Review:
The wisdom of ancient peoples! We modern humans have not been very successful at organizing the world – wars, conflict, oppression, substance dependence, and so on, continue to shake and shock us. In the 21st century, materialism prevails and engenders unbelievable arrogance, self-interest and dishonesty. This kind of arrogance is the topic of this novel, arrogance and indignation, which have brought about the extermination of indigenous peoples and the wholesale kicking aside of ancient wisdom as ‘voodoo.’
Twenty-five years ago, I had the privilege of living briefly with some Australian natives. I was involved in a project to help them move back into the Lands, in the dead centre of Australia, where they would pick up their traditional lives. When white settlers appropriated Australian territories more than 200 years ago and set about civilizing the residents, desert life was disrupted, swept away as ‘disgusting’ and ‘primitive.’ Young people were forced into ‘white’ education and occupations as virtual slaves, and the elderly were put in reservations and treated as redundant beings. The ancient way of life of these outstandingly intelligent people was rejected, their status ‘savage.’
According to white policy makers of the Land of ‘Linear’ and ‘Logic,’ ‘Progress’ must forge on no matter what. But desert culture is not bound by man-made concepts such as time and space, or the well-honed tools of logic and reason. And no one even thought to ask about the wishes of the original inhabitants. White-fella was truly undibi – trespasser – in the vast Dreaming Lands.
While living closely with them, exposed to their wisdom and the Dreaming, I quickly realized just how primitive we so-called civilized people are. Our destructiveness and disregard of our true human nature and gifts was suddenly so glaringly obvious.
Easy-Happy-Sexy is not just a contrived story constructed around my experience there. It is a modern-day metaphor and the moral is important to all human beings. The leader of the tribe I lived with, Ninija, became my spirit guide and features in my dreams to this day, constantly alerting me to the ignorance of the view of life developed peoples have. I have been initiated into desert wisdom, and by expressing my guided dreams, and stories and images from my unconscious mind, I hope to be able to open my readers’ eyes to their own true nature. In this way, I consider my mission to be to pass on such wisdom in the hope that humans can once again step away from their egos, from notions of ‘undeveloped,’ and dissociate themselves from the selfish trespassers who have taken occupation of their hearts.
Linden Thorp is first and foremost a human being or spirit. She finds great joy in the challenge of communicating with the abstract written word, in story, creative non-fiction, or poetry, and with concrete sound as a singer and musician. She presently lives in Japan immersed in its culture, but her true home is the mountains of the Pyrenees in south-eastern France and the rich deserts of the Dreaming Lands.
Synopsis:
Ninija, tribal leader, has lost her son Ginger to the city where he was found dead in a telephone box. When she makes the terrifying journey to bring his body back to the desert, ‘Lumaluma’ (white man) seeped inside her and continues to tempt her to his ‘Easy-Happy-Sexy’ way of life. Lumaluma is exclusively visible and audible to Ninija, the rest of her people only witnessing their leader’s strange behavior. He distracts her from her duty as mother and tribal leader to organize the 12 days of preparations leading up to Ginger’s Djang, the glorious death ceremony which all her people long for. Gina, her young granddaughter and successor-elect, takes her place when she is on ‘Luma-luma business.’ Against all odds, Ginger’s spirit is finally released from his broken body and Ninija frees herself forever from Lumaluma. Traditional desert life is resumed and Rifca, ‘red-dress woman,’ arrives with her party of enlightened people who have come to learn Ninija’s wisdom before it is too late.