I’ve been hit by malaise today, as happens every few weeks. I’m uncertain how else to decribe it: it’s a slight headache, a slight uneasiness about the stomach, and a general heaviness of aspect.
Fortunately this didn’t get in the way of work, and I have just wrapped up an edit to be sent by tomorrow morning.
I was excited to find a rare performance of Mak Yong this weekend, albeit inconveniently in Shah Alam. Then I found another, at KL Pac, the lovely performing arts centre, and shrieked inside that it was a Mak Yong performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Why, why, why??? If I want to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream, why would I want to watch the Mak Yong version? Conversely, if I want to watch Mak Yong, why would I not want to see one of this region’s great epics and romances? (See also: Star Wars Wayang Kulit when it is virtually impossible to see actual shadow plays). There is something here about an unease with culture and history that I find really sad and unnecessary. Not that we don’t suffer from the same postcolonial/ Islamist hangover in Pakistan, but it is easier to see it in another society.
My laptop is still in customs. It arrived in the country ten days ago. What on earth are they doing with it???