Archive for August, 2006
The Guide by Narayan
August 17th, 2006 books
Various matters upset me and today, feeling thoroughly beaten, I asked for a half day off. Lunch was a delicious meal of sea urchin – which is in season at the Japanese shops, it seems. I bought various flavours of Cantonese deserts home for desert and settled down with The Guide.
I bought this book a month or two ago but never managed to quell my restlessness to sufficiently go pass the first twelve pages. Unlike his other fiction on Malgudi, the humour is less subtle – the subject more somber.
A man was released from prison and having no place to go, housed himself in an abandoned temple. We realise through the narratives, he is a con-man with a gift of speech. He got out of school to work in the shops, he tricked tourists as a tourist guide, when he fell in love with a married dancer named Rosie – his business fell into mis-management. Rosie, abandoned by her scholarly husband, came to live with him. With his gifts, he convinced the crowd to pay to watch Rosie’s dances. When Rosie recieved news that her husband’s research had changed the world and is very excited by it, jealousy consumed him: he forged her signature when a parcel arrives for her. He was caught and imprisoned for forgery.
Living in an abandoned temple, he made himself out to be a holy man to get food but his tricks are more refined, displayed with more cunning and he succeeded beyond imagination: everyone believed him as a real holy man. When he is asked to be a real holy man- to fast and pray for rain – he resisted at first, sneaking food. Then moved by the belief of the peasant who had spread his fame, he decided to make good the lies. He decided to throw himself into fasting and prayer. At the end, we don’t know if the rains came.
It tickles me to imagine the Guide is Narayan: the man who, at first, open the reading world to Indian English literature with a bag of tricks, finally producing something humane. The book structure reminds me of Greene’s The Burnt-out Case. Green created a mystery about the character Querry: he arrives in a foreign land with mysterious motives. The doctors, priests, nuns, reporters and the natives unveil this mystery before our eyes. But with The Guide I could not figure out why I’m listening to this man’s confession. In fact, the reader is thrown into it without head or tail of the matter – just as misunderstandings and errors throws the character into the various roles. While it is an unusual thing to happen in a book, it is life-like, which makes it acceptable.
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Supernova night: I wish I can fast forward the eliminations. The girls are so anxious to please the crowds and the group, they are losing themselves trying to be Dilana. Storm Large is surprisingly bad this week. She couldn’t make ‘I Will Survive’ work. She sounded drunk. Dilana did a Cat In A Cradle that I thought was not challenging enough for her skills. The boys were a surprise. Magni did well. Ryan Star is the star: the Phil Collin’s song was superbly performed – the drama and tension was delicious. Shiok!
Elsewhere
August 13th, 2006 elsewhere
Goh or No Goh next UN Secretary
Broadway Beng
August 13th, 2006 Uncategorized
I’m getting greedy. Yesterday, for instance, the revue at DBS Arts Center was great fun, yet I thought to myself the reasons why it wasn’t as nice I thought it should be. It is fun and Sebastian Tan has a cheekiness to his smile. I think he would be a great hit with Aunties. I don’t understand the Ge-Tai references, however: is it a nod to Hungry Ghost Festival? An ang-moh Ge-Tai?
On-stage I think he needs more lightbulbs: Marquee style for the world ‘Broadway’ and colourful red, green, blue for ‘Beng’. The blue suit with purple ruffles isn’t so Beng, his last costume change is more Beng. The snake tatoo isn’t Beng either. His speech is filled with Hokkien and he tries too hard to do Singlish – one can’t speak proper Singlish without grammatical errors: it isn’t Singlish with just the lehs and the mahs. He comes across as an English potato masquarading as a Beng. It would be funnier if he is a true Beng masquarading as an English Potato.
I enjoy his songlist very much but I would love for a greater variety in his show tune selection: more stuff that I’ve not heard. Sort of like bringing Broadway into Singapore.
Happiness is elsewhere
August 12th, 2006 books
Others on my blog list are more well-adjusted than I am: I don’t see them having angsty feelings about their work. Writers always do and this is why I don’t mind reading about the sordid misery of the writing life.
During the recent public holiday, I finally finished Nabokov’s Russian lectures. It is more of a discovery of what Nabokov thinks about the Russian greats than any thing else: his likes and dislikes. Nabokov has a fondess for Chekov that I really don’t get. He gushes like a school girl about the art and genius of Chekov and splits Russians into two teams: likes Chekov and dislikes Chekov. Reading it closely with his note on Philistines, it seems to me that Nabokov is one of the rare who wants his art to be an exact depiction of reality and believes that opinions should be kept out of art. It does illuminate the whole Lolita thing for me: Humbert Humbert’s behaviour doesn’t bother him at all, that’s why he can make it arresting.
Nabokov seems interested in art for art’s sake. He seems to place little importance in the consumption side of the production equation. Art is undeniably a way of escape. Conflict, drama, humour are is interesting to watch because real life is less conflicting, less dramatic, less humourous and a lot more tedium. He complains about the philistines who are interested in the material side of art. The bottom line is a fact. The inquiry into the motives of the consumer is not going to make the consumer consume better art.
Nostalgia
August 6th, 2006 Uncategorized
Rockstar: Supernova (showing on Starhub Cable, Ch 18) makes me nostalgic for rock and roll. No matter however tired one is, one gets rock and roll quite easily: did the music get under your skin? If Yes, continue on the next round, else, eliminate. (Pop Idol is much too complicated because of the politics.)
Supernova is ’80s rock: not blues, not soul, not hardcore metallic head banging, not alternative rock, not sweetness and light pop, not the tame early 60s rock. Of them all, Lukas and Dilana stands out. Lukas has a great sense of the music: he’s talented songwriter and fast. He is deeply private or has a desire for conflict and tension, which does not help stage performances. Onstage, Dilana rocks: she makes magic – an absolute marvel to watch. She performs the essence of the song. In a rock concert, I’d much rather watch her than Lukas.
