Friday, September 28, 2007

Something I hope you'll want to read

I hope you'll accept this invitation to visit my new blog. I will be talking mostly about books and movies there.  Unlike the quick reviews and comments I offer here on this blog, I hope to give more extensive thoughts on various works, and to host more interesting discussions.

One of the places where I'd hope to see more participation is on my entry calling for suggestions of books that offer good reads about a particular place.  I've made two such entries, one filled with books about Singapore and the other with books about Shanghai.  If you have found some good books that speak well to a specific place, post a review, drop me a comment at the new blog, and I will add you to the index.

Hope to see you there!
Posted by poetically challenged at 07:36:51 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Cyril Wong

This was first posted on another of my blogs, which is now (sadly) defunct

 


Singapore has a growing arts scene, and some of the poetry produced here reflects a sophisticated understanding of how poetry works and what it is all about. Cyril Wong is one of the young poets that I have encountered who seems to show a lot of promise for the direction of Singapore poetry.

Wong has been called “our first confessional poet,” and has met with much acclaim from the Literature Department at the National University of Singapore. There has been a great deal of enthusiasm, of course, in such circles over the rise of a body of poetry that is truly Singaporean.

Wong speaks with a voice that is accessible to “outsiders,” but seems to hold a uniquely Singaporean flavor. He incorporates his Chinese culture beautifully into his English poetry. This is a wonderful representation of how young Singaporeans have grown up, as if they are a part of two distinct worlds at the same time, and have somehow found a way to blend them.

Wong’s topics are diverse. In thinking through a lover’s quarrel, he writes of Sun Tzu. He talks of cockroaches, of family, of empty corridors and elevators in the high rise apartment buildings which characterize Singapore’s landscape. He writes passionately about love, about the city, about family, and about writing.

Wong’s books are not presently available online at Amazon or B&N. However, I am in contact with the publisher, and could try to help if anyone would like to order copies of his volumes of poetry:

Squatting Quietly, 2000 (ISBN: 981-04-2826)
The End of His Orbit, 2001 (ISBN: 981-04-4329-3)

I am one of those who is enthusiastic about the direction of Singaporean poetry. I will try to introduce another local poet or two over the next few days.

Some Singapore-related reading:

Lord Jim: A Tale
Lord Jim: A Tale

Tales from the South China Seas: Images of the British in South-East Asia in the 20th Century

Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (Lonely Planet Travel Series)
Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (Lonely Planet Travel Series)

 

Posted by poetically challenged at 09:37:03 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The House of Memory

I just got back from Shanghai, and while there, I was able to do something that I like to practice -- to read a book about the place I was visiting.

The House of Memory, by Nicholas Clifford, is  a very interesting story.  Clifford's background is as a historian.  This showed sometimes in a writing style that was not quite what I normally would associate with fiction, but it made for quite an interesting read.  I have read a number of Shanghai-based stories, fiction and non-fiction, and this ranks very high amongst its peers.

Clifford ties in Shanghai's history in the 1920s with the events of 1989, when the students were protesting in (and eventually driven out of) Tiananmen Square.  I checked with some of my local friends to find out the accuracy of the things presented in the tale concerning the 1989 events -- whether this was really how things were reported in Shanghai, etc.  (This is something my friends and I have discussed many times -- they were university students during that period, as was I.)  I do know that reprts of students' deaths in Beijing were quite surpressed in other parts of China, and that there was a good deal of confusion regarding what had happened.  That was quite well-captured in the book.

One thing that was also there, but you might have to read between the lines to get it, is that in the minds of those who lived through the events of 1989, Tiananmen is not as major an event as it is to many Westerners.  It is not that they see it as completely insignificant, but that it is not as overwhelming when seen against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution, which was a much more devastating event in the lives of most Chinese of that generation.  Those who see the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989 as a huge-scale event are probably those who have fled overseas (i.e., leaders of that movement).  But for those who remained in China, it was a bad thing, but not the worst thing they'd lived through up to that point.  

I enjoyed the way the novel set the 1989 events against a look at another time in China's history, and focused it on Shanghai's role in that history.  The 1920s were an exciting time, with the winds of change sweeping across the land.  For all that it was a brutal and unkind era, it was an important one too.  The House of Memory does a very nice job situating that time period, and showing how subsequent history might be viewed a little differently when that era is kept in view.
Posted by poetically challenged at 07:47:04 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, September 14, 2007

Books and Culture

When I travel, I usually carry (at least) one book that I plan to give away when I finish with it.  I like to try to read something either about the place where I am traveling, or by someone from that place.  It doesn't always work out that way, but it is a nice thing to attempt.  In addition to the book(s) I carry with me, I bring back issues of periodicals that I haven't yet gotten time to read.

I've spent the past ten days or so in Shanghai, and finished Nicholas Clifford's The House of Memories (a novel about Shanghai) pretty quickly after I got here.  I've spent the rest of my time here touching up on The Tempest (on which I will lecture next week) and catching up on the past few issues of Books and Culture.

Books and Culture is one of my favorite periodicals.  It is usually full of insightful articles, and there is always at least one in each issue that seems to stick in my mind for some time.  I've already found myself in the past few days discussing articles from the issues of Books and Culture I've been reading with a friend -- articles about Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and a book review by Alan Jacobs about the process (and purpose) of reading novels.  I think these will be articles I will continue to think about and discuss for some time.

I think it is rare to find a periodical as well-made as Books and Culture, especially one intended for such a wide audience.  I am really enjoying the time to get caught up on it (I am behind by a couple of issues, still).  If it's one you've not read yet, you might enjoy picking up a copy.  But be careful -- it might make you think.
Posted by poetically challenged at 04:48:39 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust

I just finished reading Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust yesterday.  There are enough surprising twists to make the book an interesting read.  I really liked the way the complacency of the family depicted was disrupted, and how they were ultimately destroyed by their complacency.  The interweaving of elements of Gothic fiction was just icing on the cake, really.

I have read several novels by the Waugh brothers, this one just being the latest in a line of their novels that I've read over the years.  I don't often love their books, but there generally is enough there to make them interesting enough to read.  There usually will be something worth further thought somewhere on the pages of the books.

One of the things I always enjoy is reading about the places that Waugh (whichever brothers novel I happen to be reading at the time) traveled, and seeing those places through such different eyes than what we might today.  The attitudes of colonialism are so prevalent on the pages, even when those attitudes are being mocked, that it is well worth reading novels by the Waugh brothers just to gain a better understanding of an age now past.  One of the first stories I ever picked up by the Waugh brothers was Alec's The Fatal Game.  I bought it simply because it was set in Dominica, and so few books ever are.  Having spent some time there myself as a teenager, this intrigued me.  It was interesting, in that book, to see how different some things are today (or, rather, 15 years ago, when I was last in Dominica), and yet how much things never really change.

A Handful of Dust is well worth the time it takes to read.  It is easily read, and it is engaging.  It has been a fun read for me.
Posted by poetically challenged at 02:41:51 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday, September 01, 2007

A Home of Its Own (peregrine online)

I am migrating my travel blog to a site called Peregrine Online. I know, ironic, huh? Well, it seemed like the thing to do, putting it on its own domain.

I will be writing about the same sorts of things I always have, travel around Singapore, China, and other parts of Asia, as well as other spots I've been around the globe.

I'm adding in another section to the blog, which is more on life in Singapore and Shanghai, especially with tips for foreigners staying in one place or the other (I split my time between the two, though I was brought up in the US).

Hope you'll stop by to see me there.

Posted by poetically challenged at 07:31:32 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |