzahgay's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Here's the thing about Song of Kali -- it's not good.

Dan Simmons, a Coloniser from a colonial country, writes about Calcutta, in India, a colonised country which was - and continues to be - exploited by colonial countries. And his racial prejudice jumps out immediately, from the very first page.

The book opens with what is assumed to be our narrator, reflecting on his thoughts on Calcutta post-ending. Here, he says;

Some places are too evil to be allowed to exist. Some cities are too wicked to be suffered. Calcutta is such a place. [...]Calcutta should be expunged. Before Calcutta I took part in marches against nuclear weapons. Now I dream of nuclear mushroom clouds rising above a city.

Even if one is to ignore that lovely monologue, every chapter within Song of Kali opens up with more quotes that disparage Calcutta's existence, remarking upon its filth and sin, how its streets should be abolished. Simmons is a white man, and a white man whose opinion of a city that has been exploited and violated by the West seems to echo every white supremacist notion of "lesser countries", as if the United States is any better.

At one point within the book, it looks as if Simmons is going to execute some self-awareness, when a minor character, Michael Leonard Chatterjee, approaches our protagonist Robert with a scathing assessment of his racist views on Calcutta by remarking that Calcutta's issues are not unique, and often shared with England and the U.S., both historically and currently. This seemed as though Simmons was rightly critiquing the American view on "underdeveloped" (read: over-exploited) countries in the East, but alas, this resounding moment of reflection is cut short when Amrita, Robert's wife and Indian-born British immigrant, pipes up, disagreeing with Chatterjee and insisting that India's racism and colourism are somehow uniquely rancid.

This is not the only moment of blatant racism within the book. Early into our arrival into Calcutta, we are introduced to Krishna, an eccentric caricature who despite having studied abroad in the U.S. studying literature, speaks in broken English. This is, of course, ignoring that English is the official language taught in India, thanks to colonialism. Simmons further insults Krishna by mocking the thesis rejected by an American professor, its topic regarding the exploitation of Eastern religion, themes, and ideas by American writers. Despite Krishna's perfectly valid point, Simmons frames this as laughable.

Further, the entire "horror" aspect of the book relies on xenophobic ideas around Hinduism and its worshippers. Here, a cult of Kali worshippers is depicted as rapists, murderers, and necromancers who conduct human sacrifice to Kali - despite no Hindu sect in India ever existing. The closest one could get to Simmons' fantasy racist cult, is the Aghori Sadhus, a Hindu sect that embraces and lives amongst death and consumes the flesh of the dead in order to purify their spirit and help them along to the afterlife. This sect, however, practices no murder, no rape, no bloodshed -- the dead they find are ones that have been discarded into the environment and left to rot in the open. This is, of course, very different to Simmons' depiction of Hindu worshippers, and plays into the Western Coloniser's ideas of barbaric non-white religion.

This is all, unfortunately, unsurprising once you dig a little further into Simmons' opinions and latest writing. In Flashback, where his cynical racist views imagines a post-Obama future as a desolate and destroyed wasteland, where the American populace has been turned into drug addicts, where Chinese and Muslim terrorists are a threat to U.S. soil. His aggressive rant targeted at Greta Thunberg only further exposes his alt-right and conservative views. What more can we expect from a Coloniser? I am surprised his malice did not penetrate further into Song of Kali.

In the end, all I can conclude with is that Song of Kali is not only a shockingly racist take on Calcutta and India as a whole, it offers very little to the horror genre that hasn't already been done much better by Colonised authors. Save the read of this book - pick up some Nuzo Onoh or Graham Jones instead.
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