By
Obododimma Oha
Titles of two great books inspired the present article. One is Rick Salutin’s Living in a Dark Age, while the other is Arianna Huffington’s How to Overthrow the Government. To say the least, titles of these books could make a government somewhere uncomfortable and intelligence agencies may start scrutinizing the books and sniffing around for a likelihood or possibility of a subversion. That one is obvious, but the titles could also provide them with a wrong lead and end up wasting their time, while the real thing is happening in a very dark age. But what this article mainly invites us to think about is that titles of books, when brought together, could coherently say what we want them to say and could spring surprises. In this brief writing, therefore, we look at how and why titles are used and the playfulness of uprooting titles and linking them up to say something else.
Generally, writings are given titles to make them to look in a particular direction, to anchor them, and to help readers to pin down what the writings might be saying. Of course, we know that some titles of some writings could be slippery and deceptive, saying what is totally opposite to what the contents amount to. In that case, the titles could become part of the game the writer is playing and could also be used as a mere ornamentation. That is deceptive, too. Titles are the nucleus of thought we refer to when we read. So, not too much of the ornamentation, please.
Let us not waste time explaining the too obvious, namely, that in giving titles, we should not just be casual, that titles help readers to think deeply, that titles summarize ideas, that from their titles you shall know them, that some titles provoke, that titles are selected from a range of options, that titles could be a kind of advertisement and, in that case case, arrest attention, etc. Titles do all these and more. But if titles are devices of style, can’t one extend one’s cleverness in linking a title to a title? Is it not possible to say: There was a country, but things fall apart in the season of anomie? The sense and the context are your own. You the reader inserted them!
That is our portal, just our portal. Let us try it within the world of a writer and across worlds. OK, there are now many men without ears, but no more that wasted breed. Who are really the interpreters among the boys at the border? Anyway, if you think that a writer lending voice to a writer is incidental, you will no longer be at ease in the shouts across the wall.
That shows that we can really count or teeth with our tongues without waiting for the dentist to do it. Even if the four robbers once upon a time in the state house are the wasted breed, the minted coins they stole are not for the women of Owu to count at the end of the market business. They could start chattering the song or dance yungba yungba at the Kolera Kolej. Is that not another raft in the twingle twangle?
Titles of writings can also wrestle with titles of other writings. That often happens, showing that writings are important social statements to which replies could be given. Assertion, then a response. And a follow-up sometimes. Yes, a discourse on discourse. A discourse about discourse on a discourse. Perhaps the easiest one can think about in African literature is the one between the plays, The Strong Breed and No More the Wasted Breed. Yes, we can waste our lives wanting to be called "strong breed" that know all the theories but cannot stop the terrible rot occurring around us. We can leave unkempt beards to cut that image of a radical, but cannot transform our societies to liveable worlds. So, why can't other titles talk to our titles?
Further still, some titles, in wanting to become special discourses, just dribble us with their vagueness, looking in many directions and looking in no particular direction. In a way, they invite us to look for a direction and so complete the blank spaces. There Was a Country! What an assertion! Which "country" ? And why the temporal deixis of past tense? Is it Biafra or Nigeria? Even Britain If Nigeria, the country after independence or after the Nigeria-Biafra war? Was there a country before the country, before Lord Lugard's geography?
You see, titles of books could ask for other writing,could be deliberately provocative and the provoked cannot sleep until he or she has, at least, proposed a reply. If it was not your will, whose will, then? It was your command and you beat your chest, but you are now claiming that it was not your will? The animal called the "human" being is interesting!
Anyway, let us trace our steps back to Salutin in the darkness. Titles of the Dark Age naturally have to be "dark." They could be difficult to read. That looks like their COVID-pass, by the way. One would like to see how authors, especially in some countries where face masks are made to match the person's attire, live in the dark with their titles. One would like to see if there is any remarkable difference, whether COVID-19 has left its fingerprints on the titling.
Comments