It was over 40 degrees so of course I went for a walk in the park. I left at around 4 and got to the park around 4.45, with a stop along the way to buy a bubble tea. I had planned to find a spot to drink it in the park, but it was still hot enough that it was gone by the time I’d walked to the end of the lake and reached my favourite bit, where it turns into the wetland cut through by white walkways and overhead the elevated paths.
It stayed hot until it became dark, even the Bangkok breeze was warm. I hear Lahore is quite cool for the season, but the forecast tells me it’ll be 44 degrees the day I get there, so I suppose I take the heat with me. Luckily it meant almost no one was there through most of my stroll: only towards the end people started appearing, mostly on the elevated bits, so perhaps people come out when it’s dark. I walked around some of the bits I’d not explored before, like the warehouse buildings which were very empty but had been partly opened up and were very clean. Some of them had sport facilities in them, like basketball courts or five-a-side football pitches, but they were empty and had barriers in front of the entrances, stating that they were under construction. I say empty – there was a parliament of crows going on between them.
The nicest thing about wilderness parks, especially in warm climates, is hearing the sounds change as the day changes, most of all around as the sun sets and you get waves of animal sounds – insects, birds, amphibians. It was enough to drown out the sound of the city, which was otherwise ever present.
I finished The Remains of the Day and moved on to Never Let Me Go. I am enjoying it more. I do think there is a strange nostalgia about his novels, one I don’t much care for. It’s in the writing style and the sensibility far more than the subjects and the characters. Still worrying, the similiarity to my own writing.
One of the problems with reading multiple books by the same author in a go is how the quirks of their writing really start to stand out.
An interesting blog post by a Sri Lankan writer about worldbuilding and the value given to featureless writing in science fiction. I have no time at all for the former but prefer unornate writing, but there is a difference between the featureless writing that he refers to and really good writing that is not ornate. Ishiguro towards the latter and is what I aspire to.