Dr Sean Perera on a Butterfly, identity, culture and the journey from science to fiction

By Saman Indrajith ✍️

For Dr Sean Perera, writing his debut novel a Butterfly was only half the challenge. Getting it published proved to be the harder part.

A Sri Lankan-born Australian academic, writer and researcher, Perera has spent more than 25 years working in science communication, cross-cultural communication and education. He is currently an Academic Sub Dean at The Australian National University (ANU), where he is involved in interdisciplinary graduate studies and research.

His first work of fiction, however, takes him into very different territory.

a Butterfly  is a young adult coming-of-age novel exploring identity, sexuality, family, friendship, culture and belonging through Pathanga, a young Sri Lankan undergraduate studying in Sydney.

The title carries a deliberate double meaning. “Pathanga” means butterfly in Sanskrit, while in Sri Lanka the word is also used as pejorative slang for a homosexual. The butterfly becomes a metaphor for the protagonist’s gradual transformation as he negotiates vulnerability, relationships, sexual awakening and, ultimately, self-acceptance.

The novel is divided into four sections reflecting the stages of a butterfly’s transformation and moves between Sri Lanka and Australia, examining the cultural tensions confronting a young man trying to understand himself while navigating family and social expectations.

Perera says the novel was prompted partly by his desire to challenge himself creatively.

“I have always enjoyed writing creatively,” he says. “But I do not get much opportunity to engage in creative writing as part of my work. For a novel, you need not only the time but also the mental space to sit down and put it together.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided that space.

“It allowed me the chance to close out all the noise and have the space to write.”

But the novel was not simply a creative exercise. Perera wanted to tackle a difficult question arising from his own academic work: how to communicate complex ideas about gender and culture to an ordinary reader.

“As an academic, I can communicate these ideas in academic language. But here I was writing for a general audience. How do I communicate something as complex as gender in a way that people can understand it through a story?”

That challenge eventually led to the philosophy behind the book: “Someone’s fiction is another one’s reality.”

Although fictional, the novel draws on the realities and experiences of different people, with the hope that readers will recognise something of themselves in it.

“I wanted people who read it to identify with it, feel some sense of belonging and make some connections with the book,” he says.

Perera’s academic background might seem a world away from fiction. He holds a BSc with triple majors in microbiology, chemistry and zoology, an MSc in Agriculture from the University of Peradeniya and a PhD in Science Communication from ANU.

His research has particularly examined how science is communicated across cultural and linguistic boundaries and how different communities participate in science.

Those interests inevitably found their way into a Butterfly.

“This is a young adult novel, but it is about gender diversity and how ideas about gender are communicated,” he explains. “But it is also about Sri Lanka. It is about people, food, belonging and all those other elements that make us human.”

For that reason, he does not want the novel to be viewed solely as a book about homosexuality.

“It talks about a very serious issue, but I don’t think it is only about that issue.”

The novel took around four to five years to complete, from the initial ideas and writing to editing and publication. Perera began working on it in 2019.

The transition from academic publishing to fiction, he says, was an education in itself.

“I have published academically, but academic publishers don’t publish fiction. So publishing a fictional work was completely new territory for me.”

His experience with the Australian publishing industry also exposed him to the commercial realities of fiction.

Literary agents, he discovered, have to consider not only the quality of a manuscript but also marketability, publishing lists and commercial targets.

“One literary agent told me that I had ticked a lot of their boxes, but their quota for this type of work had already been filled for the year,” he recalls.

There were other difficulties. Perera had incorporated popular culture, song references and excerpts from books read by the protagonist. Some agents wanted these removed because obtaining copyright permissions would create additional work.

“I felt I was not doing justice to my audience if I made all those changes simply to suit the market.”

The novel was predominantly written with Sri Lankan readers in mind. A suggestion from his friend and Gratiaen Prize-winning writer Dr Vihanga Perera eventually led him to consider publishing in Sri Lanka.

“Why don’t you think about the Sri Lankan market and publish it here?” he was asked.

Perera approached Sarasavi, which agreed to publish the novel.

“They were very happy with the book and supported me tremendously, including with the final stages and the cover design. It took a lot of stress out of me.”

His experience left him with a clear conclusion: “I have come to learn that writing the book is the easy part. Publishing is more difficult.”

Perera’s scientific training also influenced the way he structured the novel.

“I like creative writing, but because I have been trained as a scientist, I needed structure. I cannot be too free.”

He initially wrote freely, but found that the first draft had spread in too many directions. A subsequent attempt at imposing a rigid structure, however, felt artificial.

The solution came through the butterfly metaphor.

The story was divided into four sections corresponding to the stages in a butterfly’s life, with five chapters in each section.

“That became the structure I set for myself. Each chapter serves as a link to the others. None of the chapters can really stand alone.”

Perera believes literature can open conversations that cannot always be created through political or activist confrontation.

Sri Lanka has relatively little fiction dealing directly with gender diversity, although there are notable exceptions such as Visakesa Chandrasekaram’s novel which won the 33rd Gratiaen Prize – The Son and the Lover. Literature, he argues, can encourage people to think about difficult issues without making them feel that they are being instructed or confronted.

“Books allow people to have conversations. People read them and think about issues.”

He acknowledges the importance of legal and activist campaigns but believes social attitudes cannot be transformed by confrontation alone.

“Everything cannot be changed by fighting. Laws can be changed, but when it comes to people, most of them do not like fighting. Most people want to live freely and peacefully.”

Literature, songs and books, he says, can allow people to engage with contentious issues in a less aggressive way.

“In that sense, I feel I have been successful. I have told a story and left it to people to think about it.”

Yet he identifies one limitation of his own work: it is written in English.

“The large majority of Sri Lankans are not English readers. Gender diversity is not only a Colombo issue.”

He is also wary of presenting gender diversity exclusively through terminology and models imported from elsewhere.

“We use words such as LGBTIQ and trans, but there are Sinhala words and cultural understandings. Language is based in culture.”

One of his ambitions is therefore to have a Butterfly translated into Sinhala and Tamil.

“I like to play with words. There are many English words mixed into the writing to create the effect I want, so I don’t think a translation can retain exactly the same quality. But if we want the story to be more inclusive, we need some version of it in Sinhala and Tamil.”

The writing process was supported by people close to him. His wife, Dulamanie, was particularly supportive, and the novel is dedicated to her and their poodle, Zeus.

“If anyone has been through every single letter that was typed, it was Zeus,” Perera jokes. “He sat next to me while I wrote the book.”

Friends including Dr Vihanga Perera, Manikya Kodithuwakku and Dr Lindy Orthia also read drafts and offered critical feedback.

For aspiring writers, Perera has a simple message at a time when the world is producing more written content than ever before.

“We are creating a lot of content today. There is an emphasis on creating more and more content, but not necessarily on quality and depth. Millions of pieces of content are uploaded to the internet.”

A book, he believes, occupies a different space.

“Each one of us has our own story. Each of those stories is so rich and beautiful. The more we hear those stories, the richer our lives become.”

His advice to young writers is therefore to look beyond the pressure to constantly produce.

“If young writers think about writing more about their own stories rather than simply creating content, our society will become a richer and more accommodating place.”