...I looked at the map at the bottom of the page, it shows roughly where people who view my site come from. I mentioned Venuesua already, but I thought I'd mention something about the other places.
Argentina
Jorge Luis Borges is too obvious (Roberto Arlt and Ernesto Sabato who I have a few novels, but shamefully haven't read yet) Julio Cortazar is probably too obvious as well... but it's a excuse to mention 'pataphysics (there I said it).
China
Being the seedbed of all human civilisation, it shouldn't be too hard to find one thing to like about China. Obvious perhaps, but I loved "Monkey" by Wu Ch'eng-en. I'd also like to mention how 'the English Empire' saw China via "Hermit of Perking" by Hugh Trevor-Roper
Canada. The music, the animation, a mecca of artistic mediums. So I'll mention an obscure name to non-Cananadians, the recently deceased author Timothy Findley and his novel "Not Wanted on the Voyage".
Japan
Where to begin? The photographs of Tomatsu? No, rather "In Praise of Shadows" by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. (Or maybe the film and novel "The Woman in the Dunes" by Kobo Abe? There's so much to choose).
Venezuela
I'll have to find some fiction in English translation, I thought I'd had one but he was Colombian. I'll have to fill a large gap in my knowledge here (among many).
India
What has India got from the UK? Imperialistic invasion and persecution (and cricket). We got Shilpa Shetty and boy did we give her a warm welcome! For that reason I'm not mentioning anything cool from the UK (bad people! Bad!) But really, we got a great little novel by Tabish Khair called "The Bus Stopped". I liked it so much I bought it twice (yes, I'm an idiot). I love it's compact precise chapters, poets should write novels more often.
Java, Indonesia.
First thing I thought of was my plans to make a puppet theatre for a production of Alfred Jarrys Ubu, using shadow puppetry. I couldn't find a good enough clip on youtube yet, but this gives an idea (also search for Wayang Kulit). Slightly related to Indonesia, a man who read lots of sanskrit; Rene Daumal. A French writer who, under the influence of Gurdjiefs writings, wrote "A Night of Serious Drinking" and "Mount Analogue". Great. Now if any French visit this site by accident, I don't have to mention anymore...
USA
So much good does come from here, but the US main medium has to be TV; So I recommend the show "The Wire".
I'll get around to more photography soon, sorry, but I'm exceedingly lazy. It's hard enough just being a fool, but try being a lazy fool, gosh it's tiring... So tiring I'm going for a kip.
1 comment:
I looked closer at the map and see that I've missed out Hong Kong and Taiwan. I liked Ang Lees movie The Ice Storm... Apparently you can get bubble tea in the UK, but I don't know which place does it. Finally I could mention Magnum photographer Chien-Chi Chang, but mentioning his name next to my crappy pictures might be taken as an insult! Google his name for his black and white images.
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