Not a new concept. We have Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and his Alice books, Isaac Asimov and his Foundation trilogy (and other short stories and novels).
MIT Press, which normally only do really hard-core stuff, has produced two "science" fiction books. One by Dan Llyod (Radiant Cool) and another by Christos H. Papadimitriou (Turing). Former one on phenomenology and consciousness, and the other on computation, AI and wiring of the flesh to the virtual world not unlike Gibson's Neuromancer where virtual sensations (the "sim-stim")could be physically felt.
Yesterday, I saw two books on Amazon called "Gold Bug Variations" and "Galatea 2.2" by Richard Powers. He's written more like "Prisoner's Dilemma". I saw mixed reviews on it so I wonder if anyone else reading this entry has read any of them, or any of his works?
Today, while crawling the net in-between work (I'm faced with a lot of job-related delays today, which is a different story so will not go into it), I found a rather interested site with some articles by a physicist from the University of Washington in Seattle. His name is John Cramer and apparently he writes novels as well as science communication articles (he does the latter really well, I have to say). So I suggest checking it out at http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/av_index_sub.html
It did make some of the different debates clearer to me (as well as clarify some stuff which I've seen as disparate figures but could now link together). I've only read two articles so far "Quantum Telephones to Other Universes, to Times Past" and "Quantum Time Travel". He has written some novels as well.
Hmmm...I suppose these novels I've just mentioned will fall under the category of novel of ideas rather than science fiction. So what is the literary merit of a piece of work that is heavy on the ideas but not necessarily heavy on the plot and characterisation? Should a person claiming to study literary works be studying these works at all? Or would that be more under the province of cultural studies and communication science? And in the age of the uncanonical, what determines the literary merit of a work being studied anyway? I am sure lots of debate has been going on on this (I've seen it around trade journals of English studies) because it also affects the way you structure the programme for college level studies. I should find out how the literary studies programme is structured for the national literature of my country.
what bout subtle science fiction and novel of ideas? One that comes off the top of my head is Borges.
Anyway, I am making a long list of them for now, as I go along.
NB. I was really excited to see two books on mathematical fiction I had read as a teenager, "Fantasia Mathematica" and "Imaginary Numbers : An Anthology of Marvelous Mathematical Stories, Diversions, Poems, and Musings", on Amazon. If you have never read them, check them out here
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
The Tale of Two Philosophers
This was translated and reworked into a sort of semi-fictive narrative two years ago. The original essay was written in Malay 3 years ago and published at jalantelawi.com early last year. I think I still have a lot to work on but these are just some ideas I was/am contemplating.
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While eating al-fresco in sunny Kuala Lumpur, some friends of mine got into a philosophical discussion that culminated into a hot debate. Yoga, a newly minted philosophy graduate from a university up north in Malaysia, as well as a fan of the logical-positivist tradition of A.J. Ayers and his group, got into a disagreement with Yu-Min, a graduate student in mathematics, who argued that Wittgenstein was contemptuous of the so-called Vienna Circle and found them irrelevant. Neither could they agree on how Wittgenstein and Popper would have responded to the statement:
The hen is crossing the road.
In order to stop their escalating quarrel (both had at least downed 2 bottles of whiskey between them), I decided to invite them to my home to test out a new software programme that my boyfriend, Juan, had been working on recently as part of his graduate school project in MIT. He had put it on his FTP site and I had downloaded it so that I could mess about with it. This programme is basically an AI simulator, part of a bigger project; where personalities, works, and the thoughts of knowledge builders and creators of the past are basically keyed into the system and simulated through three dimensional mapping of information networks. It is actually a very exciting project, built for educational purposes. If you remember watching a Star-trek episode with the characters reliving their fantasies in the Holodeck, this programme is based on the same concept, except that instead of getting holographic projections, the simulator projects the known characterisation of a particular philosopher, scientist or musician onto the textual screen, and you can post questions to them. It is a more intuitive and technologically sophisticated version of Ask Jeeves and Google, but less advance than the Holodeck. Since this particular part of the software I had downloaded happened to have programme libraries of the famous philosophers of the Western world, I decided to run it pass Yoga and Yu-Min. They were of course sceptical, though Yu-Min, a programming geek, is more receptive.
“I don’t believe that an inflexible man-made programme can actually channel the thoughts of any living (or dead) person,” said Yoga scornfully.
“Well, you don’t have to believe. Just see how it works. It does not try to simulate every quirk in a person, but it isn’t hard to simulate the essence of one’s philosophy. Also, Juan mentioned that this project involves many linguists, so they have helped to ensure that the language is stylistically as close as possible to the written language of these people,” I explained.
Having powered up the programme, I went to the menu to see whether Wittgenstein and Popper were on the list. I saw Popper’s name and clicked on it. As a text-box popped up, I typed in the statement
The hen is crossing the road.
In a few seconds, out popped Popper’s answer across the monitor screen. It comes with audio as well, so we can hear the ‘voice’ of Popper speaking
Popper: The hen crosses the road. I have no qualms or objection to the above statement as long as it has verisimilitude. The truth of the statement is unchallenged as long as no dissenting witness comes along to say that the hen did not cross the road, hence proving the falsity of the above statement. Or he might state that the hen is not really a hen, ergo an under-developed rooster. Once we could verify the abovementioned statement (though it is not universally or absolutely verified), we can proceed to observe if the hen faces a problem while crossing the road, enumerate possible solutions, elimination of improbable solutions and then to finally re-think the problem in light of possible new solutions. But, as aforementioned, there is no one absolute criteria to determine the truth-value of the above statement. It depends on the truth-content. Hence the statement could not be absolutely ascertained. There might be other eye-witnesses who say that the hen is not really crossing the road, but looks like she is doing it. Yet, the empirical values obtained from the observations of these witnesses will not totally verify the truth-value of the above statement since prejudices exist.
As Yoga and Yu-Min starred dumbfounded at the screen, I quickly searched for Wittgenstein and typed in my query. This was what came out, together with the audio.
Wittgenstein: How do we know that it is a hen? Could it be a rooster in disguise? Maybe we consider it a hen since it fits our perception and taxonomic classification of a hen, that it has no comb and wattle. But would such categorisation verify the above statement absolutely? Or could the hen be just a sign without a signifier or meaningful application? Could we show that the hen is related to the object crossing the road? Let’s say that we could verify that the hen is really crossing the road, is the hen conscious that she is crossing the road? Is she conscious of the fact that she has no language to describe her consciousness? As a human who realises that there is a hen doing a form of work, we can explain our observation with the idea that “the hen is moving in a direction perpendicular to traffic-flow.” How does this statement differs from the statement “The hen is crossing the road”? Maybe the hen is not crossing the road, but is a mere illusion in the mind of the observer.
“Wow!” exclaimed Yu-Min and Yoga simultaneously.
“How can I get a copy of this programme?” asked Yoga.
“You can copy this onto your drive or CDs, though you might need to zip it up. It is has a few separate files that you need to compile and run. The instructions are here with the files,” I replied.
As it was late into the night, Yoga and Yu-Min went home. Before leaving, Yoga mentioned that he would drop by tomorrow afternoon with some blank CDs to copy the programme.
Before going to bed, I composed an e-mail to Juan, telling him about having tested his ‘progeny’ on some friends and the date of my flight back to Massachusetts.
*Epilogue
The two possible answers above have been derived from a study of Popper’s Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach and Wittgenstein’s compilation of philosophical ideas, Philosophical Investigations. We could surmise that their perspective and priorities differ. However, the two answers given could be considered logical and probable, viewed through different ends of a tunnel. Enthusiasts and philosophers who work from the approach of logical positivism (which was quite popular until the 1960s) promoted Wittgenstein’s philosophy as an important work in logical positivism. Yet, I would detract from such view because logical positivism views that truth could be arrived at via induction and logical analysis. From what I gathered, Wittgenstein has never explicitly stated such ideas, nor has he subtly argued so. He has moved away from his original ideas found in the Tractatus logico-philosophicus by the time he wrote his Philosophical Investigations. His position in philosophy is at best, ambivalent, and deeply misunderstood by many philosophers. According to him, no real action could be determined by rules, each action could be adjusted to the rules. An example that he had given are two men from a tribe playing chess, and that they go through the whole motion of playing chess. If we were to observe them at it, we will unanimously agree that they are playing chess. But what if they decide to shout, scream and stamp, and the behaviour could be translated to the movement of the chess pieces? Would they still be really playing chess or even a game? Wittgenstein did not provide a solution on logical analysis, because what is deemed logical to one person might not always be logical to the next. Yet, he supports the inductive theory when he said that “games” could be determined by their “family traits”. In such a manner, he had given a definition to “games” by correlating their known features. Hence, a game becomes the cause as identified from the effect.
Popper also argues against the idea of logical positivism which he claims is centred around the verification principle, stated as:
A statement is only meaningful if it is formal (with an abstract determination regarding quantities or numbers”, a module of modern mathematics and logic), or through an empirical verification (with experimental determination of facts and essentialism), which are a priori analytic and a posteriori synthetic. A priori synthetic is said not to exist.
According to Popper, Hume is the source of inductive problems, by giving contradictory answers when trying to solve logical and psychological problems. In a logical problem, Hume has stated that we should not conclude based on repeated experiences when explaining a situation which we have never experienced. However, in Hume’s psychological problem, he stated that we have been conditioned to think that a situation which we have not experienced will obey the conditions of situations which we have experienced. Popper thus restated Hume’s logical problem as
Could the assumption that a universally applicable theory is true be verified empirically; that is by assuming the truth-value of some of the test-statements or observable statements (which are said to be derivable from experience)?
Thus Popper, by restating Hume’s problems, provides a less contradictory version to Hume’s earlier statement: that an experiment that is repeated could verify the universality of a theory. With the above statement, Popper has started a debate that would dismantle the logical analytical assumption that had been built by the positivists. Both Popper and Wittgenstein are alike in that they do not believe in determinism. The difference between them is how Wittgenstein holds on to the assumption that a philosophical question need not be meaningful and could exist as a philosophical puzzle whereas Popper is of the opinion that philosophical problems should simulate real-world problems. A characteristic of Wittgenstein Popper objects to is his subjectivism. For Popper, knowledge can only grow if we examine hard facts. While it could not be denied that Popper has much influence in the development of psychology and the sciences, Wittgenstein has contributed immensely to ways we view language, consciousness, ideas and mathematics, especially theoretical mathematics. Much of Wittgenstein’s ideas are still being hotly debated today. Perhaps writing vaguely but profoundly contributes to that. So, dear readers, you can decide whether the chicken did cross the road, or was knocked down while Popper and Wittgenstein were having their altercation.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Philosophy of Physics and Theoretical Physics sitting on a tree...
Yes, cheesy title but just ignore that for once, would ya? :D
I have a little bit of dilemma here. It has to do with my understanding of the above topics.
It seems to me, where I read books on theoretical physics (back in my undergrad days), I've no problems with the concepts, only with the higher math required - the kind of system we underwent didn't help matters because we weren't learning enough math to catch up with the math quantum mechanics and its ilk require. However, now that I am trying to read books written by philosophers and English studies scholars who write about debates in theoretical physics, I am having some problems remembering and understanding their points. I mean, I get all the stuff that is quoted or illustrated about what some illustrous physicist have to say on the subject (in fact, it was a kind of refresher course for me, coz in physics courses, we only learnt that which is considered the best representation of acceptable physics, we didn't bother too much with theories that had been proven wrong, or were unprovable - except when the lecturer decided to digress philosophically or when we decided to do some extra-mural reading. I've only have limited knowledge of Aristotle's contribution to the physical sciences, drawn mainly from the history and philosophy of science course which I was forced to take in my first year but which I hope to rectify soon), but then, the analysis kinda got me stumped (either I'm not too bright or I need to change the way I read). I find it difficult sometimes to make sense of what these people are saying.
However, I am not saying that they write terribly (or do they write terribly?). I remember, in my late teens, while trying to read Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind, I went through many pages that made little sense to me (and it was kinda torturous in a way to go through them), especially when he started talking about the mathematics of AI, though the physics part were definitely exciting and comprehensible.
So, I find Feynman easier to understand than let's say (ok, it's his is a very reader-friendly style) ...Foucault (ref specifically to his Archaeology of Knowledge) or this guy other guy whom I'm reading, Norris (Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism), though for the latter, I think it could be the fact that he squeezed in so many stuff in the first two chapters that threw me off-balance. But he did provide a pretty clear differentiation between the realists (Einstein, Podosky and Rosen and anti-realists like Bohr and gang, apparently related to this ongoing confrontation between the orthodox QM group and they who subscribe to relativity. I would like to read what Bohm has to say about it (because I really cannot remember what he said about QM, since I've only read a little of his writings before, and that was long ago).
Perhaps I should change strategy and begin from Feyerabend, if I want to go the philosophy of science route? Hell, Popper and Wittgenstein made more sense (my only problem with the latter is that he says so much stuff that I can't always remember what he said after awhile without rereading. Ya poor memory, maybe didn't take enough of those Omega-3 and 6 stuff when I was growing up :D) to me. But what I like about the way the philosophers had written it, is that they have taken ideas that were made to sound so certain and irrefutable in physics textbooks to force us to rethink that perhaps we might be looking up the wrong side of the telescope (or tunnel).
But at the end of the day, knowing the math helps, because the way I finally do really get it, is when I also finally also get the math. I hope my friend who is doing a PhD in physics is reading this and can give me her opinion :)
And I suggest rereading Michio Kaku's Hyperspace. It is an old book (published more than a decade ago) but worth looking at again. And to go back even further, read also Edwin Abott's Flatland.
And since my particular interest is in the discourse of science in Literature that are not necessarily science fiction (or cybernetics/phenomenology/cyberpunk fiction), I think it would be good to start compiling a list of books, for a start, that highlight the exciting/cutting-edge science of their day. Though it is easier to start with treatises written by the scientists themselves (and I will definitely use this as secondary sources), I am still creating a biliographic list of works that have a definite allusion to science (the Romantic writers would be a good source) and more obscure works/works that had never been studied or examined from the perspective of scientific discourse.
Just my little musings as I am going through the materials, and plotting my moves. :)
Coming up next, my musings on a 'chick lit' book I am reading (when I wanna get away from the heavy stuff) :P
I have a little bit of dilemma here. It has to do with my understanding of the above topics.
It seems to me, where I read books on theoretical physics (back in my undergrad days), I've no problems with the concepts, only with the higher math required - the kind of system we underwent didn't help matters because we weren't learning enough math to catch up with the math quantum mechanics and its ilk require. However, now that I am trying to read books written by philosophers and English studies scholars who write about debates in theoretical physics, I am having some problems remembering and understanding their points. I mean, I get all the stuff that is quoted or illustrated about what some illustrous physicist have to say on the subject (in fact, it was a kind of refresher course for me, coz in physics courses, we only learnt that which is considered the best representation of acceptable physics, we didn't bother too much with theories that had been proven wrong, or were unprovable - except when the lecturer decided to digress philosophically or when we decided to do some extra-mural reading. I've only have limited knowledge of Aristotle's contribution to the physical sciences, drawn mainly from the history and philosophy of science course which I was forced to take in my first year but which I hope to rectify soon), but then, the analysis kinda got me stumped (either I'm not too bright or I need to change the way I read). I find it difficult sometimes to make sense of what these people are saying.
However, I am not saying that they write terribly (or do they write terribly?). I remember, in my late teens, while trying to read Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind, I went through many pages that made little sense to me (and it was kinda torturous in a way to go through them), especially when he started talking about the mathematics of AI, though the physics part were definitely exciting and comprehensible.
So, I find Feynman easier to understand than let's say (ok, it's his is a very reader-friendly style) ...Foucault (ref specifically to his Archaeology of Knowledge) or this guy other guy whom I'm reading, Norris (Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism), though for the latter, I think it could be the fact that he squeezed in so many stuff in the first two chapters that threw me off-balance. But he did provide a pretty clear differentiation between the realists (Einstein, Podosky and Rosen and anti-realists like Bohr and gang, apparently related to this ongoing confrontation between the orthodox QM group and they who subscribe to relativity. I would like to read what Bohm has to say about it (because I really cannot remember what he said about QM, since I've only read a little of his writings before, and that was long ago).
Perhaps I should change strategy and begin from Feyerabend, if I want to go the philosophy of science route? Hell, Popper and Wittgenstein made more sense (my only problem with the latter is that he says so much stuff that I can't always remember what he said after awhile without rereading. Ya poor memory, maybe didn't take enough of those Omega-3 and 6 stuff when I was growing up :D) to me. But what I like about the way the philosophers had written it, is that they have taken ideas that were made to sound so certain and irrefutable in physics textbooks to force us to rethink that perhaps we might be looking up the wrong side of the telescope (or tunnel).
But at the end of the day, knowing the math helps, because the way I finally do really get it, is when I also finally also get the math. I hope my friend who is doing a PhD in physics is reading this and can give me her opinion :)
And I suggest rereading Michio Kaku's Hyperspace. It is an old book (published more than a decade ago) but worth looking at again. And to go back even further, read also Edwin Abott's Flatland.
And since my particular interest is in the discourse of science in Literature that are not necessarily science fiction (or cybernetics/phenomenology/cyberpunk fiction), I think it would be good to start compiling a list of books, for a start, that highlight the exciting/cutting-edge science of their day. Though it is easier to start with treatises written by the scientists themselves (and I will definitely use this as secondary sources), I am still creating a biliographic list of works that have a definite allusion to science (the Romantic writers would be a good source) and more obscure works/works that had never been studied or examined from the perspective of scientific discourse.
Just my little musings as I am going through the materials, and plotting my moves. :)
Coming up next, my musings on a 'chick lit' book I am reading (when I wanna get away from the heavy stuff) :P
Friday, July 07, 2006
Updated: What could this be?
The result of writing when you are half asleep is that you lose sense of timing and tenses. Have corrected the gramatical confusion below.
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The glazed moon smiles down at you. In the background, one hears the owl hooting, his round eyes staring straight at you and into a firmament that is a firmament to you, because you cannot see.
You are sitting here in the black organdy grandmother made you wear, a black hat pulled low over your black curls and snub nose, and button-boot legs hugged to your body. Your back is against a headstone, of somebody's ancestor. It is around eleven at night, half hour since you left the church meeting. On your walk home with the rest of the gang, you had poured scorn on Evelyn who told you she would never walk pass the graveyard at night, because Johnny has told Sylvia, who then told her, that he had seen a figure in dark cape and hat, hanging about the graveyard one night, when he was driving by in his buggy. Johnny had been caught in a downpour in another town and had therefore arrived back late. He had decided to take the small path that cuts through the church land as he was in a hurry to get home, hoping to reach the main road leading to his side of town sooner. He noticed that the figure was as tall as a man, but standing very still. He thought he saw a face, but could not quite remember. He decided to drive on, with the silent figure standing just 500 metres away. When Johny looked again through the corner of his eye, just before he turned onto the main road, the figure had vanished.
Poo-poo. You said. That's just a figure from a fairy tale. Johnny likely made that up to impress Sylvia. You know that he has a thing for her. Deep down, you know you are fascinated by someone yourself, and today, he happened to be walking back with the rest of you. His name is Jonathan and he just arrived here 3 weeks ago, and living with his aunt. Your fourteen year old romantic heart is smitten by the sea-green laughing eyes, longish curly hair and olive skin. It was whispered that he is half Oriental. He is your age, but with a charisma that magnetises girls both older and younger. They are drawn to him, but fear to have anything to do with this half-alien creature, yet longing secretly to be in his company.
Jack dared you to go sit alone in the graveyard until midnight, and proved your theory true. Bolstered by Jonathan's sudden interest in the conversation (and perhaps, in you, you think) you said, alright, I'll do it. As the party walked near the path that leads to the graveyard, you broke away from the group and ran into the graveyard. Just as suddenly, you regretted the bravado, but it was too late to turn back now, or you might never hear the end of it from the boys. And you do not want to be embarassed in front of Jonathan. As the party walked away, Jack called back and said he will come by with another boy and retrieve you at close to midnight.
It felt like hours, sitting among those who do not sppeak, with nothing to entertain you other than reading the names on the headstones. And tonight, that activity holds no interest for you. You just want the hour to pass so you can go home, and be celebrated as some sort of heroine. You wonder what would grandmother think, and then remember that grandmother has gone to visit a cousin, and only old Annie, the servant is in. Annie doesn't care what you get up to as long as you do not get yourself and her into trouble.
Thank goodness your grandmother made you wear that thick dress, because your cashmere jacket would not otherwise protect you. The night is settling into silence, when you hear a low whistle. You think it is coming from your left side, but you are not sure. It comes short, long, short and finally a long low cry. You are frozen like that little cupid sitting above the headstone you are leaning against. The whistle stops, but you hear a low rustling noise. Your heart nearly stops beating, and then, a crunching noise. That sound becomes more and more consistent. A short silence, and the crunching resumes. You become very curious. Turning in that direction, you call out, voice slightly shaking, "Who's there?" The crunching noise stops. You see a tall figure in dark cape and hat. And the figure is not standing still, but seems to be moving unnaturally fast towards you. As it came nearer, if fear had kept you rooted to the ground, it now gives you the adrenaline rush. You break free and ran for your life. You run and run and run, not daring to turn back. Suddenly, you see a figure standing in front of you, and you nearly screamed until you see who it is.
"Are you ok?" asks Jonathan as he holds the shaking you. You nod.
"I was a little worried about you being all alone, out here, so I came back out again after the rest had gone back. You look like you have seen a ghost..."
He glances at you and asks no more questions. Holding your hand, he leads you away. Initially, you are shivering from the tingling sensation of his holding your hand, that he has come back for you, your heart beating from excitement and leftover fear. But excitement soon gives way to a knotty feeling inside, as you find the hand holding you becoming colder, and fingernails sharper...
_______________________________________________________________________________
So, could this potentially be an advertisement, a short story, an excerpt from a novel, or a scene from a B-grade period, thriller movie script? :D
________________________________________________________________________________
The glazed moon smiles down at you. In the background, one hears the owl hooting, his round eyes staring straight at you and into a firmament that is a firmament to you, because you cannot see.
You are sitting here in the black organdy grandmother made you wear, a black hat pulled low over your black curls and snub nose, and button-boot legs hugged to your body. Your back is against a headstone, of somebody's ancestor. It is around eleven at night, half hour since you left the church meeting. On your walk home with the rest of the gang, you had poured scorn on Evelyn who told you she would never walk pass the graveyard at night, because Johnny has told Sylvia, who then told her, that he had seen a figure in dark cape and hat, hanging about the graveyard one night, when he was driving by in his buggy. Johnny had been caught in a downpour in another town and had therefore arrived back late. He had decided to take the small path that cuts through the church land as he was in a hurry to get home, hoping to reach the main road leading to his side of town sooner. He noticed that the figure was as tall as a man, but standing very still. He thought he saw a face, but could not quite remember. He decided to drive on, with the silent figure standing just 500 metres away. When Johny looked again through the corner of his eye, just before he turned onto the main road, the figure had vanished.
Poo-poo. You said. That's just a figure from a fairy tale. Johnny likely made that up to impress Sylvia. You know that he has a thing for her. Deep down, you know you are fascinated by someone yourself, and today, he happened to be walking back with the rest of you. His name is Jonathan and he just arrived here 3 weeks ago, and living with his aunt. Your fourteen year old romantic heart is smitten by the sea-green laughing eyes, longish curly hair and olive skin. It was whispered that he is half Oriental. He is your age, but with a charisma that magnetises girls both older and younger. They are drawn to him, but fear to have anything to do with this half-alien creature, yet longing secretly to be in his company.
Jack dared you to go sit alone in the graveyard until midnight, and proved your theory true. Bolstered by Jonathan's sudden interest in the conversation (and perhaps, in you, you think) you said, alright, I'll do it. As the party walked near the path that leads to the graveyard, you broke away from the group and ran into the graveyard. Just as suddenly, you regretted the bravado, but it was too late to turn back now, or you might never hear the end of it from the boys. And you do not want to be embarassed in front of Jonathan. As the party walked away, Jack called back and said he will come by with another boy and retrieve you at close to midnight.
It felt like hours, sitting among those who do not sppeak, with nothing to entertain you other than reading the names on the headstones. And tonight, that activity holds no interest for you. You just want the hour to pass so you can go home, and be celebrated as some sort of heroine. You wonder what would grandmother think, and then remember that grandmother has gone to visit a cousin, and only old Annie, the servant is in. Annie doesn't care what you get up to as long as you do not get yourself and her into trouble.
Thank goodness your grandmother made you wear that thick dress, because your cashmere jacket would not otherwise protect you. The night is settling into silence, when you hear a low whistle. You think it is coming from your left side, but you are not sure. It comes short, long, short and finally a long low cry. You are frozen like that little cupid sitting above the headstone you are leaning against. The whistle stops, but you hear a low rustling noise. Your heart nearly stops beating, and then, a crunching noise. That sound becomes more and more consistent. A short silence, and the crunching resumes. You become very curious. Turning in that direction, you call out, voice slightly shaking, "Who's there?" The crunching noise stops. You see a tall figure in dark cape and hat. And the figure is not standing still, but seems to be moving unnaturally fast towards you. As it came nearer, if fear had kept you rooted to the ground, it now gives you the adrenaline rush. You break free and ran for your life. You run and run and run, not daring to turn back. Suddenly, you see a figure standing in front of you, and you nearly screamed until you see who it is.
"Are you ok?" asks Jonathan as he holds the shaking you. You nod.
"I was a little worried about you being all alone, out here, so I came back out again after the rest had gone back. You look like you have seen a ghost..."
He glances at you and asks no more questions. Holding your hand, he leads you away. Initially, you are shivering from the tingling sensation of his holding your hand, that he has come back for you, your heart beating from excitement and leftover fear. But excitement soon gives way to a knotty feeling inside, as you find the hand holding you becoming colder, and fingernails sharper...
_______________________________________________________________________________
So, could this potentially be an advertisement, a short story, an excerpt from a novel, or a scene from a B-grade period, thriller movie script? :D
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
The E-S tests (Updated)
For those who could not access the flash animated test, try the two links below. They are in html format so you will have to do your own paper and pencil scoring.
For the E-test
For the S-test
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Couldn't resist trying this out. I scored average on the empathising test, but lower than most men and women (gah!) However, I scored above average, though not at the highest score range, in the systemising test, higher than most men and women, so, I guess that can only mean one thing...
I need to work more on the EQ :)
Try the tests and find out for yourself what I mean.
Try it if you dare
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/news/page/0,12983,937443,00.html
And below is the full article by the tests designer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,937913,00.html
Anyway, don't take them too seriously. They are NOT, as the creator himself said, diagnostic tests. So your overall personality cannot be summarised by such results. You know, I once tried a free online IQ test (can't remember which side but I was very much into trying IQ tests back then coz I wanted to see how scoring was done) with very similar styles of questions. I still wonder why the creator of the test actually thought that one can define a person's IQ through such a test? I must had either missed his point, or that test creator had thought he could bamboozle eager test-takers. Apparently, if you score well enough, you get invited to join an exclusive IQ club. Perhaps someone with a higher score in the systemising test can tell me :P
Anyway such tests are not fool proof. Once you figure out the pattern, you know which answers will give you a median score, which gives you a low score and what will give you a high score. It's all about discerning the pattern. I've read of geeks who were (perhaps still are?) obsessed with taking standardized tests to find out how they can crack the system.
But I think, these tests point more to self-perception than the perception of others. For the latter, you need competent assessors who can discount statistical errors, e.g. why you would choose this answer over the other, and if it is indicative of the way you see yourself or something more innate.
Three years ago, while preparing for a stylistics seminar presentation on selected articles featured in a woman's magazine, I came across an article online that teaches you how to construct magazine quizzes. There are a few basic rules to follow but more importantly, it's all about how creative you can be in coming up with possible situations and choices of questions. So, don't think that the magazine editors have extracted them from some esoteric research. I always suspected the quizzes were made up, but didn't realise there were articles telling you how to do that, right out there for everyone to read :D Ah well, it was a good reference for my paper. :)
Now that I am a copywriter, I can assure you that it is highly possible for clients to ask people like me to create pop-quizzes/pop-tests for them should the latter be needed in a marketing campaign.
For the E-test
For the S-test
______________________________________________________________________________________
Couldn't resist trying this out. I scored average on the empathising test, but lower than most men and women (gah!) However, I scored above average, though not at the highest score range, in the systemising test, higher than most men and women, so, I guess that can only mean one thing...
I need to work more on the EQ :)
Try the tests and find out for yourself what I mean.
Try it if you dare
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/news/page/0,12983,937443,00.html
And below is the full article by the tests designer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,937913,00.html
Anyway, don't take them too seriously. They are NOT, as the creator himself said, diagnostic tests. So your overall personality cannot be summarised by such results. You know, I once tried a free online IQ test (can't remember which side but I was very much into trying IQ tests back then coz I wanted to see how scoring was done) with very similar styles of questions. I still wonder why the creator of the test actually thought that one can define a person's IQ through such a test? I must had either missed his point, or that test creator had thought he could bamboozle eager test-takers. Apparently, if you score well enough, you get invited to join an exclusive IQ club. Perhaps someone with a higher score in the systemising test can tell me :P
Anyway such tests are not fool proof. Once you figure out the pattern, you know which answers will give you a median score, which gives you a low score and what will give you a high score. It's all about discerning the pattern. I've read of geeks who were (perhaps still are?) obsessed with taking standardized tests to find out how they can crack the system.
But I think, these tests point more to self-perception than the perception of others. For the latter, you need competent assessors who can discount statistical errors, e.g. why you would choose this answer over the other, and if it is indicative of the way you see yourself or something more innate.
Three years ago, while preparing for a stylistics seminar presentation on selected articles featured in a woman's magazine, I came across an article online that teaches you how to construct magazine quizzes. There are a few basic rules to follow but more importantly, it's all about how creative you can be in coming up with possible situations and choices of questions. So, don't think that the magazine editors have extracted them from some esoteric research. I always suspected the quizzes were made up, but didn't realise there were articles telling you how to do that, right out there for everyone to read :D Ah well, it was a good reference for my paper. :)
Now that I am a copywriter, I can assure you that it is highly possible for clients to ask people like me to create pop-quizzes/pop-tests for them should the latter be needed in a marketing campaign.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
nuggets from Tokyo - notes on art, love, life and war
On Friday, I went with a friend to watch an experimental play performed by the Japanese troupe, Seindan, who was recently in Singapore to perform at the Arts Festival. After reading about them, I tried getting a few friends to come along, but in the end. it was just me and another person. Am I glad I work not too far away from the box office, so was able to get tickets on the very same day.
When I first entered the auditorium, I was struck by the very simple setup on the proscenium stage. The backdrop was that of the lobby of a gallery, though upon observing the props, I did not at first realised that the wood lattices hanging at the back were meant to represent paintings. Nor did I quite see the brochure and postcard rack at the far right of the stage, as my view was blocked by some panels.
Before the play started properly, what was to come was hinted on when I saw some of the actors wandering on the stage. Of course, I did not at first thought that they were actors, assuming as I did that they might be members of the audience who wanted to a closer view of the stage. Apparently they were the cast.
We were advised to sit near to the left or right if we wanted to view the English subtitles, and nearer to the middle for the Malay subtitles. However, I tried not to spend too much time following the conversation on the screens, but to actually skip the verbal message for the body language and expressions of the actors. It's a pity that I do not understand Japanese, but then, I haven't got time to pick up that language at this point. But, when the acting is done well, it does not matter that you do not understand the language.
Tokyo Notes
The time was 2014, in Tokyo. It was wartime in Europe (100 years from 1914, the period of WW1) A bunch of people have come to the gallery to look at the surviving paintings of Vermeer, and the conversations that followed among the characters took their point of departure from the exhibition, and even from aspects of Vermeer's paintings. The characters consisted of family members who decided on a reunion at the gallery when their out-of-town art-loving eldest sister came for a visit. While the characters were smiling and laughing with one another, one could see, from their taut faces, the visible tensions. As I did not buy the script, which was on sale at the door, I do not have the names of all the characters. Then, there were also lovers who decided to visit the gallery's exhibition together, as well as former lovers who met by accident at the gallery. The director and playwright, Oriza Hirta, tried to make the play as naturalistic as possible, so much so that one hears parallel conversations going on, though, but rather well-done, to me at least, in that I did not get confused in all concatenation. That despite having to rely in the screen, which is not very reader-friendly when there were multiple conversations going on. I must say that Hirata had superbly designed the conversations to fade in and fade out whenever one group reaches a climax in their dialogue, or if there is an important point that requires the full-audience attention.
The out-of-town eldest sister, Yumi, was with her sister-in-law (whose name escapes me now), and they were conversing quite plesantly. After each set of dialogue, they will be moving out of the stage (presumably to other areas of the exhibits) and other characters will be coming, or, if they were already there, take centre-stage. But as the dialogues between these two sisters related-by-marriage progresses, the audience soon came to realise that, despite the warm family banter, all was not quite right between the sister-in-law and Yumi's brother, Yoshi, who was the husband. As Yumi narrated to her sister-in-law Yoshi's childhood difficulties and phobias, it slowly emerged that Yoshi and his wife,that sister-in-law, would soon be getting a divorce. One less familiar with the Japanese culture will wonder why the women were smiling and giggling as they talk to each other, even about a subject as painful as that. But it is about maintaining a happy (steely) front, however pained you are on the inside. This is especially so for women in a predominantly patriarchal society, and you can see aspects of that emerging via the conversations of the women, as well as the body language. The women seemed to have the attitude of deferring to the men in their lives, be they the husband, lawyer, brother, or lover. The woman is the one who usually makes the sacrifice (in this play). Yumi sacrificed a potential career in the art to be at home for the parents as the rest of her siblings move away to Tokyo to pursue their individual careers and lives. A number of the female characters tend to walk a few paces behind their lovers (and it seems, even today, many Japanese women still have the tendency to do that, particularly those who had never been abroad). Even in the most relaxed relationship, one can see the man taking the lead.
Before the play started, the audience was introduced to the Vermeer's painting of "The Milkmaid" via a projection screen. There was also the "Girl with a pearl earring",a girl reading a book and some other paintings. In each groupings of characters, the audience is confronted with discussions on how the subjects in Vermeer's paintings seem to be always facing the window. There was an instance when one of the art gallery subject specialist explained the concept of the camera obscura to Yumi, and how Vermeer had utilised that in his paintings. The concept of light and shadow in the paintings, as explained by curator-character, is, in a way, an important theme in the play. It is projected through the different layers of the play. In the first instance, it can be a binary imagery for the known vs the unknown, the seen versus the hidden. This is illustrated by the dialogue between the characters. As the night progresses, the audience was treated to a slow unravelling of some of the characters' personalities, though inevitably, there would be a few that are a close book to us, because they were not central enough to the play, though still integral. Marriage, love, humanity, estrangement.
It is perhaps important to point out how the men tend to be rather philosophical in their outlook, whereas the women were more practical, though there were instances when a woman or two become pensive. While not all the characters were art-lovers, they were there because someone close to them was an art-lover and they were accompanying that person. But, since they were already there, they decided to take a look at the paintings, particularly the latest exhibits, and one of them, a man who was mostly sitting alone as his friend/lover (we do not know which, since the little we get is from the conversation between that man and another character) went around the gallery on her own. But he too learnt to appreciate Vermeer, when feeling bored, decided to take a look himself.
It was at the gallery that he encoutered a former student with whom he had had an affair. The tension and awkwardness between the two of them can be clearly felt during their conversation. There was a kind of "talking-around-the-issue", or talking at, instead of each other, betwen these two characters. A veiled suggestion on how he might had ruined the young girl's life, though this was quickly squashed by the girl-s turn-about remark, so one is never sure. From the dialogue, we knew that he was married, but was out with another woman. There might be, or no, special intimacy between him and the woman he is accompanying. Or he might be lying about her relationship to him. But like the interplay of subject and light in the paintings, the audience will be wondering about that hidden shadow, the unsaid and the unrevealed aspects of the character and his/her individual stories. What is palpable is that, many of the characters have issues to deal with, be it a long-distance relationship caused by the other serving at the war in Europe, or a torn marriage caused by another's change-of-heart, cynicism caused by lost of faith, and a feeling of bereftness due to having come from a broken family. We are similarly introduced to a couple whose marriage is about to break-up, though they have a 3 year old son. And a girl, the heiress, who never knew her dad until just the week before he died, when she was told of her inheritance. There were two young man who had seen active service and had came back, and another who wants to be conscripted into service. There is an underlying fear, or even threat, of Japan being drawn into the war, if she does not actively resist it. Hence, the conscription of some of these young men becomes a metonymy to irony.
Mr Konimatae, the gallery's subject specialist, and also former peace movement activist, has moments of melancholy when he becomes philosophic. And in one of these moments, he gave the lawyer-character a rather pessimistic view of the world (his exact words I forget), but was enough to discomfit the young lawyer. The lawyer was employed by one of the characters to work out the papers pertaining to the donation of some paintings that she had inherited upon her father's death. What had initially started as a veiled suggestion for the lawyer to convince the girl to donate all the paintings in her collection turned into philosophical outpourings that stumped the lawyer, slightly.
Anyway, this is not meant to be a professional review, but some notes to myself, and perhaps a story to my readers, of my impression of the play I've seen. The cast had successfully conveyed the myriad feelings of their characters, and the Japanese culture, just from their very expressive use of the body language. This is also a critique to that particular form of modernity that Japan has fallen under, one that breeds isolation and alienation between individuals and family members, that emphasises the material and the far distant war in another continent which only occasionally enters the conscious mind of these characters. While the other characters who are not family members are also building blocks to the story and serve to reinforce the theme outlined by the play, it is the family characters that are the central quincux, on which the story hinges. As it is now 4 am in the morning, forgive me if I do not sound very coherent. (:
I leave with this thought from the director himself that aptly sums up how the play has been like for me.
And from the programme notes
Now, this is something I would like to explore too, with regards to this region's traditional work of art and literature (or should I say, intellectual history?) But this is in another posting. (:
When I first entered the auditorium, I was struck by the very simple setup on the proscenium stage. The backdrop was that of the lobby of a gallery, though upon observing the props, I did not at first realised that the wood lattices hanging at the back were meant to represent paintings. Nor did I quite see the brochure and postcard rack at the far right of the stage, as my view was blocked by some panels.
Before the play started properly, what was to come was hinted on when I saw some of the actors wandering on the stage. Of course, I did not at first thought that they were actors, assuming as I did that they might be members of the audience who wanted to a closer view of the stage. Apparently they were the cast.
We were advised to sit near to the left or right if we wanted to view the English subtitles, and nearer to the middle for the Malay subtitles. However, I tried not to spend too much time following the conversation on the screens, but to actually skip the verbal message for the body language and expressions of the actors. It's a pity that I do not understand Japanese, but then, I haven't got time to pick up that language at this point. But, when the acting is done well, it does not matter that you do not understand the language.
Tokyo Notes
The time was 2014, in Tokyo. It was wartime in Europe (100 years from 1914, the period of WW1) A bunch of people have come to the gallery to look at the surviving paintings of Vermeer, and the conversations that followed among the characters took their point of departure from the exhibition, and even from aspects of Vermeer's paintings. The characters consisted of family members who decided on a reunion at the gallery when their out-of-town art-loving eldest sister came for a visit. While the characters were smiling and laughing with one another, one could see, from their taut faces, the visible tensions. As I did not buy the script, which was on sale at the door, I do not have the names of all the characters. Then, there were also lovers who decided to visit the gallery's exhibition together, as well as former lovers who met by accident at the gallery. The director and playwright, Oriza Hirta, tried to make the play as naturalistic as possible, so much so that one hears parallel conversations going on, though, but rather well-done, to me at least, in that I did not get confused in all concatenation. That despite having to rely in the screen, which is not very reader-friendly when there were multiple conversations going on. I must say that Hirata had superbly designed the conversations to fade in and fade out whenever one group reaches a climax in their dialogue, or if there is an important point that requires the full-audience attention.
The out-of-town eldest sister, Yumi, was with her sister-in-law (whose name escapes me now), and they were conversing quite plesantly. After each set of dialogue, they will be moving out of the stage (presumably to other areas of the exhibits) and other characters will be coming, or, if they were already there, take centre-stage. But as the dialogues between these two sisters related-by-marriage progresses, the audience soon came to realise that, despite the warm family banter, all was not quite right between the sister-in-law and Yumi's brother, Yoshi, who was the husband. As Yumi narrated to her sister-in-law Yoshi's childhood difficulties and phobias, it slowly emerged that Yoshi and his wife,that sister-in-law, would soon be getting a divorce. One less familiar with the Japanese culture will wonder why the women were smiling and giggling as they talk to each other, even about a subject as painful as that. But it is about maintaining a happy (steely) front, however pained you are on the inside. This is especially so for women in a predominantly patriarchal society, and you can see aspects of that emerging via the conversations of the women, as well as the body language. The women seemed to have the attitude of deferring to the men in their lives, be they the husband, lawyer, brother, or lover. The woman is the one who usually makes the sacrifice (in this play). Yumi sacrificed a potential career in the art to be at home for the parents as the rest of her siblings move away to Tokyo to pursue their individual careers and lives. A number of the female characters tend to walk a few paces behind their lovers (and it seems, even today, many Japanese women still have the tendency to do that, particularly those who had never been abroad). Even in the most relaxed relationship, one can see the man taking the lead.
Before the play started, the audience was introduced to the Vermeer's painting of "The Milkmaid" via a projection screen. There was also the "Girl with a pearl earring",a girl reading a book and some other paintings. In each groupings of characters, the audience is confronted with discussions on how the subjects in Vermeer's paintings seem to be always facing the window. There was an instance when one of the art gallery subject specialist explained the concept of the camera obscura to Yumi, and how Vermeer had utilised that in his paintings. The concept of light and shadow in the paintings, as explained by curator-character, is, in a way, an important theme in the play. It is projected through the different layers of the play. In the first instance, it can be a binary imagery for the known vs the unknown, the seen versus the hidden. This is illustrated by the dialogue between the characters. As the night progresses, the audience was treated to a slow unravelling of some of the characters' personalities, though inevitably, there would be a few that are a close book to us, because they were not central enough to the play, though still integral. Marriage, love, humanity, estrangement.
It is perhaps important to point out how the men tend to be rather philosophical in their outlook, whereas the women were more practical, though there were instances when a woman or two become pensive. While not all the characters were art-lovers, they were there because someone close to them was an art-lover and they were accompanying that person. But, since they were already there, they decided to take a look at the paintings, particularly the latest exhibits, and one of them, a man who was mostly sitting alone as his friend/lover (we do not know which, since the little we get is from the conversation between that man and another character) went around the gallery on her own. But he too learnt to appreciate Vermeer, when feeling bored, decided to take a look himself.
It was at the gallery that he encoutered a former student with whom he had had an affair. The tension and awkwardness between the two of them can be clearly felt during their conversation. There was a kind of "talking-around-the-issue", or talking at, instead of each other, betwen these two characters. A veiled suggestion on how he might had ruined the young girl's life, though this was quickly squashed by the girl-s turn-about remark, so one is never sure. From the dialogue, we knew that he was married, but was out with another woman. There might be, or no, special intimacy between him and the woman he is accompanying. Or he might be lying about her relationship to him. But like the interplay of subject and light in the paintings, the audience will be wondering about that hidden shadow, the unsaid and the unrevealed aspects of the character and his/her individual stories. What is palpable is that, many of the characters have issues to deal with, be it a long-distance relationship caused by the other serving at the war in Europe, or a torn marriage caused by another's change-of-heart, cynicism caused by lost of faith, and a feeling of bereftness due to having come from a broken family. We are similarly introduced to a couple whose marriage is about to break-up, though they have a 3 year old son. And a girl, the heiress, who never knew her dad until just the week before he died, when she was told of her inheritance. There were two young man who had seen active service and had came back, and another who wants to be conscripted into service. There is an underlying fear, or even threat, of Japan being drawn into the war, if she does not actively resist it. Hence, the conscription of some of these young men becomes a metonymy to irony.
Mr Konimatae, the gallery's subject specialist, and also former peace movement activist, has moments of melancholy when he becomes philosophic. And in one of these moments, he gave the lawyer-character a rather pessimistic view of the world (his exact words I forget), but was enough to discomfit the young lawyer. The lawyer was employed by one of the characters to work out the papers pertaining to the donation of some paintings that she had inherited upon her father's death. What had initially started as a veiled suggestion for the lawyer to convince the girl to donate all the paintings in her collection turned into philosophical outpourings that stumped the lawyer, slightly.
Anyway, this is not meant to be a professional review, but some notes to myself, and perhaps a story to my readers, of my impression of the play I've seen. The cast had successfully conveyed the myriad feelings of their characters, and the Japanese culture, just from their very expressive use of the body language. This is also a critique to that particular form of modernity that Japan has fallen under, one that breeds isolation and alienation between individuals and family members, that emphasises the material and the far distant war in another continent which only occasionally enters the conscious mind of these characters. While the other characters who are not family members are also building blocks to the story and serve to reinforce the theme outlined by the play, it is the family characters that are the central quincux, on which the story hinges. As it is now 4 am in the morning, forgive me if I do not sound very coherent. (:
I leave with this thought from the director himself that aptly sums up how the play has been like for me.
As its title implies, I got an [sic] idea for "Tokyo Notes" from Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece "Tokyo Monogatari" (Tokyo Story). Where in Ozu's film the old parents visiting their children are delineated scene after scene, "Tokyo Notes" depicts the siblings, now living separately in Tokyo, gathering in the lobby of an art museum in Tokyo when their art-loving sister living in their hometown comes to visit. Naturally, each of them has his/her own life and pains but now their only common interest is who takes care of the parents. As another background, it is suggested that a major war is going on far away in Europe. But the people gathered here look so unrelated to the great global shift, concerned only about their own lives and problems.
If theatre is a device to depict the vibrations of human minds, this piece may have been an attempt to reveal the minutest of such vibrations. I hope to present to the audience what vibrates quietly in the double chaos of the enormous conflict between nations and that in a family, the smallest unit of people in the 90's.
And from the programme notes
Hirata claims that modern theatre in Japan which started out by importing Western modern theater has also lead to playwriting governed by Western logic. Thus, he believes, writing styles and logical structures irrelevant to the Japanese language have been routine practiced, and in trying to give those irrelevant styles reality the actors have been forced into distroted acting styles too. This is the heat of Hirata's criticism of the conventional Japanese Theater
Instead of ostentatious ideas and tricks, Seinendan chooses a clear and firm theory to create the production in order to establish a new expression that can alter the framework of theater itself.
Now, this is something I would like to explore too, with regards to this region's traditional work of art and literature (or should I say, intellectual history?) But this is in another posting. (:
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
An Article on Technology
A piece I wrote some months back, titled "Ego and Technology", revised and is now published online in an Malay-language e-zine. My apologies for I do not the time to render it to English.
http://jalantelawi.com/esei/2006/06/ego-dan-teknologi.html
http://jalantelawi.com/esei/2006/06/ego-dan-teknologi.html
Broken
Days join nights in
siege of seasons;
requests for clearly defined
lines and rationales discarded like litter
lining the pathways strewn with mortal shards
and tears dried on hot tarmac, replenished with other torrents
spilled by soured sweetness.
An irreparable rent through the veil.
See that thread branded
like an ugly scab,
unlike baby skin it would
never heal.
Tragedies working like clockwork,
little tin soldiers ready to take turns in
battles unowned.
When nights join days,
black overrides white.
"Go", tin pawn, you commanded me,
"get on the ground with all the others"
but careless,
through choice or ignorance of
gnarled claws, serpent vines,
shadowed bodies
holding out patiently,
for that hideous embrace
in the deep.
siege of seasons;
requests for clearly defined
lines and rationales discarded like litter
lining the pathways strewn with mortal shards
and tears dried on hot tarmac, replenished with other torrents
spilled by soured sweetness.
An irreparable rent through the veil.
See that thread branded
like an ugly scab,
unlike baby skin it would
never heal.
Tragedies working like clockwork,
little tin soldiers ready to take turns in
battles unowned.
When nights join days,
black overrides white.
"Go", tin pawn, you commanded me,
"get on the ground with all the others"
but careless,
through choice or ignorance of
gnarled claws, serpent vines,
shadowed bodies
holding out patiently,
for that hideous embrace
in the deep.
Monday, June 26, 2006
"Human Trafficking" - the TV miniseries by Lifetime Network
I wanted to call it "The story of Woman objectified and abjectified" but I thought such a clunky, loaded title will just turn potential readers off. It is not for nothing I work in advertising. :D
Here it goes
It was really hard on me, but I forced myself to sit through four hours of this feature film. It is not because it is boring or long. Even a person with short attention span like myself could not tear myself away from this riveting show. It is not just good script and good story line. It is a subject that is very close to my heart. The story about the lives of women (and children) living under oppressive and dehumanising condition. The story of sexual slavery.
When I first came across this DVD, I realised that I must buy it, and get a friend to sit with me through it. And that friend has to be a woman. So that's what we did. Two of us, watching this tale that make you want to break down and cry many times. And it is particularly painful for a woman to watch the way other women are being treated. If you are already cynical and bitter about men, this is one show that would make you even more cynical of those sweet-talking, dashing charming "knight of charming armour" who is merely impatient for the time when he can get his reward by making you fall in love with him.
I dont' want to give more details, which I suggest you read here
http://www.maynardije.org/columns/guests/051024_sextrafficking/
But what I'll say is that the scenes are very intensed. And it makes me extremely incensed when I read newspaper articles and you have callous reporters saying that these women are indulging in "immoral" activities whenever there's a raid and some of these sex slaves were arrested. Yes, there are some women who enter into the flesh trade "willingly", though if you ask me, they are more in the range of high-class escort who have a say about who they will service or not, and can choose their own hours and days off. Who have full economic control and power over their own body. And this is only at the tip of the icing, which is like perhaps less than 1% of the overall women involve in the flesh trade. Most of the other women, in the words of Helena, the Czech woman tricked and sold into the trade by her "boyfriend", they are "bent backwards, raped, fisted, gouged, beaten up" and thrown around like ragdolls by both their pimps and "clients"
Please try and catch this and share this with your friends, students, families and everyone else, men or women. Be wary though of sharing it with children because it would certainly kill their innocence (though there are children involved in the making of the story). The lovely Mira Sorvino plays the rookie Kate Morozov, herself from a family of Russian immigrants with skeletons in the cupboard, is obssessed with breaking an international organized crime in sex trade run by a well-heeled, educated, and sophisticated Russian with a Masters Degree in Computer science, Sergei Karpovich, who earns millions in extra income by dehumanising women and children.
You can find out more about the movie here
Doesn't this remind you of the ordeal of the "comfort women" during the Japanese occupation in 1940s?
Also, slavery takes other forms, and it is not just women who suffer, but men. Indenture slavery is something that is not alien to Malaysia's history, and even under the feudal days prior to the British's coming, the feudal Malay lords had been known to enslave aborigines and their "serfs". More on that later.
Here it goes
It was really hard on me, but I forced myself to sit through four hours of this feature film. It is not because it is boring or long. Even a person with short attention span like myself could not tear myself away from this riveting show. It is not just good script and good story line. It is a subject that is very close to my heart. The story about the lives of women (and children) living under oppressive and dehumanising condition. The story of sexual slavery.
When I first came across this DVD, I realised that I must buy it, and get a friend to sit with me through it. And that friend has to be a woman. So that's what we did. Two of us, watching this tale that make you want to break down and cry many times. And it is particularly painful for a woman to watch the way other women are being treated. If you are already cynical and bitter about men, this is one show that would make you even more cynical of those sweet-talking, dashing charming "knight of charming armour" who is merely impatient for the time when he can get his reward by making you fall in love with him.
I dont' want to give more details, which I suggest you read here
http://www.maynardije.org/columns/guests/051024_sextrafficking/
But what I'll say is that the scenes are very intensed. And it makes me extremely incensed when I read newspaper articles and you have callous reporters saying that these women are indulging in "immoral" activities whenever there's a raid and some of these sex slaves were arrested. Yes, there are some women who enter into the flesh trade "willingly", though if you ask me, they are more in the range of high-class escort who have a say about who they will service or not, and can choose their own hours and days off. Who have full economic control and power over their own body. And this is only at the tip of the icing, which is like perhaps less than 1% of the overall women involve in the flesh trade. Most of the other women, in the words of Helena, the Czech woman tricked and sold into the trade by her "boyfriend", they are "bent backwards, raped, fisted, gouged, beaten up" and thrown around like ragdolls by both their pimps and "clients"
Please try and catch this and share this with your friends, students, families and everyone else, men or women. Be wary though of sharing it with children because it would certainly kill their innocence (though there are children involved in the making of the story). The lovely Mira Sorvino plays the rookie Kate Morozov, herself from a family of Russian immigrants with skeletons in the cupboard, is obssessed with breaking an international organized crime in sex trade run by a well-heeled, educated, and sophisticated Russian with a Masters Degree in Computer science, Sergei Karpovich, who earns millions in extra income by dehumanising women and children.
You can find out more about the movie here
Doesn't this remind you of the ordeal of the "comfort women" during the Japanese occupation in 1940s?
Also, slavery takes other forms, and it is not just women who suffer, but men. Indenture slavery is something that is not alien to Malaysia's history, and even under the feudal days prior to the British's coming, the feudal Malay lords had been known to enslave aborigines and their "serfs". More on that later.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Writing the personal
PART 1
For me, a blog is a place where I spill all my thoughts, and indulge in sessions of utter unreason. In other words, I do not have to keep to very rigid structure of coherence, and whatever that crosses my mind, that will come out. This is where I allow the usual adherence to the following of an argument into a logical conclusion go into hibernation :D
As some good friends had once told me, my thoughts are all over the place. Someone once suggested that I might perhaps be afflicted with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder). Another person, over lunch yesterday as we discussed a book project I am suppose to be working on now that the MA correction is over (yay, one milestone crossed!), suggested that I have the tendency to be 'derailed' in articulating my ideas and arguments. I think too many people in my life had been telling me that, including my boss, so it is about time I take a pro-active attitude towards it. Truth be told, I'm a lot better than before because of my experience in writing a MA thesis as well as working in advertising.
The problem with a multi-tasking personality like myself is sometimes, I lose the ability to really focus hard on something and look deeper into it. It's the Libran dilettante personality that I would need to shake off, if I really want to be successful in my goals. Instead of letting that risk-taker (though I think I've been a pretty mild risk-taker until recently, when I decided to let my prepondency to spontaneity and impulsiveness force me into something different)and restless soul in me be my bane, I should channel it into a positive energy that will allow me to contribute to both my own life and society.
PART II
Unlike some bloggers (except perhaps those writing in anonymity), I find it hard to lay bare my life for others to read. Namely, I won't write about my love life, my friends, what people say to me (specifically) or the goings-on in my work-life or in the social world I inhabit. Perhaps I might be able to do so in the safety of anonymity, but even then, I am still guarded about revealing all, and only people I trust will know that the person behind that pen-name is yours truly. That, should I need to write about it to exorcise any issues, is kept to a private journal read by none other but myself. In this particular blog, where I am known to my readers, especially those who know me personally, you will not get updates on my personal life, or that of the people around me. Occasionally, I do allude to them, but often in an impersonal way, mainly because I am very particular about my privacy and that of my friends. So what you read here would be the life of my mind, with occasional detours to the personal without revealing. In advertising, we say that it is saying it without naming it. (:
That reminds me, I think I should start reading up some books related to work since I've not been too bothered as I was busy preparing for a language test just earlier in the week, and had been so inundated with work-related projects. And then there were some issues with my computer connection.
Bon Soir!
For me, a blog is a place where I spill all my thoughts, and indulge in sessions of utter unreason. In other words, I do not have to keep to very rigid structure of coherence, and whatever that crosses my mind, that will come out. This is where I allow the usual adherence to the following of an argument into a logical conclusion go into hibernation :D
As some good friends had once told me, my thoughts are all over the place. Someone once suggested that I might perhaps be afflicted with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder). Another person, over lunch yesterday as we discussed a book project I am suppose to be working on now that the MA correction is over (yay, one milestone crossed!), suggested that I have the tendency to be 'derailed' in articulating my ideas and arguments. I think too many people in my life had been telling me that, including my boss, so it is about time I take a pro-active attitude towards it. Truth be told, I'm a lot better than before because of my experience in writing a MA thesis as well as working in advertising.
The problem with a multi-tasking personality like myself is sometimes, I lose the ability to really focus hard on something and look deeper into it. It's the Libran dilettante personality that I would need to shake off, if I really want to be successful in my goals. Instead of letting that risk-taker (though I think I've been a pretty mild risk-taker until recently, when I decided to let my prepondency to spontaneity and impulsiveness force me into something different)and restless soul in me be my bane, I should channel it into a positive energy that will allow me to contribute to both my own life and society.
PART II
Unlike some bloggers (except perhaps those writing in anonymity), I find it hard to lay bare my life for others to read. Namely, I won't write about my love life, my friends, what people say to me (specifically) or the goings-on in my work-life or in the social world I inhabit. Perhaps I might be able to do so in the safety of anonymity, but even then, I am still guarded about revealing all, and only people I trust will know that the person behind that pen-name is yours truly. That, should I need to write about it to exorcise any issues, is kept to a private journal read by none other but myself. In this particular blog, where I am known to my readers, especially those who know me personally, you will not get updates on my personal life, or that of the people around me. Occasionally, I do allude to them, but often in an impersonal way, mainly because I am very particular about my privacy and that of my friends. So what you read here would be the life of my mind, with occasional detours to the personal without revealing. In advertising, we say that it is saying it without naming it. (:
That reminds me, I think I should start reading up some books related to work since I've not been too bothered as I was busy preparing for a language test just earlier in the week, and had been so inundated with work-related projects. And then there were some issues with my computer connection.
Bon Soir!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Getting that direction right
Big changes are coming my way as things that had been pending are finally moving on and resolving themselves, in one way or another. I would not say that everything is easily resolved at the moment, but it is great feeling to know that what had seemed like a process of extended anxiety, worry, frustrations and such negative images are beginning to dissipate as things take a more concrete form. Yes I do have many other issues pending but with the big ones moving forward, it becomes easier to get the rest rolling. What I need now is real time, for myself, to do just that. With work piling up, and the ability to just clear the thoughts to hammer away at the keyboard (now that's another issue I have to work on because my computer at home just died this morning :() and produce those stuff I'd been trying to find time to put together. This weekend will be spent mostly in putting in the finishing touches and revision to my thesis before the final submission, based on the reports of both my external and internal examiner. Yes, a lot of work just for an MA thesis, but well-justified when I can finally use it as a passport to the next turn ahead.
The month between now and Sept would be filled with turning points. Sept is when I will be able to make a firm decision of my direction for next year onwards. Before that, I need to lay the many ghosts of my past to rest. These next few months, perhaps until the end of the year, will be all about me, as well as the work I intend to do or am in the process of doing. Having started the ball rolling on working out personal issues that had haunted me, I will put new entries into that aspect of my life on hold until I am more than halfway to doing what I really need to get done, workwise, and tying up certain loose-ends.
Some might say that I'm taking an extreme route, but those who understand why I have to do it this way will see why I am doing it the way I do. Geddit? :D But at least, the crisis I've had been facing from all aspects, since perhaps late last year, are building up momentum towards a final resolution, and things feel positive, at the point, despite there being many little things going wrong that will try even the patience of a saint. I don't know why, but I am feeling more at peace and optimistic than I'd ever been in a long time. I don't know the reason. I have had my down moments, but somehow, they no longer seem so bad.
But I will be taking an entire week off sometime next month. With some things out of the way, I think I deserve that break. No idea where I'll be going yet but it will be within budget. A retreat for me to write and think about some other important things as well.
So I better get cracking with work so I can get into my boss's good books :D
Cheers all!
The month between now and Sept would be filled with turning points. Sept is when I will be able to make a firm decision of my direction for next year onwards. Before that, I need to lay the many ghosts of my past to rest. These next few months, perhaps until the end of the year, will be all about me, as well as the work I intend to do or am in the process of doing. Having started the ball rolling on working out personal issues that had haunted me, I will put new entries into that aspect of my life on hold until I am more than halfway to doing what I really need to get done, workwise, and tying up certain loose-ends.
Some might say that I'm taking an extreme route, but those who understand why I have to do it this way will see why I am doing it the way I do. Geddit? :D But at least, the crisis I've had been facing from all aspects, since perhaps late last year, are building up momentum towards a final resolution, and things feel positive, at the point, despite there being many little things going wrong that will try even the patience of a saint. I don't know why, but I am feeling more at peace and optimistic than I'd ever been in a long time. I don't know the reason. I have had my down moments, but somehow, they no longer seem so bad.
But I will be taking an entire week off sometime next month. With some things out of the way, I think I deserve that break. No idea where I'll be going yet but it will be within budget. A retreat for me to write and think about some other important things as well.
So I better get cracking with work so I can get into my boss's good books :D
Cheers all!
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
La Deniere Weekend
La soir du Samedi, je recontre mon ami pour dîner à un restaurant. Il a été joue au golf avant ςa.
Friday, June 16, 2006
A good write-up on Pramoedya Ananta Toer at
http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/people/MDg3Mg.html
Can't post much now as work is inundating. :|
Can't post much now as work is inundating. :|
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Bad Science
I have recently begun to write again about science and technology, which had been my first love, and I still profess a strong affection for it. And it is also recently that I've started to read again the news and goings-on in the science world. And this is one cool column I would like to recommend to everyone :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/
It speaks to the ordinary person, and allows a non-specialist, or a non-interested party to see the drama that goes on when science gets mixed up with pseudo-science.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/
It speaks to the ordinary person, and allows a non-specialist, or a non-interested party to see the drama that goes on when science gets mixed up with pseudo-science.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Now I know why
...my opening paragraphs are so very unenticing. (:
I've been attending a copywriter workshop at a small outfit in Kuala Lumpur, and while I've learnt quite a bit from the feedback, I've also learnt how to start analysing myself more stringently. The latter has to do with self-awareness more than anything else.
As my boss always says, and as my former senior writer also says, I have to be ever more brutal in editing every word and sentence, which I sometimes fail to do , due to a lack of consistent discipline. But if I can master the art of writing a piece that will capture attention, when the last thing you want to read in newspapers are advertisements (unless you are already interested in that particular product or category of product), it will help me even if I do other forms of writing. And I am beginning to be more observant of flaws that my own writing has. And it moves beyond grammar and sentence construction. It is so easy for me to write flabbily when I have not completely mastered the art of self-discipline.
So, even if your first draft is the outpourings of your soul and mind, the final draft has to be poised, well-groomed and crafted, without losing the soul and spirit of that story. Difficult to achieve eh? Somehow,learning how to be flexible will definitely stand me in good stead as I give flavour to my writing style, as well as to my characters.
I've also become more creative nowadays, and I think, copywriting can be a great stimulation tool, if used correctly. Now, I need to do more yoga to channel that inner resource more productively.
And if it seems I have said this all before, yeah I have, just rewriting it to remind myself. (:
I've been attending a copywriter workshop at a small outfit in Kuala Lumpur, and while I've learnt quite a bit from the feedback, I've also learnt how to start analysing myself more stringently. The latter has to do with self-awareness more than anything else.
As my boss always says, and as my former senior writer also says, I have to be ever more brutal in editing every word and sentence, which I sometimes fail to do , due to a lack of consistent discipline. But if I can master the art of writing a piece that will capture attention, when the last thing you want to read in newspapers are advertisements (unless you are already interested in that particular product or category of product), it will help me even if I do other forms of writing. And I am beginning to be more observant of flaws that my own writing has. And it moves beyond grammar and sentence construction. It is so easy for me to write flabbily when I have not completely mastered the art of self-discipline.
So, even if your first draft is the outpourings of your soul and mind, the final draft has to be poised, well-groomed and crafted, without losing the soul and spirit of that story. Difficult to achieve eh? Somehow,learning how to be flexible will definitely stand me in good stead as I give flavour to my writing style, as well as to my characters.
I've also become more creative nowadays, and I think, copywriting can be a great stimulation tool, if used correctly. Now, I need to do more yoga to channel that inner resource more productively.
And if it seems I have said this all before, yeah I have, just rewriting it to remind myself. (:
Friday, June 09, 2006
A little silver in the lining
Just when I thought that most things are going rather badly in my life, there are a few good things happening that I can look forward to, even though they are not quite going on in the way I'd envisioned, but still, they are still good things.
Firstly, just when I thought my creative spirit is in the dwindle, I've decided to explore another way of writing that might perhaps be another path around to what I've always wanted to achieve. Despite my frustrations many a times, I realised that what I have to go through right now is actually very good training ground, for me not only to sharpen the technical skills, but also to find my voice and spirit. In the noise of life, much has been buried, and the focus blurred. But by being forced to do what I have to do, I become more brutal with my thoughts, my ideas and the way I convey them. I also learn more about my limitations, about the skills I have or lack, about weaknesses that I can compensate for and strengths I can draw on.
One of my poems is going to be published, for the third time, but in a daily that is read by a large majority of the population of Malaysia, from the urban towns to the rural margins. I will not say more until the actual day itself. It is not very great but it is still an achievement of sorts. A little one at this point. In a way, it fulfilled a childhood dream that I had, though of course, being much older and wiser, I no longer have the same kind of excitement I would have had as a teenager, should that had happened then.
I am also beginning to realise the naivety with which I'd approached writing in the past, and how I'd written pieces without giving them the kind of thought I should have, or how I had been delusional in thinking that this particular kind of writing is considered good writing. By getting bumped and bruised, and keeping whatever bloated ego I have under control, and taking brutal criticism as a learning point, and being willing to see them through rather than push them under the carpet, I am beginning to find the location of my muse.
And I realise, I am not alone, for many others share the same harrowing path, but managed to come out triumphant.
There is another good news but that one I'll have to wait til the week after next to say anything more. (:
Firstly, just when I thought my creative spirit is in the dwindle, I've decided to explore another way of writing that might perhaps be another path around to what I've always wanted to achieve. Despite my frustrations many a times, I realised that what I have to go through right now is actually very good training ground, for me not only to sharpen the technical skills, but also to find my voice and spirit. In the noise of life, much has been buried, and the focus blurred. But by being forced to do what I have to do, I become more brutal with my thoughts, my ideas and the way I convey them. I also learn more about my limitations, about the skills I have or lack, about weaknesses that I can compensate for and strengths I can draw on.
One of my poems is going to be published, for the third time, but in a daily that is read by a large majority of the population of Malaysia, from the urban towns to the rural margins. I will not say more until the actual day itself. It is not very great but it is still an achievement of sorts. A little one at this point. In a way, it fulfilled a childhood dream that I had, though of course, being much older and wiser, I no longer have the same kind of excitement I would have had as a teenager, should that had happened then.
I am also beginning to realise the naivety with which I'd approached writing in the past, and how I'd written pieces without giving them the kind of thought I should have, or how I had been delusional in thinking that this particular kind of writing is considered good writing. By getting bumped and bruised, and keeping whatever bloated ego I have under control, and taking brutal criticism as a learning point, and being willing to see them through rather than push them under the carpet, I am beginning to find the location of my muse.
And I realise, I am not alone, for many others share the same harrowing path, but managed to come out triumphant.
There is another good news but that one I'll have to wait til the week after next to say anything more. (:
The Observations by Jane Harris
This is my version. I did pick up a mistake that I am glad that the sub-editor has spotted that, when I said "lived-in" instead of "live-in" *blush*
And I decided to use the past-tense because I wanted to tell it as an event of the past (as befitting a period piece, in my mind) though of course it is also ok to use the present tense, as is used in most feature articles nowadays (it's the fad and suppose to make the event more vivid and alive). So the review in The Star was rewritten into a present tense. Not by me though :)
Oh, and mine is the uncut version. So erm, if you want a simplified one, read the one in The Star. (:
Here it is if you want it
http://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/6/9/lifebookshelf/14315989&sec=lifebookshelf
I daresay I'll love to read more of Jane Harris's work (:
More book reviews coming up as and when I have time to read. Now am reading a very intriguing non-fiction book that I will also review.
If anyone has got more review suggestions, I am all for it. The quirkier the better.
____________________________________________________________________________________
The Observations
By Jane Harris
Faber and Faber, Ltd (2006), 415 pages.
Review by Clarissa Lee
Set in the lowlands of Scotland sometime in the late nineteenth century, this period novel features an extraordinary story about people who would have been unmemorable under normal circumstances. But that is just it. The circumstances weren’t very normal, or at least, the narrator, a witty and highly intelligent servant girl who only learnt how to read and write in her early teens, had painted a very vivid picture of high farce and dark drama in humanity through the retelling of her short but bittersweet past.
Bessy (or Daisy, her actual given name) Buckley, wrote the story from the vantage view of more mature years (her late teens), begun her tale with her running away from Glasgow after having been evicted from the home of her sugar daddy by the sugar daddy’s estranged brother upon the former’s death. In making her way to Edinburgh, she chanced upon an estate by the name of Castle Haivers, which initially set her imagination afire, as well as the mistress of the land, whom she first saw chasing after a pig. The estate was where most of the action unfolded. Bessy, despite her tender years (she was around fourteen to sixteen) was not so innocent because her mother, Bridget, had forced her into the flesh trade when the latter was perhaps only around nine years of age. Yes, you might be shock to find that out as you read on, for, among the depraved acts her mother forced her to commit, was lesbian (incestuous) sex with the former just to meet the demands of paying customers who were oblivious of their relations. Though Bessy was very ashamed of her past, her strength of character and optimistic approach to whatever befell marked her as a survivor of the highest order. Despite her self-deriding comments that she was unexposed to the company of society, she had actually seen more of society than was good for her, and was robbed of innocence at a fairly young age.
Illiterate until she became the live-in lover (or as she puts it, “hearts companion”) of a wealthy but elderly Jewish businessman, her idyllic world was soon shattered and she had to look for a “position” elsewhere. A highly imaginative girl who was very fond of reading, she had a real head for words, being able to make up her own songs without much effort, only to find one of her efforts stolen by a tenant farmer with literary pretensions. Bessy, or Harris, had a real ear for idioms and turn of phrase, effortlessly interspersing in the colourful local dialects of the servants and working class with the more refined speech of the gentry. Bessy’s mistress, Arabella Reid, was writing a book about the servant class, and had thus undertook rather strange experiments with each of her maids that were simultaneously hilarious and disturbing to the persons ignorant of her purpose. Each of her maids had been instructed to keep a daily journal for her perusal and Bessy was no exception. Perhaps it was here that Bessy developed her first interest in writing. Despite her young age, Bessy had the uncanny knack of telling chaff from wheat in her dealings with the people around her.
Being a highly curious girl, as well as highly interested in her mistress’s doings, Bessy had stumbled upon the notes while her mistress was out for the night with the husband. After finding out the reasons behind Arabella’s strange behaviour, Bessy was crestfallen to find that the former had dug out a past that the latter preferred to conceal. Bessy also became enraged when she found that Arabella had thought her rather clingy and had thus noted down her (Arabella’s) intention of avoiding the former as much as she could. In discovering her mistress’s obsession with Nora, a maid who had died under mysterious circumstances, she found a way to exact her revenge, but with terrible consequences that changed both their lives forever.
I do not wish to spoil the thrill of the denouement in this exciting story by prematurely giving away the plot. Needless to say, the most intriguing character in the novel is the narrator herself. The care that had gone into the shaping of the narrator’s voice (with carefully planted grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes, and regular reversions to the colloquial tongue) and character made the story come to live for the reader, while simultaneously ingratiating him or her into the world of the characters without much authorial interference. Because Harris has placed Bessy as the voice of authority, it is therefore up to the reader to choose whether to believe her story or not.
In conclusion, I daresay that this novel is as much a critique on the kind of society that victimised women, one that want control of their sexuality yet cast them aside like used rags once their existence is considered too scandalous for patriarchal authority. It is unfortunate that women also became abusers of other women (even of their own kin), as shown in the example of Bessy and her Bridget. One cannot help thinking, were it not for her unfortunate circumstances that Bessy would had achieved much in life, had she been given the same access to education as a gentleman. Her prodigious memory, her acute perceptions, her ability to pick up instructions quickly, and her gift for composition, would had made her a renowned woman of letters.
It is also a story about madness caused by a helpless existence that had almost the flavour of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. But more importantly, it is a story about courage, love and loyalty that transcends the limitations of society and time.
(945 words)
And I decided to use the past-tense because I wanted to tell it as an event of the past (as befitting a period piece, in my mind) though of course it is also ok to use the present tense, as is used in most feature articles nowadays (it's the fad and suppose to make the event more vivid and alive). So the review in The Star was rewritten into a present tense. Not by me though :)
Oh, and mine is the uncut version. So erm, if you want a simplified one, read the one in The Star. (:
Here it is if you want it
http://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/6/9/lifebookshelf/14315989&sec=lifebookshelf
I daresay I'll love to read more of Jane Harris's work (:
More book reviews coming up as and when I have time to read. Now am reading a very intriguing non-fiction book that I will also review.
If anyone has got more review suggestions, I am all for it. The quirkier the better.
____________________________________________________________________________________
The Observations
By Jane Harris
Faber and Faber, Ltd (2006), 415 pages.
Review by Clarissa Lee
Set in the lowlands of Scotland sometime in the late nineteenth century, this period novel features an extraordinary story about people who would have been unmemorable under normal circumstances. But that is just it. The circumstances weren’t very normal, or at least, the narrator, a witty and highly intelligent servant girl who only learnt how to read and write in her early teens, had painted a very vivid picture of high farce and dark drama in humanity through the retelling of her short but bittersweet past.
Bessy (or Daisy, her actual given name) Buckley, wrote the story from the vantage view of more mature years (her late teens), begun her tale with her running away from Glasgow after having been evicted from the home of her sugar daddy by the sugar daddy’s estranged brother upon the former’s death. In making her way to Edinburgh, she chanced upon an estate by the name of Castle Haivers, which initially set her imagination afire, as well as the mistress of the land, whom she first saw chasing after a pig. The estate was where most of the action unfolded. Bessy, despite her tender years (she was around fourteen to sixteen) was not so innocent because her mother, Bridget, had forced her into the flesh trade when the latter was perhaps only around nine years of age. Yes, you might be shock to find that out as you read on, for, among the depraved acts her mother forced her to commit, was lesbian (incestuous) sex with the former just to meet the demands of paying customers who were oblivious of their relations. Though Bessy was very ashamed of her past, her strength of character and optimistic approach to whatever befell marked her as a survivor of the highest order. Despite her self-deriding comments that she was unexposed to the company of society, she had actually seen more of society than was good for her, and was robbed of innocence at a fairly young age.
Illiterate until she became the live-in lover (or as she puts it, “hearts companion”) of a wealthy but elderly Jewish businessman, her idyllic world was soon shattered and she had to look for a “position” elsewhere. A highly imaginative girl who was very fond of reading, she had a real head for words, being able to make up her own songs without much effort, only to find one of her efforts stolen by a tenant farmer with literary pretensions. Bessy, or Harris, had a real ear for idioms and turn of phrase, effortlessly interspersing in the colourful local dialects of the servants and working class with the more refined speech of the gentry. Bessy’s mistress, Arabella Reid, was writing a book about the servant class, and had thus undertook rather strange experiments with each of her maids that were simultaneously hilarious and disturbing to the persons ignorant of her purpose. Each of her maids had been instructed to keep a daily journal for her perusal and Bessy was no exception. Perhaps it was here that Bessy developed her first interest in writing. Despite her young age, Bessy had the uncanny knack of telling chaff from wheat in her dealings with the people around her.
Being a highly curious girl, as well as highly interested in her mistress’s doings, Bessy had stumbled upon the notes while her mistress was out for the night with the husband. After finding out the reasons behind Arabella’s strange behaviour, Bessy was crestfallen to find that the former had dug out a past that the latter preferred to conceal. Bessy also became enraged when she found that Arabella had thought her rather clingy and had thus noted down her (Arabella’s) intention of avoiding the former as much as she could. In discovering her mistress’s obsession with Nora, a maid who had died under mysterious circumstances, she found a way to exact her revenge, but with terrible consequences that changed both their lives forever.
I do not wish to spoil the thrill of the denouement in this exciting story by prematurely giving away the plot. Needless to say, the most intriguing character in the novel is the narrator herself. The care that had gone into the shaping of the narrator’s voice (with carefully planted grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes, and regular reversions to the colloquial tongue) and character made the story come to live for the reader, while simultaneously ingratiating him or her into the world of the characters without much authorial interference. Because Harris has placed Bessy as the voice of authority, it is therefore up to the reader to choose whether to believe her story or not.
In conclusion, I daresay that this novel is as much a critique on the kind of society that victimised women, one that want control of their sexuality yet cast them aside like used rags once their existence is considered too scandalous for patriarchal authority. It is unfortunate that women also became abusers of other women (even of their own kin), as shown in the example of Bessy and her Bridget. One cannot help thinking, were it not for her unfortunate circumstances that Bessy would had achieved much in life, had she been given the same access to education as a gentleman. Her prodigious memory, her acute perceptions, her ability to pick up instructions quickly, and her gift for composition, would had made her a renowned woman of letters.
It is also a story about madness caused by a helpless existence that had almost the flavour of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. But more importantly, it is a story about courage, love and loyalty that transcends the limitations of society and time.
(945 words)
Finally
I can post on this blog, after a downtime of almost three days. Only problem is, I don't have time to say much, though I do have a lot to say.
Firstly, I've been doing a lot of thinking over the weekend (when I am not out or with someone or catching up on lost sleep) and am coming ever more closer to the direction I am going to take, whether in my personal life or my career (and my career spans everything from my day job to my vocation). I had begun on a writing project which I realise will soon take a better part of my freetime, and my thinking space. Which is fine, because as of now, I have very little desire to be socially active, and only crave the occasional company of people whose presence I enjoy and who are themselves a source of enriching experiences, without trying hard.
Apparently, the great Goenawan, poet laureate of Indonesia, will be in KL this week. I've read his works, thanks to a friend who first introduced him to me, and then another who loan me his collection of poetry. So anyone who is in KL should go meet the man himself, because, if I ever write Malay poetry, he is the example that I would most take. I will post the details in the News and Updates section.
And I will also post a review I did that came out in the Star. I prefer my own version, because I didn't really like the editing in the one published. My sentences seemed rather choppy and the fluidity lost. But I will post you the link, in case you prefer to read the newspaper's version. And for writers who want to learn the art of speaking while writing, this is a good and entertaining book to learn from.
Firstly, I've been doing a lot of thinking over the weekend (when I am not out or with someone or catching up on lost sleep) and am coming ever more closer to the direction I am going to take, whether in my personal life or my career (and my career spans everything from my day job to my vocation). I had begun on a writing project which I realise will soon take a better part of my freetime, and my thinking space. Which is fine, because as of now, I have very little desire to be socially active, and only crave the occasional company of people whose presence I enjoy and who are themselves a source of enriching experiences, without trying hard.
Apparently, the great Goenawan, poet laureate of Indonesia, will be in KL this week. I've read his works, thanks to a friend who first introduced him to me, and then another who loan me his collection of poetry. So anyone who is in KL should go meet the man himself, because, if I ever write Malay poetry, he is the example that I would most take. I will post the details in the News and Updates section.
And I will also post a review I did that came out in the Star. I prefer my own version, because I didn't really like the editing in the one published. My sentences seemed rather choppy and the fluidity lost. But I will post you the link, in case you prefer to read the newspaper's version. And for writers who want to learn the art of speaking while writing, this is a good and entertaining book to learn from.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
6.06.2006
Not enough six to make the 6666, that we will have to wait another 60 years. :D I'll be a haggard crone by then, if I am still alive at that time.
Anyway, pardon the shallow post but this is all I can think of at this point. So much work at work, especially now that I am the only copywriter (though there's an intern to help out). Arrghh
*hides head under sand*
Da World CUP is here. Ok, don't know why I'm excited about that but I sure am gonna catch some of the matches. My time to switch off into a different mode.
Anyway, pardon the shallow post but this is all I can think of at this point. So much work at work, especially now that I am the only copywriter (though there's an intern to help out). Arrghh
*hides head under sand*
Da World CUP is here. Ok, don't know why I'm excited about that but I sure am gonna catch some of the matches. My time to switch off into a different mode.
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