1Q84, 1+2...(29/5)

He is getting older, probably my immediate impression after finishing Murakami’s 1Q84. Like the carnival, it should originally be a happy meal for the readers as all the elements of his work have been included: the year of 1984, the goat, the crow, the déjà-vu, the reality and the virtuality, self-consciousness, loneliness and nothingness, self-actualization in sex, loss in the modern life and city, list of jazz music and oldie films etc. It should be exciting news for readers to have ‘shortly’ after Kafka on the Shore another long novel of Murakami. But like what the character said, ‘maybe I have changed’. What I perceived from the story is more like a clumsy repetition of the writer’s catwalk presentation with his entire world has had. The storyline and the structure, as his trademark, were both decently organized, but definitely the story could be written in half of its length. Reading till the end, the story became more like the declaration of the author’s will and expression - much self-centred from the perspective of a reader like me and yet an unconvincing attempt to quantify or materialize his metamorphic development of ‘another world’. I must admit that reading the Chinese translation in this occasion is not a pleasant, and at the same time, a fair judgment to the writing in 1Q84...(more)
The stylish writing style of Murakami in describing the belongings of the post-modern urban world or the characters’ emotional variation turned to be an excessive meaningless and poetic-less burden in 1Q84. I used to be biased in the beauty and the goodies, and in this case, I am truly unsatisfied with 1Q84. Put this story into a fairy tale way of perception, I cannot still find any way to tune myself into the two-moon world. I feel awkward about the abrupt switch of the emotion of the character, especially that of Green Bean. The story could be more romantic and ‘dreamatic’ but the translated version I read did not provide me with this wishful thinking. Visualising the scenes of the story such as the conversation in the dark hotel room, the windy sunny morning on the Tokyo highway, the young evening on the sloppy playground, the afternoon tea in the greenhouse-like meeting place for Green Bean and the old lady...1Q84 depicted much Hollywood style of scenic set up. The more you love your daughter, the more you find a reason to blame her. This should be the conclusion of the two episode of 1Q84. Book 3 of 1Q84 has been released. Well, readers, probably as always, have little choice but to immerge themselves again into another world of mystery and loss.

End of the Past...(24/12)

The Christmas of 2009...

Baudolino says...(22/12)

Finished the work "Baudolino" of Umberto Eco in two weeks' time, and the first half of the story was a stunningly part which fully demonstrates the talent of Eco...It was a good plot having a story-telling character to tell a story from nowhere to a kaleidoscopic wonderland of Baudolino. We used to have the story of Marco Polo, Alice in the wonderland or the Chinese version's "Journey to the West", but then Eco's journey was a myth of labyrinth voyage of the Crusades. The propaganda holy grail in Da Vinci Code was also a designated mystery in Baudolino. The Prester John was the drive of the character to go through his decades of searching and actualising. I like the style of the story-telling, as stated by Baudolino, the story was true and fake. The second half of the story, though, pitched me an out-of-control space odyssey. There is a discussion on the location of Prester John's Empire during the middle ages, and seeing India as a probable destination is refutable and illogical. Some named Ethiopia as the other world of Christianity. When I was reading the novel of Eco, I did land on this piece of stereotypic land of unknown, spending a night in this country where tranquility favoured the silent starry sky. Stereotype and misunderstanding may not only exist in Babel or Baudolino's world, but ours. When people think Ethiopia is a state of nowhere or hunger or uncivilised, the Ethiopian may think that Hong Kong is a city of China where incubator is really in full blossom. Of course the cultural difference differentiates the definition of incubator. Rather than talking about our bankers' incubator, the Ethiopian I met did ask me the cost to buy an incubator which he thought is an important export from Hong Kong. I see the gadget.
In the mood of those magic journey plots in the Hollywood scene, I also visualise how Johnny Depp would take up the hat of Baudolino to preach his belief of Prester John in the coming years. Bonne chance!

Sputnik Orbitation...(23/11)

I enjoy a lot reading the work of Haruki Murakami in Japan, and in this visit to Tokyo, I chose his short story Sputnik No Koibito as the reading guide of my transition. The story is built on the mistaken Beatnik into human's first satellite 'Sputnik'...
Along Murakami's belief of human dislocation in the modern world, the free orbit of the satellite shows the best perspective of humanity of the city. Reading his story is like scratching the icy surface of interpersonal separation in distance. The book gave me a conclusive retro of 2007 in this late Novemeber moment, where Sputnik has marked a unique year of displacement of my voyage of cold mood. The intermission at Tokyo simply reminded me a remarkable ending of the kid age of adventurous moment. When I was flowing on the shuttle bus, I recalled a distant and yet repetitive sounds of coq in the early morning of a nearby neighborhood in my childhood residential area. It was refreshing, but dreamy-ful. It was more than surrealistic to the present analytic mind. The recall was specially revolving. In the collage of living moments, the mood was for the capacity of the shuttle bus that drove me from the contemplation to the inspiration. Another day comes.

Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève...(6/3)

The moment...

L'Ignorance de nostos...(14/1)

Chapter 2 of l’ignorance written by Kundera is interesting. It is a very typical demonstration of Kundera’s literal writing. He rooted the idea of ignorance, the crux of the work. Nostos or la retour is characterized a form of artistic sensation in the Western culture. According to the logic of Kundera, nostalgia appears to be a form of ‘malade’ I would say…it is the missing link. The term nostalgia is used to be a very dramatic yet dreaming mirage idea to me. The first very impressive recognition of the word came to me via the work of Tarkovsky named ‘nostalgia’. Because we have never had a utopian land, we have the luxury to enjoy and experience ‘nostalgia’. The term itself carries a sense of a respect to the origin, or the motherland. More than an expression of an unreachable sensation of need and comfort desired, the feeling of nostalgia calls for a self-modeling process to a meaning of existence to a certain extent. Nostalgia is a good expression of existentialism I would say. Kundera cited a very true relation of the past and the future in the issue of nostalgia. I think of the same. It becomes a consensus of life, and every individual has to face it and live it. Interestingly, Kundera also quoted the story of Ulysses as a classic journey of retour and the contemplating mode of a ‘nostalgian’. One shall only feels nostalgic during a journey, a physical or a psychological journey. When a record of this mode of mental dynamism is signed on a graphpaper, the dancing wave assimilates the winding journey one is engaging. I share part of the thought of Kundera, especially when I am terminating the state of wandering in France and I share an identity of a generation of ambiguity growing up in the borrowed time at the borrowed place. We keep on searching. It is ignorance perhaps. The sorrow of Kundera is ‘to-be-ignored’, or perhaps rather 'to ignore the ignorance'. When he has to admit a consensus, he ignores. When nostalgia becomes a mixed feeling of forgiveness and ignorance, it is unstable, it is uncertain, and it is painful. My exotic adventure is materialistically a dolce vita, and this is a unique exposure of independency versus alienation. Normatively, the existence of a rootlessly sentiment choruses the nostalgia of the ideal land. Youth is one irrepressible source of nostalgia, either when we are young or when we are not young. This is the beauty of a pair of flying wings. When nostalgia resists from sentimental addiction, it is self-actualisation. But definitely, it remains a disturbance of memory before the metamorphosis is completed. Homeland would it be where that it needs a compass to control, or as Kundera said ‘verfremdungseffekt’.

行者無疆...(2/1)

A journey would occasionally have an end...having read the observation of 余秋雨 in the 5-month journey in Europe for a Phoenix TV programme could be a way to conclude mine on the continent. Reading from chapters to chapters, it was like a road track to the scenery of my left-behind. Worshiping the exotic wide open space, the observation and thoughts of the author clicked my motor of memory. The book was not a perfect one to me. The author contemplated from the identity of being a Chinese and his way to look for inspiration for the modern development in China, both infrastructural and mentally, was a good incentive. There was not much in depth conclusion developed at last though. A longer journey in Europe is usually inspirational. In a sense, it is a utopia of multiplicity as I always label the land. Diversity of people and history and culture and environment can never be diluted by the EU unity momentum. In the last two millenniums, this piece of land with emblems and marks accommodated countless quarrels and fights. People remembered and forgot. When the people search their utopia, they already have one.
I the group where I belong to is a further minority. We are the Chinese of Hong Kong, and I trust that it would not be strange not to have the same way of thinking as the author, as least I can fully understand the concern (and probably the necessary tagline for a book to be commercialised) of the author living in Shanghai (or Shenzhen) about the current Chinese development.
The perspective of seeing a city in Europe varies from time and experience. One of my friends told me before that he felt dull visiting the cities in Europe as time went by. He said that every city was more or less the same. I do not agree with him. It is dull because the visit lacks an insight about the place and the people. The very complex (or better called chaotic) development of Europe after various forms of exchange from wars and recognition engraves a very unique yet interesting story for each city. The author was experienced in travelling and perhaps knowledgeable in European history, but his self-devoted reasoning and explanation are sometimes unsound and often exaggerated. This was the feeling I had when reading the second part of the book. Nature is a good phrase, and here I learn about the world of nature, added to the human nature. Nadja of André Breton started with the question of 'who am I'. This is the same. Putting oneself into a strange environment drives you to question your identity. It's self-learning and it is powerful. I have done some travel in Europe and I opened up my world. It is a growth. Human vision is often shortly focused, and the spacious sky above here allows you to extend your sight. I am reaching the last mile of this journey. I learnt at least how to decide, if I am lucky to have the choice. Reading the last part of the book on the voyage to the Northern Europe was like combining the heaven and the humankind. I chose to pair the albums of Sigur Ros to correspond the end of the world the author reached. The landscape was harmonically stunning.

and more...
The writing style of the author demonstrates a modern approach of the pop culture in China. Definitely, people in China are very much interested in knowing about the world, and this kind of writing on journey is no wonder a typical type of hot picks in the Chinese book market at present.

Lines of words...(1/1)

Enjoy a lot the babyrinth between the lines of words and the extent of imagination behind the upright scene of blackening wisdom...this is perhaps one of the motives for the 'pair' visits to the aisles of bookstores along the Charing Cross Road within 2 weeks' time. Apart from the three shortlisted books above, I collected some items in the second hand stores which had long been called for under my wish list.

- "touching from a distance", Deborah Curtis, 1995 edition
a long awaited reading...
- "the plague", Albert Camus, Hamish Hamilton 1948 edition
the work written at the peak era of Camus...
- "borrowed place borrowed time: Hong Kong and its many faces", Richard Hughes, 1976
a retro searching of the identity of Hong Kong...
- "the peloponnesian war", Thucydides
should it be called a classic?
- "modern nature", Derek Jarman, 1991 edition
it always reminds me the spacious nature at Dungeness...
- "a history of modern Russia", Robert Service, 2003 new edition
from the view of the Oxford professor.
- "dubliners", James Joyce
just because of the Ulysees.
- "the complete novels", Franz Kafka
full of reasons.
- "the iliad and the odyssey", Chapman's Homer
it is only that Chapman's is an English version.

...and the rest from the Amazons...
- "who's who in the Greek world", John Hazel, 2002 edition
- "rubicon", Tom Holland, 2005 edition
- "the arcades project", Walter Benjamin, 2002 Harvard University Press paperback edition

...to read in 2007.

Clusterpreneur...(6/12)

Books are always a source of idea and a fountain of stimulation...
every time when I took a review stocking the list of books I read, I get a better idea of the influence and idea I am in at a certain period of time. Recently, it is a stage of ‘lecture sans frontière’...Israel, passion of soul, opium, le phase, babylon, proteus, modernism, mannerism, clef de voûte, the arcade project, mezcal...a borderless safari ride in the forest of papers and rhetoric labyrinth drives me to the wonderland. Another brilliant example of the impact of knowledge management in the cybernetic era. I brought with me quite some books from last departure from home to Paris, and this is a countdown moment to get through the high wall of procrastinated access. The web is a source of information, and so does the city of history. I see that repatriation is soon for my books rather than me. Certainly the resettlement of books on the shelf is a demonstration of post-modern mannerism. Be a clusterpreneur.

Re:Cent-Ly...(1/8)

The cooling down of robotic-like ventilation tears people apart, and the innocent insulation of oxygen space removes a common interest between people...Living at a corner of the labyrinth, I bright my capillary sense in every dawn with transparent breeze, and the morning is clean and friendly. Hours turn in my manner of preference and I re-engineer the need of bread and breathe. The clouds on top of me carry on their parade with deforming shapes and consciousness. My shadowplay waits. August is another month of mathematical counts. I reduce the supermarket-mode, and I let myself embrace into the dancing moments. Some animals turn into their dominant mode in the palace of summer, like what my mouse suggested. My leaping fingers sing in the herb. My understanding about the world imitates the respectful layout pattern of the bookshelf, and two members join the family since yesterday from the bookstore discounter. My bicycle never sails on the sea, neither do my will. Favours of the perfume spread around the spiral staircase, and the awakening cells always stick on the cover of the vehicles. Crashes end and the sun still shines. I leave the curtain marched the way it desires. All of me is a retro to the scent of the sleeping lilies.

Da Vinci Code On Air...(20/5)

Despite poor critics and commentary about the opening film of this Cannes Festival, I went to see Da Vinci Code (DVC) this morning after accompanying two of my friends to visit Musee du Louvre...It's like an animated simulation between reality and fiction, or in-out of the cinema. Places appeared in the film like Le Louvre, Eglise Saint Suplice, panorama view of Paris city etc are actually metres away from the cinema at Odeon. Sometimes, critics with poor comments can be a catalyst to an appreciation of a film, like this, for example. I tried not to read any commentary before seeing the film, but rather better manage my expectation to the movie. My friend is correct that turning a successful novel into a good film is difficult, and so for readers of Dan Brown's DVC, there is hardly any way to visualise the story in front of their own imagination and interpretation. The posters of the film with a collection of the main characters in the film are actually satisfactorily designed.
Ron Howard, the director of the film, needs not be a fans of Indiana Jones. His treatment of the story appears to be catchy all along the story board of Dan Brown, but when the sequences are grouped together, DVC readers like me feel like lacking a passion and energy where the book has been successfully written. The development in the film is flat and it misses a clue of dynamism which does not necessarily transform into speed and action but there should be moments of atmospheric evolution. You will see from the beginning of the film that the story goes fast and efficient, but you don't feel much the feeling of the characters or the suspense the story is proud of. This is tiny thing but this is crucial.
Silas is the best character I like most in the story, and Paul Bettany acts shiny in the film too. A tragic character, but is the one who possesses the full sentiments and characters in the film. Some critics say that the actors in the film are poor, well, yes, but at the same time, this is the problem of the screenplay and editing.

After Dark...(4/4)

I have read the latest work of Haruki Murakami, After Dark, and it is disappointing...some critics, which are written by most likely those fans of Murakami, are commenting that the recent works of the writer like Kafka On the Shore are no longer magnificent. To me, I appraise quite much his story of 'Kafka', as I think the story is like a panorama view of the world of Murakami. However, After Dark is a bit out of the scope of the traditional beauty of words Murakami has written. The story, happening from 11:56pm to 06:52am, is a from dusk to dawn interpretation of a night, or perhaps the 'nuit blanche' of the writer. The flow of the story is plain and the elements are quite loose. I partly believe that there is some problem about the translation. Too bad that I cannot really read the original version in Japanese, but unlike other translated editions I have read for Murakami's stories, the fluency of sentences and phrases in this one is unsatisfactory. The part about the elder sister of Mari is really odd. I doubt how the original version actually writes. After all, it appears to me that After Dark is a darker side of the writer / translator that I have known so far.

The Carnival in the Misty Mirage...(23/12)

<窮風流>, written by 雷競璇 , 2004
This is a book more interesting and touching than it appears. Rather than saying it a work by the author, it is more like a combination of articles written about his living experience and observation in France...Having a real sensation of residing in Paris at the moment, I have a strong recognition of what is shared by the author. Indeed I have met quite some Hong Kong people who live in this metropolitan and to a certain extent, we share some kind of loss about our identity, our dream and our homeland. The book spent quite an extent to depict the life of various people met by the author, either those from Hong Kong or Africa together with the local French people. That's true, a way I adore Paris is its multi-perspective element in society, and it is due to its diversity in terms of culture, political interest, social class and nationality that shapes a lively city like Paris. I may not have as much observation as the author, but definitely when reading the book, there is a kind of nostalgic feeling about the dream and aspiration that have from time to time been trying to go further from me. Paris is always a dream place to live in. To me, the second part of the book is more fantastic. Agree that it is the environment of the city that gives by chance a sense of romance to strangers like us. I, unlike the author, come to work instead of study, and this brings me additional horizon in understanding and imitating the life of the Parisian, but at the same time, the kind of romantic life in school and study seem a bit remote to me. A general emotion after staying for a year is a sort of repeating question about my existence and the goal I am really pursuing. Not easy to look for an answer. The author states that a kind of decision to live in France with his life and his just-arrived little baby when they first landed on needs some irrational passion. The Chinese name of the book is nice, and true, when you choose to go in one way, you give up perhaps much others. Seeing the space between the words, you can really feel the mix of bitterness and regretlessness from the old days. (B+)

Bookstore Hunting...(3/12)

Having a free weekend in town, I wandered in a number of bookstores in the Latin Quartier as well as the Rivoli area, and again I found that the Parisien adores so much reading and bookstore visiting...There are a few bookshops which I like to walk around. W.H. Smith along Rue de Rivoli is the one I go to have my magazines from time to time. It's not a very big shop but basically the major categories of book can be found there. A few blocks next to W.H. Smith is Galignani, the bookshop claimed to be the first English bookstore established on the continent. It is quite another good choice for a visit. Nonetheless, if you are looking for a large bookshop, I would suggest the Gibert Joseph on Bolouvard Saint Michel. There are numerous outlets of the group in the area and each of them specialises in books of different subjects. The flagship shop is located on No. 26 of the road and the multi-storeys building allows you to hide for an afternoon without doing anything but reading. There are new-alike second-hand books available in the store at a low price and this makes the shopping even more fascinating. Of course the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop opposite to the Notre Dame is the one which needs to be worshipped, and yet numerous small bookshops near Saint Germain des Pres, Odean and Mabillon are checkpoints for book hunting.

La Fête du Livre...(27/11)

Organised by le figaro, la Fête du Livre was held today at Hotel de Ville de Paris. Participated by 200 French writers, the event attracted book lovers in the town and suddenly you would find that there are a lot of readers around spending their time to enjoy the lovely experience of reading...I do not know any of the writers indeed, and walking along the writers' booth, there are quite some interesting books and thoughts of these elites. One of the invited writers is an expert of horse I guess, and his three books displayed talk about horses in Africa and Central Asia respectively. Very insightful work. While most of the writers participated are middle age elites like those professors in University, there is a young lady occupying a booth and her work is kind of novels. Very impressive indeed. Apparently topics related to history and autobiography are the prevalent choice of the French people in the salles. What amuses me is always the decoration in Hotel de Ville, and that is really elegant.

Oulipo...(10/8)

Oulipo is "Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle" - an attempt to a French style of revolution (yet rebellion) that existed since 1960 on litterature and word-related artsform. For more, please check out on http://www.oulipo.net/oulipiens/O.
Instead of elaborating too much about its history and development, its spirit of exploring the possibility of creation and the opposition to the mainstream system of writing would be more worthwhile referring to...The movement was founded by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais supported by a group of writers and mathematicians (?!). It's experimental attempt of the S+7 style of writing is dada-like expression. Quoted from Wikipedia, the writing methodology "replaces every noun in a text with the word that falls 7 places ahead of it in the (designated) dictionary". The sentence of "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago..." from Moby Dick becomes "Call me islander. Some yeggs ago...". I am interested in knowing if the same applies to Chinese writing...try it out!
Oulipo's writer-oriented belief has carried out a long lived altitude that echoes along the historic line other "new-at-its-time" forms of arts or schools of expression that have impacted our perspective to the world.
Extended from Oulipo was the Oubapo movement initiated by the independent comics publisher L'Association from Paris in the 80's. It applies the belief to its production of anti-mainstream B&W comics. the release of a 2,000-page comic book in the millennium was gut. The world needs something different I believe, and so did you get a chance to view a bit their work in the last Hong Kong Book Fair?

The Five People You Meet in Heaven...(8/8)

Spent a day and finished the recent work of Mitch Albom, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven". The work is not as the type of traditional story I thought of before reading it...not too much exaggeration of the sense of encouragement...it is written with a strong essence of fate and destiny to me...This is the imagination of heaven of the writer, and there he believes that we would meet the five special people one by one to re-live again a life that has come and gone so quick. Sometimes this is human feeling, and this is our expectation to the other end of place outside death, but I agree that the lack of understanding about the belongings, the environment around us and the future makes a life not just a life but a journey that lacks fulfillment of expectation. We live in sorrow and disappointment, yet we are still trying hard to breathe for the next second. A twisted rope, or a value of life to me, is how we are going to manage a rope of our own with manner and etiquette. There are nodes on the rope and the rope extends to the further darkness where we do not see with our eyes. Stepping further from the story of Albom, it may be interested in locating the five people that you are going to encounter in heaven, as what he expects, on this earth here at this moment. Sometimes you may not find one, but the other time you may find more than five candidates. This is a way to witness one's life perhaps in this pathetic world now and to get cross of others life...I call this action "zirhcing"...

Metamorphorsis in 1916...(24/6)

I am late to have read the book by Kafka who wrote this 91 years before...he was at the time I guess undergoing also the process of Metamorphorsis I am sure. The first impression of the story reminds me much of the film in the 80's named The Fly directed by David Cronenberg. A same description of the change of a character from human to another form widely dis-recognised by other humans. Actually the metamorphorsis can be more humane...well, sad stories too, and a reflection of the existentialism to a self. The story of Kafka is less complicated, or I would say, quite straight forward, but at the same time, at least to me as a reader 91 years later, projects a social picture of his times during the instability of the world with large scale war. The story is impressive and the style of writing is fantastic. The sad thing, as always, to me, is that I am a late-comer. if the story is written at our era, I am sure there would be impactful response from our generation, provided that we have never read any of the beat generation nor similar fiction stories or films. A very logical depriving fact to us is that we at our times has too much choices. With the flooding information flux, we seldom calm down and think about the beauty of a story. Sad though...(B)

法 德 西 俄 合 建 網 上 圖 書 館 ...(19/3, apple daily)

法 國 總 統 希 拉 克 說 過 ： 「 美 國 文 化 要 抹 煞 其 他 文 化 ！ 」 為 「 反 擊 」 美 國 文 化 侵 略 ， 他 決 定 聯 同 德 國 、 西 班 牙 和 俄 羅 斯 力 量 設 立 「 歐 洲 虛 擬 圖 書 館 」 ， 將 歐 洲 文 學 作 品 放 上 網 。 觸 發 希 拉 克 展 開 這 條 法 國 文 化 新 戰 線 ， 是 美 國 互 聯 網 搜 尋 器 Google 正 進 行 Google Print 計 劃 ， 將 一 千 五 百 萬 本 英 語 書 籍 內 容 放 上 網 。 希 拉 克 周 三 已 下 令 法 國 文 化 部 和 國 家 圖 書 館 進 行 類 似 計 劃 對 抗 。 法 國 擔 心 Google Print 透 過 操 英 語 者 的 見 解 ， 為 全 世 界 「 洗 腦 」 。 國 家 圖 書 館 館 長 讓 納 尼 說 ： 「 我 們 面 對 的 挑 戰 ， 是 美 國 正 企 圖 影 響 下 一 代 如 何 理 解 這 個 世 界 。 」 希 拉 克 周 五 在 巴 黎 與 德 國 總 理 施 羅 德 、 西 班 牙 首 相 薩 帕 特 羅 和 俄 羅 斯 總 統 普 京 舉 行 峰 會 時 ， 正 式 提 出 設 立 「 歐 洲 虛 擬 圖 書 館 」 ， 預 料 要 五 年 時 間 完 成 。 他 以 往 亦 提 出 成 立 法 語 電 視 新 聞 網 絡 ， 對 抗 美 國 有 線 新 聞 網 絡 （ CNN ） 和 英 國 廣 播 公 司 （ BBC ） 的 英 語 媒 體 壟 斷 傳 媒 。