Alice Poon's Blog, page 17

Book Review - The Last Day of a Condemned Man

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This is an eloquent and emotional appeal in fictionalized form for the abolition of the death penalty. The contents are grim and stark, yet the argument trenchant and convincing. Hugo's writing not only touches the heart, but also reaches into the depths of our conscience to rattle our complacency about man-made laws.

Given the political upheavals prevailing at the time, it is not difficult to understand the author's particular hatred of political persecution by means of the guillotine.

".... during any social crisis, of all scaffolds the political scaffold is the most monstrous, the most harmful, the most pernicious, the one that most needs eradicating." - (Preface)

"Poor young man! How repulsive their so-called political necessities are! For the sake of an idea, a daydream, an abstract theory, this terrible reality called the guillotine!" - (Chapter 11)

This single sentence in the Preface to the 1832 edition epitomizes the author's perspective on crime and punishment:-

"(Society) should not punish to take revenge: it should correct in order to improve."

Book Review - A Midsummer Night's Dream

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I've enjoyed this Shakespearean comedy tremendously, which is an awkward statement from someone who has never been a great fan of Shakespeare’s! There are two things about this play that particularly pleased me. One is the comic effect rendered by the lighthearted world of sweet fairies, in particular the bumbling but innocent blunder committed by Puck, which is the pivot of the play; and the other is the sympathetic tendency shown by the author towards the plight of women in the areas of courtship and marriage in a patriarchal society.

When Puck realizes he has made a huge mistake, he just nonchalantly blurts out: "Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth, a million fail, confounding oath on oath." Then when Oberon has drugged Demetrius in an attempt to remedy Puck's mistake, Puck mischievously looks forward to watching some human drama unfold, saying: "Then will two at once woo one; That must needs be sport alone; And those things do best please me that befal preposterously."

In the happy world of dreamy fairies, nothing is serious and everything is fun. When this is juxtaposed with the sorrowful world of humans, where disobedience to the father in the matter of marriage means death or life confinement to a nunnery for the daughter, the satirical irony becomes intense. Luckily, at the end of the play, the comic world of dreams prevails.

Another important theme is inequality of the sexes which pervades throughout the play. Apart from the unfair patriarchal demand imposed on Hermia, we also see Helena as a victim of her times. The latter's bitterness about her unrequited love is obvious from this line of hers (to Demetrius): "Your wrongs do set a scandal upon my sex: we cannot fight for love, as men may do; we should be woo'd and were not made to woo." The fact that she dares to chase after Demetrius regardless must have seemed quite incredible to readers of yonder times! Nonetheless, her position still seems doomed. By contrast, in the world of fairies, Titania is at least able to hold her ground and refuse Oberon his brutish demand. So Hermia's and Helena's happy endings that are made possible with the fairies' help are particularly heart-warming. Hats off to Shakespeare for inspiring hope in mortals that dreams may come true!

Book Review - The Picture of Dorian Gray

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I’ve enjoyed reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, which is a Gothic supernatural kind of tale with a Faustian theme.

Dorian Gray is a young and handsome lad who has bartered his soul for eternal youthfulness and a life of wild pleasures. After experimenting a debauched life, inspired by a poisonous book that his cynical friend Lord Henry has given him (believed to be the French novel “A Rebours” by Joris-Karl Huysmans, which was to become a famous, so called “decadent” novel), he finds that his own enemy is and has always been his conscience, which is represented by the portrait that his artist friend Basil Hallward once painted of him. When Dorian further engages in one wicked deed uncontrollably after another, he is ensnarled in utter despair. Is he ever going to get out of the vicious cycle?

It is amusing to note some of the criticisms that “The Picture of Dorian Gray” received when it was first published in 1890. It was described as “mawkish and nauseous”, “unclean”, “effeminate and contaminating” (from Wikipedia). In hindsight, it is clear that the criticisms were more directed towards the novel’s unconventional moral concepts that Wilde had the audacity to put forward in conservative Victorian times, rather than towards the work as literary art. He was censored for being too avant-garde and too rebellious in his ideas of hedonism, art appreciation, love (with homosexual overtones), marriage and religion, often mixed with a shot of mockery at the lack of sensitivity for art and general hypocrisy in English society.

The novel doesn’t lack purple prose, which I find not at all cumbersome but actually complementary to the Gothic mysteriousness, as it creates a paradoxical mood for romance and horror, spurring the imagination into curious activity.

My only complaint is that I find the ending a bit too melodramatic!

A 4-star Review by Lauren Kathryn for "Fated and Fateless"

Lauren has certainly made my day for posting her perceptive 4-star review of "Fated and Fateless":-

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My Review of "Of Human Bondage"

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've given 3 out of 5 stars to this acclaimed masterpiece by W. Somerset Maugham.

Here's my review:-

When I was about two-thirds through the book, I was getting so exasperated by Philip’s (the protagonist) foolish, maudlin, almost masochistic kind of blind passion for an undeserving woman named Mildred, that I was ready to give up reading there and then. But then I pressed on, and I’m glad that I did.

Overall, for a “bildungsroman” (coming-of-age story), I find “Of Human Bondage” tending a bit much on the grim and dark side of life throughout with almost no relief until the very end, when a silver lining finally appears. Also, I personally feel that the novel is too drawn out and a rather slow read. So, for those who are interested in reading the novel, I would advise them to exercise patience.

Now let’s turn to the positive aspect of the novel. I quite like the way the author inspires his readers to think deeply about the meaning of life, and I personally am inclined towards his philosophical thinking which is expressed through Philip’s inner thoughts as he progresses through life.

Philip’s young life (from the time he is nine to the time when he turns thirty) can be termed one big tragedy. Generally, it is filled with morose sadness (he is orphaned from the age of nine) and misfortune (he was born with a clubfoot). At various stages, he is plagued by morbid inhibition and failure (at socializing in school and at work), excruciating heartbreak (over his wretched love relationship with Mildred and betrayal by Griffiths), desolation (over the deaths of his close friends), despair and destitution at one point, and desperate loneliness due to his acute sensitivities and general distrust in people.

Yet, despite all his sufferings and pain, Philip seldom fails to try to do the right thing even if it means he would be all the worse for it, and would actually let others take advantage of his generosity, kindness and good-naturedness. He is even philosophical enough to urge himself to forgive Mildred and Griffiths, because they “could not help themselves”. In fact, the whole human race “were the helpless instruments of blind chance”.

His poet friend Cronshaw once tells him that he must find out the meaning of existence by himself and gives him a piece of old Persian rug as a present. This sentence perhaps sums up the epiphany that Philip comes to discover: “He told himself strenuously that he must accept with gaiety everything, dreariness and excitement, pleasure and pain, because it added to the richness of the design.”

In the end though, Philip also discovers that the simplest pattern is likewise the most perfect. He realizes this when he decides to marry Sally instead of sticking to his dream plan of travelling to all corners of the world in search of beauty. Simple happiness that a man finds in work, marriage, family and children is ultimately the perfect happiness. This is the silver lining!

Finally, I would have to say that I liked “The Painted Veil” much better.

A 4-star Review by Sara Knight for "Fated and Fateless"

Sara Knight, a Goodreads member, has just posted a 4-star review of "Fated and Fateless" on Goodreads and on Amazon.

goo.gl/MpRN81

goo.gl/QaXy1B


"Fated and Fateless" by Alice Poon is a story of love, loss and good versus evil. The cover of the book tends to be a bit misleading and make it seem like the book might be a bit lighter than it is. Set in Hong Kong, this is a thrilling tale of intrigue and suspense that will leave readers wanting more. An exciting tale that kept me engaged with it's interesting and unexpected plot. The characters are well developed and believable, making you care about what happens to them. This story is fresh and exciting, while the writing is sharp and well paced. I look forward to reading more work from this author.

A 4-star Review by Johanna Zanten of "Fated and Fateless"

Johanna Zanten, a Goodreads author and reviewer, has just posted a 4-star text review of "Fated and Fateless":-


goo.gl/fyUtRO

Book and Opera Review - "Salome" by Oscar Wilde

[Note: this is a combined review of "Salome" the play and the opera.]

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It has been said often enough that music has no nationality. Sometimes, a piece of art can transcend culture and language to reach an apex of perfection, in which music and story fuse to produce a stunning art form that grips the heart and mind of the audience. Richard Strauss’ operatic gem “Salome” in German, based on Oscar Wilde’s French play, perhaps deserves to be counted amongst such pieces.

Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet and playwright who was born in Dublin and educated at Oxford, England, notably a language prodigy, was conversant with German, French, Greek and Latin at an early age. The liberal hedonistic life that he led in his youth, whilst being frowned at by the society he lived in, might well have sharpened his senses to give him the needed zest to appreciate the beauty in art that may be hidden from the untrained eye. His most acclaimed works are his only novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”.

Lesser known is the play “Salome” which was based on the well-known biblical story of the beheading of John the Baptist, and which Wilde wrote originally in French.

The story goes like this. At a birthday party thrown by Herod, the Tetrarch of Judea, Salome, his step-daughter, demanded to see John the Baptist who was being kept in an underground cistern for criticizing Salome’s mother Herodias on her incestuous marriage to Herod, brother of her husband. On seeing the saintly man, Salome fell in love with him and declared her passionate desire for his white skin, his black hair and his red lips. When she was rebuffed, she perversely asked Herod, who was hankering after her, to reward her with John’s head after dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils, with Herodias gleefully prodding her on. Herod tried to dissuade her from her demand by offering her emerald, then white peacocks, then the sacred veil of the temple, which she all refused. When she finally got what she wanted, she kissed the lips of the severed head that was handed to her on a silver platter. Terrified by the sight of this lunacy, the superstitious Herod ordered his soldiers to kill her.
There is an interesting story behind why Wilde wrote “Salome” in French, apart from the artistic reason that effects could be more grippingly sensual in French than in English.

It was said that he had been inspired by French artist Gustave Moreau’s famous painting of Salome captioned “L’Apparition”, which showed with rattling sensual power Salome’s hallucinated vision of the decapitated saint after she was handed her terrible reward. Another source of Wilde’s inspiration came from Gustave Flaubert’s short story “Herodias” (one of three short stories entitled “Three Tales”), which stuck to the original narrative that made Salome an innocent tool of her mother Herodias, and which provided details of Salome’s dance as Flaubert recalled an Arabian dance that he had watched during a visit to Egypt. Wilde artfully changed the focal point from Herodias to Salome and put Salome right in the foreground. He also made her out to be the sadistic lover of John the Baptist, picking up the hint of sadism and perversity from French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans’ interpretation of Moreau’s painting in his novel “A Rebours” (“Against Nature” or “Against the Grain”).

Thus influenced by these important French creators of art, it was only natural that Wilde would want to re-create “Salome” in the French language so as to pay homage to them, if nothing else.

Then Richard Strauss, the masterly German composer, came along and turned Wilde’s French play into an electrifying operatic piece in German, writing the libretto himself. Debuting in 1905, Strauss’ production garnered an enthusiastic accolade and some of his peers described the opera as “stupendous” and “a live volcano, a subterranean fire”.

Having previously read Wilde’s play (an English translation), I am familiar with the story details. I don’t pretend to know anything about classical music, but when I watched a video of the Strauss opera (conducted by Bohm) on Youtube and listened to the music, it did give me a strange pulsating, eruptive sensation. The story of murderous sexual desire is expressed in a perfect orchestration of musical instruments and soprano singing to fluster the deepest recesses of the human heart. Teresa Stratas, a Greek artist from Ontario, Canada who played the leading role of Salome, indeed impressed me deeply with her haunting performance.

Luckily, one doesn’t have to speak German to be able to appreciate Strauss’ music. In fact one doesn’t have to be of any particular nationality to be able to appreciate good music by musicians of any nationality. As Strauss once said in a letter to a Jewish friend and librettist:

“Do you believe I am ever, in any of my actions, guided by the thought that I am German? Do you suppose that Mozart was ever consciously Aryan when he composed? I only recognize two types of people: those who have talent and those who have none.”

Book Review - The Kill (La Curee) by Emile Zola

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I read The Kill (La Curee) about three years ago and liked it so much as to have written a long review of it in my Asia Sentinel (an online magazine) blog. I’ve dug out that review and have shortened it a bit for sharing here.

The Kill (La Curee) is the second in Emile Zola’s twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart saga, which is a fictional historical account of a family under France’s Second Empire, a semi-despotic, semi-parliamentary kleptocracy of Louis Bonaparte Napoleon III. This novel aroused my interest in the author Emile Zola, whom, after deeper research into his life and works, I’ve come to like and respect.

As suggested by the title of the novel, the hunting spoils (the French term is “la curee”) are rewards for the hounds for killing the quarry. In allegorical interpretation, spoils of economic development are rewards for those callous enough to prey on the weak and vulnerable. This is the main theme of the novel.

The story of The Kill is set in Paris during the reign of the Second Empire, a city that was undergoing dramatic transformations highlighted by greed, graft and conspicuous consumption. The background setting features massive public works which include demolition of broad swaths of old Paris for the construction of spacious boulevards and widespread expansion of railroads. The social backdrop tells of how the middle-class rushes to embrace new-found gold-digging opportunities and how the government wades knee-deep in corruption and cronyism.

“From the very first days Aristide Saccard sensed the approach of this rising tide of speculation, whose spume would one day cover all of Paris. He followed its progress closely. He found himself smack in the middle of the torrential downpour of gold raining down on the city’s roofs. In his incessant turns around city hall, he had caught wind of the vast project to transform Paris, of the plans for demolition, of the new streets and hastily planned neighborhoods, and of the massive wheeling and dealing in land and buildings that had ignited a clash of interests across the capital and set off an unbridled pursuit of luxury…..”

Against this background, the main story line centers on Aristide Saccard’s rapacious graft at the government office and his coldhearted exploitation of his beautiful but soulless wife Renee, and simultaneously threads through a materially decadent and morally depraved period of her life, which culminates in her engagement in incest with her step-son Maxime. The story ends with an abrupt and cruel shattering of Renee’s self-indulgent delusions, her heartbreak caused by her discovery of her husband’s and Maxime’s heartless betrayal of her. Her tragic end has a dark symbolic ring to it.

Book Review - Candide by Voltaire

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In reading this review, please be warned that I have only limited knowledge of philosophy and “Candide” is a reputed philosophical satire.

I'm just going to record what I was able to grasp. The moral of the story would appear to be that since there is a limitless amount of unpredictable chaos in life, much of which is catastrophic, evil and wretched, be it man-made (like rape, war, massacre, plague, religious intolerance) or from force majeure (like earthquake, shipwreck), that one can be easily tempted to give up all hope on mankind, but that despair is not the answer.

The author takes the protagonist Candide from place to place, putting him through the most horrible ordeals in order to make him see the falsity in the philosophical thinking mode of his teacher Dr. Pangloss, which is unadulterated optimism no matter how dire the life situation is. In the end, Candide has seen too much absurdity and pain in life and evil in people to still believe in Pangloss's theory. But neither does that mean life is not worth living. Candide has come to learn that humans by nature have a penchant for living, no matter how harrowing life is (as the old woman who has survived unspeakable atrocities says, 'A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but still I loved life!').

So perhaps some measure of deprivation and evil is actually beneficial, because it gives purpose and contrast to life. Besides, too much comfort and complacency only breeds boredom and lethargy (like the rich Venetian nobleman Pococurante who has everything but shows no interest in anything). Candide finally comes to the conclusion that "we must cultivate our garden", meaning that despite all, we should all strive to develop our own individual talent for our own good and the good of society.

I rather like the uplifting conclusion. I just feel that in terms of philosophical notion, it sounds a bit like Albert Camus’s absurdism and revolt.