Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Love and Garbage


Love and Garbage by Ivan Klima. A writer living under the communist regime finds himself collecting garbage and sweeping the streets because that's the only job he can find. He sometimes works in the hospital to clean the medical waste.

His past came to his mind, that he spent a year as a visiting professor in the United States. The president of Ford invited him for tea and the writer, a professor in American literature then, asked the president how they dealt with the deserted cars. Where did they go? The president found the question amusing and assured the Czech writer that the used cars would be recycled, no fuss and no worries. The writer now realize that it was not true. All cherished goods become garbage and wait for people to collect; things do not vanish, they degrade and become garbage. That is what he is now, the writer conveys it subtly, that he is garbage too. Disposable.The writing is melancholy with acceptance. Knowing that everything ends up become garbage, he pursues love nonetheless. He hurts people, his wife and his mistress, and they hurt him too, in a quiet, inevitable way. It is inevitable, yes, inevitable, that is the source of his acceptance of his situation. You can not stop milk going sour. Everything is garbage.

Notes from the book:

I think of her only as "she". In my mind I mostly do not give her a name. Names get fingered and worn just like tender words.

Do you think every love indulges in false hopes? she asked.
I realized that she was asking about us, and I dared not say yes, even though I could see no reason why we should be exceptions.

I wanted to fall asleep but I could feel the night creeping around me softly, like a cat out hunting, nothing mattering to it except its intended prey.

Listening to other people's tales, I sometimes feel like a debtor, like an eternal dinner guest who never offer any invitations himself, but usually I can not bring myself to demand the attention of others.

I'm having every sentence I utter examined by a guard dog. I've accommodated a whole pack of them within me. I pick my way between them, their barking at times deafens me and their their soundless footfalls frightens me in my dreams.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Hu Huishan's Memorial


This is a story about an ordinary Chinese girl HU, Huishan. (The picture is from this blog and there are more photos and a bi-lingual account of the memorial.)

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Monday, March 16, 2009

Nothing About Luke

The opening of Cool Hand Luke is astonishing. “Violation”, “violation”, “violation”, then the shot zoomed out a little, and we saw that it was a parking meter, and the villain was decapitating it. I thought he did it for money but no, he cut it one by one and left the heads on the ground. The police came near and I thought he’d run or come up with a brilliant excuse to get away, but no, he offered his charming Paul Newman smile and admitted his crime.

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Another Suitcase in Another Hall

More packing and more moving; three months here and two months on the road then back for another couple of months which no one knows when it will end.

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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Notes of Great Jones Street

Simply clips from Great Jones Street that I admire a lot. Couldn't think of any remark other than "wow".

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Taiwan Police Violates Civil Rights When Maintaining Order During the Meeting of Taiwan’s and China’s Top Negotiators

The statement is written by Taiwan Sovereignty Watch and was taken from their website. It's a rough week here. :-(

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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Turtle Diary

In the beginning, Turtle Diary is like a disoriented murmur from under the sea. Russell Hoban writes about turtles, water-beetles, oyster-catchers, whales, and throws irrelevant knowledge about them at his readers. Surviving the first 50 pages, the reader will find a structure that emerges as two loners hold the same thought of rescuing sea turtles from the zoo. Since they are one man and one woman, a romantic encounter is expected given the prevalence of heterosexual presumption.

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