Stuff, and meme
(A) Missed Hikago Day. Missed a large part of May, really due to work and apathy. Though I still wondered how Hikaru and Akira (Shindou and Touya) would be like in 2018.
(B) Trying to hop back into fandom, or at least LJ/DW posting. Have a rec:
Inference, Lin Chen POV, Mei Changsu aka Su Zhe, retrospective, Nirvana in Fire, by aboxthecolouroftheheartache, and the sequel Accession.
(C) I visited Vietnam! Hanoi for only 1.5 days, 1 day at Halong Bay and 3 glorious days in Sapa (or Sa Pa). I do love mountains. Wasn't in the best of shape to actually go trekking/hiking (took the cable car to Fansipan), but took many walks and climbed loads of steps. Saw the rice terraces up close. Regret not buying more local Hmong handicrafts because they were really, really pretty and the design aesthetic suits my taste.
(D) There's this book meme. I might have done something similar before, so this time I'll do the entry that corresponds with the date of posting. So for today:
23. Made to read at school.
It's tempting to re-visit my first experience of Shakespeare because that seems so high-falutin' but on second thought I just feel embarrassed that I first read Shakespeare only when I was fifteen, and it was Romeo & Juliet, at that. (It was glorious, by the way.)
So.
Village By the Sea, Anita Desai.
Required reading for secondary 2 literature class.
It felt a lot like a fairy tale. Hari, the eldest son of a family in a village, goes to the big city to make his fortune (actually to join in a protest, then missed the bus for home) and is rewarded with friends and even picks up the skills of watch repair. In the meantime, his sister Lila who is back home and tasked with caring for younger siblings (mother ill, father drunk) somehow, luckily, find kindness and help from a wealthy family that moves nearby. When Hari returns home, even though life in the village has changed, he can use his watch repair skills. In the meantime his mother has received medical attention and recovered and his father has... reformed?
I was pretty skeptical about the events. Which is a bit weird because my life at fourteen was pretty uneventful and stable and my parents were great and most of my classmates' lives were good and uneventful too. That is to say, in my limited life experience, there was nothing to make me think that of course a boy going out to the big city was not going to do anything but make good and that a girl as the head of a household in a village was not going to make a success of it. But I couldn't believe that it went as smoothly as that. I kept waiting for something worse to happen, I think, than the struggles with daily activities of living. The mum didn't die, and dad even reformed, which was the single most irrelevant development, because Hari and Lila couldn't go back to being children anymore. The parts that stayed with me were when the author portrayed cynicism of the other characters, such as in their anger and helplessness towards an indifferent government. ("Do you think the government has eyes and can see? Do you think the government has ears and can hear?" /quotation from memory)
It made me a bit meh about Anita Desai's books. I liked the writing, which was vivid and comforting to read, but the way events unfolded weren't... I dunno, melodramatic or tragic enough for me? I was reading two rather extreme genres at that point: sci-fi and teenage romances, which may account for it.
Other themes
1. Favorite book from childhood
2. Best Bargain
3. One with a blue cover.
4. Least favorite book by favorite author
5. Doesn't belong to me.
6. The one I always give as a gift.
7. Forgot I owned it.
8. Have more than one copy.
9. Film or tv tie-in.
10. Reminds me of someone I love.
11. Second hand bookshop gem.
12. I pretend to have read it.
13. Makes me laugh.
14. An old favorite.
15. Favorite Fictional Father
16. Can’t believe more people haven’t read it.
17. Future classic
18. Bought on a recommendation.
19. Still can't stop talking about it.
20. Favorite cover.
21. Summer read.
22. Out of print.
23. Made to read at school.
24. Hooked me into reading.
25. Never finished it.
26. Should have sold more copies.
27. Want to be one of the characters.
28. Bought at my fave independent bookshop.
29. The one I have reread most often.
30. Would save if my house burned down.
This entry was originally posted at https://issenllo.dreamwidth.org/77615.html. Comment either here or there.
(B) Trying to hop back into fandom, or at least LJ/DW posting. Have a rec:
Inference, Lin Chen POV, Mei Changsu aka Su Zhe, retrospective, Nirvana in Fire, by aboxthecolouroftheheartache, and the sequel Accession.
(C) I visited Vietnam! Hanoi for only 1.5 days, 1 day at Halong Bay and 3 glorious days in Sapa (or Sa Pa). I do love mountains. Wasn't in the best of shape to actually go trekking/hiking (took the cable car to Fansipan), but took many walks and climbed loads of steps. Saw the rice terraces up close. Regret not buying more local Hmong handicrafts because they were really, really pretty and the design aesthetic suits my taste.
(D) There's this book meme. I might have done something similar before, so this time I'll do the entry that corresponds with the date of posting. So for today:
23. Made to read at school.
It's tempting to re-visit my first experience of Shakespeare because that seems so high-falutin' but on second thought I just feel embarrassed that I first read Shakespeare only when I was fifteen, and it was Romeo & Juliet, at that. (It was glorious, by the way.)
So.
Village By the Sea, Anita Desai.
Required reading for secondary 2 literature class.
It felt a lot like a fairy tale. Hari, the eldest son of a family in a village, goes to the big city to make his fortune (actually to join in a protest, then missed the bus for home) and is rewarded with friends and even picks up the skills of watch repair. In the meantime, his sister Lila who is back home and tasked with caring for younger siblings (mother ill, father drunk) somehow, luckily, find kindness and help from a wealthy family that moves nearby. When Hari returns home, even though life in the village has changed, he can use his watch repair skills. In the meantime his mother has received medical attention and recovered and his father has... reformed?
I was pretty skeptical about the events. Which is a bit weird because my life at fourteen was pretty uneventful and stable and my parents were great and most of my classmates' lives were good and uneventful too. That is to say, in my limited life experience, there was nothing to make me think that of course a boy going out to the big city was not going to do anything but make good and that a girl as the head of a household in a village was not going to make a success of it. But I couldn't believe that it went as smoothly as that. I kept waiting for something worse to happen, I think, than the struggles with daily activities of living. The mum didn't die, and dad even reformed, which was the single most irrelevant development, because Hari and Lila couldn't go back to being children anymore. The parts that stayed with me were when the author portrayed cynicism of the other characters, such as in their anger and helplessness towards an indifferent government. ("Do you think the government has eyes and can see? Do you think the government has ears and can hear?" /quotation from memory)
It made me a bit meh about Anita Desai's books. I liked the writing, which was vivid and comforting to read, but the way events unfolded weren't... I dunno, melodramatic or tragic enough for me? I was reading two rather extreme genres at that point: sci-fi and teenage romances, which may account for it.
Other themes
1. Favorite book from childhood
2. Best Bargain
3. One with a blue cover.
4. Least favorite book by favorite author
5. Doesn't belong to me.
6. The one I always give as a gift.
7. Forgot I owned it.
8. Have more than one copy.
9. Film or tv tie-in.
10. Reminds me of someone I love.
11. Second hand bookshop gem.
12. I pretend to have read it.
13. Makes me laugh.
14. An old favorite.
15. Favorite Fictional Father
16. Can’t believe more people haven’t read it.
17. Future classic
18. Bought on a recommendation.
19. Still can't stop talking about it.
20. Favorite cover.
21. Summer read.
22. Out of print.
23. Made to read at school.
24. Hooked me into reading.
25. Never finished it.
26. Should have sold more copies.
27. Want to be one of the characters.
28. Bought at my fave independent bookshop.
29. The one I have reread most often.
30. Would save if my house burned down.
This entry was originally posted at https://issenllo.dreamwidth.org/77615.html. Comment either here or there.