A Perverse Romance: a Tourist Dance to Art and Satirical Provocation

A Perverse Romance is a satirical tale of artist Hephzibah Brown, who is persuaded by Cedric, the Imp of Perversity, to follow him to the recently independent Ghana, following with the temptation that they will compose a tourist book for him to write and for her to illustrate. She does follow, but knowing his unreliability, she changes it to a book about tourists—one a pragmatist and the other an idealist. And more than this, her tourists will be women. The novel becomes an examination of real life being a form of transience. How I use satire: Satire is the uncomfortable life of being disturbed but draws to our notice the human capacity of doubling our subjective thinking. This is a philosophical impact, which philosopher Thomas Nagel brought to my attention in mind and cosmos (materialism): “Subtracts from the physical world as its major object is everything mental—consciousness—meaning intention or purpose.” It is the absence known but ignored too hard. Subjectivity becomes fictive but remains to challenge through satire.