Amber

May 31st, 2005 Uncategorized

“The girlfriend of the deceased believes she can help the rogue redeem his soul

Kazuo Ishiguro : Never Leave Me

May 27th, 2005 books

I picked up the book on reading this article linked by Arts & Letters Daily on Perspectives on Bioethics in novels. The writer had discussed at length Ishiguro’s novel and invoked the name of Atwood. I, with the reflex of Palov’s dog, went out to buy the book.

This is a plot strong book, rather than a character strong book, hence, unlike Graham Greene’s, John Irving’s or Mulich’s books, this one does not interest me to re-read. The book is narrated by a girl Kathy to the reader in the form of a long monologue and in doing so, Ishiguro cleverly gives the reader the same information as the clones. These clones know nothing more than what their guardians tell them and the reader the recieves these puzzling pieces of evidence that don’t quite fit until the climax somewhere in the middle of the book, she and her friends Tommy and Ruth had discovered they are clones born to donate their organs for others who are living in the outside world. Her narration is calm – without hysterics. The reaction of her friends is also calm even when they discover this horrendous information. There is a tentative, shy desire to wish to defer another two or three years before they begin to start caring for other doners and finally begin donate themselves but this wish is not fufilled. Only their curiosity and anger about their ‘possibles’ – a name given for the parent of these clones – makes their calmness less strange, more human.

What Ishiguro doesn’t try to do is to figure out the technical parts: how come the clones don’t get papers from the outside, or why don’t the people from the outside interact with them, how these clones live after donating a kidney, a liver, a stomach and or a heart? Does it hurt? Do they grow new ones? I don’t see that Ishiguro was trying to comment on bioethics. He wasn’t like Madame in the story, trying to discover if these clones own a soul in writing this. While he admits that there is a chance the world might end up pretty frightening place if we clone ourselves for science and medicine it is not his problem sum. It seems that he was trying to work out the human life through these clones: the bullying, joking about what they worry about most (the donation), how as teenagers, we learn our manners and speech from television, the theories of their world and their existence. He seems to be showing us us: wanting to be loved, to love, to be approved, to guess what is in store for us, the briefness of our lifespan, to have freedom yet fear to venture further than the end of our own backyard.

That the clones make up theories by putting together which guardian said what and how it was said to figure out their fate, shows a striking similarity to what goes on in the a small part of the Singaporean Blogosphere. An armchair survey* shows the discussion is not so much an analysis of political or economic decisions of these elected leaders unlike political discussions in developed countries. Our discussions treat these leaders as permanant fixtures who don’t die or wither away. These leaders have motivations hidden from us. By ripping part the acts and actions of ‘gaurdians’ and spokespersons of these gaurdians, we guess at the attitudes and motivations of these fixtures to discover how our fate is being driven. It is also interesting to me that these discussions emphasises the individual rights, most frequently the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression in cultures with long histories is not as highly emphasised. It usually belongs to the class of virtue that you have to treat a person right, that is, show consideration to your community.** Most of Singapore’s races come from cultures with long histories – I’m thinking Malay, Chinese, Indian or even imported British culture. Where does this desire to speak up and be heard come from? Is an American import from watching too much American television, like how the clones in the book learn behaviours from watching television? Or is it part of the developement of a people’s pysche, some what like Dewey’s idea of how a primative man would try to understand the world?

*blogs in my blogroll and whatever catches my fancy. Conclusion may be baseless.
**Hard pressed to give concrete examples.

Arts festie 2005 updated

May 22nd, 2005 theatre

1. Al Hamlet Summit – woohoo!

2. Bang on Can all stars – a gamble

3. Stephen Hough Plays Rachmaninov – another gamble.

4. Amber – can’t believe I missed this out the first time round.

I am sure I went to more shows than this in the previous years.

Elsewhere

May 21st, 2005 Uncategorized

Minzhi after two posts on furniture buying claim unexpected financial and logistical difficulties and her blog is no more. It

Art Festie 2005

May 15th, 2005 Uncategorized

1. Spirits – Falls into the if I have excess money I don’t know what to do with category. Sounds good but Goh Boon Tuck is a name I have learnt to be wary. I was disappointed with his deliberate decision to shut out most audience with his Buddha project. I fear the same with his use of five (!) chinese opera forms to tell the tale: Jin Ju, Yue Ju, Huang Mei, Yi Ju and Li Yuan. From what I know of opera going habits of old folks, they would only watch opera in their dialect and the opera takes on just one form. The younger generation – my parents, aunts and uncles – may know Huang Mei and Yue Ju which was popular during the time they were growing up. Jin Ju is frequented by rich and educated (unlike local opera) and thought of as high art so most immigrants who came to Nanyang may not know it. I don’t know the other two: Yi Ju and Li Yuan. Persons around my age if they know chinese opera at all it would be from going with their grandparents, that is localised opera.

2. Al Hamlet Summit – Beg, borrow, steal money to watch category. Shakespear in Middle east! Delicious!

3. Qiu Sheng Yang and Xu Hui Min’s Cross talk: Take a gamble category. I haven’t heard their Xiang Sheng for ages.

4. Moscow Virtuosi 23rd June and The Philadelphia Orchestra (USA)
28 or 29 May – Take a gamble category.

I have questions

May 12th, 2005 Uncategorized

When the government claims that the manner of governance would be open and consultative, who is selected for this consultation and what is the process of selection like? Are bodies of government agency open for consultation? What topics are open for consultation? What areas are not open for consultation? Is the citizenry consulted in deciding what is not open for consultation? Who do we hold accountable for ensuring openness and consultation in governance?

What is government’s definition of openess? Does it entail being open to contrary views regardless of the manner in which the views are delivered? Does ‘openness’ entails accepting and implementing these suggestions and what is the process in which suggestions are considered for implementation?

With respect to the manner in which views are delivered, some comments may be labelled unfair and out of bounds. How do we know if the comments are out of bounds and unfair? If this is difficult to define and if we are to continually test boundaries to determine how much the government can accept contrary opinions, how is the citizen protected against accusations of defamation?

(I am disgusted by a particular government agency’s brutish, bullying manners. It is the behaviour of a group of unrefined hooligans. This group is unworthy of their dot-edu domain.)

Madame Butterfly

May 8th, 2005 theatre

Pucinni’s opera seems well recieved in Singapore, having noticed full houses for the three I’ve seen – Tosca, Turandot and now Madame Butterfly. This Madame Butterfly has greater mass appeal than the usual. Perhaps having come from a theatre background, Ivan Heng seem to approach it from that perspective: character study, engaging the audience and extending the story with props. He has no qualms leaving the usual fat man, fat lady formula, resulting in a highly imaginative production.

The singers did well. Yun Deng expressed her emotions with her vocals and her entire body. The two main casts were lovely and strong. The orchestra tend to be too loud at parts occassionally drowning out the voices. There must be a lack of singers because there were foreigners casted when the role required an Asian face. My aunt noticed that the costumes were not as well made as the costumes in the others we have seen. Indeed, the cutting of the cloth was so poorly they look like cheap off the rack stuff. In particular, Cio Cio San’s marraige gown was glaringly inelegant. Pinkerton’s uniform was trying not to pop buttons and Sharpless’s suits were more suitable for a lower to middle income accountant than a Consul.

What surprised me was what a cad this Pinkerton is. I mean I knew he was a cad from the libretto but the extent of his odious personality was fully played out in the show.

He compares the lease of his house with his bought marriage:

“I’ve leased it for
nine hundred and ninety-nine
years, with the option every
month to cancel the contract.
I must say, in this country the
houses and contracts are flexible.”

“And so now according to
Japanese custom, I am married
for nine hundred and
ninety-nine years, free, though,
to annul the marriage monthly.”

Who wouldn’t wish to spit on his gravestone after hearing that? The lyricist did not offer any redemption for Pinkerton. His love for Cio Cio San was shown to be mere infatuation and he was a coward to fear facing up to the consequences of his actions.

Particularly delightful: at Bonze’s exit, Bonze lights up the bridge with his fire stick when Cio Cio San was discovered to have renounced her religion a visual of her bridge burning; and the shadow puppetry at the end of Act 2 as she waits up for Pinkerton to tell the story of Pinkerton’s marriage to his Amercian wife Kate. Ivan Heng’s take to the ending was different from what I had previously thought. Instead of Pinkerton rushing to find her dead, Cio Cio San waited for the Pinkerton to arrive, perhaps guessing he would come for the child himself, and in his presence, cuts her throat. Second, I thought with the line “To die with honour when one can no longer live with honour” it meant that she was going to commit the hari kiri with a samurai sword. The hari kiri might be hard to stage. Furthur, this libretto said that she stabbed herself at the throat before Pinkerton arrives. That Cio Cio San waited to look Pinkerton in the eye whilst cutting her throat brought the drama to an intense climax: his unspeakable cruelty to her deserve the punishment of a lifelong guilt, not in the sight of her suicide, no but that single look of betrayal then the act of self murder. Intensely shiok!

Elsewhere: On Local News

May 8th, 2005 Uncategorized

I don’t read the local papers. Reading time is precious and besides, newsworthy items are mostly reported on BBC or on local blogs. Having time on my hands being stuck at home because of the rain I finished Sunday’s papers cover to cover.

On a report titled “Will China and India run into a great wall?”, the article contrasted China’s political structure with India and report commentry that India might be better able to handle political or economic upheavels when aiming to continue its high growth. It said,

“India is better able to withstand such shocks, according to Indian MP and its former disinvestment ministure Arune Shourie. Ten thousand people can demonstrate in front of India’s paraliament and barely be acknowledged.”

Did he really say that? I wonder if the MP was misquoted or the comedy in reporting that remark was intended.

Dr Wee Kim Wee on 2 May 2005

May 8th, 2005 Obituaries

State funeral for this ex-president. On camera, everyone kept emphasising his goodness but I see only a handful shed tears at his passing.

Impressions on Hou Hsiao Hsien lecture on film-making, culture and social engagement

May 8th, 2005 screen

Film making is his way of learning to be a human, to zuo4 ren2. Film making requires a person to look at a matter from the perspective of himself and of the many characters in the film. That is to say, a film is not a message nor propoganda for him. It breeds tolerance, which is the understanding and acceptance of a person’s background and goals. Films and stories are about characters. All films that a society throws up – regardless arthouse or commercial – reflects the colour and character of its citizenry.

The act of composition begins with turning one’s back to the audience. But should one desire to reach to the furtherest audience, the message and the plot must be extremely simplified. The slightest complication kills interest.