Episode 769: A Clockwork Orange

No progress on the Incwriters posts yet, and now I've got to get started on WSC stuff as well. Collecting titles for a couple of films, which shouldn't take long, and writing two reviews, of New York, I Love You and Resident Evil: Afterlife. Don't think I'm going to offer to collect graphics this term, at least not until I've cleared everything else that I need to do. That would be, oh, reading three plays, a bunch of novels, and starting on my PWP. Nothing much really. I did finish reading A Clockwork Orange at last, and my opinion of it has been completely reversed. I think it has definite flaws, but at the structural level, it's interesting because of the way the final chapter, originally excised in the American edition, brings the narrative full circle, and then breaks out. I think without that final chapter, the tone of the story is completely shifted to something potentially more sinister, and yet the rest of the book, though set in a dystopian society, does not quite match up to the dismal ending of the American edition. That said, this novel has definite pacing issues, as I found the first third unbearably taxing to plod through, but the rest of the book was a surprisingly quick read. Finished it in an hour or so before service, sitting in the Library!

Episode 768: Reconsidering My Options...

Had blueberries for lunch because I felt so guilty about eating Vialli's again last night. Meant to finish writing all the blog entries that I need to schedule for my upcoming Incwriters stint, but have only managed to finish three out of eight, with the fourth half-completed. Oh well, at least I'm still ahead of schedule. Managed to finish the reading for this week's EN301 seminar, which I found myself disagreeing with on principle because there's nothing worse than militant feminist literary criticism. Have been acquiring a fair amount of music today, including albums by Matt Redman, Danny Saucedo, Erik Segerstedt and Matthew West. That reminds me, I need to purchase Sophie Mac's EP! Anyway, I think I'm slowly coming around to the opinion that it's not logical for me to spend time taking the GRE and applying to American universities if when I rank my choices for MOE, Warwick is still going to be the first one. The reasons for this are mostly non-academic, like being part of an awesome worship band in church, and possibly getting to do a reading in Leeds next September. It might seem like my priorities are wrong, but given that I don't have a strong preference for any of the four universities over the others for purely academic reasons, I say the peripheral factors are now the central ones for decision-making.

Episode 767: Flagging Productivity

You know that feeling when you've got loads to do, but you just don't feel like getting on with it? Am sort of in that state right now. I've just been reminded that I've got eight days of blogging to schedule for Incwriters, and I've only got ideas for three so far, which is slightly worrying. I haven't completed my readings for EN236 since weeks ago, and that's not going to change this week, especially since I don't actually have a copy of Muriel Spark's Robinson. You can see bits of it on Google Books, so I suppose that'll have to do. Pretty certain it's not going to turn out to be my kind of book though. Have just finished my writing task for this week after getting back from Louise's birthday bar crawl, so that's something accomplished at least. Totally going to do a Saturday of hardcore reading, and possibly some writing as well. I think it's best that I get cracking on the PWP as soon as possible, even if it's bashing out a mediocre poem that Michael Hulse would not approve of. I mean, I don't have to show the awful drafts to him, since I'm only checking in with him again in Week 7. Have even ordered a two-volume anthology, Chapters Into Verse, which collects poetry inspired by the Bible. I think it's going to make for interesting reading, allow me to compare what I'm writing against what other poets have written, or maybe even to see gaps that I can fill. Just briefly glancing through the contents pages, I could see that there are loads of poems about Adam and Eve, but very little about Cain and Abel, let alone Seth. It's definitely going to be that last aspect, giving voice to the silent characters, that'll be fascinating to work on.

Episode 766: First PWP Meeting

So today got off to a pretty disastrous start. Missed the 68 down to the Parade, and then I walked halfway to the U1 bus stop before realising that I'd left my bus pass at home in the pair of jeans I wore yesterday, so I had to double back. Then at the bus stop, two full U1s went by, so by the time I finally made it to the seminar, I was 35 minutes late. Absolutely mortifying. The Internet is also being temperamental. It works on and off, and I can't figure out why. It's either incompatible router settings or a weak wireless signal, and I can't figure out which it is. Or maybe we just have a lousy connection. Wouldn't explain why I have absolutely no problems connecting to the wireless network using my iPhone though. Argh! At least my PWP meeting with Michael Hulse went really well. He was enthusiastic about the idea that I've got, and I can tell he really thinks I could do something amazing with it. The original idea I had is already expanding in my mind, but what I need is to find the right stories out of the Bible, pairing iconic figures with non-speaking characters. The first group I've got so far is Cain/Abel/Seth, and I'm thinking of ending the sequence off with John/Judas/Matthias. Matthias particularly interests me because he was Judas's replacement among the Twelve, but I believe the Bible doesn't actually mention him again outside of Acts. I think there's an interesting parallel there with how Seth is Adam and Eve's 'replacement' son after Abel's death and Cain's subsequent banishment.

Episode 765: The Red Shoes

Caught Kneehigh Theatre's revival of The Red Shoes with Bella at the Arts Centre. They first produced it 10 years ago, and the revival's part of their thirtieth anniversary celebrations. There were loads of students in the audience because this play is on the curriculum, I think, and this was the performance with a post-show dialogue. Didn't stay till the end of that, but was around long enough to hear all the student-type questions. As for the production itself, it was excellent. The character of Lydia, incidentally, reminded me of The Emcee in Cabaret, which I saw in Singapore a couple of years ago with Fei Xiang starring as that character. You have that same ambivalent sexuality, narrating the events of the play. To me, however, The Red Shoes presents a far more primal tale than Cabaret. What's interesting about Emma Rice's take on Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale is how The Girl is clearly portrayed as having a future beyond the traditionally received narrative's ending where she dies. That ending may be viewed as problematic because of its very strongly moralising tone and connection to the church, not to mention that it's an angel that condemns her to dance in the first place. With Kneehigh Theatre's production, she appears to successfully overcome both the taint that the red shoes represent, as well as the strict religious institution that would have her damned without being given a second chance. The focus in the play is less on dialogue per se than on visuals, which is an interesting way of staging things. I particularly liked how The Girl's costume became progressively redder throughout. All in all, a thought-provoking evening, especially in light of what I'm working on for my PWP.

Episode 764: In Praise Of ReGenesis

Was trying to read more of The Atrocity Exhibition earlier, but I've given up now. I did really enjoy the short story appended to this Harper Perennial edition though. 'The Smile' is downright eerie. I've more or less decided that since I didn't buy a jacket from Superdry on Monday, I'll get all of J. G. Ballard's books instead. Am just waiting for the refund to come through on the Topman jacket. The repeated transactions from when I was buying train tickets over the weekend still haven't been reversed, which is mildly annoying so I've sent an e-mail to Chiltern Railways. Anyway, lately I've been getting back into ReGenesis. Am staying up to finish Season 1, and for the life of me I can't understand why I ever stopped midway in the first place because it's a brilliant show. Main protagonist Dr David Sandström is cast from a similar mould as House/Lightman, which unsurprisingly makes for highly entertaining interactions with the other characters. The brilliance of the show, however, rests in the extraordinary level of empathy the scientists have for human life, which seems rare to me in TV. In fact, I think all four seasons of ReGenesis should be made compulsory viewing for anyone who works in the biological sciences, in whatever capacity, as an empathy-building exercise. I reckon it would be very beneficial. Plus the way it's filmed is quite unusual. Every so often, the action rewinds and starts again, but tracking the story from a different character's perspective, so it's like putting pieces of a puzzle together.

Episode 763: Review Written!

So I decided that trying to finish the remainder of C, while feasible, wasn't necessarily going to add to my review of the book in any meaningful way. Also, I'd been at the bus stop for ages, there was a massive group of people waiting for the U1, and I figured that if I wasn't going to be able to get on, I might as well finish the book review and catch a later bus. So I doubled back to the Library and forced myself to bang out about 700 words or so. I think this is the harshest I've ever been for a review that's being sent off to Evolve Journal. Normally, I'm a lot more positive because I both like the books more and the idea with these reviews is generally to encourage people to (buy and) read the book, not savage it. Well, it's not like I ripped Tom McCarthy to shreds or anything. I'm definitely standing by my opinion that Remainder, his first published novel, is far superior to either Men In Space or C. Have now begun reading the other book I've got to review, which is Jonathan Raban's Driving Home: An American Scrapbook. Only made it through the introduction so far, but I already like the guy. He's even made me want to read William Empson's Seven Types Of Ambiguity. It sounds like one of those books that I should have read as a student of literature, but also a book that I would enjoy reading regardless of whether I had to or not, and that's always a plus.

Episode 762: C!

Am not allowing myself to go to bed until I get through at least half of C. It's actually not that hard to read something if you just force yourself to sit down and do it, no distractions. Not having Internet access at home helps, of course. That and there being only one TV show to watch today (Merlin), and I've already seen it. I suppose I could've skipped church and I might have finished reading it by now, leaving me plenty of time to write the review tomorrow, but I had to pay Arun for the weekend away. At least I don't have to worry about my French presentation anymore, as I finished that off while watching Merlin and yet another episode ReGenesis. Ah, Ellen Page. Such a good actress even way back in 2004. Definitely underused in Inception, by the way. I managed to schedule two posts for Eunoia Review while freezing my hands off at the bus stop after service, and this was despite having to contend with ridiculously unstable WiFi access. I suppose I could've been reading more of C instead, but what the heck!

Episode 761: Birthday Bar Crawl!

Went on a bar crawl for Sophie's birthday, but felt quite ill midway, so I stopped drinking when we got to TJ's. Felt well enough to have Vialli's though, so I'm eating disgustingly greasy chicken and wedges while watching ReGenesis. Still not done with C, which is bad, bad, bad, and I'm going to have to bang out the review really quickly at some point on Monday. I did finish my French composition at least, before leaving for the bar crawl. Apparently, Twitter can predict the fluctuations of the Dow Jones three to four days in advance, with an accuracy of 86.7%. That's crazy, but fascinating. Now if only I'd managed to start on my presentation on the Singaporean economy. I'm literally just going to be condensing information from the Wikipedia article, I think, which is awful but definitely more than adequate for the purposes of this class. Haven't even looked at 1 Henry IV, which is also bad, bad, bad. It's stupid that I'm falling behind so early in the term. I haven't even prepared anything for my PWP, so it's going to be a really short meeting with Michael Hulse on Thursday. I've also decided that I'm returning my Topman jacket and getting one from Superdry on Monday instead, if I can be bothered to go to the special student event. The suede of the Topman jacket is just going to be too much of a pain to maintain in the long run, I figure. That and some of the Superdry jackets are definitely closer to what I had in mind in the first place.

Episode 760: Bright Young Things & The Author

Lazed about for the better part of the afternoon, but at least I finally watched Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things, which has been sitting on my laptop hard drive for ages. Based on Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, the film is deliciously decadent for the most part, and although the heartwarming ending plays out predictably, it's saved from being completely clichéd by the fact that it's brought out about by a mercenary transaction. The lives of the interwar period's Bright Young People are unabashedly showcased and deflated by Fry over the course of the film, and it's all done with such gorgeous excessiveness that the film just breezes along and before you've noticed, you've finished it and there goes a couple of hours of your life. I think it's really the kind of film that makes you want to read the book it's based on. (Yes, I know I said that yesterday too.) That said though, I kind of sense that Waugh's are the kind of novels that I could wind up either completely loving or hating, no middle ground about it. Should get them out from the Library at some point to find out for sure.

Then I went onto campus to see The Author with Bella. I think this definitely ranks among my most profoundly disturbing theatrical experiences. For starters, the play is performed in the audience itself, which already disrupts one of our most fundamental expectation of the theatre, that the action takes place onstage and we are insulated from it as spectators. The play only has four characters: Tim the playwright, two actors in the play-within-a-play, and an audience member. The dramatic tension of The Author derives from the impact that the play-within-a-play has on these four characters, pulling in the rest of us in the audience as they recount their individual stories. Slowly, we begin to piece together the horrifying truth behind all the events, and when we do, it's gut-wrenching. I mean, there were people in tears by the end of tonight's performance. It was harrowing, but you really had to be there to understand why, I think. It's not one of those plays that translates well in retelling after the fact. I bought a copy of the script, and interestingly, most of the audience (myself and Bella included) seemed to have left before the final piece of dialogue in the play, a segment that was somewhat conciliatory in its gestures, offering the audience a chance to decompress after the events they had just witnessed. In any case, it was brilliant theatre, and Tim Crouch joins a growing list of playwrights whose work I want to read (and possibly acquire).