Чу Бу мен Шимиш: Құдайлардың тартысы мен шығыстың бейнесі

Short story by Lord Dunsany

Chu Bu and Sheemish is a short story by Lord Dunsany. The tale was first published in The Book of Wonder (1912).

An unnamed narrator tells the following story: Chu Bu is the accustomed resident in a temple where he is worshipped. Sheemish is a freshly carved idol added to the same temple one day—and from that moment the two deities become jealous, taunt each other and attempt to outdo the other in achieving miracles. Eventually their combined efforts result in a minor earthquake which destroys the temple. Their worshippers each claim their preferred god has caused the earthquake, but all of them stay away and do not rebuild the temple out of fear of such powerful gods. The narrator remarks that he found the demolished, abandoned temple one day and that Sheemish had been smashed but Chu bu was intact, found on his back with his hands and feet in the air. The narrator brought Chu bu home, keeps him in that same position on his mantle, and every so often will offer token worship to Chu bu to keep the god's spirits up.

Alyssa House Thomas has analysed the story as an example of Dunsany using Orientalism to create humour. She notes that the squabbling gods embody the colonialist clichés of irrationality and weakness, with their feeble insults and inability to defeat each other. By the end of the story, one is forgotten and the other reduced to a mantlepiece ornament, whom the narrator thinks nothing of removing hundreds of miles from his home. House Thomas points out how this reflects justifications for imperialism such as indigenous peoples' alleged incapacity for self rule and failure to preserve their heritage, necessitating Western intervention and curation. Although the story is humorous, it relies on Orientalist ideas that are, arguably, its chief meaning.