Looking back,
2001-2005
Love in the darkest hour
Like
Like 2
Requiem
You
Foreign
War-torn
Today I die
Ten winters
Deathtrap
27th March
The commoner
Damnation of God
The little girl at the door
Maybe
The masterpiece
Wer Bist Du
Seasons
The dead man
Lost in Madrid
Style Infinity
2006
528 a hangover
Always together
Tokyo story
Sara
Defeat
For you on your first birthday without you
Muenchner
Leo to Suzanne
100 words to you
Glass
Anew
You are not alone
2007: Venprek Series
A beautiful dream
A walk
Bad day in Neusstak
Bus stop in Mechantre
Café in Matisse
Cold in Venprek
Drinking in Riverafran
Flight 87
Flower in Tjen Droonen
Giovanni's
Gran Libre in Alksstak
Guardian Angel
Hairdresser in Mezague
Last sunset
Lost in Alksstak
Meditation
My father
New year in Futuro
Princess of Venprek
Sad Song in Millenario
Second Chance
Sereven
Stad Rouchoda
Substitute
Sunset in Alkshavaar
Timeless bakery in Botinche
Vanille
Venpreker Harz
VIF
West
West to east
Youness-Cabaye
Zentraal
2007
Domani
Keiko
8 at the Spanish Café
14 September 2007
A year
Chance
Closed Door
Corrine
Dasenai Tegami
December
Emotionspacetime
He and she
If
If I were to run into you again
Kyoto's Gion
Nadine and Danielle
Parting
Profound Sadness
Summer Vacation
Thank you, sorry and goodbye
That girl called Joan
Two years
Walk with you
2008
Prince of Venprek
Memories
101 steps
i realised i wrote quite a lot of stuff in 2007.
i started from things which resembled poems. 2001-2005. 2005 was also the first time i wrote very short texts. in 2006, i dabbled in a few more works that resembled poems. and of course, tokyo story was written that april, marking a shift in style. i consider tokyo story my first long story, because i feel that muenchner was really badly done. someday, i will return to that idea and do some justice to it.
why did i stop writing the things that resemble poems? i don't really know. but i remembered someone telling me once that just because a person writes something that looks like a poem doesnt mean that person is poetic. maybe that was the turning point.
if my stuff ever sounds murakami-esque, it is purely coincidental. it's true that i have read most of his stuff, but i wrote tokyo story even before i started reading his works. and back in 2002 or 2003, i wrote a story in chinese, after which my chinese teacher told me to read murakami. i waited till 2006 before i decided to try his works, because i was running out of ideas as to who to read. and then i realised why my teacher had made that recommendation. i like his works alot because i can identify with him, relate to his themes, as well as understand and appreciate his style, which i think you either love or hate. a lot of people have gushed about him; a lot have slammed his stuff as nonsense as well.
i would be honored if you find that there is any resemblance, but i must make it very clear that i did not copy his style, or whatever.
most of my stuff are actually built from ideas/concepts/ scenarios/lines that suddenly come to me, or which i heard somewhere, or seen somewhere.
101 steps came about because i was telling my brother i could write a story if he would give me a line. that line was: it snowed today, on the anniversary of his death.
"Bus Stop" in emotion.space.time came about because the train i was on was passing by a bus stop where a couple was waiting.
that's why i always believe that ideas can come anytime, from anywhere.
my favourites
Poem-like thing
Love, In The Darkest Hour
In the immense belly of the great bird,
Shadows emerge with blades drawn, the very personifications of lunacy,
Seizing control of it,
As they remain rooted in their seats, filled with trepidation.
As these shadows guide all to their doom,
He calls her to tell her of the impending chaos
And how much he loves her
Impact.
Thousands marooned in the doomed towers,
Some escape, as though Lady Luck has been smiling on them,
The rest without a single chance.
She clasps her hands and whispers to God,
How much she loves her family and friends,
Then falls from eighty stories.
People swarm around the towers,
As they burn with unmatched fury.
Suddenly, unheralded, they collapse,
Amidst a great ball of smoke and flames.
Many feet below, the atmosphere escalates into a climax of hysteria
A black and a white seek solace in an embrace
As thousands cry helplessly for their beloved.
Elsewhere, in a land thousands of miles away
A man with grizzled hair holds a telephone,
Hand shaking as his wife holds a photograph
Of their son.
They tell him, that his son is dead
And he sinks to his feet,
Begging God to bring him back.
A moment of silence around the world
As it mourns for the dead.
She, clutches a photograph of him
As tears stream down her melancholic countenance.
A zephyr stirs the leaves
She feels his presence near
And thinks that it is his face she sees in the sky
Separated from hers by an eternal distance
That exists only in the mortal realm.
i think it isnt well-written, but it is one of the first stuff i ever wrote. and it was at a time when the world was still sane, when everything was still within comprehension. i say 'still', because right after this, or i should say, with this, everything changed. if we had thought 9/11 was bad enough, what about today's world?
Short Text
Thank You, Sorry, Goodbye
http://korihikage.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
i like it because it is rather surreal. two people on the verge of leaving each other, yet taking it so calmly, so detachedly. and i think when you part from someone who has been very dear to you, these are the words which would encompass all the things you want to say to that person.
Long Story
Domani
http://korihikage.blogspot.com/2007/10/domani-5.html
memories was the story which i had spent the longest time on. but domani is still my favourite, partly because of the way it came about. i was on the train back to camp when i saw these three teenagers at the open area beside woodlands mrt. they were just standing there. that was when i knew what i had to write. the whole journey back to camp was spent jotting down the ideas that came very furiously onto a notebook. i couldnt sleep, because the ideas were coming, and i was trying to arrange them. all i was waiting for was midday so that i could go home and start.
the moment i reached home, i started writing till i came to a mental block, until i really din noe how to write on anymore. i dun like the second part, from the part after ken came back. that was where i got stuck. i dun like the second part, especially the ending. but looking back, i would still have done the same.
I also like Domani a lot because writing it brought back alot of fond memories. memories i never had.
the characters
it might sound silly saying this, but a very big reason why it is very tiring to write, especially the long ones, is because i always get very attached to the characters. seeing things from their perspectives, and being able to see things from the others' perspectives, thereby knowing things they wouldnt know, make me bear part of their burden.
if some characters are very unknown, or flat, such as Florian and Fabian in memories, it's simply because that's the way it was meant to be. a lot of times, i am using first person narrative, so what you see is what that person sees. and that's limited. i think that's more realistic, and in a way, more beautiful, because there are many things which we dont know, and we will never know, from this particular perspective.
and its also meant to be like this, so that the reader can fill in the gap himself; it's up to him to interpret. i think i always leave a few questions unanswered. maybe i dun have the answers to them as well. its really up to u to decide, based on what you know. and we always have the advantage of being able to draw conclusions from a few perspectives, while a character only has his perspective to rely on.
i think another thing which i have a habit of doing is to zoom into a specific time of a specific scene. meaning: come straight into the middle of nowhere; you don't know how the situation came about. the best example would be keiko. it's really an experiment in style: random, intense images.
i think this concept is very linked to my personal preference. like why i like to watch mvs, and why i think good movies are best kept to 1.5 hours, because you can cut away all the unimportant parts. and of course, the randomness. now you know why i prefer movies like sugar and spice, once and crying out love in the middle of the world, rather than spider man, harry potter. i prefer emotion to action.
my favourite character, who is also the girl whom i would most likely fall in love with is Kanna Ito from domani.
if you have ever read my stuff, and like any particular ones, do let me know which. and if there is any girl whom you think is the kind of girl you would fall in love with, let me know that as well.
and if there is any work which you want to read, but can't find in the blog, just tell me. i'll send.
and if you ever want to write, write.
or if you don't to, but have a nice line/idea/scenario, i'll see what i can do wif it.
Love in the darkest hour
Like
Like 2
Requiem
You
Foreign
War-torn
Today I die
Ten winters
Deathtrap
27th March
The commoner
Damnation of God
The little girl at the door
Maybe
The masterpiece
Wer Bist Du
Seasons
The dead man
Lost in Madrid
Style Infinity
2006
528 a hangover
Always together
Tokyo story
Sara
Defeat
For you on your first birthday without you
Muenchner
Leo to Suzanne
100 words to you
Glass
Anew
You are not alone
2007: Venprek Series
A beautiful dream
A walk
Bad day in Neusstak
Bus stop in Mechantre
Café in Matisse
Cold in Venprek
Drinking in Riverafran
Flight 87
Flower in Tjen Droonen
Giovanni's
Gran Libre in Alksstak
Guardian Angel
Hairdresser in Mezague
Last sunset
Lost in Alksstak
Meditation
My father
New year in Futuro
Princess of Venprek
Sad Song in Millenario
Second Chance
Sereven
Stad Rouchoda
Substitute
Sunset in Alkshavaar
Timeless bakery in Botinche
Vanille
Venpreker Harz
VIF
West
West to east
Youness-Cabaye
Zentraal
2007
Domani
Keiko
8 at the Spanish Café
14 September 2007
A year
Chance
Closed Door
Corrine
Dasenai Tegami
December
Emotionspacetime
He and she
If
If I were to run into you again
Kyoto's Gion
Nadine and Danielle
Parting
Profound Sadness
Summer Vacation
Thank you, sorry and goodbye
That girl called Joan
Two years
Walk with you
2008
Prince of Venprek
Memories
101 steps
i realised i wrote quite a lot of stuff in 2007.
i started from things which resembled poems. 2001-2005. 2005 was also the first time i wrote very short texts. in 2006, i dabbled in a few more works that resembled poems. and of course, tokyo story was written that april, marking a shift in style. i consider tokyo story my first long story, because i feel that muenchner was really badly done. someday, i will return to that idea and do some justice to it.
why did i stop writing the things that resemble poems? i don't really know. but i remembered someone telling me once that just because a person writes something that looks like a poem doesnt mean that person is poetic. maybe that was the turning point.
if my stuff ever sounds murakami-esque, it is purely coincidental. it's true that i have read most of his stuff, but i wrote tokyo story even before i started reading his works. and back in 2002 or 2003, i wrote a story in chinese, after which my chinese teacher told me to read murakami. i waited till 2006 before i decided to try his works, because i was running out of ideas as to who to read. and then i realised why my teacher had made that recommendation. i like his works alot because i can identify with him, relate to his themes, as well as understand and appreciate his style, which i think you either love or hate. a lot of people have gushed about him; a lot have slammed his stuff as nonsense as well.
i would be honored if you find that there is any resemblance, but i must make it very clear that i did not copy his style, or whatever.
most of my stuff are actually built from ideas/concepts/ scenarios/lines that suddenly come to me, or which i heard somewhere, or seen somewhere.
101 steps came about because i was telling my brother i could write a story if he would give me a line. that line was: it snowed today, on the anniversary of his death.
"Bus Stop" in emotion.space.time came about because the train i was on was passing by a bus stop where a couple was waiting.
that's why i always believe that ideas can come anytime, from anywhere.
my favourites
Poem-like thing
Love, In The Darkest Hour
In the immense belly of the great bird,
Shadows emerge with blades drawn, the very personifications of lunacy,
Seizing control of it,
As they remain rooted in their seats, filled with trepidation.
As these shadows guide all to their doom,
He calls her to tell her of the impending chaos
And how much he loves her
Impact.
Thousands marooned in the doomed towers,
Some escape, as though Lady Luck has been smiling on them,
The rest without a single chance.
She clasps her hands and whispers to God,
How much she loves her family and friends,
Then falls from eighty stories.
People swarm around the towers,
As they burn with unmatched fury.
Suddenly, unheralded, they collapse,
Amidst a great ball of smoke and flames.
Many feet below, the atmosphere escalates into a climax of hysteria
A black and a white seek solace in an embrace
As thousands cry helplessly for their beloved.
Elsewhere, in a land thousands of miles away
A man with grizzled hair holds a telephone,
Hand shaking as his wife holds a photograph
Of their son.
They tell him, that his son is dead
And he sinks to his feet,
Begging God to bring him back.
A moment of silence around the world
As it mourns for the dead.
She, clutches a photograph of him
As tears stream down her melancholic countenance.
A zephyr stirs the leaves
She feels his presence near
And thinks that it is his face she sees in the sky
Separated from hers by an eternal distance
That exists only in the mortal realm.
i think it isnt well-written, but it is one of the first stuff i ever wrote. and it was at a time when the world was still sane, when everything was still within comprehension. i say 'still', because right after this, or i should say, with this, everything changed. if we had thought 9/11 was bad enough, what about today's world?
Short Text
Thank You, Sorry, Goodbye
http://korihikage.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
i like it because it is rather surreal. two people on the verge of leaving each other, yet taking it so calmly, so detachedly. and i think when you part from someone who has been very dear to you, these are the words which would encompass all the things you want to say to that person.
Long Story
Domani
http://korihikage.blogspot.com/2007/10/domani-5.html
memories was the story which i had spent the longest time on. but domani is still my favourite, partly because of the way it came about. i was on the train back to camp when i saw these three teenagers at the open area beside woodlands mrt. they were just standing there. that was when i knew what i had to write. the whole journey back to camp was spent jotting down the ideas that came very furiously onto a notebook. i couldnt sleep, because the ideas were coming, and i was trying to arrange them. all i was waiting for was midday so that i could go home and start.
the moment i reached home, i started writing till i came to a mental block, until i really din noe how to write on anymore. i dun like the second part, from the part after ken came back. that was where i got stuck. i dun like the second part, especially the ending. but looking back, i would still have done the same.
I also like Domani a lot because writing it brought back alot of fond memories. memories i never had.
the characters
it might sound silly saying this, but a very big reason why it is very tiring to write, especially the long ones, is because i always get very attached to the characters. seeing things from their perspectives, and being able to see things from the others' perspectives, thereby knowing things they wouldnt know, make me bear part of their burden.
if some characters are very unknown, or flat, such as Florian and Fabian in memories, it's simply because that's the way it was meant to be. a lot of times, i am using first person narrative, so what you see is what that person sees. and that's limited. i think that's more realistic, and in a way, more beautiful, because there are many things which we dont know, and we will never know, from this particular perspective.
and its also meant to be like this, so that the reader can fill in the gap himself; it's up to him to interpret. i think i always leave a few questions unanswered. maybe i dun have the answers to them as well. its really up to u to decide, based on what you know. and we always have the advantage of being able to draw conclusions from a few perspectives, while a character only has his perspective to rely on.
i think another thing which i have a habit of doing is to zoom into a specific time of a specific scene. meaning: come straight into the middle of nowhere; you don't know how the situation came about. the best example would be keiko. it's really an experiment in style: random, intense images.
i think this concept is very linked to my personal preference. like why i like to watch mvs, and why i think good movies are best kept to 1.5 hours, because you can cut away all the unimportant parts. and of course, the randomness. now you know why i prefer movies like sugar and spice, once and crying out love in the middle of the world, rather than spider man, harry potter. i prefer emotion to action.
my favourite character, who is also the girl whom i would most likely fall in love with is Kanna Ito from domani.
if you have ever read my stuff, and like any particular ones, do let me know which. and if there is any girl whom you think is the kind of girl you would fall in love with, let me know that as well.
and if there is any work which you want to read, but can't find in the blog, just tell me. i'll send.
and if you ever want to write, write.
or if you don't to, but have a nice line/idea/scenario, i'll see what i can do wif it.
2 Comments:
dun get me wrong from our previous dialogue but leaving certain things unanswered or flat can be a very powerful tool, as seen in memories. i liked it. :)
i was looking at our bus stop when i was crossing the overhead bridge one night and i suddenly felt really, really nostalgic. like it has seen a lot in the past 12 or so years. bus stops, train stations, what have you. i think each has a lot to say, so many possible destinations, so many meetings, partings, waiting, hope and disappointment (miss the bus? lol). they are like taverns in a vast desert. but im tOO lazy to write and i dont think i can write like that. it's up to you, budding writer.
have u considered compiling ur works? haha and i nvr knew caiyuren recommended u murakami's works. he reads eng works? haha
-M
I like:
"... Sometimes, it is good to put down everything and leave for a while. See new things, meet new people. Then come back when you are ready. It’s not really running away. It’s going away to change the stale mixture a little, and also to make necessary changes to your life.”
"... what would happen during my absence? ... what would things be like? Would the Concerto still be there? Would they still put up the Illuminario in December? Could you still see Kobe and Osaka from Maya-san? Would you finally have gotten yourself a girlfriend? Would Kanna be with someone? What would happen to us? Could we still be like in the past? Or would we simply drift apart? In a way, I was almost afraid to come back, because I was afraid to see how things would have changed while I was away.”
"That day, his homeroom teacher had talked to him about his future, as he had done with all his other students. He was shocked that instead of considering Todai, Waseda, Keio or even Hyogo, Ichiro wanted to be a pastry chef. His teacher must have gotten in touch with Ichiro’s parents, because when Ichiro reached home that day, they were waiting. His father and him had a big fight."
“People tell me I can reach for the stars, I can achieve anything I want. I am just trying to do that. I don’t want to be a lawyer, doctor, scientist or whatever. That’s what they want. I know what I want.”
"Ken is always the clown, always ready with a joke, with a smile, a hearty laugh. I envy his carefree approach to life, the way he takes everything in his stride, always with a ‘it’s ok’ ready. I suspect that it is a result of ‘the great tragedy of his life’, as he himself puts it, with a twinkle in his eye. Either having to come to terms with it has made him stronger, has enabled him to take such a relaxed approach to things or he has always been, in reality, building a defensive wall of smiles, jokes and laughter around him, nursing a deep wound in the depths of his heart. I suppose it is a combination of both. But anyhow, he has lit up my life."
but ur characters and narrative in memories were much more powerful and effective, more techniques albeit the "messiness" domani was more straightforward and friendly in its own way. i guess it has shown how ur techniques and writing has grown in sophistication. just 1 year. amazing. :)
-M
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