the daily planet
sunset world - image by J
There's a scene in Superman Returns of Clark Kent channel surfing after he has returned from a 5-year space orbit. Of course, Superman doesn't need the news to tell him that the world is in a mess and needs his saving, but he watches anyway. In this one act, he is like us - and why he is Superman and not Superalien.
Cloistered in on our little island, the tsunamis and bombed out cities can seem far away dramas - the latter more crazy than the former, since we can pretend not to understand nature. As part of our island life, we can be thankful for small comedies instead, like the mr brown fiasco (enough, please!) and that rather unreal smiling for the IMF/WB folks. And still smaller, in our HDB flats, the little sadnesses, hurts and doubts in between meals and dreams - not entirely incomprehensible.
It's hard to write when the context in which you write appear uncertain. The global, the national, the domestic, the personal. And though the eternal is certain, tonight, I just want to find space in fiction - even if it is someone else's.
Comments
superman-inspired dui4 lian2:
tian1 tian1 kan4 xin1 wen2
ye4 ye4 xiang3 jiu4 shi4
[Watch the news every day
Think of saving the world every night]
niao3 er2 fei1, ren2 ye3 fei1
yi4 zhi1 kan4 tian1, yi4 zhi1 kan4 di4
[little bird flies, man too flies
one looks at the sky, one looks at the earth]
oooh, more more?
(yah, the murakami stories are predictable. but that's also part of the comfort.)
the uncertainty i know it.
shi4 ren2? shi4 niao3? shi4 chao1 ren2?!
qi2 shi2, zi3 shi4 yi4 ge4 you3 meng4 xiang3 (ren2 ren2 shou1 shi4 bu4 qie4 shi2 ji4) de4 bu3 tong1 ren2.
(it's a man? a bird? or SUPERMAN?!
actually, it is just a man of dreams (someone everybody calls an idealist.)
sb - well, it's a book of short stories, so it's easy to skip the ones you find tiresome! So far, it's been a light, enjoyable read for me. :>
ok that's it, we've created a little informal book club here.
will read it this weekend n blog about it :)