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Read any good books lately?


walletss

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Hi,

 

Yes, people to seem to try and provoke you, and why do you think that is? It is so easy to get a predictable response out of you.

Maybe you should follow some of their tactics when you think you are being provoked, and come to me first before flaming away. If you don't I expect that sooner rather than later you will get banned from this board.

 

You may not prefer the 'white collar' approach, but I most certainly do not like the vigilante approach. If I just let everybody settle things themselves this board would be a cesspool in a matter of days.

 

"when i am proved wrong "

I think the operative word here is 'proved'. You need to see proof before accepting anything, yet are often not willing to give this same proof to others. Of course they are to accept your word as proof. That is why a lot of people consider you arrogant.

 

Sanuk!

 

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All,

 

Good thread. I've read two books just recently that I can recommend. Neither take place in the LOS, but both deal with Asia/Asians and are good reads.

 

First is an excellent story titled, "The Death of Vishnu" by Manil Suri. Very funny, touching, well written, great characters. I loved this book! Check it out! ISBN 0-393-05042-4 published by W. W. Norton & Company out of New York and London. First book by this author. Story is based in Bombay on a stairwell in a housing complex. Well done, and a great read. Interesting book. Had me laughing out loud a few times! www.wwnorton.com Best book I've read in a while.

 

Second book I've just finished is "The Skull Mantra" by Elliot Pattison. Enjoyed this odd premised detective novel based in Tibet, involving a prison road gang of Chinese political convicts, Tibetan monks and other strange characters. Lots of Buddhism tidbits and interesting cultural stuff. Good read, and great plot and storyline. I liked this one very much also. Lucked out recently and I have read a few good books. ISBN 0-312-97834-0 Minotaur books. www.minotaurbooks.com

 

Cent

 

 

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I had already decided to leave everything well enough alone, I'm not interested in reigniting the debate. First of all I have not asked KS to enter the argument on my behalf I would say that he has done so because he would like to maintain a civil tone to the board, I respect that and withdrew when there was nothing constructive for me to say.

As KS has pointed out, my apparently harsh words were aimed at my understanding of FOZW's statement, not as a personal attack on him, I regret that he felt that they were. If I misunderstood his statement then perhap FOZW would be better served by correcting my misunderstanding. It is unfortunate that I still don't clearly know what he was trying to say, other than I apparently misunderstood what it was.

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FOZW simply meant that he is missing a great social critical novel describing the present time and tragedy of thai society, regardless of nationality of writer.

large part of that tragedy is the disintegration of the village structures, in which the commercial sexscene (not just the farang oriented but as well the local) plays a large role. as well as drugs, farmers increasingly losing their land.

 

that basically was what i meant to say, and if you misunderstood me, than i am very sorry, but i am not a native english speaker, so please cut me some slack here.

 

OK, lets get back to literature.

you brought up botan, which i do like very much, but it shows the lifestyle of the old days isaarn very well, but it of course does not include the days of the boom and the crash and the problems it caused in such a tight village society.

i would like to see a book along the lines of botan - part 2.

 

you mentioned also the nationality of the author. the problem of a western author is that he would have to be actually part of a village family to get enough understanding of the complexities of villagelife, takes a very long time.

the problem of thai authors are similar - very few thai intellectuals do actually come from poor villagefamilies, and, a tendency i have noticed in the recent years, many thai intellectuals seem to idealise the traditional villagelife as some form of "golden age". that kind of rose tinted glasses will never produce a worthy book. too many simplistic books along the lines: we should turn the clock back then things in this country will be fine again. nice ideology, but unfortunately reality refuses to be so simple.

i have read the ten novels translated by marcel barang in the series "the 20 best novels of thailand" which unfortunately had to be stopped due to the crash. even though there were some interesting ones, but unfortunately none stroke me as groundbreaking. marcel barang himself wrote a preword reasoning the lack of quality in thai novels. very interesting.

 

india, with it's long literary tradition has lots of first rate novels, just o name a few: azadi, or the malgudi based novels by R. K. Narayan, the feluda stories by satyajit ray, pather panchali by banerji and many more, as well as countless novels by foreigners with a deep understanding of the country.

that unfortunately i find lacking here in thailand, most expat writers do simply have not enough understanding of thailand, most modern thai writers have difficulties to transcendent their own social class.

what we basically have mostly now are some amusing commercial books and lots of pseudo intellectual garbage.

 

my missus favourite book is steinbeck's "the grapes of wrath", when she finished reading it the first time the only thing she said was: "that is like my life!"

i think it is high time that someone could write a book with that sort of power on thailand.

 

please, if you disagree (which you are perfectly free to do), or don't understand some of what i have written here, please reply in some better chosen words, so it does not end up in another argument.

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Guest lazyphil

<<i think it is high time that someone could write a book with that sort of power on thailand>>

 

Well, you know what to do then? ;) ;)

 

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