Badassness

While other novels, such as My Life In The Bush of Ghosts play with form and rebel against style taught through colonial education, none do so as bluntly as All About H Hatterr.


In the novel the narrator states, "I write rigmarole English, staining your goodly godly tongue, maybe: but, friend, I forsook my Form, Schol and Head, while you stuck to yours, learning reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic" (pg 37).
In this line, H. Hatterr blatantly addresses the reader to mock the pretentious attention to grammar and style within the English language, and pretty much says "screw that, I'm writing how I want". No other book makes such a claim nor actually addresses the reader as part of the offending culture (in this case, "you"). By including us in this oppressive education system, it seems as if H. Hatterr is against us as readers even, and then ironically turns around to call as "friend". Wether or not we trust that we are indeed his "friends", this jump illustrates his point perfectly. He is not concerned with the standard images, transition, or style of English, but intends to make it his own and craft it into his needs.

I think this is an interesting concept- a kind of hybrid language. Ngugi discusses authors who choose to write in their native language and lose some credibility and fame, versus those who write in English and lose meaning. Well, here Desani is achieving both. He is complying to the need of writing in English but is refusing to utilize Colonial English. He wants to make it his own language and personalize it.

I think its cool how blunt he is about it all, and open to mocking us and our rules of language. I think it makes the book more controversial, and admittedly funny.