Serpent in Paradise

by Dea Birkett

Release Date: 17 August, 1998

Edition: Paperback

Price:

More Info

A flawed writer investigates a society in its death throes

Dea Birkett became obsessed with Pitcairn Island, populated with 37 descendants of the 'Mutiny on the Bounty.' It has neither phones, nor a landing strip, nor even a harbor, so just getting there was a tale of perseverance in itself. Birkett thought she was going to a tropical paradise, but after three months, she began to fear for her physical safety.

As other reviewers have pointed out, Birkett is, to put it mildly, a severely flawed person. She lied to get a visitor's permit, although her charade was so transparent, it's hard to believe she fooled anyone on Pitcairn. More serious was her habit of habitually lying and the conflict this created with Irma, her host/employer/landlady. Yet unfathomably, Birkett tells the truth about having sex with the island's sole policeman, a married man. Does she not care how this will affect his family when her book is published? Birkett is clueless about how badly she comes across to the reader.

But she is on target in revealing that this isolated island of 37 people is no paradise. She correctly discovers that violent crime is a problem, and that law enforcement is nonexistent because even the island cop is concerned about retribution from anyone he arrests. Birkett herself eventually concludes her life is in danger. It is noteworthy that in late 2001, the British government announced it was prosecuting a large component of Pitcairn's male population for the widespread practice of adult males engaging in sex with female children. The Pitcairnese do not deny the allegations, but instead claim the British are insensitive to their unique cultural practices(!). The resulting trials may very well lead to the end of this society, which now appears to have been too isolated and too tight-knit for its own good. Birkett is a very flawed observer, but her book has a prophetic quality about it, knowing what we now know about how pathological this supposed 'island paradise' actually is. The end result is a travel narrative that is a fascinating page-turner, about a society that probably won't exist five years from now.

Everybody Wants to Go to Pitcairn

I wonder if it's possible to learn about Pitcairn Island and not want to go there. During hectic days when I feel overwhelmed and unappreciated by the endless rat race striving that makes up much of my life, my thoughts turn to the joys and happiness of casting it all away and living on an island far away, a place like Pitcairn. Birkett took such feelings to their logical end by arranging to live on Pitcairn. This book describes her time on the island.

As travel writing goes, Birkett's text is interesting. For the community of around 40 people, life on Pitcairn is controlled by the sea and by the smallness of the island. Birkett's text offers a view of a life removed, indeed cutoff, from much of what we consider normal, natural, and expected. The Pitcairn Islanders live in a state of being self-sufficient and at the same time dependent upon the whims of passing ships. In these days when technology seems to draw many of us closer together and to make the world smaller, Pitcairn seems more isolated. There used to be many more ships passing the island in the days before airplanes were in widespread use for Pacific routes.

The book is also a study of the difficulties an outsider faces in becoming part of such a community. Birkett reports that she often found herself at a loss to understand the true ins and out of the community. On Pitcairn, as in so many other places, the community has its own code, its own flow, understandable to insiders and baffling to outsiders. In a sense, it's not different from any other community in the world. What makes it different is that Pitcairn is the stuff of legend and the focus of fantasy.

Birkett's book is the story of the unfortunate intrusion of reality in the search for Paradise. There is a long tradition of such writing, and the common theme is that "utopia" is, as the derivation of the word itself suggests, "no place." During Birkett's time, she went from being an outsider trying to understand the ins and outs of Pitcairn life to being an outsider vaguely afraid of violence from the islanders. In the end, she was anxiously waiting for the next passing ship to pick her up and take her home.

Yet, the dream of Paradise does not die, even though we know that there is no such place, even as the result of experience. In the wee hours, in unexpected moments, we all long for the place that can never be.