tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81004932352598426702024-03-13T10:16:23.777+08:00Open and Face the Book!In this humdrum era of tweeting and Instagramming, one needs to log in to the magical world of readingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100493235259842670.post-41929963034817287722014-11-18T15:00:00.000+08:002019-07-26T17:18:40.692+08:00A Writer Speaks: Jeffrey Eugenides<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
So, you're an aspiring novelist, but haven't any slightest idea how to start your novel. Check out this lovely piece of advice from Mr. Jeffrey Eugenides, author of novels like <a href="http://openandfacethebook.blogspot.com/2014/10/book-review-virgin-suicides_15.html" target="_blank"><b><i>The Virgin Suicides</i></b></a> and <b><i>Middlesex</i></b>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7boifF4eOWcaByIW9hAvU69ReW2Ld6xqD24U8OlAAYu3kCnyXhncroVHnENZazusgYbWad_n7sHmop4VjLVzlaErEtUYIMxeLFCYL8v5lSfkjP1tLtJmgOm-PM2zJTFgTsHHkXD9E9SK/s1600/Eugenides.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7boifF4eOWcaByIW9hAvU69ReW2Ld6xqD24U8OlAAYu3kCnyXhncroVHnENZazusgYbWad_n7sHmop4VjLVzlaErEtUYIMxeLFCYL8v5lSfkjP1tLtJmgOm-PM2zJTFgTsHHkXD9E9SK/s1600/Eugenides.jpg" width="287" /></a></div>
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<i>I tell my students that when you write, you should pretend you're writing the best letter you ever wrote to the smartest friend you have. That way, you'll never dumb things down. You won't have to explain things that don't need explaining. You'll assume an intimacy and a natural shorthand, which is good because readers are smart and don't wish to be condescended to. I think about the reader. I care about the reader. Not "audience." Not "readership." Just the reader.</i></div>
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- Jeffrey Eugenides in an interview with <i>The Paris Review</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100493235259842670.post-67904988561972002202014-11-10T17:00:00.000+08:002019-07-26T17:18:28.158+08:00Book Review: The Little Prince<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b>THE LITTLE PRINCE</b></div>
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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943</div>
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<i>It is only with the heart that one can see clearly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.</i></div>
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- The Fox</div>
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Much has been said about <b><i>The Little Prince</i></b>, so I'll keep this as short as possible.</div>
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Saint-Exupéry's celebrated fable is a simple children's story for the children in all of us.</div>
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In <i>The Little Prince</i>, a pilot — obviously modeled after Saint-Exupéry himself — looks back at an accident he had six years ago. The pilot was stranded in the Sahara desert after his plane crashed. Out of the blue, a little boy approaches him: "<i>If you please—draw me a sheep!</i>" "<i>What!</i>" the aviator exclaimed. "<i>Draw me a sheep!</i>" the boy demanded.<br />
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(For a moment there I wanted to tell The Pilot: <i>For f*ck's sake, just draw him a sheep!</i>)</div>
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Discombobulated at the sight of a lone child in the middle of nowhere, the unnamed aviator thought he was experiencing some sort of mirage, he asked the boy: "<i>But—what are you doing here?</i>" To which the boy repeated: "<i>If you please—draw me a sheep.</i>"</div>
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And then the boy introduces himself as a prince from another planet, a tiny asteroid called B-612. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consuelo_de_Saint_Exup%C3%A9ry" target="_blank">The rose</a> is the pivot of the little prince's planet. Just like any other curious child, the little prince asks questions as often as he avoids answering questions.</div>
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The little prince later talks about a variety of adult characters, all of which seemed silly for the title character.</div>
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Most of the quotable quotes from the novel are by The Fox. Through this character, Saint-Exupéry aims to tell us the book's central message: love.<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important...</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose...</span></i></div>
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In a candid manner, the author acknowledges his watercolor illustrations with a self-deprecating tone, accusing the adults for discouraging him from pursuing an art career when he was six years-old.</div>
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Saint-Exupéry said that he is the little prince, drawing inspiration from his own child self. That makes sense because the little prince's "farewell" is allegorical to that coming-of-age era, the loss of innocence, the transition from childhood to adulthood.</div>
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At once Saint-Exupéry explores the simplicity of life and the complexity of "simple" things like the warfare between the sheep and the flowers. He also contemplates on how adults make simple things complicated, and how them adults fail to appreciate the ubiquitous beauty surrounding their "complicated" existence. In some ways, this book can be seen as "anti-adult." But nay it's not, it can be accurately described as a "love letter from a child to his adult self."</div>
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Translated from French to English by Katherine Woods, the 1943 edition is simple with a little touch of poetry in it.</div>
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Divided into 27 chapters, the novella's narrative is generally first-person singular, occasionally swaying to second-person. A thoughtfully affectionate letter to a special person — that's how <i>The Little Prince</i> looked like to me. It was as if Saint-Exupéry is casually speaking to the little prince through us, the readers.</div>
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<i>The Little Prince</i> is a timeless philosophical work in the guise of a children's book.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100493235259842670.post-80085518189783216742014-10-23T16:30:00.002+08:002019-07-26T17:16:41.823+08:00Quotable Quotes: The Joy Luck Club<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGbtHj24YlQs7sfM-6qpljMrVrU7K_7iUAIKFghlKMpc8zw0rB9_XZxfunmyPinH2kjaweHGzpB5FtFQe-WkQhd4SsQSrtlIkh8uEP9jM6yjdFNCwTDmgXF_mF9McDM5v81abq3PLOgJeb/s1600/The_Joy_Luck_Club.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGbtHj24YlQs7sfM-6qpljMrVrU7K_7iUAIKFghlKMpc8zw0rB9_XZxfunmyPinH2kjaweHGzpB5FtFQe-WkQhd4SsQSrtlIkh8uEP9jM6yjdFNCwTDmgXF_mF9McDM5v81abq3PLOgJeb/s1600/The_Joy_Luck_Club.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Miss Amy Tan is <a href="https://twitter.com/AmyTan/status/525173266990637056" target="_blank">currently here in the Philippines</a> for the Philippine Literary Festival. Her most famous work, 1989's <b><i>The Joy Luck Club</i></b>, has been one of my faves ever since I first read it back in high school. A very inspiring novel, <i>The Joy Luck Club</i> is synonymous with browsing through a family scrapbook whilst getting to know more about yourself in the process.</div>
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One of my fave quotes from the novel is this...</div>
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<i>"Now you see," said the turtle, drifting back into the pond, "why it is useless to cry. Your tears do not wash away your sorrows. They feed someone else's joy. And that is why you must learn to swallow your own tears."</i></div>
- An-Mei's MotherUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100493235259842670.post-49969697581994945052014-10-15T16:00:00.001+08:002019-07-26T17:16:26.101+08:00Book Review: The Virgin Suicides<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ9MFepEgUVI2X9A98eE3CVGie3Z7m85evIdfzWzlabyp5O-tKNhyphenhyphennLjFRxeQZGMfNR-TVVs-4PIZhLhClxThNnFlsL5RpoleW6nUSc92dzOuvRmmn72Z-UKzyaEisKB7nYrTOlEDzg8IN/s1600/The_Virgin_Suicides.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ9MFepEgUVI2X9A98eE3CVGie3Z7m85evIdfzWzlabyp5O-tKNhyphenhyphennLjFRxeQZGMfNR-TVVs-4PIZhLhClxThNnFlsL5RpoleW6nUSc92dzOuvRmmn72Z-UKzyaEisKB7nYrTOlEDzg8IN/s1600/The_Virgin_Suicides.jpg" width="266" /></a><br />
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<b>THE VIRGIN SUICIDES</b><br />
Jeffrey Eugenides, 1993<br />
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<i>Virgin suicide</i></div>
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<i>What was that she cried?</i></div>
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<i>No use in stayin'</i></div>
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<i>On this holocaust ride</i></div>
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<i>She gave me her cherry</i></div>
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<i>She's my virgin suicide</i></div>
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<b style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Virgin Suicides</i></b><span style="text-align: justify;"> tackles the dilemma of angst-ridden adolescence, the downsides of being a girl, teenage sexuality, the anguish of yearning, and — of course — the complexity of suicide.</span><br />
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Set in '70s Michigan, <i>The Virgin Suicides</i> revolves around the Lisbon sisters, the sheltered daughters of a devout Catholic couple. The Lisbon girls become the center of intrigue and timeless fascination in an upper middle-class Grosse Pointe suburb, their tragedy haunting their neighbors through the years.<br />
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Mr. Eugenides uses the first-person plural narrative. Through an unnamed narrator reminiscing the not-so-happy past, we get to know the lives of the Lisbon girls. The narrator represents the boys who have encountered the Lisbon girls more than once, but usually gazing at them from afar, like a stalker or something — which is quite creepy but it's not. They're kinda like Dill and the Finch siblings in <b><i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i></b>, incessantly feeding their curiosity over their quasi-hermit neighbors.<br />
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Mr. Eugenides portrays the boys as hopeless romantics, tender creatures who want to save the girls but can't. They refer to their Lisbon souvenirs as "evidences," implicitly referring to the suicides as a crime in which the girls are the victims they weren't able to save.</div>
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<i>The Virgin Suicides</i>' themes are universal, it's just that the author grew up in that era, near that city. The Grosse Pointe suburb is a comfortable setting, almost uneventful. That's why the Lisbons' tragedies seem spectacular.</div>
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The novel's title has a multilayered meaning in it. Why “The Virgin Suicides?” It's because the Lisbon girls are innocent, they exist in a confined place where they are deprived of the outside world. The title can also refer to boys' lost innocence; through the Lisbon girls' suicides, the boys learn the painful lessons of life.</div>
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Much of the characters are scrutinized here than in <a href="http://depthsofcinema.blogspot.com/2014/10/ghosts-of-yestertears.html" target="_blank">Sofia Coppola's film</a>. My most fave is Cecilia Lisbon, the eccentric sister.</div>
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13 year-old Cecilia is the youngest. Ceel — as Lux calls her — is the mysterious Lisbon sister. She escapes her parents' strict upbringing by writing on her journal and creating some poetry. She likes Celtic music, most likely because that kind of music exudes the feeling of being one with nature, which Cecilia empathizes with. She bites her fingernails, anxiety maybe?<br />
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Cecilia's name means "blind," which is what the narrator calls her and her sisters. Cecilia is kinda like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Bront%C3%AB#Personality_and_character" target="_blank">Emily Brontë</a>, stoic and all.</div>
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<i>Our own knowledge of Cecilia kept growing after her death, too, with the same unnatural persistence. Though she had spoken only rarely and had had no real friends, everybody possessed his own vivid memories of Cecilia... </i><i>A few of us had fallen in love with her, but had kept it to ourselves, knowing that she was the weird sister.</i></div>
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The novel is more depressing than Miss Coppola's film. That's the beauty of a book. You are not just an onlooker who feels, instead you are the creator of your feelings. With books, you direct your own film without the pressure of the producers and the possible backlash of critics.</div>
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<i>The Virgin Suicides</i> starts with a bittersweet tone, finally segueing to bitterness. If this novel is a person, I'd probably have this inexplicable infatuation towards it, just like what the boys felt for the Lisbon girls. Mr. Eugenides contemplatively weaves dark comedy with tragedy. He knows how to inject poetry into his prose.<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">They had killed themselves over our dying forests, over manatees maimed by propellers as they surfaced to drink from garden hoses; they had killed themselves at the sight of used tires stacked higher than the pyramids; they had killed themselves over the failure to find a love none of us could ever be. In the end, the tortures tearing the Lisbon girls pointed to a simple reasoned refusal to accept the world as it was handed down to them, so full of flaws.</span></i></div>
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I would love to read more of Mr. Eugenides' works, especially <b><i>Middlesex</i></b> since I've heard a lot of good things about that novel.<br />
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<i>The Virgin Suicides</i> is a harrowing meditation of lost innocence, somehow echoing the cynicism of Miss Sylvia Plath's works. <i>The Virgin Suicides</i> is a truly impressive debut novel from one of the word wizards of American literature.</div>
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<i>In the end we had pieces of the puzzle, but no matter how we put them together, gaps remained, oddly shaped emptinesses mapped by what surrounded them, like countries we couldn't name.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0