TAMING THE TEMPEST


Bermuda, the "Letters to the Editor" column in the only daily
newspaper, The Royal Gazette, provides one of the few public although
often anonymous spaces for political discourse and criticisms on an
island full of what Bermudian commentator Larry Burchall once termed
"public liars and private tellers of truths." Simons utilises this structure
to highlight the ironic absurdities of absent politicians, disgruntled
residents, and gas-happy moped riders. The inane details of small-
island life make Bermuda a country ripe for satire, and this short story
works very well as a development in that tradition. Although each of
the letters are from vastly different characters, there is a singular theme
that emerges; this is a text which highlights social and political
fragmentation, and satirises how judgmental and hypocritical
Bermudians can be. For example, the Editor is forced to omit
obscenities in the letter sent by Mrs. Lightsner, where she cusses out
another driver for his lack of manners and signs "Respectfully Yours";
in another, P.O'D Smith states "Surprise! Surprise! The prison will be
finished early. It should be. We've got more laws than people." The
final letter in the series offers a biblical quote from Jeremiah, that "the
harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved," which
provides an opening for the reader's interpretation. Perhaps this quote
can be read as veiled critique of the constant slew of letters to the
editor, which is Bermuda's primary form of community dialogue.
Simons seems to suggest that these letters, which lead to a false sense
of accomplishment and result in a partial alleviation of personal tension,
ultimately do little to improve or redeem Bermudian society.
 In the tradition of Mary Prince, the challenge of Bermudian and other
Caribbean women writers is, as Carole Boyce Davies and Elaine Savory
Fido have suggested, to "fill voids, correct omissions, redress
neglects."12 Although there currently is not a plethora of writing
emerging from Bermuda, the island is by no means a literary wasteland.
Bermuda, like so many of the islands throughout the Caribbean,
continues to struggle to create an image of itself, of its own making.







 12 Boyce Davies, Carole and Elaine Savory Fido, eds. Out of the Kumbla: Caribbean
Women and Literature. Trenton, NJ: Africa New World Press, 1990.