A while ago, I used to love to read Ernest Hemingway’s works. The non-nonsense approach his characters take towards obstacles and life in general somehow appealed to me so much, that over the years I have read most of this books. Apart from Green Hills of Africa which I had stowed in some box and forgotten until it resurfaced recently during moving. I started reading it. By the time I completed the first quarter of it, the writer’s intention – “to write an absolutely true book to see whether the shape of a country and the pattern of a month’s action can, if truly presented, compete with a work of the imagination.” [foreword] – hadn’t been fulfilled.
The suspicion which had arisen during reading the first part closely became confirmed when skipping through the rest of the pages. In colonial style, Hemingway’s self-loving narrative unfolds in a setting which consists of the white folks like himself and his fellow hunters - and the native gun-bearers, the abundantly hunted animals and the scenery.
The former ones are what everything revolves around, Hemingway himself in particular. The natives are accessories which are condescendingly described. This act reduces them to extras in their own land, extras to everything that really matters, namely the white folks’ hunt. Naturally, Hemingway interacts with them, quotes bits in their language; as in an attempt to show how generous he is, taking to savages of this kind. He calls them ‘friends’ and so forth but the way they are depicted in their second-ratedness only underlines the hypocrisy.
The killing or failed hunting attempts are related in either utter indifference toward living creatures or in boring elaborations on how, for instance, “there was the short barreled explosion of the Mannlicher (…) I hit him [a lion] with the Springfield (…) and the grass was very green.” More often than not, both elements coincide.
Green Hills of Africa is garbage. It reeks of Old Spice, urine-stained underwear and foul Whiskey breath. If this is what Hemingway’s safari was like, then he met his objective to narrate the “shape of a country and the pattern of a month’s action” in order to see whether the outcome could “compete with a work of the imagination”. One might suspect, however, the surroundings had more to offer.
January 15, 2008
January 11, 2008
Bucket Full of Smoke
Buckethead is the exact antipode to Britney Spears. The only thing the two have in common is that they are both habitually called artists; at least an IPod categorizes them both as such. That’s where it starts and that’s where it ends.
While the former’s omnipresence in the tabloids tends to make her more vivid than the average second-degree relative, the latter is permanently absent - Unless it comes to what an artist is supposed to be doing, namely creating art.
Concealed by a hockey mask and crowned by a KFC bucket (hence the name), Buckethead prolifically delivers flawless guitar creations; always fresh and on the spot, innovative and yet ever recognizable - in sound and not as a personality. This way, the art is put in the spot light, not the person behind it.
I felt obliged to add this to the recent post “Hollywood created a superstar – And pain was the price your kids paid”. It is ludicrous to equate Britney Spears with any sort of creative work, leave alone art. It is business. She rose to fame because of her looks and image, marginally assisted by easily digested tunes. Thus, an element from the Sorcerer’s Apprentice emerges in the Spears saga:
“Those spirits that I called, I now cannot control.”
While the former’s omnipresence in the tabloids tends to make her more vivid than the average second-degree relative, the latter is permanently absent - Unless it comes to what an artist is supposed to be doing, namely creating art.
Concealed by a hockey mask and crowned by a KFC bucket (hence the name), Buckethead prolifically delivers flawless guitar creations; always fresh and on the spot, innovative and yet ever recognizable - in sound and not as a personality. This way, the art is put in the spot light, not the person behind it.
I felt obliged to add this to the recent post “Hollywood created a superstar – And pain was the price your kids paid”. It is ludicrous to equate Britney Spears with any sort of creative work, leave alone art. It is business. She rose to fame because of her looks and image, marginally assisted by easily digested tunes. Thus, an element from the Sorcerer’s Apprentice emerges in the Spears saga:
“Those spirits that I called, I now cannot control.”
January 10, 2008
My first 60 days on tagged.com
It has been 60-odd days now since I registered with tagged.com, a social networking site. After having been invited by a former fellow student, I thought I should give it a try. Here is what happened:
-I must have been ‘tagged’ and befriended by half the female population of the Philippines aged 29 to 31.
- 5 times I was invited for cyber indecencies via web cam by males
- I added/was added by 3 people I actually know (out of roughly 90 friends)
- I realized that every tenth person on the globe looks exactly like Tom Cruise, David Beckham or Brad Pitt (according to the profile pictures, that is!)
- every woman who doesn’t exactly look like pig vomit has at least one comment reading “You’re hot!” , “sweety ı lıked you much pls add me ı wanna know you” or “Your So very beautiful.... I would love to chat with you…my email xxxxxxxx” [sic]
-I must have been ‘tagged’ and befriended by half the female population of the Philippines aged 29 to 31.
- 5 times I was invited for cyber indecencies via web cam by males
- I added/was added by 3 people I actually know (out of roughly 90 friends)
- I realized that every tenth person on the globe looks exactly like Tom Cruise, David Beckham or Brad Pitt (according to the profile pictures, that is!)
- every woman who doesn’t exactly look like pig vomit has at least one comment reading “You’re hot!” , “sweety ı lıked you much pls add me ı wanna know you” or “Your So very beautiful.... I would love to chat with you…my email xxxxxxxx” [sic]
January 9, 2008
Hollywood created a superstar - And pain was the price your kids paid
Are we all to blame for Britney? by Clare Murphy, published on bbcnews.com today insinuates that mass voyeurism is responsible for celebrities’ antics and public breakdowns. In the article, Guardian's Peter Preston is quoted saying:” if Britney did destruct, we would all have her blood on our hands.” Furthermore, Britney Spears is called” a victim of an exploitative industry, a sensationalist media, and a public who seem to enjoy voyeuristically the troubles of superstars and celebrities."
One may look at it this way, put on Elton John’s tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Candle in the Wind, and indulge in a fair amount of self-loath over how this poor girl’s life has been made a living nightmare by every single one of us.
One may also ask what an adult has to act the way she does for; and whether the people who are now keen on pictures of her without underwear, of her being wheeled away on stretchers, aren’t exactly the ones who brought her to fame in the first place. Who would have blamed them for purchasing her records?
When her eccentricities commenced, a blog commented on it by saying that she had ended up where she had started, namely as white trash. Harsh words indeed – but given being a mother of two, there is no place for a victimization of a peeping tom culture.
The only victims in this whole mess are the children and sure as fuck not a 26 year old woman who can’t straighten out her life, in spite of having more opportunities, arguably in terms of talent but definitely financially, to do so than the vast majority of the so-branded ‘voyeuristic public’.
One may look at it this way, put on Elton John’s tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Candle in the Wind, and indulge in a fair amount of self-loath over how this poor girl’s life has been made a living nightmare by every single one of us.
One may also ask what an adult has to act the way she does for; and whether the people who are now keen on pictures of her without underwear, of her being wheeled away on stretchers, aren’t exactly the ones who brought her to fame in the first place. Who would have blamed them for purchasing her records?
When her eccentricities commenced, a blog commented on it by saying that she had ended up where she had started, namely as white trash. Harsh words indeed – but given being a mother of two, there is no place for a victimization of a peeping tom culture.
The only victims in this whole mess are the children and sure as fuck not a 26 year old woman who can’t straighten out her life, in spite of having more opportunities, arguably in terms of talent but definitely financially, to do so than the vast majority of the so-branded ‘voyeuristic public’.
January 7, 2008
Farang! or: Into the Great White Open
The Thai term farang originates from the country’s Ayhuttaya period, one during which the kingdom’s trade relations began to grow in scope. Story has it that it was a bunch of Frenchman who were the first Westerners to arrive at the ports of the then capital of Siam ,Ayhuttaya, in search of silk or rice deals and thus caused a great deal of confusion amongst the locals.
It was apparent to the people of Ayhuttaya that those folks on the ships were not like them. They had brighter skin, larger eyes and were taller. Being used to merchants from other Asian countries, this arrival excited their curiosity. Therefore they inquired in aw who those people where. The reply was:” nous sommes français!”
The people of the kingdom of Ayhuttaya could pronounce the phrase as little as most present-day Thai 7-eleven clerks can say ‘Marlboro Lights’. All they could catch and mimic was ‘farang’. That was good enough as it helped to label the new intruders and, at the end of the day, the people of Ayhuttaya were busy loading and unloading ships and could not be bothered with phonetic hodgepodge.
As the years went by, the Thai capital was moved to Bangkok. Since then, it is not only French folk which comes to Thailand and the purposes of stay aren't always mercantile endeavors. The word farang remains. It is exclaimed when Caucasians stray a little from trodden tourist paths and, generally, used to give reference to the portion of mankind which is obviously not Thai, or at least not Asian. Over the centuries, the term has become broader and now encompasses the whole white population of the world. One world united; at least terminologically. Naturally, since being all the same, those people all speak one language, which is farang speak, and all have the same customs and believes, which are primarily North American ones.
A while back, the mobile phone provider Dtac supplied free sunscreens to taxi drivers, saying:”We love farang, we speak English!”, which still can be seen attached to the side windows of plenty of cabs throughout Bangkok . They must a huge hearts, those cabbies, to accommodate all those white folks from Australia, over Norway and Canada to Argentine in them! And even bigger confidence in themselves, as usually the sole phrase ‘Hey mister’ does not qualify as “speaking” a language - something which can hardly be attributed to Caucasians and expats referring to themselves as ‘farang’. One will hardly find somebody from Japan call themselves Chinese when staying abroad.
It was apparent to the people of Ayhuttaya that those folks on the ships were not like them. They had brighter skin, larger eyes and were taller. Being used to merchants from other Asian countries, this arrival excited their curiosity. Therefore they inquired in aw who those people where. The reply was:” nous sommes français!”
The people of the kingdom of Ayhuttaya could pronounce the phrase as little as most present-day Thai 7-eleven clerks can say ‘Marlboro Lights’. All they could catch and mimic was ‘farang’. That was good enough as it helped to label the new intruders and, at the end of the day, the people of Ayhuttaya were busy loading and unloading ships and could not be bothered with phonetic hodgepodge.
As the years went by, the Thai capital was moved to Bangkok. Since then, it is not only French folk which comes to Thailand and the purposes of stay aren't always mercantile endeavors. The word farang remains. It is exclaimed when Caucasians stray a little from trodden tourist paths and, generally, used to give reference to the portion of mankind which is obviously not Thai, or at least not Asian. Over the centuries, the term has become broader and now encompasses the whole white population of the world. One world united; at least terminologically. Naturally, since being all the same, those people all speak one language, which is farang speak, and all have the same customs and believes, which are primarily North American ones.
A while back, the mobile phone provider Dtac supplied free sunscreens to taxi drivers, saying:”We love farang, we speak English!”, which still can be seen attached to the side windows of plenty of cabs throughout Bangkok . They must a huge hearts, those cabbies, to accommodate all those white folks from Australia, over Norway and Canada to Argentine in them! And even bigger confidence in themselves, as usually the sole phrase ‘Hey mister’ does not qualify as “speaking” a language - something which can hardly be attributed to Caucasians and expats referring to themselves as ‘farang’. One will hardly find somebody from Japan call themselves Chinese when staying abroad.
January 6, 2008
Online-literature.com on Hardy’s 'Jude the Obscure'
On http://www.online-literature.com/hardy/jude_obscure/ Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure is called “an almost unbearably sad story about love and sexual desire”.
Jude the Obscure is not about sexual desires. It is about social conventions and traditions which force human beings into conditions in which they are unhappy and can not live lives according to their individual wants and needs.
Sue, for instance, is a rather asexual person. This is revealed by Jude referring to her as ‘aphantasmal, bodiless creature’ several times throughout the text. She keeps him at distance for a long time; as long as she can resist her love for him, at least. When she finally gives in to her feelings, she does not do so out of animal instincts or lust, but out of deeply felt affection towards her cousin. In the later part of the novel, it is the social realities during that time which pressure her into abandoning her lover and returning to her loathed first husband; to the point where she even forces herself to share the same bed with the latter out of repentance for loving someone else.
Even Jude’s coarse first wife, Arabella, despite showing a casual attitude towards sexuality on several occasions, does so primarily to achieve her goal, i.e. to catch a husband. This was the primary purpose of women at the time of writing and Arabella uses every means available to her to achieve it lest not to be left alone and in opposition to prevailing social codes. Consequently, she uses sexuality as a means to an end instead of taking pure pleasure in the act as such.
Jude himself shows all the restraint regarding so-called lower instincts which can be possibly attributed to a male individual. He obeys Sue’s wishes continuously and never makes any advances to merely satisfy his urges. He, too, acts out of overwhelming emotions which collide with existing social concepts and this way suffers from, as repeatedly mentioned, afflictions.
Jude the Obscure is not about sexual desires. It is about social conventions and traditions which force human beings into conditions in which they are unhappy and can not live lives according to their individual wants and needs.
Sue, for instance, is a rather asexual person. This is revealed by Jude referring to her as ‘aphantasmal, bodiless creature’ several times throughout the text. She keeps him at distance for a long time; as long as she can resist her love for him, at least. When she finally gives in to her feelings, she does not do so out of animal instincts or lust, but out of deeply felt affection towards her cousin. In the later part of the novel, it is the social realities during that time which pressure her into abandoning her lover and returning to her loathed first husband; to the point where she even forces herself to share the same bed with the latter out of repentance for loving someone else.
Even Jude’s coarse first wife, Arabella, despite showing a casual attitude towards sexuality on several occasions, does so primarily to achieve her goal, i.e. to catch a husband. This was the primary purpose of women at the time of writing and Arabella uses every means available to her to achieve it lest not to be left alone and in opposition to prevailing social codes. Consequently, she uses sexuality as a means to an end instead of taking pure pleasure in the act as such.
Jude himself shows all the restraint regarding so-called lower instincts which can be possibly attributed to a male individual. He obeys Sue’s wishes continuously and never makes any advances to merely satisfy his urges. He, too, acts out of overwhelming emotions which collide with existing social concepts and this way suffers from, as repeatedly mentioned, afflictions.
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