Ach, Du

2008-11-16T00:50:00.000-08:00

"And is that not literature's gift? Its contribution? To see through another's eyes, to take another perspective, and to take the reader along on that journey, goes to the very purpose, the moral heart, of the work. It is the reason I write."
- Monica Ali, commenting on Brick Lane.

Hi all, I hope you enjoyed this year's Literature course. Hopefully it has nurtured your love for reading and you will read avidly during the holidays. Remember you are supposed to post your reflections here!!! :P

2008-11-09T06:01:00.000-08:00

For your viewing pleasure

"Stop promising us things"

2008-10-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

"Stop promising us things"

(sometimes) unseen talent lurks in
a thousand splendid students
(or twenty one)
artistic baBIEs
lovers of the floating world

amidst the wasteland
a fascination with her shoes
pregnant pauses are rare
inappropriate questions aplenty
a library filled with literary laughter
brian yeap wen hao
and humpa lahiri

thinking aloud: a class i will miss

2008-09-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

hi beloved students, please forgive the delay in my promised poem. I am working hard on it because I want it to be very good :P Meanwhile, you shall have to content yourself with this one. Emily Dickinson is a very famous poet and writes very interesting poems. Hope you like it!

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!
They'd advertise -- you know!

How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog
To tell one's name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

- Emily Dickinson

Remember him?

2008-08-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose stubborn, lonely and combative literary struggles gained the force of prophecy as he revealed the heavy afflictions of Soviet Communism in some of the most powerful works of the 20th century, died late on Sunday at the age of 89 in Moscow...

Read the full article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/books/04solzhenitsyn.html

BBC World Book Club

2008-07-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

hi all,

Hope you enjoyed and survived OBS. Very sorry to hear about the people who got stung by wasps!

Here is a link to the BBC World Book Club, where you can listen to authors talk about their books. Among them are Arundhati Roy talking about 'The God Of Small Things' and Amy Tan talking about 'Joy Luck Club' so the people doing those books can check it out :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/133_wbc_archive_new/index.shtml

Khaled Hosseini talking about "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

2008-07-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

Khaled Hosseini talking about "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

Reading Circles

2008-05-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

Here are the confirmed groups for next semester's Reading Circles.
Please get the books asap so you can start reading them.

Artist of a Floating World
Amelia
Zhi Liang
Brian
Chen Xi
Hui Min

The God Of Small Things
Bess
Chang Ning
Wei Sin
Eunice Lee
Junjie

The Joy Luck Club
Alfreda
Felicia
Dominique
Eunice Siow
ZhenZhi

Brick Lane
Lee Yin
Priscilla
Sonjia
Nicole
Shawn

The Namesake
Wei Lin
Ruth
Yijin
Wenli
Siong Yin

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Group 1: Cherie, Ning Qian, Cynthia Choo, Sihua, Rachel
Group 2: Cynthia Chua, Wanyi, Dixun, Charis, Jocelyn
Group 3: Michelle, Huey Ying, Zijun, Annies, Lee Hui

Reading Circles

2008-05-08T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello

I hope you all found the paper easy enough :)
Now that the exams are over, we can finally start on our Reading Circles. I will explain more on Monday but for now...you all need to choose which book you want to study. It's an individual choice. Not everyone has to study the same book, but obviously every Reading Circle will be looking at the same book.

What you need to do now is explore the following titles (look at their synopsis on the internet, ask around) and choose which one you want. You will have to make a decision on Monday.

The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

An Artist of The Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri

Brick Lane - Monica Ali

The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai

The God Of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

You can leave a comment on this post if you have questions, or if you are already sure which book you want to study.
Please spread the word. On Monday we will be in Comp Lab 2.

Another merlion poem for you all :)

2008-04-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

MERLIGN
-Alvin Pang

Even though there are more
websites on you than verses
Even though you evoke cameras
more than pride
postcards more than praise
Even though your titan child
is now terrorising history and
small children on Sentosa

Still you seem to have a face poets love
to woo. There was the old gentleman,
windswept, seablown, wandering home
with a suitcase of dreams, who
treated you like a queen, hoping
to press you for secrets.

And then the lady with the thick glasses,
who thought she saw Ezekiel's cherubim,
the sign episteme of higher forces
forever barring the way to paradise.

And that young man, himself half lion,
with barbed tale raised, his words coiled
like a fist. Eyes louder than silence.

Still others, perplexed
as much by your blank stare
as their maddening need to know,
burden you with the fret
of lost causes and years of waiting

Become now the need
to apostrophise what is rock
to make it bear weight.
How we wallow in metaphors!

As a child I walked through a garden
to gawk at the back of a giant too tall
for a child's mind
to wrap around. Risking the simplest
of pleasures: a closer glance, a furtive
stroke,
Pitting heights with the dwarf twin, long
since gone.
Reaching for scale and contact,

And now, as a man, forever measuring
shadows.

No need to go on with this pretense,
these riddles and voices. This is a heap
of fashioned stone, too light to carry souls.

Rough beast, you are neither idol nor
ideal.
Your heart is hollow, cold, and open
for admission, but we have nowhere else
to hide our dreams. Take what names
we have to give, and hold our secrets well
Keep what matters and what counts
The rest you can spit as spray.

Booklist

2008-03-30T03:14:00.000-07:00

hello Elit-e (pun) students,

Since people have been complaining this blog is dead...here's something you can do to revive it.

Next semester we will be doing something called Reading Circles. Basically you will be divided into groups, and each group will read/study the same book. I have a few titles in mind, but am open to suggestions from you guys too. If you have any recommendations of books (with literary merit) that you want to study, do post them here ok?

P/S. Do NOT suggest Harry Potter.

2008-02-23T22:40:00.000-08:00

In today's newspapers (The Sunday Times), in the lifestyle section, there is an article on Chinua Achebe and Things Fall Apart.

Go read it :)

Singaporean writers

2008-02-22T02:17:00.000-08:00

As requested, here is a list of Singaporean writers and their works you can check out. In Borders/Kino/PageOne/libraries, there should be a section for 'Local Literature'.

Catherine Lim - Little Ironies, Or Else, The Lightning God (they are both short stories collections)
Rex Shelley - The Shrimp People
Goh Sin Tub - One Singapore
Clare Tham - Fascist Rock (collection of short stories)
Stella Kon - Emily of Emerald Hill (it's a monologue)
Philip Jeyaretnam - Abraham's Promise (i think it's an O level text now)
Colin Cheong - The Stolen Child

There are also many many many many local poets and playwrights. Do a wikipedia search and you'll find names. We'll be doing poetry after Things Fall Apart so I'll definitely let you read some.

You can check out this page too - http://www.asean-coci.gov.sg/writer.html

-Ms J Ng

2008-02-22T00:19:00.000-08:00

Hello literary people,

I bet you ALL came here last night and were *sorely* disappointed not to find any new posts... I shall not disappoint you today.

Below are links to various pages that you would find useful in your understanding and appreciation of Things Fall Apart.

SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/things/ Here you can find a plot overview, character analysis, themes, etc. Lots of information but not very deep. Good for a quick introduction.
CNN article talking about how/why Things Fall Apart is still relevant today - http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/02/19/chinua.achebe/
Some information about the Ibo people (nowadays they are called Igbo) - http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/Igbo.html
More on the Ibo people (check out the links on the page) - http://www.stfrancis.edu/en/student/achebe/chinua/igbo.htm

Remember to think about what you can learn about Ibo society from the extract I gave you, and think about the handout with Achebe's quotes.

If you don't do your homework I will eat you. (inspired by Swift)

See you on Monday!

- Ms J Ng

2008-02-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

hi guys,

check this out. it's a hiphop interpretation of 'A Modest Proposal'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf0LH8FtHAc

Daddy - Sylvia Plath

2008-01-23T03:34:00.000-08:00

Daddy
by: Sylvia Plath

You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time--
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal

And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.

In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend

Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.

It stuck in a barb wire snare.
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.
And the language obscene

An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew.

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna
Are not very pure or true.
With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
I may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You--

Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.

You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who

Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.

But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I'm finally through.
The black telephone's off at the root,
The voices just can't worm through.

If I've killed one man, I've killed two--
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.

There's a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.