TITHONUS' DIARY!!
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a bit of both Something that I both like and dislike about Korea: here it's polite to give and receive things using both hands. This includes money. I like it because the superfluous extra hand seems to add a sort of special, ritualistic aspect to the simple business of making a financial transaction... somehow it makes it less grubby and gives it a special dignity or something. However. It's also rather difficult to manage. Which hand do you hold your wallet with? Which hand do you hold the item you've just purchased with? I'm still not really on top of the mechanics of it all. - I've been reading "Pride and Prejudice" (I promise to hold off of attacking Mr Darcy, at least for a little while) but two things have occurred to me since I read "Emma" in high school. One is that it's really very funny if you're able to understand the sarcastic humour that's liberally sprinkled through it. The other is that it really helps to have seen the TV series first, because Austen does very little to assist the reader in understanding who the fuck it is that's talking. For example, you'll have a scene where all five of the Bennet girls are present. And Austen writes, "Miss Bennet then said..." and it's like, dude, ALL FIVE OF THEM ARE "MISS BENNET", WHICH MISS BENNET DO YOU MEAN? Similarly, minor characters are introduced in great slews of irrelevancy, with no attention given to who they are or why they're there, and apart from a few enigmatic comments on them you basically are left completely in the dark as to why they're there. The thing, is this gave me the absolute shits in high school, because I would dutifully try to remember who all these people were and figure out who was speaking to who and have some kind of mental picture of what the hell was going on, and it was a lot of hard work for very little reward. But, having watched it all on TV, I can now just dismiss it as slightly annoying. I know who the major characters are, I know that everyone else is just scenery, and so I just let my mind skim over whatever I know is irrelevant. Hmm. - I've been reading a lot while I'm here. It's more fun than sightseeing... I feel pretty discouraged with the whole job hunt but I'll keep looking a little longer. - "Good feeling Won't you stay with me Just a little bit longer?" - The Violent Femmes |
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