Back in Malaysia

Looking back at my previous posts, I am struck by their insipidness, especially in view of the subject I was writing about. For the past two weeks, I have been lacking in inspiration and slack in my writing, hence the dearth of imagination and scintillating arguments. Nevertheless, I will stem the tide of such unwarranted mediocrity and will spur myself on to provide my readers with more delectable semantics, that is if I still have any more readers. (:

I came back the week before, and took 4-5 days to recover from my jetlag (exacerbated by my lousy personal habits). In between trying to sleep and being extremely irritable, I managed to complete reading Georges Battaile's On Sensuality and Eroticism as well as Jacques Lacan's On Feminine Sexuality, the former being a book i borrowed and the latter bought from London. These two are required readings for myself since my dissertation utilises ideas from these two thinkers, and I believe that Malaysians too should read them, even if they do not agree with some of the ideas propounded, for in reading them, I could see bits and pieces of the Malaysian psyche and attitude within the extremities of some of the views. I know that it would be difficult to just walk into a bookstore to get them (after all, these aren't easily obtainable stuff even in the so-called enlighten nations), so I will suggest paying Amazon.com or Kinokuniya a visit and order them. As I do not have much time, I will not venture to review these books for you, though at a latter date, I will discuss some of the ideas in my blog. Suffice to say that Battaile is known for his obssessive interest in human sexuality and eroticism (having written fictional materials that seem to border on pornography for the less exposed or more uptight), with a unhealthy interest in the Marquis de Sade (from which the word sado-masochism is derived) whereas Lacan is much pre-occupied with his conceptualisation of jouissance, which suspiciously is about sexual pleasure. For more on them, don't be lazy and try Google.

Next week, I start work, so I better enjoy all that is left of my holidays, while trying to work on two chapters of my dissertation and start on the third. I wouldn't have much time for anything after this week *sob*. Last week, I posted a piece on the Tsunami under the News and Updates section (perhaps I should have posted it here instead) so if you haven't read it, go check it out here

That's all for now folks.