Cloud Farming in Wales

Abstract

probably found himself as much an outsider to Thailand as the international readers of this English translation. In his stories, the country’s social conventions are observed with a curious and critical eye, and the protagonists often find themselves caught in alienating situations even if they are natives. This outsider’s perspective introduces Thailand ’s urban life and culture to the readers with intimate details not available in any guidebook. The role of women, the concept of seniority, and the implicit rules of etiquette are presented with a tongue-in-cheek tone mixed with deep sensitivity. Yoon is acclaimed for his playful mastery of the Thai language. While it is barely possible to replicate his sense of humor and irony in another language, Poopoksakul, also educated in the US, makes up for it with witty English wordplay. Thai metaphors and idioms are given new lives, first in the author’s hand and then in the new linguistic context. The translator’s rendition of the stories reads smoothly for anglophone readers. This readability is notably different from the original, which is a bit distracting since semantic and syntactic rules are constantly transgressed. In other words, the language is more refined, if less rebellious, than the original. Nonetheless, this trenchant observation of lives in a vibrant, alluring setting, elegantly rendered in English for the first time, definitely raises the bar for Thai literary works to be translated in the future. Sutida Wimuttikosol Thammasat University, Thailand Rhys Hughes. Cloud Farming in Wales. Sacramento, California. Snuggly Books. 2017. 164 pages. Prolific Welsh author Rhys Hughes is thoroughly wrung out. While Wales is not quite the wettest place on earth, it sure comes close. In his latest book, Cloud Farming in Wales, Hughes steps outside to let his thoughts frolic among the wetness. Richard Brautigan once captured that cabin-fever feeling in a poem written in California: “It’s been raining like hell all day long and there’s nothing to do.” What’s more, Hughes declares utter devotion here for Brautigan ’s writing—particularly Trout Fishing in America, which seems to have inspired many concepts in Cloud Farming in Wales. Hughes begins the slim book by introducing a cloud farmer named Wilson, “a man in a smock and floppy hat” with a long beard and ashepherd’scrookplus“alargekeyprotruding from his back.” Throughout, Wilson enters and exits the stage—and he’s right there on the final page swinging his crook and pointing it at the author. Wilson keeps the momentum going, but it does wilt a bit toward the end. Hughes sprinkles lovely sentences throughout: “The clouds are curtains drawn over the face of the sky of Wales.” Creative rhetoricaldevicesabound.Hecallsclouds“sky sheep” and sheep “ground clouds.” He notices a man “out at night walking his shadow.” Writing topics such as the Oxford comma, books, or WIPs pop up as minithemes . He deliberates the difference in words written by clean versus dirty hands. He weighs the merits of employing metafiction as a novel’s frame. Characters? Besides steampunk Wilson (the Clockwork Man), there’s Karl Mondaugen (reminiscent of Thomas Pynchon’s Kurt Mondaugen), the Queen, Primella Limpet (anime + mollusks?), Dutch tourist Van der Graaf (à la physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff, perhaps, who was of Dutch descent), Cthulhu (think H. P. Lovecraft’s interstellar octopus), Birdman Boyo (maybe a mashup of rapper Bryan Williams + reggae artist Billy Boyo), and Dr. Oxygen and Mr. Hydrogen (who dispute just who’s holding on to the other in their relationship). How does Hughes view the folks in his book? “There are only two real characters in this story: the reader and the author.” Hughes dialogues with other writers in his essayettes. Welsh authors? Thumbs down on Dylan Thomas. Hughes prefers Arthur Machen. Readers also encounter James Joyce, Gustave Flaubert, Vladimir Nabokov, Ray Bradbury, Jim Morrison, Bruce Chatwin, and Diana Vreeland. Hmmm, how to classify this book . . . fiction? nonfiction? essay? memoir? ecofiction solarpunk? Here’s how Hughes categorizes his slim volume: “It is just me saying stuff about things.” Things like empathy contrasted with compassion, the height of the Dutch, Margaret Thatcher’s opinion of “people who travel on buses,” distinctions in speaking Welsh / Spanish / Portuguese, or a...