Dune Spoiled

Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Well, anyway, the official story of Dune has ended with the relatively recent publication of Sandworms of Dune, co-written by Herbert’s scion, Brian Herbert, and that author of Star Wars spinoffs and the entertaining but rather formulaic Saga of Seven Suns, Kevin J Anderson. If you’re a fan of Dune [...]

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Rising Action Redux

So now that IOC is blessedly, finally over, it’s time to ditch any thought of respite and begin the great supplication to the god of mugging, sans post-ordeal jubilation.
Or is it?
It’s in three weeks, two of which are spent being drained of juice in an institution of higher (l)earning, and I’m sitting here typing [...]

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Pixels

Struck by a random impulse, I shall post some pictures and screenshots that incite nostalgia.
These are taken from the game Black and White 2.

And some real photos taken during the Shanghai OEP. Put in titles because they’re too big to fit on the screen. I’m too lazy to resize, apologies.
Shanghai Skyscraper
Streetscape
The Bund
Finally, a few [...]

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Poetics and Other Matters

All this IOC preparation has got me thinking about poetry appreciation.
It’s so easy to read a poem and take something away from it. Poetry, I suppose, builds upon the internal world of the reader, affirming and adding nuance to opinions already held, forcing the reader to examine new links and connections between themes and [...]

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National Day and Books

National Day has come and gone without fanfare where I’m concerned, what with non-existent celebrations et al and tired, uninspiring Recollections. Augustin had a good point too; we were mugging, of all things.
Well, the past few days have been bookish. I’ve torn through my two recent Iain M Banks acquisitions, Inversions and Look to [...]

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A Poem

One of Frost’s best poems, made even more appealing by the fact that I can admire it without actually having to analyse it.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leafs a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to [...]

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Sloth

I drowsed in the hazy afternoon light.
Around papers rustled with the slight manner of wind. Birds cawed in the distance, children howled in heedless play. Books lay supine and motionless, held in place implacably as if the contents within willed their studious gravitas. The faint aroma of some spice wafted, tantalizing, through the air. [...]

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