Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #20 November 2015 | Page 60
The Curse of Anansi
By Thomas David Parker
I was bored. I looked at the clock on the wall
to see that only thirty-five minutes had passed, but it
felt like I had spent my entire evening stuck in that
room.
I had gone to an evening lecture at the local
community centre. The lecture was called ‘The
Origins of Creativity’, and I thought it would be an
insightful talk on creative inspiration. However, I was
completely wrong. What I was actually subjected to
was an elderly speaker wittering on about some West
African god called Anansi. Now, unfortunately, I have
no interest in spirituality, but I felt it rude to walk out
in the middle, so I was politely waiting for it to end.
The speaker had a long white beard, wore
ethnic mystic-looking robes and had a wistful voice.
It was hard to take him seriously, he looked like
Dumbledore. But it wasn’t just the way he looked, it
was the absolute drivel he was spouting as well.
He was talking about the power of words,
language, and text. How they were all ways of
imparting knowledge and were one of the reasons
that humans have the edge over all other animals.
He explained that stories were a core part of how
we understand things and make sense of the world.
And, as the only animals that are able create fiction,
we have the unique ability to understand life beyond
ourselves. “But where did this power to create stories
come from?” He asked. “Could it be a supernatural
influence?”
The answer to this question, according to the
speaker, was ‘yes’. He said that all stories belonged
to a god, who was called Anansi, and it was this god
who chose which people would become storytellers.
Apparently it was a great honour to be chosen, but
those that didn’t accept the gift they had been given,
or didn’t take their role seriously enough, would
soon lose that gift and struggle to create stories in
the future. The speaker told the audience that if they
wanted to be writers then the best way to receive
inspiration was to pray to Anansi. Faith was the key to
success.
I must confess I phased out for a bit at this
point. Philosophy can be very interesting, but this was
just nonsense. The idea that we don’t have control
over what we create was a load of crap. I had studied
the mechanics of storytelling, I had studied grammar
and language, and I had gone out into the wider world
and experienced life. That was inspiration, not some
god who talked to us in our sleep.
Fiction is a commentary on our lives. I get
that. I