Episode 960: Failure To Revise

90210 and Gossip Girl back-to-back. The perfect way to end a day when I did...what exactly? Oh yeah. Nothing. Handed in my last bit of assessed undergraduate work yesterday, so I could have started on revision, but I just didn't. I did, however, rethink what combination of authors I'm using for the EN236 examination, so that counts for something. I stand corrected, by the way, on the matter of Gossip Girl's reluctance to add new members to its main cast. Although no official announcement has been made yet, Jessica Szohr and Taylor Momsen have been let go, but they may be invited to return for guest appearances. Must sting particularly for Szohr, since her role started out as a recurring that got upgraded to a series regular midway through Season 1. If Chace Crawford weren't such a pretty face, I'd have bet on his being kicked out as well. Kaylee DeFer, who plays new arrival Charlie, has been bumped to a series regular from Season 5 onwards, although so far, she's mostly been boring and stupid. I suppose they needed someone new so that the guys had someone new to make out with. Would much rather they had brought back Katie Cassidy though, or even Hilary Duff. I'd have forgiven any amount of plot contrivances, especially for the former, who was basically the best thing about the failed Melrose Place reboot. Just realised that most of the TV shows I follow regularly end their current seasons a week before my week of examinations. Isn't that convenient?

Episode 959: A Moment Of Reflection

Watching the Season 3 finale of Fringe, which features a fourth version of the show's opening titles, and can I just say that this show continues to bend my mind in a way that Lost never managed. (Love Astrid's new hairdo!) I'm glad J. J. Abrams is getting a fourth season with this one, and kudos to the cast as well, most of whom have had to play at least three different versions of themselves so far. (I think John Noble's case counts as four.) Anyway, apart from finishing my portfolio today, I've also read three online magazines for the Saboteur Awards: Goblin Fruit Winter 2011, Moon Milk Review Issue 7, and Pomegranate Issue 11: Bust. So far, I've liked them all, Moon Milk Review possibly a little less than the other two. That leaves eight more magazines to get through by the end of the month, alongside revision. Also sent off a submission to Monash University's Verge anthology, as the 2011 edition is a collaborative effort with Warwick. Also thinking of entering a couple of competitions using the poems from my two long sequences, but it depends on how organised I am in June because both deadlines are at the end of that month. I know winning shouldn't be the only reason for wanting to enter competitions, but it would be nice, you know, the recognition. I'm too young to be bitter about the lack of it as yet, and frankly, I think I'd be really upset with myself if I grew up to become that sort of writer. Still, one prize in my lifetime would be, well, nice. Right?

All this thinking about writing had me wondering if it's possible to be a good poet and prose writer. I reckon the short answer is yes. The longer answer probably involves an acknowledgement that although all writing is still just writing, on some level, different genres and forms call for different modes of thought. This isn't to say, of course, that a person can't possess them, but that one might be developed at the expense of the other, I suppose? Personally, my own experience as a writer is a bit of a contradiction in this regard. I think of myself primarily as a poet, but I have been told that I have a good prose style, although I am conscious that when writing fiction, at the level of diction and syntax I sometimes resort to devices that would be more expected in poetry, like alliteration. Ironically, although one of my not-so-secret goals in life is to write a science fiction novel series, I don't think I have the sort of interest in sustained narrative that the genre (or the form in general) demands. I could come up with an interesting idea that would work at the length of flash fiction, but to extend something to even the length of a novella, I don't think I have it in me. Partly because of the way I write and how resistant I am to completing first drafts, as opposed to editing and tweaking right from the start, partly because I don't have the discipline it takes to put together thousands of words, without cheating by breaking up the narrative and skipping over huge chunks, chronologically speaking (like both the stories in this year's portfolio) or stringing together loosely connected flash fictions (like 'The Triptych Papers' in last year's portfolio). I know in our times, we should feel free to break away from the novel's conventions, but part of me dreams of writing an 'old-fashioned' novel à la Dickens or Hardy.

Episode 958: Team Jeff!

Forgot to mention yesterday that I found George Ttoouli's Static Exile in Oxfam Marylebone for £2. Also found the most recent anthology by the MA in Writing students for £2.50. Bought both, despite already owning a copy of Static Exile. I figured someone back at Warwick might want it, since I don't think Amazon UK has it in stock anymore. Instead of finishing my story for the EN236 portfolio, however, I've been scheduling posts for Eunoia Review, so there's now work lined up for publication nearly up to the one-year mark for the journal! Will probably cross that point by the end of this week. Have also been catching up on TV, and I hereby declare Community the best comedy currently on air, and The Vampire Diaries as the best drama with an unrealistically attractive cast playing characters at least three years younger than their real age. Props to the latter as well for its insanely high body count of said attractive people. So suck it, Twilight fans! (I would note at this point that I didn't compare The Vampire Diaries with True Blood because they're clearly not pitched at the same demographic, despite being in the same genre, so fans of the latter can relax.) As for Community, I didn't think it was possible to top the awesomeness of last year's paintball finale, but this year's two-parter is well on its way. Oh, and I'm definitely Team Jeff, even though it was great seeing Josh Holloway back on TV. On a Lost-related note, I didn't realise that Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams (Dollhouse) were starring in a new Neil LaBute play in London! How did I not know this? Totally know what I'm going to be doing in the week immediately after my last paper now.

Episode 957: Seriously, Poor George Yeo...

So the GRC system finally came back to bite the PAP. George Yeo is really the biggest victim of the election, even more than Chiam See Tong, if you ask me. I hope the WP uses the upcoming five-year term to prove itself in a GRC, but more importantly, I want to see them (and the other opposition parties in general) make some mention about the need for national unity post-elections, like Khaw Boon Wan did. My only concern is that local politics will become even more polarised, and that by 2016, even if the WP doesn't do as great a job as promised, fanatical supporters will just push more opposition members into Parliament. GE 2011 has set an important precedent for local politics, but what matters is how the electorate views it in future. Let's hope Singaporeans continue to engage in rational debate/discourse rather than voting emotionally! I'm pretty glad Nicole Seah's charm offensive failed to help the NSP much, and I think the PAP margin in Marine Parade GRC would've been wider if Tin Pei Ling hadn't pulled a Goh Chok Tong-led team down anyway. (By the way, can we agree the SDA is pretty much an irrelevant party at this point? SDP is getting more credible, so they should just shut Chee Soon Juan and his antics out for good.) In other news, now is probably the best time to move to Potong Pasir. Haha!

Episode 956: I Voted!

Talking about the Singaporean elections, of course. I'm pretty apathetic when it comes to British politics. The actual process of voting was totally anticlimactic, seriously. That and my GRC isn't a 'hot' one, so didn't feel like I was making some sort of political stand anyway. To my fellow Singaporeans casting your votes back home, just remember that what you're really doing is commemorating my birthday! Far more interesting was lunch and dinner before and after voting, both at restaurants serving Singaporean food. I don't hanker obsessively for it when I'm abroad, but I wouldn't say no to it either. So I've had char kway teow and lakes today! Didn't go to Oxfam though, so I'm doing that tomorrow! Diego very sweetly brought cake when we adjourned to Eugene's place after dinner, which when you consider that this is only like the third (fourth?) time we've met in, what, two-plus years, was very kind of him. I think so anyway, and it's my birthday we're discussing right now, so therefore I am right. End of story.

Episode 955: National Doughnut Week Starts On My Birthday!

Still haven't started reading the magazines, but that's because I'm sleepy and I need to get up early tomorrow to catch a train to London to vote! Shall finish my French homework, read a bit of Barthelme, and then go to bed. Incidentally, I swear there's some devious conspiracy to fatten me up over the course of my birthday weekend. Having laksa presumably after voting, and Ben & Jerry's was going for half-price at Tesco, so I stocked up. Then today, I discovered that National Doughnut Week in the UK begins on my birthday. What is going on here? It's like the universe is conspiring to make me gain weight with all this deliciousness. The doughnuts they're selling the Humanities Café cost 50p, and they are so yummy for how little they cost. I think the lemon ones are definitely my favourite, so it's just as well I only discovered them today while getting a latte to try and stay awake. Just saw the video for 'Judas' by the way, and I must say, I'm a bit surprised Lady Gaga didn't make it more, well, controversial. This remakes the Biblical account, but it's hardly sacrilegious, and if religious fanatics wanted to get offended, the video for 'Alejandro' would provide a lot more fodder. I'm sure it's not going to stop people though...

Episode 954: Me And My Crazy HTML Skills! (No, Not Really)

So the shortlist for the first Saboteur Awards is out, which means I've got 11 magazines to read and think about by the end of the month! Fortunately, I've read three of them before. I read George Ttoouli's Polarity Magazine after the launch event at Warwick, FRiGG for a Sabotage Reviews review, and I read through the entire archives of Pomegranate for Incwriters, but the website was taken down before I ever got around to turning in any of the magazine reviews for them. Would have tried to finish the shortlisted issue of Horizon Review today after I got back from French, but I ended up spending some time helping David Tait fix the About Us page of The Cadaverine so that it would display the new editorial team's biographies. I think I did a pretty good job (here's proof), considering I was wading through HTML that I didn't put together. David's been such a lovely editor and friend though, so I was glad to help out. Have also decided I can afford to put off finishing the story until after I get back from London. Won't necessarily deliberately avoid finishing it tomorrow if I can, but it just won't be an absolute priority. Last EN236 seminar was pretty interesting, in that a grand total of eight people tipped up. George made us talk about our influences at the end, which was interesting, I guess, hearing what everyone had to say for themselves. I named Italo Calvino (specifically The Castle Of Crossed Destinies, Invisible Cities, and If On A Winter's Night A Traveler), Kazuo Ishiguro, and Russell Hoban (everything except Riddley Walker, which I see as an anomaly amongst his work).

Episode 953: One Story Done, One To Go

The portfolio is essentially done. Seems so silly now, worrying I wasn't leaving myself enough time to finish it. I could actually stay up and work on the last couple of hundred words needed to finish the first story properly and make the ending less abrupt, but I have to get up early for a seminar tomorrow. The changes I wanted to make to my second story aren't possible to incorporate without radically altering its premise, so I think I'm leaving it mostly intact. It's about an insomniac who has defaulted on NS, so I was thinking of writing in a twin brother who had stayed behind to serve, and how their sleep cycles synced up and disrupted the defaulter's life, at least until his brother dies in a training accident. Realised it wouldn't quite work though, unless I shifted the defaulter into a time zone further away from Singapore's. Otherwise, if he fell asleep at the same time his twin was going to bed on Tekong, that would still only be around 12.30 am. Hardly insomniac territory, is it? A greater time zone separation would kind of diminish how ridiculous his situation was though, since part of the story's effect is that two hours can really be considered spare change for international travellers. Ah well. Maybe I can turn the ideas I had for edits into a separate story and submit it to the Machine Of Death anthology?

Episode 952: Back To Writing...

Have begun reworking my stories for the portfolio, as it suddenly dawned on me last night that since I'm going to London to vote and spending the weekend there, that's a minimum of two days where I can't do any work. Sure, I could probably sit in some café (probably Costa or Starbucks, let's be honest here) semi-pretentiously pondering my stories, and then type everything out manically on Sunday night after getting back from church. I'd rather not though. I'm prepared to believe I'm good, but not so deluded as to think I'm that good. (Would need two nights at least, not one.) Thought I might as well start today, since tomorrow's Tuesda and that means lots of TV rather than work. (So far, all I've managed is to add a new paragraph at the start.) Maybe Nick's right, and I should set up a TV blog, in which I snarkily pass judgement on the good and bad stuff that viewers are being fed. I could watch all my guilty pleasures from The CW completely unironically for a change! It would mean having to systematically analyse TV though, which is one of the few sources of entertainment I have left that I haven't taken to self-consciously analysing. Speaking of TV anyway, that new ITV drama, Vera, seems pretty decent. It'd fail abysmally in America, of course, even if the accents had been more stereotypically English.

Episode 951: Once Upon A Time, EN301 Required No Revision

I know I said I would only make one post about GE 2011, but I've been discussing it a bit on Facebook with various friends, with whom I naturally agree and disagree to different extents. The one thing I'm starting to believe is that what Singaporeans secretly want, even if we will adamantly refuse to admit it to anyone, including ourselves, is to have our cake and eat it too, as far as politics is concerned. To elaborate is beyond the scope of this post, and I generally hate talking politics as a rule. I would, well, much rather talk about literature. On that note, let me share an interesting Shakespeare-related discovery I made while browsing through past papers, as one does at this time of the academic year. As recently as 2006, you could take the examination for EN301 without having done any revision and still done incredibly well, as back then, candidates were allowed to answer two Section A questions, instead of having to do one each from Sections A and B. Oh, if only! I may be incredibly lazy, but I like to think I make up for it by being fairly good at spontaneous practical criticism/close reading. Trying to figure out which texts I want to revise, especially for Shakespeare, since there's not much point in re-reading a play at this point if I don't plan to write on it, right? Carol Rutter recommends revising no less than six plays, which sounds about right to me. I'd have gone with four, except that might be hedging my bets too much, unless I somehow manage to find four plays that can be paired with each other in relation to six different themes! I've decided what I want to re-read for EN236, now I just need to decide how they all connect, so that I can actually answer the essay questions.