Archive for August, 2010
Genius
Weekend over, and I just popped by to say that I’ve been thinking about Heart of Darkness, partly for class, partly for my essay, and also partly for myself. It’s a brilliant work, and Conrad certainly doesn’t seem nearly as straightforward as I used to think he was on the basis of Heart of Darkness. Of course, I had no reason to suspect so in the first place, so I guess I was just really being stupid. I read Heart of Darkness (and a couple of other Conrad shorts) when I was a lot younger, and I reckon I just didn’t have the perceptiveness to observe what I’ve observed recently. I’m now somewhat inclined to believe my other lecturer when he tells me that if I can read Heart of Darkness properly, Texts for Nothing is… well, nothing.
I also watched Godard’s Le Mépris over the weekend. While it isn’t a compulsory text, I am doing Contempt this semester, and my love of the few Godard pictures I’ve watched (the result of my own laziness and also the fact that he’s made so many pictures) meant that there was no way I was going to leave it out of my to-do list. It’s a beautiful picture, as Godard’s films tend to be, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. The Delerue soundtrack certainly helped too.
The last piece of genius I should tell you about today is Macedonio Fernández’s wonderful The Museum of Eterna’s Novel (The First Good Novel). It was funny and clever and moving all at once, and is the sort of thing that makes you think, If only I managed a novel/antinovel even half of this magnitude someday. Wonderful stuff.
I’m moving onto Franca Rame and Dario Fo’s monologues next. It’s one of my texts and to tell the truth I have no idea what to expect. Of course, it’s perfectly possible that this is a work of genius too, in which case my earlier statement will have to be retracted, but having not read it I’m in something of a quandary here.
And on a final and really unrelated note for today, I think I should be ordering my earphones soon. I have a feeling they’ll come in handy in the near future. I’ve delayed enough.
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Weekend Work
You know that the semester has crept up on you when your weekends are packed with things to do. Last weekend was somewhat the same, maybe slightly better, but yeah, I’ve more or less only just noticed. There’s that familiar sensation in my gut again as I begin to worry about this thing and that. It’s good to be back.
One mostly comforting thing is that I’m beginning to get a better feel for what I thought to be my most difficult subject. I still think it’s my most difficult subject, but it’s not bamboozling me so much anymore. I also realise I ought to step up the pace on a couple of my other subjects lest I get left behind, but it’s just that there are so many things going on at one time that it doesn’t always seem possible.
Oh yes, I have to do my first lab report this week. It’s been a long while since I’ve put together one. I hope that doesn’t impair me in any horrific way. I foresee having to spend an inordinate amount of time on it.
Next week I’m having the first of my project meetings. Somehow it just comes across as being quite exciting. Unnecessarily so, I’m sure, but I can’t help myself. It’s the sort of thing that makes you cry out quietly inside that something’s actually happening.
Made some friends this week. Lovely thing. Lovely people. I hope I find friendships to last this semester, though the way things happen, I’m not particularly optimistic about it. Two of those new acquaintances asked me yesterday: “Are you Singaporean? Because you look Korean.” My word, that’s the first time anyone’s ever said that. It was funny mostly because the two of them were thinking the same thing. And if you don’t know what I look like, I promise that I don’t.
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Attractiveness
Weekend was spent trying to get a hold of things. If they weren’t picking up the pace earlier, they’re certainly switching gears right about now.
Ah yes, and now, an assortment of random things:
I woke up yesterday with the most curious mix of joy and sadness. There was a curious disappointment that I had to deal with but also a number of things that made me quite glad. The disappointment is associated in part with a new friendship; the joy is composed of an eclectic mix of sources.
One of them has to do with a somewhat attractive idea that occurred to me in the morning. It’s a philosophical idea that I’m sure has been discussed to death since the time of the ancient Greeks, but I’ll latch onto it for now and see where it takes me. I might be able to glean something from it. Attractive ideas are always exciting. That is, ideas that make you go, Now that’s something to think about. Whether or not I mess it up eventually is a question for later. For now, the purity of it and the fact that it might well lead me to unchartered territory make it all very exciting and of course very attractive.
Spent my morning yesterday setting up a new printer, which was straightforward of course except for a little quirk that stumped me for about half an hour. It’s always the little things that get you, isn’t it?
I had a calculator that died. I think the battery died. It’s the first calculator that’s ever died on me. Fancy that. Though I bet loads of people get through their entire lives without calculators dying on them.
I wrote a new short story. Did I say that already? I wrote it last week. I don’t know what to do with it. I was thinking of a certain competition but I just missed the deadline by a number of weeks. Oh well. I’ll keep it in reserve maybe. I’ve never quite written a short story like that, but it feels right in that it feels like I know what I’m doing. So far, people seem to like it, which is as much as a raconteur can ask for, I suppose. Though I did receive complaints about my generally minimalist punctuation.
I might have to watch some heart surgery soon. That just sounds brilliant in itself. Looking forward to it.
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Second Week Anxiety
Oh hello there. The second week is coming and going like no one’s business. Things are certainly picking up and I can only do my best to try to stay ahead of them. I’ve had a few surprises, a couple of disappointments, and mostly had some pretty pleasant days. Not bad for a school term, especially considering how the second week’s not even over yet.
I have to admit to being more than a little anxious about a few things, looking ahead, but that always happens, doesn’t it? School manages to do that to you with its distinct blend of repetition, overloading, and quaint unpredictability. You’d think that one would have grown used to it by now, but that really can’t be further from the truth. Of course, the uncertainty is ramped up a little this semester with the final-year project and my other subjects.
My timetable’s mostly fine, though I think that by the time the final-year project kicks up a gear or two, it really wouldn’t matter all that much. I hope I manage to hang onto some of my friends. Figuratively, of course.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Jeff Beck of late, as well as some Freddie King. Two brilliant, brilliant men. Sometimes it’s nice to remind yourself of why this or that musician has such and such a standing among all of your favourites.
Meanwhile I’ve taken a break from reading my literature texts and have started on Kobo Abe’s The Ruined Map. I like it so far, though that’s not very far at all. It’s like an existentialist’s Chandler novel, which sounds like a perfectly good proposition to me. Everyone seems to say that it is all rather “disquieting” and I think that would be right up my alley as well, so I’m fairly optimistic about it. I’ve never read any of Abe’s work before this, so I hope that this turns out to be a good introduction.
Meanwhile, I hope you’ve been enjoying the Youth Olympic Games. I caught the weightlifting the other day and a bout of taekwondo. I also watched a tiny bit of football tonight. I find that I ask very silly questions about sport (as an institution) whenever I watch these things. Like, what exactly are we celebrating/discerning from a competition? Is it natural physical talent? is it a form of artistry? or is it that vague term “the human spirit”? Well, I’m sure it’s actually a combination of things like these, but if we don’t actually know specifically, or if we don’t agree from sport to sport, how do we draw up our rules to represent what we want out of our sports?
Oh, it’s late. I begin to ramble when it’s late. I’ll be back.
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