Literally Blogging

   Oh Love…the Great Intangible! We people love to talk about it, debate about it, fight for it, sing about it and definitely yearn for it. It is consumes most of our thoughts and guides every breathing moment of our lives. Yet, at the heart of it, love is actually not complex but truly simple in its nature. It is because love is just going out and giving ourselves selves for others. Dahl richly illustrates this in a tale about Mr. Hopper, man in his golden years who has fallen in LOOOVE with his neighbor Mrs. Silver, a widow who lives with her favorite turtle Alfie. A bizzarre love triangle soon occurs as Mr. Hoppy becomes a bit jealous of Alfie as he realizes the turtle is the object of Mrs. Silver’s affection. He soon takes advantage of this fact and concucts a zany plan that can only happen in the world of Roald Dahl. The rest of the story is up to you to find out. The only clue I can give is that words Esio Trot does take a part in it.

  Esio Trot is my muy paborito (favorite) book of Dahl because I am really an old fashion romantic at heart. I easily fall for charming love stories such “You’ve Got Mail” and the “High School Musical” that don’t involve eroticism to weave its magic but rather a simple creative plot with great dialogue. In this case, I found it novel that Dahl used an elderly couple in his love story than the usual young Romeo and Juliet because it really fleshed out the idea the love does makes us young again. This is seen in the gushy giddiness of Mr. Hoppy as he thinks of the lovely Mrs. Silver and the events that follow after. It is really simple but it works for me and this is why Esio Trot is usually one of the books I read to the kids during my outreach programs and one of the novels I reread when I am feeling a little blue. Thus, in case, love is something you can never really get tired of as long as you are always young at heart.

  If you want are old fashion romantic like me, do not hesitate to recommend books of a similar nature to this site and I will feature it.

Hey Hey Hey!

We are back to color this week and I promise you that it will be uber vibrant courtesy of Roald Dahl and his partner Quentin Blake. Dahl is my bestest and most favoritest author in the whole world (too much Willy Wonka Candy). I found out about him because this girl I liked in High School. It is funny because I ended falling in Love with Dahl and his quirky cast of characters in the end. I pretty much forgotten the girl but my affair with Dahl lives on….eerie but true. :)

So let’s begin a quote from Roal Dahl himself:

As we rest and retire for the weekend, let us pause and think about whether or not we will return to work on Monday. To facilitate this inner dialogue, let Shakespeare’s Hamlet guide us with its famous lines….

To be, or not to be, —that is the question:—
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? —To die, —to sleep,—
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, —’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, —to sleep;—
To sleep! perchance to dream: —ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,—
The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns,—puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know naught of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. (Hamlet, III.i)

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami

   Last March 20, 1995, the Aum Buddhist Cult released the fatal sarin gas in several trains of the Tokyo Subway. The gas silently seeped in the cars and was able to injure a thousand of its passengers by rendering them blinding and causing damage to their lungs. Immediately after, a media frenzy occurs and the drama of its victims and Aum unfolds. Murakami stems in the scene six months after to give some perspective after the dust has settled by interviewing the experiences of its victims. In general, the interviews offer some surprising aspect of the Japanese pysche and the intracacies of us humans. Some of the revelations I found out were that:

1. Japanese are really patient people. A lot of the victims were injured or even died because they did not immediately leave the subway car. They were getting dizzy and losing their eyesight but they did complain out of saving public face to not rock the boat.

2. Japanese are workaholics. Despite obvious blindness and heavy fatigue, many of them still went to work and never figured to go back home to get a nap.

3. Tragedy and Anger is Subjective. Interestingly enough, each of the unfortunate passenger’s testimonies differ towards their perspective of the event. Some are consumed by what happened and are ultimately crippled by it. They cannot sleep right or eat right. Others have forgotten about it and see the gas attack as simple case of bad luck.

4. The Root and Branching out of Religion is Suffering. In reference to the Aum cult, they performed their attack as way of ending suffering through its Buddhist outlook of escaping reality. On the other hand, my Catholic view is that suffering is something that can be transformed for good in this world for the glory of God. While, you,the reader, may have your own convinctions on suffering that seem to dictate your view of the world. Well, the point is that I believe that how we choose to live our lives depends on what we make of this imperfect world which is caused by suffering.

5. No one is ultimately evil. The unheard victims of this tragedy were also the Aum cult followers who were oblivious  of to gas attack. Marukami interviews them too and we learn that they are highly normal and intelligent fellows who fallen with the wrong crowd. The result is that they are austricized from the Tokyo society and left with the wrong end of the stick. You really feel for them when they talk about difficult job security and the like because they were simply people with good and noble intentions.

  Underground is a great read for someone looking for light read with good storytelling. I have not read Murakami’s fictional stories but he does make reality more interesting than it really is.

   In the Philippines, bookends are a definite rarity unless you call those flat steel things as “bookends”. Aside from that, it is a pity we only sell the cheey superhero bookends here in the Philippines.This is the reason why I went ga-ga over the bookends in Barnes and Nobles six years ago and had the willpower to go over a thousand miles back home with the gargoyles below in my backpack. Aren’t they cute? I consider them one of the things I would probably run back home to get if ever my house is ever set ablaze.

I know that the Underground Murakami post was suppose to be next but my babies just screamed for attention. :)

Posted in Contemporary Literature, Lit Bits | No Comments »