Wanted: the wonderful, the significant, the necessary

I gotta rationalise my reading lists, guys. Most of you who care probably know already that I have another DW/LJ identity for "pro"* writing stuff, and I've been doing a slightly peculiar thing where I read journals on DW under this account but post on the other account. And I don't even have a bravecows journal on LJ anymore, so I just use the pro writing LJ for both posting and reading. It's a system that doesn't make sense!

So I'm going to start reorganising my reading list on the other DW and will probably stop using this for much. I'm not going to get rid of it because I like having a fandom blog/identity, and some day I will finish and post that post-series Gokusen fic ... till that day, though, it'll probably stay pretty quiet around here.

PM me if you'd like a link to the pro writing blog. I'll see you over there!

*For, er, a given value of "pro".

I watched this last night and enjoyed it much more than I thought it would! Colin Firth is so sweet. I have decided that his appeal lies in the fact that, even when he is being an asshole (and many of his characters are asshole, see e.g. Mr. Darcy and definitely the Duke of York), you feel that he is trying his BEST. And that gives him a certain vulnerability and sincerity, and that is what makes him attractive. Because he is not actually very good-looking; he looks like a square potato.

( mildly spoilery discussion )

This made me chortle. My favourite part is the part where various characters lounge pensively in moonlight. Pensive lounging is so romantic!

It makes me kind of nostalgic for anime. I haven't watched anime in ages. After chatting with colorblue yesterday I started rereading my old Bleach fic and this made me doubly nostalgic. People, you should give me recs! I like manga better than anime, but will take recs for both.

Sort of on the same subject but not really, can you read manga on Kindles or any other ereader? I touched a Kindle in the flesh the other day and now I kind of want one. I imagine it would be especially nice for reading fic and online magazines.

Do you know, I have been doing this one for years and years! Well, at least three years. I should really remember to link to previous years' memes so that I can keep track of myself. Here is 2009's.

( end of year meme I always do )

And as a pure indulgence to myself, I am going to insert some writing statistics for the year here. If only because it is a novelty to have something to look back on!

( writing chat )

When I was little I used to eat the eyes of fishes.

That makes me sound like Lyra, eating raw liver with the magical polar bears. I'm not saying I went around stealing people's goldfish and biting their heads off. It wasn't quite as exciting as that. When we had fish for dinner, steamed or fried, I'd have the eyes. I didn't eat the outside bit, you know, the cornea and so on; I had the small white ball that lies underneath. You suck it: it's powdery and under the powder feels like bone, but eventually it crumbles in your mouth.

That's not really relevant to anything -- just a random memory. I may have been encouraged by my parents to eat the eyes because it would make my eyesight better, but they didn't insist or anything. I think I just got a kick out of it. Anyway I don't really eat fish eyes anymore because to be honest they don't taste of anything much. These days I'm a wiser fish eater -- I go straight for the cheek flesh. >:)

I said I had Thoughts about food shame, but actually what I have is thoughts about food fetishism or glorification -- not a very good term, but I'll try to think of a better one as I go along. The reason why I haven't had many of the experiences vi and troisroyaumes talk about in their posts is because save for a couple of exceptions, I usually don't eat normal food when I'm with white Westerners. Especially groups of Westerners -- forget about it! I once refused an invitation to go for dim sum with law school classmates purely because I figured I didn't want to eat dim sum with people who had never eaten dim sum before.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with never having eaten dim sum before -- I think a vegetarian would struggle at your standard dim sum place, for example. I'm just saying that I have the good fortune of being able to pick my food experiences.

So I don't have anything interesting to say about food shame. The other end of the spectrum is an interesting place, though. White Westerners do a thing about certain foods they consider "exotic" -- particularly food from cultures considered cool or prestigious, e.g. Japanese -- where eating it becomes a marker of how elite, open-minded, upper-class you are. So eating sushi is a yuppie thing. Knowing where the authentic restaurants are, the ones with the non-white people in them, makes you cool. Using chopsticks correctly, being able to pronounce food names -- it's like a competition in their heads and they're using the trappings of another culture to win.

And this really annoys me! Guys, eating foods from another culture does not make you open-minded, any more than fucking or even loving somebody from another race does. Eating is a matter of preference; preference is often a matter of nostalgia, but just because you aren't exclusively dominated by nostalgia in your preferences, that doesn't make you a superior or enlightened person. And thinking it does kind of makes you an asshole. This "exotic" food is normal for some people. Your acting like it's weird, like eating it makes you some kinda champion, means you're reinforcing the idea that the food white Westerners eat is normal and anything that isn't that is Other. This is a bad thing.

I was going to write about food/culture fetishism from another perspective, i.e. my perspective and that of my friends, but this hot chocolate made from 100% pure cacao, hot milk and a splash of rum is making me kind of sleepy. Also I wanna work on my Totoro mittens. (It is like the North Pole in London right now. Where are the penguins?!)

Via frangipani: Labrys Kyrgyzstan, an LGBT organisation that provides crisis support and advocacy for LGBT people in Kyrgyzstan, is trying to raise US$15,000 for a safe house that will serve as its office, community centre and shelter. frangipani provides a summary of the situation, but Labrys also has a website and blog if you want to find out more about their work. Please donate if you can.

Does anybody remember that (Chinese) story where this guy gets a magic brush that lets him bring to life anything that he draws? I don't remember what his name is. -- A quick Google turns up this brief retelling and a gorgeous picture by Singaporean artist.

Hmm, that story seems slightly less exciting than the one I recall from the picture book I had when I was a kid! I remember the main character drawing a horse on a stone (presumably because he was being pursued and had to use whatever surface he could find), and the horse peeling off the stone. V. Impressive.

I've come to realise that it's no longer the case that everyone who reads this journal came to it via fanfic fandom, and I can't assume that its conventions will apply. So it might be worth mentioning that I would prefer for my full name not to be explicitly linked to this journal or identity. I've become a lot more relaxed about referring to myself by my first name (if only because I didn't want to be called afrai by Internet people when I met them in real life!), but I'd rather not have this journal be Googleable by, say, my employer, or for real life acquaintances who might stumble upon this blog to be able to confirm immediately that this is the blog of [my real name].

In other words, please don't out me, you guys!

On a less boring note, here are some pictures of food!

( three pictures )

Goddammit, pain in my throat, go away! I have a busy and interesting life and do not need the layer of blah you lay on me that keeps me from fully appreciating the busy-and-interestingness!

Anyways! I'm going to crosspost this so apologies in advance to those of you who will see this post three times.

If you were going on a day trip from London and/or Oxford and liked deliciousness, where would you go? An overnight stay is possible. I have been to Bath but otherwise have not done that much tourism in England so what might seem like obvious suggestions are welcome. (Brighton, for example -- is that fun?)

I was going to say that as this day trip is planned for the middle of November, it needs to be somewhere that is fun even in horrible weather, but that kind of goes without saying in England ...

Who's gonna be in Malaysia from the 28th of January to the 13th of February? ME!

\(^_^)\ \(^_^)/ /(^_^)/

I might aim to come down to Singapore for a couple of days as well. We shall see.

15-day long Chinese New Year party! (2 days deducted for flights to and fro!) Oh yeah!

***

Anyway, back to business. Day 5 of the meme is your favourite quote.

These are hard. :( I don't have a favourite quote really. I have these lines from Porcupines at the University by Donald Barthelme on my profile:

The citizens in their cars looked at the porcupines, thinking: What is wonderful? Are these porcupines wonderful? Are they significant? Are they what I need?

Because I like the mental image of all these porcupines, and the mystery of their wonderfulness and significance. And of course one worries about what is wonderful, and what is significant, and what one needs, in broader terms. These are important questions, not limited to the topic of porcupines.

Here is a good one about art by Madeleine L'Engle, in her book A Circle of Quiet:

A great painting, or symphony, or play, doesn't diminish us, but enlarges us, and we, too, want to make our own cry of affirmation to the power of creation behind the universe. This surge of creativity has nothing to do with competition, or degree of talent. When I hear a superb pianist, I can't wait to get to my own piano, and I play about as well now as I did when I was ten. A great novel, rather than discouraging me, simply makes me want to write. This response on the part of any artist is the need to make incarnate the new awareness we have been granted through the genius of someone else.

... It is beauty crying out for more beauty.

And here is a list of "Proper moments for drinking tea", as quoted by Lin Yutang from Ch'asu in his book The Importance of Living:

When one's heart and hands are idle.
Tired after reading poetry.
When one's thoughts are disturbed.
Listening to songs and ditties.
When a song is completed.
Shut up at one's home on a holiday.
Playing the ch'in and looking over paintings.
Engaged in conversation deep at night.
Before a bright window and a clean desk.
With charming friends and slender concubines.
Returning from a visit with friends.
When the day is clear and the breeze is mild.
On a day of light showers.
In a painted boat near a small wooden bridge.
In a forest with tall bamboos.
In a pavilion overlooking lotus flowers on a summer day.
Having lighted incense in a small studio.
After a feast is over and the guests are gone.
When children are at school.
In a quiet, secluded temple.
Near famous springs and quaint rocks.

( 30 Days of Me )

She was generous and poetic. She believed in community and beauty. She made an effort for people. She was kind, but she was also good at being angry.

I admired her and had many reasons to be grateful to her. I always thought there would be time to get to know her better.

ETA: This sucks. I keep forgetting and wondering why I feel sad and then remembering that she is dead. It feels unreal. I feel so indignant.

Of her I remember compassion, warmth, humour and poetry. (This last keeps coming up when I think of her -- her comment style was just so poetic.) And remembering a picture she posted of herself, how pretty she was, how she believed in believing in and being proud of your own beauty. She was just one of those people ... there was nothing trivial about her. So I remember only good things, kindnesses, and so do other people. But what cheeses me off is that these are things to be remembered. I wish she was still alive. And I wish I'd commented more on her posts.