Should I blog more?

One of the most brilliant people I know has been telling me for some time that I should blog more often, since I obviously have lots of interesting things to say about, well, the sort of stuff that's featured on the Intelligent Singaporean daily. Actually, believe it or not, I don't. Oh, I have political opinions all right. I just don't think they're particularly blog-worthy most of the time. Most of my views tend to toe the left-liberal line, at least when it comes to local politics -- and there plenty of diligent and smart Singaporean libertarians out there that you can and should read first. I'll venture into politics when I think I do have something to say. In the meantime, I'll limit my commentary to stuff that I care and know about, like literature and history and education. (As for my personal life -- well, it's not that happening. In case you're wondering, I'm single and available. If you enjoy talking about European history, Liverpool Football Club, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and T. S. Eliot's poetry, drop me a line.)

Two other obstacles stand in the way of my blogging. One is time. I just don't have much of it these days. My Practicum starts on Monday, and I'll be knee-deep in lesson plans before very long. When I do have free time, I'll probably be reading Jacques Barzun to keep me sane. Reading is always ahead of blogging in my list of priorities.

Second, I'm a really, really slow writer. A lot of people think that I write well and therefore assume that I write quickly, but if I do write well, it's because I'm a verbal perfectionist who agonises over every word, sentence, and paragraph and loathes having to rewrite anything. In the spirit of the essay, I also write in order to figure out something that I think I know, to test and straighten out half-formed thoughts and not to verbalise fully-formed ones. That invariably entails a lot of backtracking and revising. Very often I abandon posts halfway because I don't think I'm getting anywhere, or because I realise that I don't really know much about the topic and need to spend more time reading about it first.

Apropos of writing, I have some thoughts on writing that I should look to turn into a blog post sooner or later. Don't hold your breath about it though.
Posted by kungfuzi at 11:13 pm | 0 comments

  All's well that ends well

I'm not sure how this Guardian columnist can call the ending to The Lord of the Rings a happy one, let alone the trilogy one of the top ten books with a happy ending. This is what she writes:

Forget the films, read the book. It's too reductive to call it an allegory but you'll feel like you've survived a world war - which is how the author must have felt when he'd finished writing this giant epic. After the advancing armies of Sauron and his allies have been defeated at last, there's nothing happier than a cosy cup of tea back in the green and pleasant Shire. This is one of those books which reminds you to be really happy that England exists.

Did she actually finish reading The Return of the King? It doesn't end with tea and crumpets, or the defeat of Sauron, but with Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, and the elves departing Middle-earth for the Grey Havens in a partly symbolic act which marks the closing of the Third Age. Like Samwise, I've never understood why this had to take place. It comes so suddenly, and seems so unnecessary. It certainly isn't a happy ending, comparable to the others which she mentions (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pride and Prejudice, etc.):

But to Sam the evening deepened to darkness as he stood at the Haven; and as he looked at the grey sea he saw only a shadow on the waters that was soon lost in the West. There still he stood far into the night, hearing only the sigh and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middle-earth, and the sound of them sank deep into his heart. Beside him stood Merry and Pippin, and they were silent.

I know that Sam, Merry, and Pippin return to the Shire after this, and that Sam (and Legolas and Gimli, according to the Appendices) actually ends up in the Grey Havens many years later, but the overwhelming sensation that one feels at this point is loss: things can't just go back to the way they once were, before the rise of Sauron, before the loss of innocence that the journey to Mordor and back entailed.

Two books that immediately come to mind when I think about happy endings are Lucky Jim and The Divine Comedy. The first time I read Lucky Jim, I focused too much on its depiction of academia -- I was writing my thesis at the time and contemplating a professional career in History (I still am); only the second time around, while in transit through Hungary on the way home from a summer holiday in Croatia, did I pay attention to its plot, and the character of Christine. As for Dante, well, if you accept the premises of the Comedy, what greater happiness can there be than having a divinely-inspired orgasm (and knowing that the horrifically boring Paradiso is finally at an end)?
Posted by kungfuzi at 2:36 pm | 0 comments

  A very pedantic point about medieval history

Having written my senior History thesis on Prester John two and half years ago, I'm pleased to note that Astroboy of the Brotherhood mentions the great man in his article on conspiracy theories. I do have a very pedantic point to make about his reference to him though. The people who spoke of Prester John were mostly not "charlatans"; "Sir John Mandeville" and the anonymous author of the letter of Prester John probably were, but the likes of Hugh of Jabala, James of Vitry, Pope Alexander III, John of Plano Carpini, William of Rubruck, and Marco Polo weren't. Each of the individuals in the latter group earnestly believed in the existence of Prester John and most hoped -- as their writings on him suggest -- that he would play an important role in the conflicts of the time: namely the Crusades and the conflict between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. Although Astroboy is right to see Prester John's mythical kingdom as "bizarre and superfluous" today, a lot of people in medieval and early modern times didn't, because the components of the Prester John myth squared with received wisdom about the Far East, and because he was a politically attractive figure.
Posted by kungfuzi at 11:34 pm | 1 comments

  Not RI

Well, it looks as if I won't be going to RI for my Practicum, but to a neighbourhood school closer to where I stay. Believe it or not, I'm not actually freaking out about the MOE's decision, although I would like to know just what happened to the request that RI put in for me. I still reckon I'm on target for RJC in July, and my 10 weeks at the neighbourhood school should be quite an eye-opener. I've heard good things about it too: the students there are apparently well-behaved but a little slow. That's much better than the reverse. I'll also be joined at the school by a colleague from my Literature class, as well as my Literature instructor, who'll be supervising me.
Posted by kungfuzi at 10:50 pm | 0 comments

  Counter-insurgency?

Li Xueying's ST article on the PAP's move to counter online criticism of it begins on an infelicitous note: "The People's Action Party (PAP) is mounting a quiet counter-insurgency against its online critics." Oh, so now the likes of Mr Wang, Singabloodypore, and Yawning Bread are insurgents -- terrorists, in other words -- and the PAP's anonymous hacks brave soldiers standing up for truth, justice, and the Singaporean way. I see how it's done. Remind me again: how well is the US Army doing against the Iraqi insurgency?
Posted by kungfuzi at 1:38 am | 0 comments