Oberon And Titania In Chiang Mai ?

[orang37]

Oberon : "I do but beg a little changeling boy ... To be my henchman."

Titania : " ... I will not part with him."

What follows is "fiction" although the tale was "induced" in my human's psyche by a strange conversation with an older Farang in a Chiang Mai coffee shop. It appears my human form seems to "broadcast" to certain emotionally troubled persons an invitation to sidle up to him, and unload their "nests of misery" into my ear. I'm not complaining, though; often the stories are compelling.

Let me re-iterate : this is not autobiographical, although in the story I "give" the story-Farang cancer whereas the "real" Farang had some other kind of health conditiion I won't name (and I've had cancer). Like the "real" farang, and like the one in the story, I have no children, and I do sometimes regret that, but I am very clear I do not wish to have a child, but would rather marry someone as "childlike" as I am [referrals accepted gladly, please send photo if you do not smoke, drink, or do drugs]

I have, of course, altered the story to disguise any hint of the identity of the person; I have moved it to a kind of mythic time floating in nowhere and nowhen (that's what story-tellers do, sometimes, to distract the mind from being "reasonable," and try to "slip" the "magic in). I "couldn't help" making the story-Farang want Lek to have her baby in Phuket simply because Jung said : "Like the womb of the mother, boundless water is an organic part of the Primordial child."

I am personally fascinated by "Midsummer Night's Dream," (and I yearn to play the part of "Bottom") as I am fascinated by its resonance with Theseus, the Minotaur, the Labyrinth, the story of Pasiphae; and remain fascinated to watch how the play (and its presumed mythic referents) fascinate other people in literature and psychology from Jung and Kerenyi to modern feminist critics (some of whom interpret the struggle in the play between Oberon and Titania over the "changeling" child as being a symbolic justification of the social reality of male subjugation of women). For a fascinating visual use of the theme of Oberon, Titania, and Changeling : look at the 1862 cartoon for Punch by artist John Teniel :

http://arthist.cla.umn.edu/aict/Tennielweb/punch/620405.html

But enough gecko-tail-flapping ... on to the tale :

The Low Season Man's Bargain

~

copyright 2009, assigned by proxy to Orang37, all rights reserved

~

Khun Lek : a young Thai woman from Issarn working in a bar-beer, mid-twenties, farm-family background

Mr. Farang : sixtyish, serious looking, perhaps a bit restrained in manner

Noi : friend of Khun Lek

Alex : young boyfriend of Khun Noi

Where : the kind of nowhere that has a small table outdoors in a garden restaurant near a group of bar-beers, the usual cacophony of no-musics playing in the no-background

When : the kind of nowhen of an early evening in a no-month like, say, July

~

Lek's words are typeset flush left and set in Bold :

Mr. Farang's words are indented.

When Noi and Alex appear briefly, at the end, their words are indented, and are identified by speaker's name.

~

But I no love you

You don't have to love me, I just want you to have my Baby.

Why you want Bay-bee ?

Because I never had a Baby, and I want to take care of a Baby, and see the Baby grow up.

Why you never have Bay-bee ?

I don't know ... maybe I was too busy ... maybe I only think about myself too much ...

You think too much, I sure. You want Bay-bee must to marry Lek.

No, I don't want to marry you.

Why you not want marry ?

Because I only want a Baby, and I don't want a wife.

What you think Mama, Papa me think say I make Bay-bee for man want Bay-bee not want wife ?"

I don't think you should tell your mother and father.

How I not tell ? You crazy ? Mama me look me ... she know ! Papa know !

I will pay for you to live in Phuket ... I want this baby to hear the sound of the waves while he's growing in your belly ... I don't know why ... I always felt maybe if my mother had been by the seashore when she was full of me ... things might have ... turned out differently ... well, anyway ... you'll go to beauty school while you are pregnant : you send money every month to Mama and Papa in Udon Thani, 5000 baht : I pay for your apartment, for doctors, for Baby born in the hospital, everything. You just tell Mama and Papa you have a good job in Phuket now, and can't come home for Songkraan this year because you have to work.

I give you Bay-bee ... you give me how much ?

I told you, Lek, when you come home with the Baby you can sign some papers, and then I'll take the Baby and I'll give you one-hundred thousand baht in cash. Then you can go home if you want to, start your own little beauty shop like you said you wanted to.

How I sure you have money ?

My lawyer will have me sign a document for you proving that money is waiting for you the week after the Baby is born and delivered to me.

Thai people no like lawyer say : 'dee qua gin kee maa bai teo tinai khwam.'

What's that mean Lek ... I know 'tinai khwam' means lawyer ... but ...

Mean better eat dog shit than go see lawyer.

Oh.

You take Bay-bee to America ?

Maybe, sometimes.

I see Bay-bee ?

No, Lek, I told you before : once you give the Baby to me you and I will never see each other, and you will not see the Baby.

What happen Bay-bee big and ask you who Mama ?

When the Baby is twenty-one years old I will tell him or her about you.

Then I very old and Bay-bee never know I.

Yes, maybe.

You crazy.

Maybe.

No, I know ... you crazy, sure. What happen Bay-bee cry ?

I will take care of the Baby just like a mother.

No can ! Man cannot, Mama do this.

Lek, I promise you I will take the best care of this Baby that any Baby has ever had. Remember I have money, I don't have to work. I can stay home with this Baby.

Hah ! You get bore. Bay-bee cry too much you very bore, you go crazy more, maybe you kill ... Bay-bee cry too much.

Lek, now you are talking kind of crazy. I want to love this Baby.

If you love Baby, why you not want Bay-bee have Mama ?

I will be the Mama and Papa for this Baby, Lek.

I afraid make love you no condom, maybe you die AID, maybe I die.

I understand, Lek, remember that I will have a blood test to show you I don't have AIDS before the doctor puts my sperm in you.

What ... Doctor do what ?

That's right Lek, the Doctor will put my sperm in you.

You no make love to Lek ?

No, Lek, remember that I am old; my sperm is not strong, so the Doctor can look in his microscope, get the strongest sperm, and then put it right on the egg inside you, so you can make a Baby quickly.

Doctor ... go in there ... put you on egg me ... you think I chicken ! You crazy !

No, Lek, they do this in America all the time; it's called 'artificial insemination.'

Doctor hurt Lek, I scare.

Lek, the Doctor will give you some good medicine to help you relax : you'll feel no pain.

Boom-boom make Bay-bee better.

Lek, you know I can't make love to you because of my Cancer.

I know, tee rak.

Have I been good to you, Lek ?

Chai, Kaa, you very good to Lek.

Have I ever lied to you , Lek ?

No, Kaa, you good heart. But maybe you die Cancer : then Bay-bee what ?

That's a good question, if anything should happen to me, I have arranged for the Baby to be raised in America by my younger brother and his wife who would like another child and can't have one.

Maybe he ... she ... die too because your family Cancer.

No, Lek, my younger brother and his wife never have been sick like me.

But maybe Cancer you make Bay-bee wrong. Have wrong face, ugly face. Bad eye, no ear !

I asked my doctor about that : he believes I can make a healthy Baby, even with Cancer.

You sure ?

Nobody can be 100 per-cent sure, Lek, but I am very sure.

You pay nung saen baht for Baby, you send Mama, Papa bad paan baht every month, you pay apartment I. How I eat ?

I will give you 5000 baht a month for food, your laundry, your school supplies for beauty school. Of course I will pay for beauty school too. You can finish beauty school in six months, then the last three months you are pregnant you can take it easy, enjoy life.

Hah ! You think lady enjoy when she walk around with big Bay-bee inside ?

Well, I don't know, Lek; I just meant you won't have to work the last three months before the Baby is born.

And then I home : man see body I have Bay-bee ... ask me where Bay-bee ? Who father ? What I say ?

I don't know what you'll say, Lek; maybe something like 'My Baby died, and his father went away.'

Lek not gohok !

I know, Lek, that's one reason I wanted you to have this Baby ... because I think you do have a good, honest heart.

You know I ... sure ?

A little bit, Lek. Look, I know your parents are hard-working farmers, I know why you're here in, working at this bar. I know you want to help your family.

Maybe you know. Maybe you not know ...

Thanks, Lek; I know I must be hard for you to understand. My being sick, my wanting a Baby. I know it seems kind of crazy.

Yes, You very crazy !

Yeah. You want to think about this ... we can talk again on Monday ?

You pay bar ? I go home you ?

No, Lek, you know I don't do that, but I am going to give you 1000 baht, just to

help you out a little bit.

Khop Khun Kaa.

Good-night, Lek.

Good-night, tee raak.

< Lek's friend, Noi, comes over to talk to her with her farang boyfriend Alex >

Noi : He come back ...

Now he very crazy more. Want Doctor put Bay-bee in Lek ... and Lek go Phuket beauty school ...

Alex : He wants you to have a Baby ?

Noi : Bay-bee ?

Chai, Bay-bee ! But he want Doctor make to love to Lek !

Alex : uh oh ...

Noi : Why he no boom-boom ?

He mai sabai Cancer.

Noi : Oh ...

He say money Lek very much ...

Noi : Ki baht ?

Hai Nung saen muer-rai look maa. Bad paan baht took dheun hai Mae, Pa. Ha pan baht hai pom took dheun.

Alex : Lek are you saying he wants to pay you to make a Baby for him ? I can't believe this guy.

Noi : Ooh - eee.

What I do ?

Noi : Take money him.

I want money him.

Alex : I think this man is a bad man for Lek. I think ...

Noi : Khun Alex, kaa, you let Noi alone with Lek ... okay, dark-ling ?

Alex : Oh, okay, yeah, I understand ... you need some time for girl-girl talk ... okay, Noi, I'll go sit over there.

< Alex leaves >

Noi : He nice man.

If have money ... money to you ... nice man !

[Rasseru]

One quick read through . . . quick because I couldn't 'put it down' . . . it's, well, I think it's brilliant! They are very real!

[bojo]

All good, but the 'chicken' bit; sensational.

regards bojo

[eek]

by a strange conversation with an older Farang in a Chiang Mai coffee shop.

Hmm, are you quite sure you were in a "Chiang Mai coffee shop" to have overheard such an odd yet fascinating conversation...?

I have no children, and I do sometimes regret that, but I am very clear I do not wish to have a child, but would rather marry someone as "childlike" as I am [referrals accepted gladly, please send photo if you do not smoke, drink, or do drugs]

Im all of the above, but kids are on the wish list, and im already taken...thus alas Dear Bottom, although for a moment there me thought i was enamored of an ass, it just cannot be. The emotional tie was fleeting, just a few short seconds. Which coincidently may be all the time that is required to impregnate the little Miss Lek....

[Rasseru]

. . . just a few short seconds. Which coincidently may be all the time that is required to impregnate the little Miss Lek....

Indeed, if the doctor is good, that is probably true.

[benton]

Oberon : "I do but beg a little changeling boy ... To be my henchman."

Titania : " ... I will not part with him."

What follows is "fiction" although the tale was "induced" in my human's psyche by a strange conversation with an older Farang in a Chiang Mai coffee shop. It appears my human form seems to "broadcast" to certain emotionally troubled persons an invitation to sidle up to him, and unload their "nests of misery" into my ear. I'm not complaining, though; often the stories are compelling.

Let me re-iterate : this is not autobiographical, although in the story I "give" the story-Farang cancer whereas the "real" Farang had some other kind of health conditiion I won't name (and I've had cancer). Like the "real" farang, and like the one in the story, I have no children, and I do sometimes regret that, but I am very clear I do not wish to have a child, but would rather marry someone as "childlike" as I am [referrals accepted gladly, please send photo if you do not smoke, drink, or do drugs]

I have, of course, altered the story to disguise any hint of the identity of the person; I have moved it to a kind of mythic time floating in nowhere and nowhen (that's what story-tellers do, sometimes, to distract the mind from being "reasonable," and try to "slip" the "magic in). I "couldn't help" making the story-Farang want Lek to have her baby in Phuket simply because Jung said : "Like the womb of the mother, boundless water is an organic part of the Primordial child."

I am personally fascinated by "Midsummer Night's Dream," (and I yearn to play the part of "Bottom") as I am fascinated by its resonance with Theseus, the Minotaur, the Labyrinth, the story of Pasiphae; and remain fascinated to watch how the play (and its presumed mythic referents) fascinate other people in literature and psychology from Jung and Kerenyi to modern feminist critics (some of whom interpret the struggle in the play between Oberon and Titania over the "changeling" child as being a symbolic justification of the social reality of male subjugation of women). For a fascinating visual use of the theme of Oberon, Titania, and Changeling : look at the 1862 cartoon for Punch by artist John Teniel :

http://arthist.cla.umn.edu/aict/Tennielweb/punch/620405.html

But enough gecko-tail-flapping ... on to the tale :

The Low Season Man's Bargain

~

copyright 2009, assigned by proxy to Orang37, all rights reserved

~

Don't worry..your copyright is not in danger.

[sylviex]

I read the piece through a little quickly, and with other preoccupations, but you've given some sharp insights into the "magical" nature of human transactions and interactions here and the way that quality of enchantment can expose realities more harshly... and you've gone well beyond the usual depictions and perspectives, too

, I think

I have moved it to a kind of mythic time floating in nowhere and nowhen

the kind of nowhere that has a small table outdoors in a garden restaurant ...

with coloured fairy lights, just as we find here ... .

On Phuket, you could could slide into The Tempest ... hope this will be a musical ? "South Pacific" tunes!

"Through the Looking Glass" next, please!

Just being silly there. Thanks for posting your work.