On Reading...

Not exactly on a roll here, but might as well write something, yes?

It isn't a secret that I am making my way through the King James Version of the Bible from Project Gutenberg. If it's something new, I highly recommend checking out my reading list to keep track of what I am currently reading.

The purpose is actually quite simple. The Bible is a book that is heavily alluded to (and even quoted from!) in the literature of the western hemisphere, and I cannot call myself a reader of English literature if I hadn't actually had the chance to look at the source material itself. So it is of a more mundane linguistic and semiotic reason that I am tackling the holy book than a sudden epiphany in following the Christian faith.

With that out of the way, some progress updates. I'm up to the Psalms now, and the experience thus far has been rather interesting. Some of the text can be quite laborious (counting off people?), while others lay out some basic principles behind what is deemed to be a moral life (commandmants and the stuff from the Judges and the Kings), as well as the rather petty nature of the almighty as depicted in the early sections (someone accidentally touches the Ark and boom! that person died). Pretty gory stuff for a holy book, but it is still quite interesting. The language itself hasn't bothered me a bit---I suspect I am getting used to the proto-modern English that was used here. A version of the actual form from which the modern allusions come from are well told in the text for the most part, but they often lack the embellishment that specific retellings have. Somehow though there is a realness behind them that defies the fantastical form of the nature that is being described.

Man, I wish I could write like that and be read nearly 700+ years later (KJV was translated sometime in 1400-1500s).

Maybe I'm not as secure in my own thoughts on morality that I thought, because just as I began on the KJV, I started on Feynman's first book of lectures on Physics, covering classical mechanics and special relativity as well as basic quantum mechanics. I won't claim that I am an expert in those branches of physics, but at least I have a better understanding (and a slightly better tuned intuition) behind the more modern aspects of physics compared to the simplified models that I learnt up to the `A'-levels. Feynman has an easy-to-read style that transcends the often crazy equations which govern the underlying physical phenomenon. Or maybe it's from my general lack of exposure to physics proper since my last physics-related class on astronomy and experimental physics back in college. I'll start on the second volume some time in the future---I am getting rather sick of reading too many large volumes at once; KJV is even more brick-like than ol' Hugo's Les Misérables.

I did manage to squeeze in some short stories and novels and even a version of the Singapore Constitution just for a change. Of the lot, the Handmaid's Tale is rather thought provoking. It provides yet another type of dystopian future scenario that hits even closer to home than Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World or even Blade Runner (the movie of course). That a theocratic movement can overcome democratic processes to end up with a type of strict autocratic society is something that cannot be dismissed as implausible given the constant rise of religious fundamentalism and personality cults. It takes the strongly patriarchical hierarchy and marries it with the perversely impersonal utilitarianism to create a formal society that is abhorred by all secretly but loved by all outwardly.

So, what's next?

More KJV for sure---apparently there are ``good news'' in the New Testament stuff, which will probably give me more cause to appreciate the things about St Thomas Aquinas that my old ethics professor talked about when I was taking that course in the Philosophy department. Apart from KJV, I should probably continue with the next volume of the Arabian Nights before marathoning Dune. Reading throughput is likely to be slow next month due to NaNoWriMo.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I think I have enough ideas to carry on with the original concept of Tales of the City. The main reason for my sudden lack of confidence came from a post I saw online that tried to characterise Singaporean writing. I found that my story concept was already taken to be a stereotype, and was quite shaken about it, since I thought I was doing something that was a little bit new. But now, after watching the riots in Hong Kong, and remembering Hemingway, I have discovered a new challenge for myself: to write Tales of the City using concise writing instead of the usual verbiage one uses to pad up the draft to hit the magical 50k. Does this mean that there's a chance of failure this year? Yes. But I suppose I will be much better from it as a writer.

The general plot of Tales of the City ought to be similar to my original concept, except this time, we can use more of a dystopian future setting to introduce the tales. This allows different voices and styles not unlike my 2013 entry, which featured that except it was too disturbing even to post online.

It should be fun.

And with that, it is time for me to sign off. I could go on and talk more, but a nine-hundred word blog post of almost no substance is probably enough for most people's palates. Till next time.