Strawberry Fields Forever
August 20, 2009
We were studying Magic Realism on a short clip from Across The Universe (2007) in Advanced English today. It was the one when Jim Sturgess sang Strawberry Fields Forever. We were supposed to analyze the expressions of both the lyrics and images but… eh heh, Jim Sturgess was so distracting. So he became the magic realism element in the clip for me. :P
Lindsay has good taste. ;)
The Time Traveler’s Wife
July 30, 2009
I’ve been meaning to write this for a long, long time. Actually since the day I finished reading it, which was two months ago. -___- But I did not have the time. Had been reeeally busy. I just finished a poem’s analysis and I should be writing the essay right now, but I am really not in shape to write anything analytical. And(!) I have to prepare for TEC’s booth at tomorrow’s ECA Day/flea market/carnival later.
ANYWAY. This is a book I really enjoyed and learnt quite a bit in. And I feel like writing about it now! Just a review. Not as analytical as the essay I am supposed to be doing! :P
The Time Traveler’s Wife
by Audrey Niffnegger
It got me hooked because it was heartbreaking. Long-distance relationships are already emotionally taxing enough, but we’re talking about all together a different degree of pain. One can only understand the heartache of being away from one loved one when the other is unreachable and all you can do is… wait. Really, I do think so. Actually, I know so. It is difficult. I don’t see long-distance as it is when you can pick up the phone and say I love you. It is when you have to leave those three words in voicemail inboxes — now THAT’s distance.
I tried to read each page of this book as slowly as possible to savour it all, but it was highly addictive. In midst of reading, I kept on telling others how heartbreaking the book I am reading is and that I kept on bawling. This book holds impact on me.
It inspired me, in a lot of ways. Because somehow, I feel that it is very relatable. Not that I have a boyfriend/husband who time travels. But I do admire how Clare can wait all her life for Henry who is constantly vanishing into thin air, although not by will. She waited despite struggles and frustrations AND doubts. It felt so unconditional. It felt a lot like love. I think waiting has all to do with faith. Faith. Faith is the key.
The Time Traveler’s Wife has became one of my favourites and I will reread it anytime!
Note: Although it says in the trailer that it’ll screen on 14th August, it’s not. Malaysian cinemas are only going to show this beautiful movie two months later, October. :/
Michael
July 22, 2009
100 Love Sonnets
June 28, 2009
I love you
without knowing how
or when
or from where.
I love you
straightforwardly
without complexities
or pride;
so I love you
because
I know no other way.
The Novel
June 20, 2009
Before I moved into this double-storey house with a stair I am actually not very fond of, I used to live in an apartment where the entire block of residence share the same board of postboxes to collect their letters. I think it was a weekend morning, because I was on my way down to the nearby coffee shop for brunch. I checked the postbox, as if someone might have popped something in there since the night before that I checked.
But something DID pop.
That clear-skied morning, I literally stumbled upon the book that made me into the reader I am today. I didn’t know what book it was nor how it ended up inside of my postbox. It was thicker than the books I usually read. It was torn and tattered. I assume that it was a hardcover before the cover ripped off. There was no title, no author. No nothing. It was just brown pages after brown pages. Some rippled badly, it must’ve been wet before.
I was very confused but very excited. At 8, I wasn’t really into Enid Blyton anymore. Nor did I understand John Grisham yet. But this book, I know nothing about. Maybe I should just read it, I thought. I brought it home. I put it next to scoresheets on the organ. As the week passes, it got buried behind my treble clefs and F sharps. Hah, poor thing.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Wow, I thought, that is a really different start from the books I usually read, so this book must really have character! Yes, that’s what I thought about a book when I was 8. I stared at it for a while. I don’t know why I did, but I did. I was almost hypnotized. I still haven’t decided if I should read it yet. I left the room for something and when I got back, I just laid back onto the daybed. And started reading. :)
Back in those days, I had all the time in the world. My only worry was if I cannot secure my top student position the next time exam season arrives. Haha, so kiasu. So all my free time for a week, I read that book that a very nice stranger has left for me.
The way it was written, the contents were so fresh to me. Almost exhilarating. There were many characters and also many words I had to look up the dictionary for. It was a bit troublesome, but I enjoyed it anyway. I knew by the end of the first page that this pages were not written for an 8-year-old reader. But too late, I was already hooked. So I finished pages after pages. I read it during recesses, after meals and before bedtimes. Oh, by the way, my bedtime was 10pm when I was 8 years old. I don’t even have a bedtime now. :/ :(
Anyway, I was like a kid on crack. Drugged by those beautiful new words and the terrible events that happened to these characters. I didn’t figure out a lot of things in the plot but later I found out that that’s just life. But I was 8, and at the end of it all, it was just plain weird to read about a man who is madly in love with someone else’s wife!!! Tell the husband then you know!!!!! Lol.
I read that book a few more times over the years. Over the years, I also took the courage to look for the book details in bookstores but I went home with Harry Potter instead. Oh, I used to LOVE Harry Potter books. That is, until JK Rowling ruined the fun of adventure, fantasy and magic by making the plots too twisted and too vindictive. Gawd, I was so angry at her for that!!! And the ending was so predictable. Bleurgh. Okay, okay, back to the story… I didn’t discover the book details of that magic book that came in the postbox. When I moved, the book was never to be found again. So the mystery remained as a mystery. And then this mystery is placed into a box that is in another box, that is in another box, that is in another box… at the back of my mind.
Until I was reading along lines it was the best of times, it was the worst of times… :) :) :))) :’))))))))))
I was over at The Curve with family, minus Sister, after dinner. Spent some time in Borders. Mom discovered a great recipe involving yogurt and mascarpone (YUMMMS!!!!!) and I discovered the title of the first novel I read when I was 8. This is great this is great. This is just one of the things that are really special to me just because. It feels like a piece of myself that had been lost for so long has been finally found. It’s a something that brings you back to your childhood, like, maybe a kindergarten crush on a cute boy who shared and taught you so many little things that meant the world then.
This is the first novel I read which lit the romance between me and the literature world: A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens. Thank you, stranger who left me the book. :)
