New Book about Thailand: "Bangkok 8"

[SUZIBANDIT]

I agree that Pico Iyer can come off a bit pretentious, and I also laughed at that Skytrain comment.

 

But I also agree that there is a need for books that go a bit more in depth. If they want to use the same cliches, up to them, but at least try and explore it a bit deeper than the generalisations that anyone who has spent two weeks in the country can see.

 

Give me something that makes me think, or at lest give me alternative view point.

 

Right now so much of it is same, same but different.

[Guest]

>>>I think you're all a long way off base here. <<<

 

 

you completely lost me, what are you talking about? what has what your answer to do with what i posted? which base am i off?

 

 

 

>>>"As far from its soil and its real lives as the Skytrain that whisks the affluent above the streets of Bangkok" is lame enough, but "the phychology of the scene...maybe connect it to...the larger reality of Thai villages and the badlands.? <<<

 

given your previous posts, i can only guess that your comments here were directed at my criticism of jake needhams novels, novels who resemble thailands realities not more than an apple resembles a durian.

 

personally, i do believe that even fiction when set in nonfictional places has to have some resemblence to realities of those places, and do afford a certain amount of research. novels only grow with bringing them into a larger context which makes certain not so obvious connections on all levels of consciousness (just go through a few essays on steinbeck to see how a master approaches the art of writing novels, or hemingway, who went to the spanish civil war. and just look how dicken's novels still are meaningful in his accurate descriptions of his time).

if you do not have that you get trivia - nice on a long train ride, but hardly intelligent reading.

[markle]

What annoys me most of all about the preoccupation with the nightlife/underworld scene is that when people are criticised about being one-dimensional they throw back that it is dealing with the 'realities'. I'm sorry but for me, it is mostly unreal. In 15 years I went to nana/patpong/cowboy a handful of times, only passingly dealt with corrupt officials, etc ad nauseum. Am I a freak? Perhaps, or maybe I just made a concious decision not to live the cliche. I started cycling in Bangkok, I got involved in street theatre, I did so many things that I doubt I would have done back home, but it seems that novelist writing about Thailand didn't get off the Cliche Tour Bus.

It's not so much that these writers fail to write about the lives of Thai's (which would be artificial.), it's that they fail to write about the rather varied lives of many (minority perhaps) expats in Thailand that have very little to do with 'The Big Mango'.

[Guest lazyphil]

Perhaps the book (which I confess I've never read) is aimed at the wider world. I mean for example, films set in London are often a cliche about underworld gangsters or twee little faggots with Hugh Grant. Violence and sex in novels/movies sells. Yes its pretty sad really but maybe he's just following cynical economic norms to make a stash. I doubt he gives a fuck about views of guys like you who have a less sleazy but dynamic (?) story of Bangkok to tell. But I doubt stories about your street theatre and such things would help sell books. No flame intended.

[Guest]

what annoys me with the preoccupation with that nightlife scene/gangworld is that the vast majority of descriptions have nothing whatsoever to do with any form of reality there. what you said - very onedimensional descriptions - a continious repetition of stating the obvious.

for me, it is a logical step when dealing the badlands here to also deal with rural poverty, with the slums, with the gangworld (but really deal with it - not just imagining how it could be) and with farang caught in that world. and somehow bringing the magic into which separates a master writer from an average writer.

 

the nightlife/badlands can be a great topic matter if it is brought into context, so could be the setting of an aristocratic environment, a chinese merchant environment, a village caught the trap betwen modern life and a lost tradition, but it all depends what the writer makes out of it.

 

somehow every dick and harry here imagines himself as an expert without speaking the language, without making the necessary in depth research. which is very sad. the constant trivialisation of the enormously complex matter of the nightlife here make it very difficult for any work of quality to be looked at and considered by the lectors of a good publishing house.

 

i am somewhat guilty of being preoccupied with the nightlife as well (and that was my choice), but over the years that has forced me to take the logical step further, and also get personally involved in matters of rural poverty, life in the slums, and the thai gangworld (outside of what you see and meet in the western oriented prostitution scenery), in addition to having myself been once one of those farang cought in that strange netherworld here (and maybe i still am to some extend).

 

i don't know, but what i have experienced here over the years is a lot more than what has ever been written about in the assorted trivia we are talking about.

[markle]

Says lazyphil:

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Perhaps the book (which I confess I've never read) is aimed at the wider world. I mean for example, films set in London are often a cliche about underworld gangsters or twee little faggots with Hugh Grant.

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Yes But no-one actually believes that thatis all there is to London. The problem here is that the view that gets oput to the wider world is so limited and ultimately misleading.

 

No flame intended.

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None taken and you are right these books get published because they do sell. I'm not envious, it's just fuk'n sad.

[OldAsiaHand]

Says flyonzewall:

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"it is a logical step when dealing the badlands here to also deal with rural poverty, with the slums, with the gangworld (but really deal with it - not just imagining how it could be)"

 

Jeez, what a load of self-conscious twaddle.

 

"...somehow every dick and harry here imagines himself as an expert"

 

I rest my case, Your Honor. Oh, sorry, old HeadUpYourAss, you really ARE an expert. I just keep forgetting.

 

"...i don't know, but what i have experienced here over the years is a lot more than what has ever been written about in the assorted trivia we are talking about."

 

Gee, speaking of trivial...

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[Guest]

>>>>Jeez, what a load of self-conscious twaddle.<<<<

 

 

well, at least i am not yet such a pompous git and call myself "old-asia-hand"...as if...

 

 

and what such a infantile argument you try to bait me into here has to do with the 'arts and culture' folder escapes me completely.

 

[BelgianBoy]

Says OldAsiaHand:

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Gee, speaking of trivial...

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Guys....... its "only" a book we are talking about.........

 

Cheers !

[Raven]

It's only a book, but it's a good read. Once I got started on Bangkok 8, I had a hard time putting it down. It flows well.

 

Maybe the characters are predictable, but the plot is not. Nice twists here and there. The author of Bangkok 8 hits about very farang hot spot in town from the Oriental's Bamboo Bar to the Emporium and the inevitable trips to the 'pong, Nana, and SC. (Wait, he missed MBK)

 

Perhaps I was just nostalgic for Bangkok. It was a good read. I enjoyed it. A great beach book. Probably won't read it again, but I would recommend it to anyone who is a few months away from their next visit to LOS. 3 1/2 stars (out of 5)