Usually myths evolve from cultures, but sometimes individuals attempt to create them.
Such is the case with Canadian poet and author Chris Bell’s “Tales of the Lost Cheebah-Ha,” a book of fictional myth Bell created by drawing from the plentiful banquet of worldly cultural myths.
Though it was a mighty attempt to craft a style of fictional mythic prose, Bell falls flat on many points. The interweaving stories of creation, life, death and exodus saunter in a promising way but leave the reader’s palate somewhat unsatisfied.
Bell said the book began as a short story, but evolved into a novel of sorts because he enjoyed the ideas he was working with. He said he then launched into a research project, reading books with topics that ranged from anthropology and psychology to fairy tales.
“I researched almost everything I could,” he said. “I looked at all kinds of different material such as folklore and oral traditions from everywhere that I could find.”
Bell said he attempted to portray how many cultures encounter the same situations and ask the same questions.
He said he wanted to read the different approaches to the same questions and find a story structure that expressed a certain idea that is common to all cultures, whether it be African, American Indian, European or even Christian mythology.
In “Cheebah-Ha,” Bell gives the reader a feel for many different cultures, but the most prominent one is American Indian mythology. Yet, even with those similarities, Bell’s idea of God is strangely detached from many cultures.
Bell portrayed God as a cranky, cantankerous, uncaring individual who seems less divinely inspiring and more hung-over. In one story, God becomes enraged with the people on the ground because they are noisy and interrupt his sleep.
“Weary and annoyed, God came out of his mountain and told everybody to shut up, that he was tired and trying to sleep,” he wrote. “At last God put an end to it. He came out of his mountain and bellowed: Get out of here!”
Bell also included a trickster figure, Arap Sang, an African ancestoral character who bears more than a little resemblance to the American Indian trickster Coyote. Arap Sang is not malicious, unlike other traditional tricksters, such as Norse mythology’s Loki, but seemed to have little-to-no depth and barely a purpose.
“God sat down on top of his mountain and started to mope,” Bell wrote. “Then, he saw Arap Sang run around stirring up trouble. God summoned all his strength, and swung with all his might, and smacked Arap Sang over the back of the head.”
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Bell fell short with his style, as well. Unlike fellow Canadian storyteller Charles de Lint, who weaves his worldly myths into tales of ordinary people, Bell throws the reader nothing but the myths themselves, producing stories that seem trivial and self-involved.
Though Bell said he wants the reader to take away with them their own impressions, something distasteful is inherent in his myths. Whether it’s the bawdiness that belies actual profundity or his careless use of language, the book did not live up to its expectations.
“Tales of the Lost Cheebah-Ha” can be purchased online at www.amazon.com for $9.95.
