If truth be told - short stories of Gay Thailand

[Guest wowpow]

 

The tales in Peter Murrell’s If Truth Be Told are mainly about gay men in Thailand, and any reader who, as resident or visitor, knows the scene will recognise with pleasure the many touches that show the writer has noted and thought about the puzzles, oddities and curiosities of ‘farang’ life in the Land of Smiles. They are deftly sketched, the language is lively and clear, and the author’s ironic eye and wit seldom fail him. However, though the material is explicit when it needs to be (as in Sex Show, where we have to experience what the main character feels), these stories do not bring the instant gratification that some may expect from ‘gay fiction’. Some are highly comic, but readers should perhaps take their cue from the early pages of the book – including the painting reproduced on the front cover

 

This is a radical take on a famous modern painting, but the elegant calm of the original is replaced by a very tense scene. The farang and the Thai boy confront each other, the former hesitantly expectant, the latter shy, perhaps filled with foreboding. There is a great, unfilled space between them and it is by no means sure that anything will be created to fill it. The epigraph of the book is "If thou hast not seen the devil, look at thine own self"; and the first story, Short Time (a title that turns out to be savagely ambiguous), hardly makes for a comfortable read. A totally unremarkable first-time visitor to Thailand rambles in his thoughts as a boy sleeps on the bed in the short-time room. Peter Murrell does not deal in snappy endings, but the shocks can be devastating. Within the first seven pages of the book we have been brought face-to-face with what, in other contexts, has been called ‘the banality of evil’.

 

Full article http://www.spicemag.net/viewarticle.php?article=139

 

Take time to have a browse around SPICE's nice new webzine.

 

The cover picture by 'Bird' Sawekjun is patently 'after' Hockney's Mr and Mrs Ozzie Clark and Percy. Surprisingly there is no credit.

 

I have just read the first three stories and I find them very good indeed.

[Guest BKKvisitor]

Farang-Thai relationships are a common thread in many postings here and here are some of my observations based on personal experience:

 

(1) Some of what that Thai guy is telling you is probably true; some is not. Since it's nearly impossible to distinguish between the two, you are safer to proceed with the belief that none of it is true until proven otherwise. This is for your own sanity.

 

(2) Treat all Thais civilly and return respect with respect.

 

(3) Never forget that you are a visitor in their land. Act accordingly (as you would hope a visitor to your land would act).

 

(4) If the relationship becomes a financial arrangement, it will ALWAYS be a financial arrangement. You will always be the customer and the Thai will ALWAYS be the vendor.

 

(5) There is no such thing as a "loan." There are only "gifts."

 

(6) Thais who immigrate to other countries (who worked as "vendors" in the LOS) will continue to be vendors in their new surroundings.

 

(7) Thais you choose to shower with gifts (phones, bikes, real estate, gold) will consider you ting tong and tell their friends how crazy you are. If you break up with them, they may elect to share that opinion with you, also.

 

( None of the above means you can't enjoy yourself. I post them in the interest of your mental and emotional well being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Smiles]

" ... I post them in the interest of your mental and emotional well being .... "

I would venture a guess most everyone has read (ad nauseum/infinitum) this pack of cliched generalizations about Thai guys at one time or another. But they seldom come attached with the deliciously cloying paternalism above. Thanks for caring.

 

What has your post got to do with the book mentioned above in the opening post?

 

Cheers ...

 

PS ... go out and grab this book. It's wonderfully written, and well-worth the effort to hunt it down.

[Guest rainwalker]

I concur with Smiles' recommendation for 2 reasons:

 

- Canadians should stick together, and

 

- Peter Murrell's If Truth Be Told is a solid read and he has considerable talent.

 

This is not another self-published piece of dreck; it is quality.

[Guest BKKvisitor]

Smiles,

 

Thanks so much for caring that I care.

 

The reason folks post generalizations like those above so frequently, as you point out, is because they happen to be true. You've been around sufficiently long to know what Thai guys say about their farang clients.

 

I'm not talking about all farang-Thai relationships but only those that are based exclusively on financial transactions. You can sugar coat these arrangements but what happens when the baht component disappears from the equation?

 

And this has everything to to do with the original post that describes a book about Thai-farang relationships that I agree sounds like a good read.

 

Farangs are free to spend their baht in any way they wish but when they turn around and then complain that their young lover has begun to treat them poorly, you have to wonder what they thought they were investing in? The advice may sound old hat to you but a new crop of first-time times visitors arrives daily at BKK. I post this cloyingly in their best interest. You've already been around the block a few times and free to offer your own advice.