Jakarta Selatan

Thinking of Indonesian family and friends today with a pivotal demonstration happening in central Jakarta.

Separately, it is great to have Eka Kurniawan at Singapore Writers Festival this year. I'm really looking forward to listening him speak.

Meanwhile, I am appearing on a few panels and at a book launch:

WRITING FROM THE DIASPORA
5 Nov, Sat 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM The Arts House, Screening Room
With Catherine Torres & Robin Hemley & Moderated by Eric Tinsay Valles

SG HORROR: ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?
10 Nov, Thu 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM, The Arts House, Blue Room
With Ng Yi-Sheng, Audrey Chin & moderated by Jeffrey Lim

Singapore Love Stories Book launch
12 November 2016 Sat 1pm to 2pm The Arts House, Gallery II

Do come along. It would be great see you there!

Speakeasy 29

The guest poets introduced by Pooja Nansi at Speakeasy #29 on 19 October 2016 were Tania De Rozario, Alfian Sa'at and Cyril Wong. 

This was an evening for juvenilia and the poets read from their very early work. Often emotional, cringeworthy,  comic and immature the readings were quite entertaining. 

Tania's work was heartfelt and deeply vulnerable. Pooja's diary entries had so much attitude and energy. Cyril's singing was other worldly, angelic and beautiful, while Alfian was his charming, brilliant self. 

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All images are copyright Jon Gresham. permission should be sought for any use and should be attributed to ‘Jon Gresham www.igloomelts.com'.

Please kindly email me for approval to use any image, especially if you are a commercial organisation.
 

Xintiandi

The Unknown Citizen

(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

W. H. Auden, 1907 - 1973

New Works from the Image Symbol Department @Booksactually

Image Symbol Department, a Singapore writing group gave a preview of new works at BooksActually on 16 October 2016.

Jennifer Anne Champion (“A History of Clocks”, “Caterwaul”), Amanda Chong (“Professions”), Samuel Lee (“A Field Guide to Supermarkets in Singapore"), Daryl Lim Wei Jie (“A Book of Changes”) and Daryl Qilin Yam (“Kappa Quartet”) read from their new books.

The poets will launch their books, published by Sing Lit Station/Ten Year Series, at Singapore Writers Festival:

"CATERWAUL" by Jennifer Anne Champion
+ "A FIELD GUIDE TO SUPERMARKETS IN SINGAPORE" by Samuel Lee
11 Nov 2016 (Sat), 8.30pm-9.30pm at Gallery II @ The Arts House

"A BOOK OF CHANGES" by Daryl Lim Wei Jie
+ "PROFESSIONS" by Amanda Chong
12 Nov 2016 (Sat), 8.30pm-9.30pm at Living Room @ The Arts House

Daryl Qilin Yam will also launch his debut novel, Kappa Quartet at Singapore Writers Festival too:

Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2015 Longlist
12 November 2016, Saturday, 10am to 11am at The Arts House – Gallery II

All images are copyright Jon Gresham and should be attributed to ‘Jon Gresham www.igloomelts.com'. Please kindly email me for approval to use any image, especially if you are a commercial organisation.

Bloke, Shanghai

From Robert Manne's lecture on How We Became So Cruel to Asylum Seekers: 

‘Recently an inmate on Nauru set himself on fire and died. Dutton argued in response that people self-immolate so they can get to Australia. It took 30 years of brutal behaviour for a remark like this to be possible and for Australians not to notice how truly remarkable was the Minister’s brutality.

Our current uniquely harsh anti-asylum seeker policy is grounded in the absolutist ambitions that can, in my view, best be explained by Australia’s long term migration history and its associated culture of control. It has become entrenched because of the force of bureaucratic inertia that has seen the system grow automatically while any interest in, or understanding of, the relation of means to ends has been lost. And it is presently maintained by an irrational but consensual mindset that has Canberra in its grip: the conviction that even one concession to human kindness will send a message to the people smugglers and bring the whole system crashing down.’

Kappa Quartet by Daryl Qilin Yam

I am 50 pages in to Kappa Quartet, Daryl Qilin Yam’s debut novel, and enjoying the read immensely. The book was long listed for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2015.

The prose is crisp and elegant with a sense of mystery and intrigue. The same may be said of Daryl himself.

In his spare time Daryl does all the work at Sing Lit Station where I managed to take a few images of him and he kindly signed his book for me.

The Rail Corridor, Singapore

“But the fact is that writing is the only way in which I am able to cope with the memories which overwhelm me so frequently and so unexpectedly. If they remained locked away, they would become heavier and heavier as time went on, so that in the end I would succumb under their mounting weight. Memories lie slumbering within us for months and years, quietly proliferating, until they are woken by some trifle and in some strange way blind us to life. How often this has caused me to feel that my memories, and the labours expended in writing them down are all part of the same humiliating and, at bottom, contemptible business! And yet, what would we be without memory? We would not be capable of ordering even the simplest thoughts, the most sensitive heart would lose the ability to show affection, our existence would be a mere neverending chain of meaningless moments, and there would not be the faintest trace of a past. How wretched this life of ours is!--so full of false conceits, so futile, that it is little more than the shadow of the chimeras loosed by memory. My sense of estrangement is becoming more and more dreadful.”

W.G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn

Speakeasy 28

David Wong & Antoine Cassar were the guest poets at Speakeasy on 28 September at Artistry.

David read from his outstanding debut collection, For the End Comes Reaching, and Antoine read Passaport, printed in the form of an anti-passport.

‘Valid for all peoples, and for all landscapes. For all citizens and villagers of flesh and blood, wherever they were born. Your worth is not proportional to the population of your country. Entry free of duty, no need for a stamp or visa, the doors are unscrewed from the jambs.’

A hat was passed around with proceeds from the evening going to support the important and valuable work of HOME. 

HOME provides counselling & advice for migrant workers, runs a shelter, supports migrant workers in disputes with employers, helps with medical issues, provides education & emotional support, and conducts advocacy campaigns & research including an Anti Sex Trafficking Campaign. I have images from a beauty pageant organised by HOME here.

Jakarta Selatan

"The “Muslim” has come to be a hollowed, emptied term that functions as a trigger for white anxiety. Little surprise then, when you add Muslim next to another anxiety-laden word “immigrant”, the result equates to half the country reaching out for the treadmill’s emergency red stop button.

Modernity’s pace seems too quick for some, but the keen reader would have noted that in my opening agreement I put the Muslim in scare quotes. I do this for a reason. The word “Muslim” belongs to a conversation born out of the “war on terror”. I distinguish it from the quote-less everyday Muslim whose complex life is beyond the headline and Hanson’s narrow parameters.

Any one simplified and generalising statement about Islam betrays the religion and its communities’ diverse contests, betrays Muslims’ internal debates on how to best articulate Islam’s universality. Whereas, the “Muslim” functions in a pure simplicity. It simply means them. It represents an abject figure that has to be excluded from the circle of us so to imagine a supposed pure integrity of our culture."

The Word Muslim Belongs to the War on Terror it has little to do with me, The Guardian, Sept 2016

O Thiam Chin & Yeo Wei Wei @BooksActually

Two recent #SGLit events at Books Actually:

• On 5 August 2016, Wei Wei spoke to Cyril Wong about her book of short stories, These Foolish Things. She talked about haunted umbrellas, characters yearning for something more and people as bundles of sensitivity and feelings. I like the lightness and subtlety of much of Wei Wei's prose. 
   
• On 22 July 2016, a master of the Singaporean story, O Thiam Chin spoke to Jason Eric Lundberg about his writing process and new novel, the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize winning, Now That It’s Over. The 2004 tsunami is the inciting event of his novel. Similarly, the 2004 tsunami is a key event in Wei Wei's title story in These Foolish Things. He talked about the editing process with Jason, his editor, mentioned that he was influenced by Banana Yoshimoto, and is currently writing horror stories such as this one in QLRS.

O Thiam Chin & Jason Eric Lundberg

O Thiam Chin & Jason Eric Lundberg

O Thiam Chin & Jason Eric Lundberg

O Thiam Chin & Jason Eric Lundberg

Yeo Wei Wei & Cyril Wong

Yeo Wei Wei & Cyril Wong

Yeo Wei Wei & Cyril Wong