The demise of www.elvenlights.blogspot.com
If anyone googled Elvenlights in a bid to find my blog, well you have come pretty far! This is my obsolete blog, only used for revision, as you can see in what I have posted so few and far between!
Congratulations, for you have come so far only to discover that this blog really IS obsolete and quite out of use, and that my www.elvenlights.blogspot.com IS missing from cyberspace. Yes, www.elvenlights.blogspot.com is dead, due to some personal issues I have about my readership.
If there is anyone dying to connect with my through my blog, send me an email and I'll decide whether to disclose my new blog address to you! Thank you!
EN3246 LIT AND THE OTHER ARTS
Ekphrasis vs reverse ekphrasis
- Ekphrasis = see painting write poem
- Reverse ekphrasis = see poem do painting
- Ekphrasis = pick part(s) of the painting to base poem on, poem can extend out of the frame of painting
- Reverse ekphrasis = more freedom, pick part(s) of the poem to paint on, can extend beyond the poem as well.
Brueghel
- paints the earthiness of life
- ugliness as the real and common
- life, with its ugliness, is real and is therefore important
- people living their honest lives, no extravagance
- authorities are far away, distant from the commoners
- commoners carrying out daily activities: hunting, dancing, harvesting
William Carlos Williams
- American writers must not follow English traditions
- must create own traditions
- likes to write in colloquial language
- abrupt breaks in lines to disturb our expectations
- disturb norms and traditions of poems
- create double meanings to question norms and traditions
Turner
- Painted Slave Ship
- Picture of sublimity: fear, terror, respect, awe
- nature in a rage, storm at sea
- light in the middle of the painting = god? "The sun is God", before he died.
- Sea engulfs ship, fishes n shark consumes overthrown slaves = nature destroying man's mechanisms at exploiting their own kind, as well as nature's power against men
- slaves are relegated to a small insignificant corner
- oversight on Turner's part???
Ruskin
- Loved Turner's painting
- Included the slaves as a footnote
- Footnote = background knowledge, also very impt??
Dabydeen
- Angry at Ruskin and Turner
- Caribbean = people with no history and culture
- Slaves were brought in from Africa, removed from roots, history, culture
- Made to work for white men
- White men capitalised on Africans' hopes to earn more money for a more comfortable life
- De-culturalisation = the young slaves were taken to work for white men and not allowed to go back. They begin to lose touch with where they came from.
- slaves' lust for white women
- white men sexually exploiting black slaves
- colonialism and concealment of truth
- identity crisis = an Indian writer angry at colonial powers but can only express himself in their language, and grew up in their culture
Parmiggiano
- Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror
- Mannerism - elongation, muscular body parts, not gelling into a realistic figure
- painting several removes from reality: self-mirror-painting
Ashbery
- Self-reflexive
- Looks at painting, contemplates painter's life out of painting
- Contemplates his own life
- We cannot live in art forever, must come back to reality
- stylized painting = artists are wary, try to avoid stylisation, but it is unavoidable
- fragmentation = life is fragmented, and art captures only part of it correctly
- life is more complex than any artform can capture
- life of art and life of artist only vaguely overlap
Gunn photographs
- photos require less skill than painting
- captures everything, leaves no detail that is within the frame out
- rely on the camera, not within photographer's control
- captures real moments
- photographs are ambiguous, don't tell us much about the subject or the objects in it
Gunn poems
- Not affected by the pictures, poems link in content to form a chronological narrative although pictures are of different women
- transcends time/moment in the photographs = tells us what happened before, happening now and what would happen later
- poems describe sensations and thoughts otherwise unavailable in the photos
- 3rd vs 1st person narrative = poet free to create his own narrative
- refers to life outside of photo
- focus on the elements in the photos which can link up into a chronological narrative
Tagged by Weihong
1. Real name : Tingren
2. Nickname : Elvenlights, Kayley
3. Married : -
4. Male or Female : Female
5. Highschool : Dunearn Secondary School and Jurong Junior College
6. College : National University of Singapore
7. Short or long hair : short, due to losing a bet. I am told I now look 1) better and 2) healthier.
8. Are you a health freak : I am, and I am not. Depends on the situation.
9. Height : I think I was 158-160cm. The last I checked I should be 160.
10. Do you have a crush on someone : Yes.
11. Do you like yourself : Yes.
12. Piercings : 3
13. Righty or Lefty : Right handed, if you mean that.
FIRST'S
14. First surgery : Wisdom TEETH extraction which made my face swell up like Tweety Bird.
15. First piercing(s) : Primary 5
16. First person you see in the morning : my reflection
17. First award : Cannot remember
18. First sport you joined : skipping.
19. First pet : A fighting fish, blue male.
20. First vacation : I cannot remember.
22. First crush : Primary One. I knew it, love has always been my religion.
CURRENTLY
23. Eating : -
24. Drinking : -
25. I'm about to : Listen to Jay Chou's "Secret" again.
YOUR FUTURE
26. Want kids : not sure
27. Want to get married : Yes
28. Careers in mind : work in/with record companies
HAVE YOU EVER
35. Kissed a stranger : no
36. Drank bubbles : ?!
37. Lost glasses/contacts : nope
38. Ran away from home : I wish I had, sometimes. =P
39. Liked someone younger : I guess, but no longer accept that as possible. All younger ones are off my list.
40. Liked someone older : Of course!
41. Broken someone's heart : Yes.
42. Been arrested : no
43. Cried when someone died : Yes
44. Liked a friend : Not just once.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN
45. Yourself : Yes
46. Miracles : Sometimes
47. Heaven : I don't know. Which heaven from which religion? I'm agnostic, you know, so there are many versions of heaven for me!
48. Santa claus : No, chimneys went extinct and so did sledges.
49. Angels : Sort of. I believe in spirits and elves too.
ANSWER TRUTHFULLY ~*
50. Is there one person you want to be with right now : I don't know... I'm not over my ex and there's someone I feel like hugging now. Things are messy.
51. Do you believe in God : I'm agnostic, so... I guess not really, I just believe that Love is a force we are all capable of, which drives us to be our best. And that force is moulded into many forms in the many religions. And that's God for you. Love is my religion!
It is still alive
For those who still come across this page, this blog is still relatively active. The posts are just private, that's all. =)
What is true anymore?
My friend A, who once dated B, told me that B is terrible. Now B is with my friend C and they are having fights as frequent as... erm, you get the point.
So now, the point of this post is, when B told me how bad A was, were they all a reaction to what she herself was? Because I see in C the frustration that A had.
A, if you are reading this as you sometimes do, I want you to know that you are still and always will be who I knew you to be.
Disappointed
Disappointed because while feeling that the whole world does not appreciate her, she in turn does not appreciate things done for her. Disappointed that she can say such things about me, when just this morning I was thinking about what she said about her mum not eating, and whether she knows what the Glucolin bottle looks like so that she can buy it for her mum. Disappointed that I actually cared enough to ask her this afternoon how her mum is. Disappointed that concern from my boyfriend and I are amplified in her head as something negative, prying. Disappointed that I actually cared for this friend enough to ask. Hahaha, look TR, look at how your concern is received! Last time you see her as a close friend. Close what close huh? Now people take you for plastic bag, not happy with it throw loh. Got many other bags around what. You help what help? People see your help like sesame seed, green bean, 芝麻绿豆小事情! One ahchoo can blow away liao loh.
XZ says its the post trip blues. Everything in wherever you were is good, everything in S'pore is bad. Yes, a few months abroad is heaven and the 20++years spent here is thrown out to the rats. Hahaha TR, you should thank your that friend more you know? Just now your tarboh sms you right? People far far away got heart one leh. Then you here sad over people on the same land. People now is what you know? Got power one, can fight de leh. Not like you, what singing play keyboard, make earrings. You just one grain of sand, not special one lah. Still stay here for what? Go away lah.
The problem with people is that they listen to a small issue, think it over many times, then regurgitate it into something else altogether. Then people listen with mock horror written on their faces, but inwardly rejoice at being privy to some snippets. No wonder there was a line from Bump Off Lover saying that memories can be transplanted. When you think about it, you wonder, are these memories ever pure? ARe the memories of you ever pure in my head too?
Why I like to debate with XZ is because we will never be able to transplant memories into each other. She will not accept things that she knows is untrue, and neither will I.
As XZ was saying, people use suffering to justify something. They are in pain, anger, sadness whatever because then they can use it to show something. Then they can say: look he did this to me and this caused my life to be in such a situation; look she did this to me therefore i suffered because i thought we were good friends but she..... You get the drift. While I disagree at some point, XZ has something there too. A lot of people suffer just so that they have something to show. Suffering under family pressures to show something, maybe their endurance levels, suffering under friends just to show that they are strong and adaptable, can look after themselves as well as others. Yada yada...
Positivity is sin to people who prefer to suffer. Because positivity takes away their very foundation of existence. It defines them and without it they feel common. Happy people cannot be pitied because happiness is a sure comfirm guarantee chop of no suffering. Or so people like to believe. They like to believe that pain, unhappiness and upset is suffering, then they will adopt such attitudes to their lives, present them to the world and say, "Look, I am suffering! I am the hero carrying the burden of the world on my shoulder. Look, I am sad, angry. Look at me, look! Huh, what the f*** you mean is my fault? Its your fault because you're not carrying anything. Must be you right? You want me to go down with all these! Its you, see you so happy. Happy cos its on me, not you right?! TMD, must be you throw your burden to me so that you have better things. You look what look, see what see? I tell you, stay away from my burden, tmd! Don't understand ah? KNNBCCB, I said it is mine, you no burden you KPKB for what? Because you no burden so you want to laugh at me right? All the same, all want to laugh at me and think I siao right? You all are all the same, all the same kind of people, not like me because I am a hero."
I realised I forgot to put in a disclaimer for the last para, which is quite full of vulgarities. They are aimed at the idiot who calls me at 3.30am and 5.30am in the morning and hang up when I answer. You tmd fucking idiot, why did I even go and talk to you? Primary school friends? TMD, you become a freaking idiot. NS very xin ku until you kajiow people is it?
Angel or Demon.
看完“爱杀17”，我的感想只有：每个人的心里都有一只恶魔，就看我们怎么控制着它。一阵子前，我的恶魔差一点就被释放出来。每个人都会有阴险的一面，当时我好想不择手段的去查一些事。还好我的天使及时被叫出来，把它捉起来押回地牢。其实，我自己有时候也怀疑我能够控制我的恶魔吗？嫉妒，报复，手段，还有伪装都是它的诱惑。我们可以自己控制自己的恶魔，还是我们都得依靠别人的力量来把它关起来？
After watching "Bump Off Lover", my thoughts were just these: everyone hides a demon in their hearts, it is up to us to choose how we control it. A while ago, my demon was almost unleashed. Everyone has a dark side, and at that time I was tempted to do some unscrupulous investigations. Luckily, my angel was called up in the nick of time, and captured the demon to lock it back in its dungeon. Actually, sometimes I wonder whether I can control my own demon. Jealousy, vengeance, manipulations, as well as disguises are all its temptations. Can we control our own demons, or do we rely on other people's strengths to keep it locked away?
Firstly, its about friendship. When we were young, things were simple. You're a friend, or not. No grey areas. After we knew more of the world and life, the grey mist seeps in and things are no longer clear. A clique can have members bitching and disliking each other. *deleted* People tell you to call them up for lunch and then they vanish into thin air, just the same way they did the last time around. Then there are the friends you barely talk to or remember unless their occasional MSN nickname strikes you as interesting, and yet they are the ones with the advice and answers when you're most confused. Friendship is so complex.
Next, its about the things we say to our friends. Sometimes we bitch about the people in our lives to friends. Usually we expect people to understand from our point of view. But when we bitch, we tend to leave out crucial good points and our friends think that whoever we are bitching about is an asshole. Then you realised that talking to that friend is pointless because they can't see things the way you do.
Finally, its about talking. If you talk about someone, you're gossiping. If you talk about yourself, you're risking your privacy. If you complain about someone, its backstabbing. All these terms that we hang onto the basic human need for communication. Suddenly everyone has to keep things to themselves, and does not allow those who know to talk about it as well. In my opinion, privacy is disturbingly overrated. And all these "wrongful talking" makes communication harder in a world where it is, ironically, faster and more efficient.
The shelter called Solitude
Badmonkey: Oh well, ever since Blogger changed to the new blogger, it just ain't the same no more! I'm just lazy to edit the template here if not I might switch back permanently.
Sometimes you just want to hide away, listen to music in the dark and weep. You get those moments? Moments where you felt nothing mattered but your hurt and pain and you don't know what caused the emotional outburst? Its happening again. Last week I had a bad bout of pms. This time its not pms. I don't know what it is!
I wish I could lean on you and feel the breeze rushing through our hair. And I'll smell your Polo Ralph Lauren Blue, and you'll smell my Gucci Rush 2. Just like that. No need for speech.
A new outlook!
Hey hey! I've decided to change my blog's template to this ebloggy winter template! Nice!
Am considering moving my blog back to Ebloggy since the new Blogger has totally screwed my blogging life. I can't view my blog posts after I posted them. It seems quite a lot of people all over the globe is afflicted and the Blogger people aren't responding as efficiently as we'd like them to. Also the publishing of the photos are quite troublesome. I wish they never changed from whatever to the new whatever blogger....
Oh well, I don't have time to re-do a blog. So... we'll see.
And Badmonkey: I don't burp in my sleep. I burp before I sleep and after I wake. =)
