Tuesday, December 05, 2006

More Elsewhere Blogthings

Listen. I'm having one of those days when I should be anywhere else but on my blog. But here are some other book related links from local bloggers that should interest you.

Glenda picks up the question of SpongeBob's sexuality and the true nature of his relationship with Patrick the Starfish (which may be the reason for the book becoming "restricted") and then gives us an environmentalists insights into the erotic lives of sponges.

Zafar asks and answers a question that I've been pondering: Ever wondered why the poets in Singapore generally outnumber the island state's prose writers?

From Xeus' blog I found a link to a very interesting page on the Thai Oasis website about a genre I hadn't heard about before: Bangkok Fiction.

Eric has an interview with Adibah Amin, co-written with MPH's Renee Koh, in which she talks about the writing craft. It's going to appear in the January issue of Quill. (I want my copy right now.)

Young Ted has emerged on the further shore of the Nanowrimo drowning, not waving. (No doubt he'll tell us all about his experiences when he finishes coughing up water.) He has a book review in Starmag to brag about, and yet another rejection letter to proudly add to his collection. (Well if you must start at The Paris Review and The New Yorker instead of Silverfish New Writing ...). Here's a great use for rejection letters by the way - send them to Lulu.com and have them turned into toilet paper. Then you can really put them behind you.

And having been Jeffooied, I've now been DaftOied. I probably deserved it, jumping in with big-mouth opinions (shock horror!) which other people did not welcome ... particularly as they come from a Brit ... which seem to bring out a certain degree of post-colonial inferiority in the aforesaid pseudononymous blogger. Maybe he should change the name of his blog to CheapShots?

The difference between being Jeffoied and DaftOied? About 500 hits.

Can I go now?

(Pic = SpongeBob of course. Much hotter than DaftOi.)

18 comments:

Poppadumdum said...

I thought your comments re the Pereira episode were fair, well-considered and good. daftooi is perhaps using the "colonialism" in a knee-jerk reaction. You have our support, oh you mad and incendiary premier of Israel you!

bibliobibuli said...

lol. now my secret is out.

Poppadumdum said...

Re Bangkok Fiction - it is a superb genre when done well. Very Eastern-noir atmosphere to it. Two of the best titles - in my humble view - are by John Burdett: Bangkok 8 and it's sequel Bangkok Tattoo. FANTASTIC! Almost literary level writing. And kooky characters one cannot help but like and even love. Avoid Jake Needham and the other randy expats...

Poppadumdum said...

No wonder we haven't heard much of Ariel Sharon (god he's also named after the Little Mermaid???? :-)))

Anonymous said...

used as a personification of the Israeli premier and Malaysia's British colonizer at one go - you must be flattered!

"foreigner who knows Malaysia"... geesh... must we continue arguing on who has the right to be patriotic? our own government doesn't listen to us, now we fight among ourselves on who deserves to get heard?

those were cheapshots.

Ted Mahsun said...

Bah! You know very well that Silverfish doesn't give out pretty printed rejection letters... :D

eyeris said...

DaftOi for President!

Anonymous said...

It's Patrick the Starfish, not Dave. Now I know what to get you for Christmas.

Anonymous said...

Symp, you're a chuckle-a-minute!
Bib, your spongey-bobby pic is too sexy - must get those square pants for my partner.

People who can't come up with intelligent, interesting, succinct, funny or relevant points or rebuts (re-butts!) will often resort to pointing out colour of skin, ancestry, original nationality, beliefs, DNA, feet size, etc.

Long live human beans!

Argie-lu

Anonymous said...

Daftoi seems angry about a lot of things and a lot of people, and his arguments seems to be based more on who made the arguments rather than the arguments themselves. I thought it was good of you to still manage a "LoL" at the end of your comment because I would have been hopping mad. Eliza.

bibliobibuli said...

i was more surprised than angry, eliza. after all, i realised after the statement on rocky's blog got picked up by jeff ooi that i'd been daft to sound off - even if i felt i was right in what i said. and in a sense i felt used as my quote got passed on 9although the passings on were perfectly legitimate in blogland) - as if i were the ultimate judge and jury. it was just an opinion. and my opinion carries no more weight than anyone else's for being delivered by a mat salleh. (some people got hang-ups so bad, huh?) unlike other bloggers i had no political axe to grind - i only saw a moral and linguistic issue at stake.

what annoyed me about daftoi's post was not that he picked up on this issue but that he became unpleasantly personal. but that also weakened the argument he was trying to build - folks only resort to name calling when they've run out of arguments.

Amir Hafizi said...

Man, Bangkok literature...owhhhh.

Ehem.

Anyway, your comments on the plagiarism matter were fair, Sharon.

If Mr Pereira had any real rebuttal, he would have said them long before. He didn't. So be it.

As far as you being white, well to me it is similar to the question of fake tits and real tits.

People get so worked up sometimes whether a pair of breasts are real or not.

I say that the most important question is: Do they work?

Be damned if it's adipose tissue, silicon or saline solution.

Cheers.

bibliobibuli said...

your analogy is ... erm ... unusual amir but i quite take the point (points haha) and thank you for your support

Artemis Hunt said...

Bib, the guy who runs the website on Bangkok fiction is planning to add a Malaysian fiction page to his website. Look out for it in Jan!

Anonymous said...

Amir, you lost me at tits.
Was your analogy about unemployment, melanin or ...?
I've heard of the English blue tit though.

Argie-lu

Spot said...

"To each his own."

Words to live by, else our lives would disintegrate into juvenile display of sand-kicking and name-calling.

People like him are really pathetic...it's like they're thinking it's so cool to be all grumpy, snide and caustic for no particularly relevant basis.

And that's why shows like House, Becker,etc are so popular. Belligerence appears to be the new emo.

Am glad that your readers didn't posse on over there and launch a my-gang-is-better-than-yours sandpit scuffle.

Anonymous said...

I did actually, but no point anyway, it's not like it's updated regularly. I'm grumpy, nide and caustic because I am. It's amazing to see how many people just repeat other people, I mean why don't they see what is NOT there instead of what IS ? it's more fun that way. It's a guy thing I guess.

PS. Blog domain should be propagated in a few days. And then I can have a blog (but only after I code it :) )

bibliobibuli said...

spot - no lah. my readers are maturer than that. and the last thing i want is a blog war, having experienced something akin to that when i first began.

i like "house" but only because the guy is as grouchy as my other half. we laugh at it together and he asks me "i'm not that bad am i?" and i say "oh yes dear, you are. every bit as bad."

anon - good i'm looking forward to that