bought kundera’s the unbearable lightness of being on friday afternoon prior to the celebratory drinks sesh at the watering hole across the hospital, after reading the thumbs ups given by both mangolisa and idlan. it was selling for a mere three quid at fopps. i remembered many years ago that it was made into a movie. with bonking in it. obviously literature was not in our (late) teen minds at that time.
reading the first two short chapters whilst on the transpennine express to the airport made me feel so illiterate. until the narration about tomas and tereza got going. after a hearty, yet not really sedap (not forgetting overpriced), airport fish and chips, i bought another book. an ‘easier’ tome and this was the first time i bought a penguin classic. no, not anna karenina. i think i have mentioned somewhere before that the tolstoy read made me feel like following anna’s steps onto the railtracks.
i bought the complete fables by aesop. unlike the (very much) abridged two-volume ladybird books i read as a kid at kindergarten, the book is an almost complete collection of his works. i didn’t know he was greek (he was a slave from thrace). his life had been described and his works compiled by the likes of aristotle and his students. a book about animal stories, with a smattering of greek mythology, each tale being one paragraph long. that’s the read for me, all right.
for the first time in my 17 years of travelling to kuala lumpur, i was given a window seat. window seat = not good. i prefer aisle seats for easier access to the bog, if needs be. i remembered my first trip on an SQ flight to paya lebar (changi was still known for its prison then). i loved sitting by the window. seeing taman tun from the sky was real thrill. the awe i had returned briefly on seeing the lights of greater manchester. i swear the view looked like coruscant. way better than what george lucas and his guys at ILM conjured.
it wasn’t until 20 minutes later, reality set in again. i was hoping that i didn’t have to wake up the sleeping couple next to me so as i can go to the restroom.
and the food sucked. again. what was i really expecting?
kudo-san,
sneak preview sket!!
The first few pages of Unbearable Lightness of Being lost me too. I mean, what was this, trying to define lightness and what not with Nietzche? Sungguhlah yuppie starbucks.
The Tereza-Tomas-Sabina dynamics was interesting – sort of shed a new light on how we define love; had traces of an Ayn Rand objectivism ideals in it, but that wasn’t the hook lah for me. Aku tak reti lah nak relate to loving and romance cam tu.
What I did enjoy – or perhaps, was morbidly fascinated with – was the politics; how Tomas’s life fell apart because he didn’t toe the communist line, when he was never even a proper rebel even. And how many parallels that drew with the supposedly free world of democracy we live in today.
The movie was full of sex, no politics. I was disaapointed. Hohoho
Kudz,
if you *get* the first para, you’ll get the book 😉
I read that shit while I was going through a particular phase a few years back, if you know what I mean. I was on a quest of searching for the idealist’s definition of ‘love’.
I thought, and still think, that the book was a big, sweet pile of bollowcks. But to be fair to the book, I wasn’t in the most crystal state of mind back then.
Sorry lah. Saya tak berapa cultured, although I’m tempted to pick up Love In The Time of Cholera because I heard it has a similar ambience to Unbearable Lightness, but my sources may be inaccurate.
Going on a tangent, a genius friend of mine came up with a very interesting question today…
Does virginity have mass?
And if it does, can we apply the ‘weigh body before and after’ technique to determine the mass of virginity?
I don’t know if virginity has mass, but I am sure there are many virgins who have mass, or attend it, at least.
The Neon,
before and after = hymen repair surgery 😛
alamak
aku classics berat sikit nak layan..memang mengantuk ..hahaha….
gua post modern Chuck Palahniuk la..:P
Were you on MAS? They’re undergoing a cost cutting exercise right now, so dont be surprised that the food is not as good ( as good as airline foods could be) as it used to be…
idlan: i’ve only got to chapter 3 (or is it 4? they were short). i bought aesop’s book of animal stories, remember? and there you go waxing lyrical. 😆
lisa: i’ll try to get it. i can only get the bit that when one thing is light and the other dark, he referred to positives and negatives. i thought i had ‘gotten’ it. when i get to the later bits, i hope i’ll get it!
the neon: lepas exam dtg rumah la. aku sibuk sikit sini you know with trabye’s big day coming and all. and you know i don’t flippin’ drive in this madhouse of a city.
fake: yup i was. can’t seem to ever take another carrier.
kudo
FYI
http://tv.terra.com.br/interna/0,,OI61828-EI5860,00.html
watch it dude…