I reread after a long time I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and was struck by just how sensual the book is. Every single sense, and a lot of sex, sex everywhere. Cassandra, the narrator, is one of the great voices in 20th century literature, the grandmother in some ways of the teenaged Alison […]
In lalaland
Lady Lala’s mother is in town, so I met her and Lady Lala’s KL friend for lunch at Kenny Hill. We had the duck rice again, and I enjoyed it rather less than before, it was fine I guess. The last time I had it was before the GF went to Dhaka, which feels like […]
A seed to fruition
A seed of a story suddenly came to fruition today and I have been writing all morning. I hold the shape of it in my mind. There is not much of a plot – perhaps I should abandon stories with plots as that is not my strength – but I hope it is interesting nonetheless. […]
More on Childhood’s End
I finished Childhood’s End. What a great book, proper classic science fiction and better written and thought through than anything most other writers of that period ever managed. Of course, a few pages after I wrote yesterday’s blogpost, the only real character (to the extent there are any characters) turned out to be a young […]
Childhood’s end indeed
I picked up Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End for the first time since my early teens. It is interesting to read now and being sensitive to a story about aliens coming to uplift the natives of the earth, ending their warring ways and imposing new political structures and giving technology. There is a funny little […]
End to solitude
The GF returns overnight, so my week to myself is over. It will be good to have him back, though I did take the opportunity to do some things by myself that he wouldn’t have enjoyed. Not that I couldn’t do them anywy, but it’s somehow easier when he is not there. Today was the […]
Not up to mark
I just finished Jennifer Brissett’s Elysium (vague spoilers follow). It seems to be well regarded and recieved several awards and nominations, but I was not terribly impressed by it. It was certainly very ambitious, and had interesting and coherent ideas. But I thought it lacked emotional resonance, it felt like an experiment but not one […]
Stupid sentimentality
Today was almost overwhelmed by sentimentality. I watched the first episode of Aakhri Station, which was getting some buzz as a good new Urdu drama series, sort of like a feminist Black Mirror. The conceit is that it is set in a women’s carriage on a train from Lahore to Karachi and each episode is […]
Afrofutures
We went to see Black Panther yesterday. It was very good, and I say this as one who is not a fan of superhero films. It was beautiful of course – Afrofuturism is lush visually (I’m less fond of the novels I’ve read in the genre). And so strange and refreshing to see a big […]
A lesser adjutant
This morning I woke before dawn. Again the moon was so bright on the water it felt like day. I got dressed and sat in the terrace watching the sea change from silver and grey to white and blue as dawn brightened behind me. The moon sank towards the water but the sun outstripped it, […]