Apr
03
03
A quiet place. A small old plantation house that was built across a long hallway like porch. Screens surrounded the porch to and formed along the edges of a beautiful garden. Tall plants with hornlike branches, and grey bark reached toward a open sky that was clean and without the unruly corruption of man. Ranches surrounded this place. This small flat building with wide open windows, a screened porch, and a luscious garden. Every morning untold roosters greeted the morning, and horses grazed in the ranches nearby.
This is Kilohana.
After a six hour flight out of Bellingham, my sister, her Fiance and I landed in Kahului on the Island of Maui. Right off the bat I was struck by the heat that was there, I mean obviously its hot. But as anyone would likely tell you this ongoing breeze just comes up and over the hills of the Island, and the heat is almost made null and void by it. One of the very first things I notice while staring out over Kahului was the rainier part of the Island. These two large mist covered mountains rose out of the ground above the line of the water as if straight from Polynesian legend itself.
Instead of staying in a resort or hotel my family opted to rent an old ranch house in the Maui up-country. Its a beautiful place with ornate furniture, and antique decor. Its a walking storytellers dream for experience, as well as the local small town, Makawao. The Island just drips with stories to be discovered, and I am already ruminating over the next Nyla Clarkson novel.
Other ideas are sitting in the back of my brain.
Expanding Mythology
Most of the work I’ve done int he past few years has mostly focused upon Eastern and Western Mythology. I’ve delved a bit into North and Central American folklore, but coming to Hawai’i has once again reminded me it is always good to broaden my horizons. The past few days have been really spent soaking up the landscape, and the energy that seems to flow from Maui. The physical landscape alone has slowly started drawing me more and more toward the the mythology of the Hawaiian Islands, and the people who once controlled the entire region. Part of my growing interest is specifically aimed at.
I’ll have to gather a good amount of research to really delve further into the spirit of Maui itself. On Thursday after seeing the towns of Makawao, Paia, Wailea, and Lahaina, I visited Wailuku. Here I had one of the most delightful conversations I’ve had in a while about modern mythology. Local Hawaiian staff actually sat back with me and just had conversation about history, and folklore. This was only made even more evident when I traveled to Haleakala, the House of the Sun, or the grand ancient shield volcano nearby Kilohana.
The drive up to mountain was long and winding. We passed several people, including a few bicyclists who didn’t understand the idea of lanes Otherwise I was able to get a lot of beautiful shots of the twin Gaps that form the open “crater” of Haleakala.
On Thursday again, we visited Wailuku, and I had a delightful conversation with some young staff of the Bailey Museum. After that talk I’ve decided to add a few more goals to my ongoing work with Altear. The first is the development of a new story concept, and also a greater understanding of a section of mythology I didn’t really understand all that well. The new section of Altear’s story is a future novel setting (which has no name currently), and primary character within the Agaera setting. Someone who I truly have only had a faint notion for, who I really want to flesh out.
This character is Nakamura Hokulani, a possible connection for Nyla. Hoku as I call her is a Hapa, half-Japanese, and half-Hawaiian. However my lack of understanding of Hawaiian culture outside of what I can find on youtube, has really caused me to reflect on my western gaze, the tinted viewpoint I see the world through. Because of this I’m trying to take time to evaluate Hoku’s story more thoroughly. Through, and that is best done through research, and experiencing a region (in this case Maui) where she might have lived. Its not overly complicated, yet its not simply. One cannot simply tare off a feeling of the gaze that has been held for so long.
But, now I’m rambling. The final new project is a new constructed language I’ve been thinking about for a while. I’ll post more about it in the future as I work on it! Have a great day guys as I’m back to spending time in Maui!
Aloha!