MrX Posted August 2, 2004 Report Share Posted August 2, 2004 I do realize a donkey is not a camel but post this anyway on a falang orientated sanuk board trusting to find refuge in an eddy............. Found this in and quote selectively from a book by Mont Redmond........... "Yet after a crashing denouement and a conclusion which cannot quite wipe the sneer off its face do we have the feeling this is Thailand or This happened in Thailand" This quote got me thinking why I sometimes feel this board is like a chinese food ..initially tasty and satisfying but quite quickly leaving me hungry....maybe hungrier than before. (I know nobody obliges me to participate here and I can fuck off anytime I want... So if you are still inclined to tell me this then PLEASE dont read on...the purpose of this post is only discussion not complaint..) For Mr Redmond the block the farang meets to getting into Thailand depends on" (Thai) normality, the texture of ordinary life"......" it is the eternally unstated in all Thai affairs, the plaintive warp of silence across which the bright weft of appearences weaves its noisy way. Thai life is rooted in it, residing there during long intervals of unawareness or inaction and returns to it in sleep, in peace, in death and in enlightenment. As the sum of all change, it is the absolute zero which the Buddhist Philosopher......" Redmond thinks "Thais are perpetually hinting at it by asking whats the matter (pen arai?)...or( ai mi arai?)...to which the answer may be 'There is nothing'...." So I guess what I am trying to get at is: do you guys ( with your posts on the board) feel you are OF Thailand or does much of what is written here half fall short because it only about things that HAPPEN here. If you dont feel this shortcoming then my problem is mine alone while if you do .......... Redmond has a (good?) go at summing up the different Thai and falang mindsets/lifeways ..."The different life strategies of Thais and falangs are like two versions of the navigators art. The Thai captain steers close to the coast, and in his tackings and turnings presents a faithful copy of the outline of the land as it projects itself in Capes or retreats around bays. He must aways be alert....but he is never in danger of losing his way. His is the strategy of situations........The farang , on the other hand, casts his future out far on the deep, where wind and wave alone hold sway......He is not threatened by land's proximity, but rather by the free play of unbounded elements.......His peril and progress, on a straighter, swifter, and lonelier course, are those found in abstract principles...... Now, what were we saying about the best bar for blowjobs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soongmak Posted August 2, 2004 Report Share Posted August 2, 2004 Maybe mr Redmond really has something to say about thailand and thai ways, I really cannot say. His way of writing is so self-important, pretentious and wanna-be-intellectual that I wonder if even mont redmond knows what he's saying. If you could explain this sentence to me, I would be greatful: it is the eternally unstated in all Thai affairs, the plaintive warp of silence across which the bright weft of appearences weaves its noisy way. Thai life is rooted in it, residing there during long intervals of unawareness or inaction and returns to it in sleep, in peace, in death and in enlightenment. Now where is thai life rooted? In the eternally unstated, the plaintive warp of silence, or the bright weft of appearances or all three of them? Thai life is rooted THERE during long intervals of unawareness? WTF does that mean? And thai life is not rooted there in between those intervals? Really, I am not impressed, but it could be that my language skills are not up to par with mr. redmonds. Cheers, soongmak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 I wonder if even mont redmond knows what he's saying. -------------------------------- Could Mr Redmond and our very own Rompie be one and the same? Just kidding, I bought his book some years ago, seemed to cover a lot of grounds, but it's positively unreadable. He seems to get worse. Or he can't handle the doses..... Maybe, FJ would definetly have a pint of what he's got! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soongmak Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrX Posted August 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 First apologies for putting up "self-important, pretentious and wanna-be-intellectual'" stuff on the board Second apologies to Mr Redmond who I may have rendered "self-important, pretentious and wanna-be-intellectual" by quoting out of context..especially since he is not here to defend himself (although that may not be true if 127 is to be believed!) Apart from your distaste for the language I wonder if you are interested in the question I hoped to raise? Let me try and give you real (if imperfect) example from the world of sanuk.... OK....I am telling my girl my very first memories of knowing about/ seeing condoms, a bit frivolously, as I recall.. She says her first memory was when she was 12 and there was a falang.....suddenly she stops and though I am intrigued she wont say more.... what might be happening here? my "happened in Thailand" perspective throws up the shadow of abuse... the "in thailand" perspective is something more about: people not reflecting here, not discussing , not talking too much, not thinking too much.... Ok maybe that example doesnt work.... I'll try again .....lots of posts here are about how Thai women scam, lie, thieve etc....Obviously these things happen to people who come here...But some of my friends are these scamming , lying, thieving women and from the inside ( which I am hardly in)...well need I go on? IMHO a couple of posters can/could get under Thailand's skin....Fly, sadly departed, comes to mind...Flashermac on a good day..... but as for the rest of us..... Does this explain what I was trying to get at? if not, lets just put this sorry thread to rest and we can continue our relentless search for the best BJ bar etc etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 I'm not sure what you are asking rompandadam or even if you are asking something. It's the same feeling I got from reading Mr. Redmond's in depth analysis of Thai/Western cultural differences. Instead of just accepting things the way they are he seems to think that if he comes up with the right combination of words everything will be explained. He may be right. Good luck to him for trying. As every bar girl knows thinking can be fun in moderation but too much of it can give one a puat hua. Falang brains just keep on ticking though. Beer slows the process down temporarily. So does sleep. Death cures the condition permanently or so I'm told. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throbb Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 dude, sometimes i feel that many tend to place Thailand in its own special little box. I am not sure that Thai culture is so very different from S.E Asian culture in general. I have spent what amounts to nigh on half my life in the region, and the more time and greater my understanding of the languages, the more i see the countries interwoven. Seeking to analyse Thais and Thailand in isolation imho tends to muddy things up, stepping back and looking at Thailand within the ASEAN persepective helps explain an awful lot later, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 thinking ------------------- I find that the best way to "think" about Thailand life/culture, is not trying to think too much, like laser-shap thoughts, or trying to corner the subject to some kind of truth, but proceed by association of stuff one has read, seen, listened to, experienced, in short, running in circles, spiraling towards the topic, keeping it in perspective, more than thinking there is something written in marble and that's the truth about it, no other. It's written in marshmallow, afaic . cultures, peoples, are a complex mosaic, by thinking too much, we make it complicated also, and it does not have to be so. Plus, everyone has his own perspective, and that's fun too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrX Posted August 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 Romp wrote: "So I guess what I am trying to get at is: do you guys ( with your posts on the board) feel you are OF Thailand or does much of what is written here half fall short because it only about things that HAPPEN here. If you dont feel this shortcoming then my problem is mine alone while if you do .........." Hi Chuck....is the above enough of a question for you?..certainly it has the syntax.......but perhaps this precisely illustrates the point you were making about Redmond and me (vainly) seeking combinations of words that explain all and everything..... guess it looks like its just my problem..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Encore Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 Responded with a long post about three hours ago, but my response disappeared into cyberspace. I think I understand what Mr Redwood is trying to say with his warp and weft stuff, but I think the way P 127 describes his way of dealing with it is more effective. I think many falang have a tendency to analyse and rationalize until the cows come home (me included). Now we are almost all doing this on the basis of inadequate information, partly because most of us do not have absolutely fluent Thai, which I think is essential to find out what they are really talking about. Partly because of our cultural Thai experience only being skin deep (some people excepted) ?Many things are not talked about?. Maybe, but can we be sure, or is it that references made to the sensitive subject are so veiled that we don?t understand what is perfectly clear and understandable to a native speaker. Or are many of these things unlikely to ever be spoken about in our presence simply because we are falang, stand out as such, and inhibit by our presence intimate conversations. MrR?s sea captain analogy is a bit over generalized. What does he take as his sample of ?falang? in there. Does he talk about LT stayers in LOS, one week a year beach- or sex tourists, or about those falang who live in Stoke-on Trent and never leave their lives in Coronation St, whose world revolves around paying the mortgage, getting pissed at the local on Saturday and whose main worry is whether Arsenal will win the Cup this season. I think a majority of ?falang? may well fit into the latter category, and also not occupy themselves with the pursuit of abstractions. His generalization is a bit vague and ill defined. As far as your story, 12 yr old girl+condom+ falang, then silence, yes my first reaction would have been the same. But there?s a myriad of other explanations. Did she hold back the rest out of shame, or simply because you showed great interest, and that means she has something dangling there to mystify you with? Bargirls who steal and lie and cheat, much discussed, I know many falang male and female who have done so, I have sometimes lied, cheated and even stolen (blush). Many of those I know who did, are nevertheless totally lovable human beings. Yes, I generalize, too. But my main fascination is not trying to find commonalities (although there are so many), but just observe and experience the uniqueness of each of the stories and people. I think what you are trying to pursue is the understanding of the essence of the cultural differences. But for me the understanding is experiential rather than analytical. That, of course doesn?t stop me from armchair analyzing from time to time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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