Monday, January 17, 2011

Disturbing things I read

NOTE: I'm so sorry this is short, but I have piano and I didn't want to leave it till later, since I'd most likely forget to post again ):

I did mean to post a nice long post, about a few books I read, but then, I got my ipad, and everything flew out of the window OTL..... But on the bright side, it did let me filter out everything but that which made the strongest impression, and for some reason, the ones that I do remember, are fairly disturbing in nature.

The first one, is a book (you'll see why I add the obvious later). It's called The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. It's about a boy in the World War (I think it's WWII), but the war's a small part. The main premise is that his mom (who loves books - smart mum(: ) dies, and his father gets a girlfriend, whom he marries, and who gives birth to a tiny step-brother. Meanwhile, David (that's the boy's name), starts hearing the whisper's of books, and sees a "crooked man" who tells him "Welcome you majesty, all hail the new king", or something to that effect.

Soon after, David goes into a world, which is full of really twisted fairytales, which makes the book so disturbing. Although, it's an interesting form of disturbing, since there's the subversion of the Adam and Eve story in one of the 'mini-tales' (which are the re-written fairy tales). And of course, that brillant insight (no sacarsm at all), is by my friend, who saw it as soon as he read it.

All, in all, it's a brilliantly disturbing book. (And the Amazon link is as follows: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Lost-Things-Novel/dp/0743298853)

The next disturbing thing I read isn't a book, but an article. It's called Why Chinese Mothers are Superior, and while I normally herald the championing of Chinese (I am Chinese after all, only that I'm Singaporen Chinese), this article, by an American-Chinese, disturbs me, in the way she raises her daughters. My own opinion is that if my mom raised me that way, I'd have therapy for the rest of my life (although her daughters seem very very accomplished).

And if you don't belive me, here's the link to the article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html

No comments :

Post a Comment

I really do appreciate all comments, and I'll try my best to reply within 24 hours!

^_^