I've also come away from the novel reminded of the brutality of work as it presents itself for many people in the world. Ms Duong pulls no punches when it comes to reminding us of just how tough life is in the poorer nations for those who are not so privileged. Just having to read good books and communicate what it is exactly that makes them so good hardly seems like a proper job at all.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Not So Hard Labour
My usual reading has been sort of interrupted due to my having to read the material we've got lined up for a class of Humanities Scholars who are going to be doing a somewhat different programme for this year. I'm now setting off again on Madame Bovary having just completed the very fine Paradise of the Blind by Vietnamese writer Duong Thu Huong - my first ever novel from that nation (I'm ashamed to say.) I'm not sure the translation of Paradise really did it justice. There's some obviously wonderfully observed lyrical detail, but that sort of thing only ever really works to its full effect in the original. Nevertheless I think something of the original flavour of the text was conveyed. I certainly got an intense sense of atmosphere.
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I've been reading through an interesting sort of 'textbook': Windows to Southeast Asia: An Anthology for Critical Reading, Thinking and Writing, edited by Low Lih Jeng and Nelly Kwa, Pearson Longman (2008).
It's interesting for quite a few reasons.
For a start, it contains readings from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It also has notes linking the material to both the GCE A-level and IB Diploma syllabuses. Readings are eclectic, ranging from poetry to newspaper articles and stopping by at cartoons, advertisements and short stories along the way.
It strikes me that this stuff might be pretty useful as a component in a good humanities education.
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