Reviews with content warning for Racism - Song of Kali

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons

3 reviews

surdiablo's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I have to admit, I found it difficult at first to write this review due to the controversial nature of this book and the conflicted feelings I had after finishing it. I have heard before that the author has made bigoted remarks in the past, but I frankly don't know much it and I generally try to separate art from artist. With that being said, I'm afraid the concerns or criticisms regarding this book being xenophobic are true and I do not say that just because he mentions the caste system or poverty or whatsoever.

I will mention what I liked first. Racism/xenophobia/stereotypes aside, it's a well-written, disturbing, visceral psychological horror novel. You can feel palpable dread throughout the whole story to the point that it felt very suffocating. You can feel the protagonist's despair during crucial times and my heart pretty much sank during a key moment near the end. There were some excellent horror sequences that kept me on edge and also wondering if everything was real or not.

The message about finding hope was fitting and I am glad the story ended on an optimistic note

regardless of how dark it was overall. It's more of an atmospheric/psychological horror however and not your typical ghost story with jumpscares so keep that in mind if you want to check it out.

Now the things I didn't like or the reasons for me to consider it xenophobic, besides the obvious degrading descriptions about 'brown people'. First of all, I found the whole thing taking place in India and the use of Kali as an evil power unnecessary. Unnecessary in the sense that you could just change the location to some countryside, replace Kali with some cult hiding around doing creepy things, and it would still be an excellent horror novel. The author maintains a disturbing atmosphere very well as I mentioned earlier, except it was done by reinforcement of stereotypes and the perversion of a Hindu goddess, the execution of the latter which I found rather distasteful, even as an atheist. I didn't like that there was no resolution regarding the

cultists and their plans

but I can look over it since it wasn't the point, which brings me to the main criticism I have. For a story that ends with message of

finding hope and ignoring Song of Kali, to focus on other songs,to do good things, there's simply no hope for people of Calcutta at all.

From the beginning to end, Calcutta was just bashed as a city of evil with no redemption whatsoever.

So the protagonist wants to think about hope but at the same time, nuke the city? Of course, I understand he might feel that way after what happened there but you see

, there was never any attempt from the author to humanize literally anything in the city from the beginning. Yes, I know that the character's view doesn't necessarily fit the author, but the whole book just felt like a tirade about how the city and people in it sucks throughout the whole read. It felt like he went way beyond what was necessary, especially if it was just to set the atmosphere. Funny enough, regardless of my rant so far, I wasn't really offended by anything in particular, but that doesn't mean it was okay at all so I felt the need to mention this. It's a shame honestly since he seems like a wonderful writer otherwise. If you are not a Hindu and got a thick skin, with a penchant for good psychological horror, you might like this.

Content Warnings

persimmon_lover's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

To start off with, this book is kind of racist in many ways. I don't think any of that is intentional and I think that writing it off due to undertones of racial prejudice in the novel is not a good thing to do, and that the racial insensitivity is not a product of hate whatsoever. The story itself is scary and chilling, but not THAT scary. I get really scared by horror novels and although there are many disturbing and grotesque parts of this story, it didn't profoundly frighten me. Like lots of Dan Simmons' other stuff that I've read, it is literary with good prose style, unexpected twists and turns, and a strong "message" that, while maybe a bit corny, is well said, hopeful, relates to the themes of the novel, and comes together nicely. The book wasn't what I was expecting and I can imagine many people not enjoying it or not finding much of value in it, but that I felt that it was good.

Content Warnings

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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