Letters 2: Vincent van Gogh

Why geniuses are always some kind of twisted or suffers from depression or abjectedness? Vincent Van Gogh, a renowned Dutch painter produced most of his best work in the two years before his suicide due to his 'mental illness'. Is there some kind of embedded genes that make them more susceptible to depression in their DNA? Or was it their surrounding? Maybe they have to lead a harder path than we the commoners? Maybe some thing that he wrote in his letter that we are going to study in class may answer these questions.

I did some research on this renowned painter. I am most interested in his self-portrait, the one with his ears bandaged. His face was gaunt and brazzen. He must have been a very secretive person. A person who found it hard to warm up to others even after a few meetings. Always putting on indifferent front. But his eyes has something else to say. Something in his eyes telling me that he was suffering, that it was very painful inside. His eyes telling me of his softer sensitive side. Looking into those canvas-frozen eyes I feel melancholy seeping into my heart. If only I can calm those troubled eyes. I feel some kind of attachment to him, he mirrors me. If I can cure his sadness surely I can find a way to cure mine too?

I think Vincent was a lonely man. He depended on his brother to support him financially and emotionally; his only best friends were his brother and sister (and perhaps a few others). ' You are not here- but I need you and sometimes feel that we are not far away from each other.' That clearly shows how he depends on his brother to keep him from falling apart. To forget all that troubling him he started to give full attention to his works. Perhaps at that moment work became a numbing drug that push away all pains to the back of his mind, a moment of solace. He hinted at this saying, 'that is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love, based more on feeling of serenity than on passion...Though I am always in the depth of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, the dirtiest corners...and my mind is driven towards these things with irresistible momentum'.

The first letter was perhaps written when he was in a better health condition. From the tone of his writing,we could derive that he was lonely, just barely able to keep himself alive due to his financial status ( by that time he was poor), but still he was able to be cheerful, advising his brothers about his books, have more time to dwell in the optimistic view of life. In his second letter we can see a shift in tone, which seems to be more melancholic, and more focused in keeping his sanity, more occupied with his internal conflicts- hence he was more keen on talking about his paintings. His paintings are his self-expressions, his thoughts and feelings. Reading his second letter we could feel that he was withdrawing into himself, disengaging himself from his circle of society (other painters) and prefer to be on his own as he revealed in his preference to listen to the 'language of nature'.

When at first he can still enjoys life apart from painting, in the second letter he seemed withdrawn and enjoyed only painting. This is what I can derive from analysing his letters, but still the questions are not answered.

letters Keat

Letters are the the means of communication which is becoming forgotten these days of instant messaging and emails. However, in this course letters were not to be left behind, we were also assigned letters as text for us to read. However, they were not any letters. They were a prove of correspondence of poets, and the painter Vincent van Gogh with his brother.

These letters differs from any I had read in my lifetime in the language and their word choice. reading Keat's letter to Shelley is like reading one of his poems. He extended metaphor beyond the limits of his poetry scope, using it even in his letters and perhaps freely in his daily interactions. It would be wonderful to have a chance of corresponding to him via letter, or any other means. It would open up my conventionalised world to the potentials of language manipulation, to trim and cut language so that it would be a wonderful arrangement, pleasing to the ears and eyes, amusing to the mind.

Keat in his letters wrote about his last work, relating to his life in his sickness. How he was then only focusing on his works as if sensing that he had only a short while to sacrifice to his works. Keat was then suffering from tuberculosis, and he acknowledged this sickness telling that,' there was no doubt that an English winter would put an end to me, and do so in lingering hateful manner, therefore I must either voyage or journey to Italy as a soldier marches up to a battery.'

The line that I like the most is 'Imagination is a monastery and I am its monk'. It was mildly put than the common one ' (smthg) is a master and I am its slave'.

oral presentation

One of the requirements of this course, Reading and Project work, is to do an oral presentation of our first assignment-position paper. I did my position paper on Boys and Girls and are among the last group presenting.

Looking back at the atmosphere of the presentaion sessions, it was mild to say that it was not an boisterous-inspiring one. My fellow classmates were clearly exhausted on sustaining through the entire process, having to sit still and trying to remain focus while lines of presenter talks about something that may or may not (mostly not) interest you. Even I who always make it a point to stay focus in class found it a Herculean task. So most of the time only a small number of audience is paying attention to the presenter while the others found a better way to cure their bore- disease.

Most of the presenters also did not think gaining attention was on of their chief aims. In fact they were comfortable with the lack of attention situation. Knowing that given that situation they would not have to stand for any questions or critics or comments afterwards. Everybody was doing their own business.

However, when it was my turn, I could feel that they did make some effort to actually listen to me. Why that happenned is beyond my comprehension, but I was and am glad that they did so. What is the point of going through such trouble to prepare visual aids and to arrange your lines when nobody is listening to you. To me it would be a wasted effort. The more attention they gave to me the more anxious and excited I became. But that was good, it made me want to make myself clear and wanting to elaborate more on my points.

All in all in my opinion it was one of my best presentation.

looking from different perspectives

'Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.'
Vladimir Nabokov

What is parody? In literature, it is known as a form of satirical criticism or comic mockery that imitates the style and manner of a particular writer or school of writers so as to emphasize the weakness of the writer or the overused conventions of the school. Wikipedia on the other hand defines parody as a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, by means of humorous or satiric imitation.

Ambrose Pierce's The Devil's Dictionary was written in literature pursuit to parody the conventions of dictionaries. It tries to redefined the words in the dictionaries, giving it a different perspactives. I found it rather refreshing, entertaining, and amusing. It makes us look and think about the things we often overlooked in our life in other ways. It shows us that we can change the conventions of life if we want to.

Classroom wise, I think this would be an interesting material to work with. Students would gladly approach the light hearted poking fun at conventions. To make it more accessible to them we may choose the parody of definition of things they like the most or hate the most or things familiar to them.

I would like to attach my own version of parody here.

Teacher, n

Is a kind of animal that resembles the cockatoo from the African continent. It has a habit of filling up buckets of minds with water of knowledge for its survival. However, this act proves time consuming as the buckets' fill keeps on receding, and without continual filling of water the bucket would be empty again or filled up with other things instead of the water of knowledge.

Malaysian legends

Legends as defined by Yahoo Education are unverified stories handed down from earlier times, especially ones popularly believed to be historical. Looking at our own local legends, with our colourful cultures and believes it is not really a wonder that each legends differ from others, with different stories to tell.

But, most of these legends are dominated by feminine images of beautiful princesses and maidens- Mahsuri, Mambang Sari and Puteri Gunung Ledang from the Western shores, the seven Bunian princess and Princess Saadong from the east coast, while from the East Malaysia are the infamous Puteri Santubong and Puteri Sejinjang. However, there are also male characters such as Laksamana Bentan, Monsopiad, and Raja Bersiong. These male characters are portrayed as notorious, rough, warrior-like, cruel, and their striving reputation is the result of their wicked deeds. Just like in the classic chinese yin and yang contrast, the female was depicted as pure, loving, kind-hearted and compassionate, even though their jealousy might be a misgiving that brought some of them their downfall. It made me wonder how in those days of patriarchal dominance when women were often second-rated, in this fictional stories women were idolised. It seems like there is a disparity between the value they held in reality and the value the cherish in their pastimes.

Apart from that it is also evident that there is a strong influence of mystical elements in these stories. This is best proven by the way some of the stories evolved around mythical characters as this mythical beings were put into focus as the main character, as evident in the story about the brawl between the giants in Langkawi legendary brawl and the touching love story between two dragons in Naga Tasik Chini. In some other stories these mythical beings were the pivotal element in the plot, given the role as aides to the human main character or the way round. In this legends human beings are endowed with supernatural powers and experienced unique and adventurous or wonderful experiences. This shows how people of ancient times belief in the existence of sacred beings whose mere existence affects their own, and they tend to depend on them believing that they hold some power to change the way things were. This seems to me a desperate measure to keep them intact in enduring their bleak hard life, these fantasies act as the light of hope, a chance for miracle.

These characteristics are not distinctive to Malaysian legends only, they extend to the other legends existing in the other parts of the world also. It seems like despite the geograhical and cultural differences, subconciously the essence of human existence- our thoughts and feelings vibrating with the same frequency.

The Andy Warhol Diaries

'Death means a lot of money, honey. Death can really make you look like a star.'

Andy Warhol

To certain extent I do agree with him. The closest example is Andy Warhol himself who after his death even his diaries are sold to others to read; while most people treasure their diaries as their secret best friend. However, diaries are one of the most trusted source to get to know a person better, especially a social figure like Andy Warhol who set a shift in the art culture.

Reading his diaries I realise that Andy Warhol led a very sociable life. He was a member of the elite circles- the politicians and also the Hollywood celebrities. But, with this grand image it is hard to believe that he was only human. He also gossipped and said bad things about other people even though it was meant to criticize and not based on ill-intention. He was a simple man with little worries, who talked about how he hated the Awards, about the recent movie screening, about the new Tarzan series, and other common place things. It is difficult to accept the fact that a genius also led a normal life.

Andy Warhol was a religious christian, but in the same time he was against the tide by being a gay. He was open about his sexuality. He even produced some paintings with the subjects that portrays his sexuality. In his diary he did mention about some orgy his friends joined during which they used their 'bigtoes to fuck' since there were rumours about gay cancer. He even joked about it saying 'now it's whoever has the biggest toe'. He even (few times in his diaries) showed his preference to John Travolta, ' but nobody good like John Travolta won. I mean, Richard Dreyfuss? I mean, if he's a sexsymbol...'

Throughout the diaries entry, I got the impression that Andy Warhol was an observant jolly person who seldom dealt with his internal conflicts. He often talked about other people around him and little was said about himself. The closest he went in expressing his deepest thoughts and feelings is when he told about his opinion on commercial movies and later relate to his preference towards the things that other people don't understand, claiming that such works are artful and more creative than the commercially produced works.

In school, I think diaries entries would be useful in exposing students to the characters- their thoughts and feelings. It is also effective to teach them how to express themselves. Besides, it is fun to get to know how public figures days are. It is like peeking into some forbidden chamber...

Andy Warhol- self portrait with camouflage

'I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of 'work', because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do.'


Andy Warhol





We watched a quite long video clip featuring Andy Warhol last week. You may ask who Andy Warhol is, so let me tell you a little bit about this talented man. Born as Andrew Warhola, he was an American artist who involved with many arts fields including painting, writing, movie directing, and others. He was known in diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats. It was him who coined the phrase ‘15 minutes fame’ which refers to the quickly exhausted limelight that celebrity are subjected to. Upon my research my conclusion of this man with Social Disease is an eccentric, a genius with a twisted mind.





The video clip is about his paintings. His work are mostly influenced by pop culture. His specialty is screen prints, by which technique he produced his series of Campbell soup cans, Coke bottles, and pop icon portraits such as Madonna. For most of my classmates they just could not understand one bit why are they watching the video clip, yawning with bored indifference at the screen. Some of them are restless, doing something else. In contrast I was enthralled by Andy Warhol works. the subject or the different colours they were done with did not interest me. All the while I was thinking what was going on in that man's mind all the while he do his paintings. His subjects are all common everyday items, but somehow he saw something different in these things, making them larger than their existence itself, putting them in focus.

I think he see himself in these commonplace items. Even though others think of him as a celebrity, he always think of himself as an ordinary man. As he was quoted to say,'Why do people think artists are special? It's just another job.' Perhaps he got bored with the attention people always give to grand things, longings for luxurious items, and therefore try to shift their attention to things people often overlooked in their haste, forgot to appreciate and be thankful on their existence. Somehow this intention mirrors his self. He was himself like an abandoned child seeking for attention.

His painting that I like the most is the painting of a mother and child. The mother embracing the child protectively blanketing the child with sheer love while child hung onto her and stare out to the audience. I could picture the child in Andy Warhol, showing his affection towards his beloved mother, his love ablaze through the canvas, giving the feeling the immortality.

Much like eyes are the window to a person's heart, I believe paintings are the window to a person's soul. Intentional or not we leave a part of ourselves in our work of art, our self-expression. Therefore, I think by looking at his paintings we may have a glimpse at who Andy Warhol truly was.

Wellversed- malaysian flavoured

Wellversed is a compilation of poems from the poets who had performed during Evening of Spoken Words or Wayang Kata organised by the British Council. It consists of both Malay and English poems. The poets are from different background, gender, and nationality.

Wellversed struck at me as a cacophony of voices - crooning, booming, feminine, masculine, reminiscing, criticising, sarcastic, melancholic, spirited, touching, caressing, reminding… The messages are close to home that sometimes my tears welled and flowed when it hits sensitive points. Even the written form had such a big impact on me that I can imagine how energetic and vigorous the Wayang Kata must be. I would like to go and watch they perform if there is any opportunity for me to do so in the future. It would be an eye-opener experience.

The poem that I like the most would be Rest Assured by Liyana Yusof. The lines within a stanza is interconnected without any fullstop to suggest a break. If there is any break between the lines the only evident sign is the existence of commas. The flow of the lines giving the impression that the life of the persona is boring, meaningless and endless. The tone of the persona is rather sceptical, as if the persona hates her life and its meaninglessness. Its bleak impression fits my gloomy mood these few weeks. Like her I also hope that I'll find satisfaction when it's over.

Malika Booker's A prayer from the dying reminds me of my own old grandfather. the poem tells about the old man who is already sick and bedridden, have to rely on others like a child, lonely since all his friends are already gone to their final resting place. He feels sorry for himself, willing and wishing his life to be taken as soon as possible since he has had enough of life wanting only to rest. My own grandfather is bedridden due to his blindness and unability to take care of himself. He was a strong kind man, but he grew weaker and weaker each day. He is slowly losing his coherence, talking to us as if we are other person, unable to differentiate the time and space where he belongs, as if he wants to go back to his prime days. It really hurts to see him deteriorate in front of our eyes. Perhaps it is better if he go to his final resting place but we just could not bear losing him. So, either way we would lose, seeing him suffer is a torture, letting him go is also a torment.

Poems are one of my interest. They are concise but deep and far reaching. Reading a poem to me is as if I'm entering the dark alleys of human thoughts and feelings, a glimpse at their psyche.

tales

Among the texts prescribed for our readings, there is some of tales genre. These are the kind of passages we were often exposed to throughout our early days, may it be in written form or word of mouth. These stories often enthralled us then, and even to this day they still hold some wonderment at those times when we want to stop being a pragmatist and to be much of a romantics, to allow creativity and imagination to reign. Reading on these tales, made me realise that ignorance had always befriended me previously so as to stifle my curiosity from noting the difference between terms used to refer to this genre. For then to me myth, legend, fable, folk lore and fairy tale are equivalent and can be used interchangeably. However, upon my research, I found out that was not quite true, that tales is a great umbrella of genre under which dwell subcategories- myth, legend, folktale/fairytale and fables, that even though a tale may shift between each category, each category does have some distinctive characteristics.

Myth originated from Greek ‘muthos’ that means word of mouth, oft a narrative presumed to be factual that tries to describe origins of certain things or phenomenon by using characters that are superhuman, often come in form of celestial being- god and goddess at a distant past. Legends differed from myths, in that legends may sometimes be based on historical facts or persons, that later become distorted over a period of time. Normally, legend tends to enlarge the figure to heroic proportion. Legend can also be confined to a particular time and place. Therefore, I would say that in terms of local stories ‘Sang Gedembai’ is a myth and ‘Hang Tuah’ is a legend.
Fairy Tales on the other hand are short narratives featuring mythical beings such as fairies, elves, and sprites. However, not every fairy tales features fairies due to the history of the English term "fairy tale" which derives from the French phrase contes de fée. Stith Thompson and Carter once pointed out that talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be more common in fairytales J.R.R. Tolkien also agree on this defining fairy tales as stories about the adventures of men in Faërie, the land of fairies, fairytale princess dwarves, elves, and not only other magical species but many other marvels. Fairytales often contain archetypical characters- princesses and goose-girls; youngest sons and gallant princes; ogres, giants, dragons, and trolls; wicked stepmothers and false heroes; fairy godmothers and other magical helpers, often talking horses, or foxes, or birds; glass mountains; and prohibitions and breaking of prohibitions.

Upon reading some of the websites I gather that to make sense of myth and the other genres of tales one have to read them carefully. Let me quote what Italo Calvino once wrote:

‘…one should not be in a hurry. It is better to let them settle into the memory, to stop and dwell on every detail, to reflect on them without losing touch with their language of images. The lesson we can learn from a myth lies in the literal narrative, not in what we add to it from the outside…’

Thus, in making sense of myth it is better to learn how to read and interpret metaphors and symbol. We also have to compare and contrast significant characters, events and actions to look for motif. And since tales are often set in different culture, it is wise to learn about the culture that produced them.

The Road Home

Last week we watched a movie by Zhang Yimou which highlighted a love story between a Chinese boy and girl that endures for 40 years. The son, Luo Yusheng returned to his native village of Sanhetun following the death of his schoolteacher father, Luo Changyu. His father's body lies unclaimed in the hospital morgue of a nearby city, and his mother Zhao Di insists that he be carried home on foot by the men of the village as traditionally done believing that a soul sent that way would never forget his way home.

However, the village was short of manpower due to the migration of the young generation to the city as a result of modernisation. The story then goes back in time to show how Zhao Di met the love of her life when the 18 years old Zhao Di fell in love with the new teacjer assigned to teach the children in her village. Almost like other love-sickened girl, her world began to evolve around Luo Changyu, always wanting to see him, to hear his voice, to the extent that she was willing to wait for him at the path he always taken to take his students home and standing for hours outside the classroom listening to his voice.

The moment I remembered the most is when Changyu is recalled to the city as part of a political investigation and Zhao Di tried to catch up with him to give him dumplings for his long journey. But she stumbled along the way. It was like I can feel my heart breaking just as hers break into pieces. I could taste my other bitter loss I had experienced, the sickening lurch, the hardening and the crumbling. And just like what I had undergone before, against the odd she hold to her dreams, hoping and doing whatever she can to be reunited with her love. But unlike me, luckily she won her trophy where I failed miserably.

This story really reaches to me. I can taste their feelings on my skin as raw as my own. Besides, I love the simplicity of its plot. Its cinematography was astounding and really great in setting the mood. I just simply love this story.

"Come all the way up to Limerick?"

"Limerick is a city and the county seat of in the province of Munster, in the midwest of Ireland. The city lies on the River Shannon, with three main crossing points near the city centre and has a 2006 population of 91,000 inhabitants..."

The above quotation has nothing to do with what I am interested in discussing here. Even though they have similar name but essentially they are two different things. The limerick I am interested in is actually a form of poetry. Its origin is still obscure but it is said that it may actually originated from Ireland from an earlier nonsense parlour game which usually ended with "Come all the way up to Limerick?" Structure wise what is limerick? According to Wikipedia, limerick is a five-line poem with a strict form, originally popularized in English by Edward Lear. Limericks are frequently witty or humorous, and sometimes obscene with humorous intent.

We had worked with limerick in class. I found that limerick is actually very unlike other poems we had been exposed to- it is very simple, light-hearted, and less intense. I found that we can sit back, relax and enjoy every witty remarks without always being attentive so as to uncover the underlying meaning beneath each word like other encounters with poetry. Actually, before limerick I had never notice how tense we are when dealing with poetry. We are on the alert as if we are the first line of the battalion on the war field, ready to be bombarded with tonnes of bombs and rained with hundred thousands of deadly bullets. Limerick sounds very much like what the elves sing around the fire, accompanied with laughter and merry-making. Being an always composed person, veiling any vulnerability, I couldn't refrain myself from enjoying myself, composing my own witty remarks mentally and laugh at others creative creation. We are given the opportunity to compose our limericks and present them to the class. we found that limerick is not only easy on the ears, they are also easy on the hand to write and easy to compose.

Since it is easy, fun and entertaining, I would suggest limerick to introduce poetry to students. General perception of poetry is usually it is very boring, difficult and hard to understand. Limerick would prove to them poetry can be fun...

epic

My research paper concerns two epics- one from the east and the other one form the west.
So what is epic? According to Wikipedia, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem , ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.

I found that in comparison with the other genres I had worked with such as drama, poem and short stories working with epic is the most challenging. Epics are lengthy and the sentence structure is rather classic and therefore unfamiliar.

The epic I am working on is Mahabharata and also Iliad. I am focusing on comparing the two main characters- namely Bhishma and also Archilles. Despite being in a two different world, that is ancient Greek and ancient Hindus Valley, these two heroes share a lot of similarities. Perhaps all human think alike across the continents.

one of the similarities is that

Daedalus and Icarus

“ Daedalus planned to escape Crete, a country surrounded by sea, because the king wanted him dead. He thought that while the king may block his escape by land and sea he still can make his escape through sky. So, he invented a flying device made from birds’ feather and wax. While his father laboured with the construction of the device Icarus played around and hindered his work, oblivious to the gravity of their circumstances. Finally finished, they prepared for their flight. Daedalus warned his son to follow his lead and not too fly too high nor too low. If he soars too high his wax would melt by the sun’s heat, and if he flies too low he would fall into the ocean. But thrilled by this new experience, Icarus ignored his father’s advice and went too high that the wax melt and the feathers disintegrated. While he was falling he cried out his fathers name for help but already he was swallowed by the sea. Daedalus tried to save his so but it was already too late. Saddened, he buried his son on an island and thereafter the island was called Icarus. ”

Ovid’s Icarus is one of his most renowned masterpieces. It is a heart wrenching tragedy of a death of a young boy as atonement for his father’s wrong doing.

Icarus is made a paragon of a man who forgets his limitations. However, this act of laxity did not come as a surprise. Icarus is a boy who has been spoilt by his father’s love. He had been raised without any burden of responsibility as we can see through his rather childish act, ‘Icarus stands beside him, laughingly captured the feathers which blew away in the wind, or softened the yellow wax with his thumb, and by his pranks hindered the marvellous work on which his father was engaged…’ However, never once his father disabuses him of this rather childish preoccupation and tries to make him a man. His father never wished to share his worry with his son, content to let his son as worriless as a baby. This dependence on his father leads to Icarus being immature, unable to be independent and careless. Therefore, this explains his lack of mind to his fathers warning. It is not that he does not want to heed the warning. It was his upbringing that taught him to always indulge in pleasure and leave the critical things in his father’s hands. Being given a toy that is so fun to play with, like a child he overlooked the danger it poses to him. Perhaps, like other children who always think that their father is powerful and capable to do anything, he thought his father would be able to pull him out of any mud he stuck himself in. His dependency and trust in his father capability is apparent through his calling his father’s name when his wing incapable to support him anymore, plunging downwards into the sea.

Daedalus is a great inventor but not a wise man. He allowed himself to be consumed and guided by jealousy and love that he disregarded the consequences of his action. He once tried to murder his own intelligent nephew in his jealousy and worry that the boy might surpass him. However, the boy’s life was not forfeited, but instead he was turned into a bird called lapwing and remained a reproach to Daedalus. Thus, his son’s death is in a way atonement for his wrong doing. In stealing other people’s life he lost the life of the person most dear to him. I would say apart from that it is his fault that the boy was incapable of looking after himself. His supposedly fatherly love had put his son away from being able to stand on his own two feet and spoilt his son to his death. I would say the blood is on his two hands.

Therefore, in a nut shell, Icarus death is both his and his father’s fault. In whatever situation we have to always bear in mind our limitations; we have to stretch our arms no further than our sleeves will reach. We also have to always practice moderation, as too many sugar may cause our death, too much love would also handicap ones life.

position paper

During tutorial with Mr Omid we were given the 10 texts to work on for our position paper. They consisted of a few poems and the others short stories and myths and legends. Some of it we had worked with in previous courses with Dr Edwin such as Boys and Girls by Alice Munro, The Great Injustice, and also The Open Window by Saki.

I still haven't decided on which text I'm going to work on. I thought I need to ponder in each texts before I make my decision. I read all the texts and try to get an indepth understanding of each texts and value its potential issues to discuss about. However, I found that it was hard for me to grasp the underlying motives of the myth of The son of Turtle Spirit (a chinese legend). It tells about how a turtle impregnated a girl by disguising as a man and come to her at night. When this was found out it were killed by the girl's parents. The heart-broken girl collected his deceased husband's bones and kept it in a pouch. when their son was born he was not given the attention a child his age should get with the thought that he was not deserving. When one day this boy saw an advertisement that offered a fortune he did'nt hesitate and ask his mother's blessing. His mother told him to put the wealthy's family ancestor's bones at the horn of the dragon and put his father's bone in the mouth instead. The boy then became a great man.

It seemed to me that it was dense with chinese beliefs and folklore without any strong coherent message imbued, but rather a collection of shared social values. Therefore, I think perhaps the society in that era used tales to impose values and social rules towards its member in a subtle way. Tales had been presented as a form of oral storytelling or presentation to the youngsters as a form of entertainment to fill pastimes. This had been the practice through ages therefore the tales preserve the essence of beliefs and values of the society.

Nowadays, tales no longer circulated in our society by word of mouth, but rather becoming more exclsive and elusive, an antiquities in the libraries for those who seeks for wonderments. We can see its effect in the way we easily holds onto the western culture, since it was the only way of life we know and had been exposed to, oblivious to the way our ancestors had lived

Readings and project work for teaching literature in ESL context

At first I had no clear idea of what this course would offer me and what we were expected to do. But the minute we were handed the reading materials I was secretly elated. First of all I had always this affinity towards literature and the materials given were interesting that I could not stop myself from reading it when I was intending to only have a glimpse through. We were given literature materials that is mythological in nature and also those that is bibliographical/ biographical. I have to say that even though reading myths and legend exciting but it might also be confusing due to its classical language structure and choice of words. It felt like invading somebody's privacy reading the diaries entries, but it is also interesting pieces of writing that allows us to look at world through their perspectives. This is the second week of lecture... we have only been working on Pyramus and Thisbe. There were a lot of terms and people and places that were unknown to us. I did some research online to help me in understanding the story.