Why Oka
Oka was not my first book. I set aside my first because it needed more than I could pour into it at the time. Maybe it needed maturity. It definitely needed maturity. But Oka was ready, so it was written, edited, tested, and published. It was the right book for that time in my life.
Everyone asks me if Oka is a reflection of myself (note: decent authors do not centre themselves in their stories; we are terrible subjects). I really don't like her. As a character, she's great. She does what the novel needs her to do. I don't think she is someone who, in real life, I could be friends with. There are very few characters I write who I like.
Much modern story derives its structure from the gothic (the literary structure, not the pop culture stereotype), where the female is a reflection of 'the home'. Think of the Baskervilles manor, or Walpole's Castle of Otranto. The castle is a direct reflection of Isabella. I thought, what if we invert the reflection? The idea is not new. Nations and kingdoms (note: the standard is not queendom) have been assigned gender since they have been created, conquered, and liberated. The motherland, the fatherland, these are standard terms. Guyana, given it's potential, had some shitty stewards. Oka had good parents, but she was not equipped to handle freedom. Oka's journey, the immense pressure placed on the feminine archetype, is in itself a commentary of the land. The five men she journey's with are very clearly the men of the land. The cultures that come together. The abandonment of the governing parent has a direct impact; what does this group of gruesomely thrown together travelers do when removed from the hand that rules them?
We know what happens to the country in fact, but experience and memory can colour opinion, to which no one is completely right, and nobody is wrong. Oka's experience is read in many different ways depending on your race, your gender, your age, or your familiarity with the characters written. No one opinion is right. No one opinion is wrong. The important thing, is that there is an opinion to be had.
I may have a few more pieces to write about Oka based on conversations I've had since it has been published. Then I'll move on to the experience I've had reworking my first novel. I am on the ninth rewrite (for a writer, this is progress, not failure), and finally, it is the right book for this time in all our lives.
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