Creative Writing
I think it’s funny how whenever Singaporeans are encourage to think outside the box and go controversial, they immediately turn to either a) Homosexuality or b) Some juicy sex secret. Which kind of defeats the whole purpose of thinking outside the box or going controversial.
My sister and I bumped into this hilarious looking book in Borders the other day:
I know I’m not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover… But alamak, LOOK at that cover! LOOK at it’s title too. It can’t possibly scream ‘cliche’ more. When I saw the title, I spat, “What the hell?!”
So, of course, seeing a hilarious looking book, I proceeded read the back cover, which served to emphasize its hilarious-ness even more:
A mother finds out her son is gay; a daughter finds out her two mothers are lesbians; a niece stumbles upon the body of her dead uncle dressed in his wife’s sarong kebaya; and an old man’s nascent feelings for a Filipino maid lead him back to his suppressed art.
First of all, “a daughter finds out her two mothers are lesbians”. Well girl, what did you think?! Your mother’s just living with her best friend? Your second mother is your aunt? Throughout the entire course of your life you never once suspected that your “two mothers” could possibly be lesbians? Maybe it’s your own fault then, your mothers probably expected that you knew already.
The rest of it is pretty self-explanatory in terms of its stupidity. It’s as if she tried to stuff as many juicy things as possible into a story. Kind of like a “controversial” soap opera.
Let me try making up a similar plot:
“A husband, after discovering that his wife is a transvestite, falls into depression and a whirl of confusion, and reverts back to his old homosexual tendencies by having an affair with his old lover, who works at a male brothel. A pedophile, after discovering that the last victim he raped was his own long-lost daughter, is washed over with horror and grief, hence leading him to make a human bomb out of himself and bombs up the whole of Ah Tock Street. A hawker, in a desperate attempt to salvage his business in order to pay back a vicious and menacing loan shark who is holding his gay son hostage, sneaks opium into his food to attract more customers…”
I can go on forever. I think my pen name could be something fancy like… “Adelaina Love Tang WanQi” (Can’t come up with a Chinese name so I’m sticking with mine) Then my protagonist’s name could be Wan Si or something, a variation of my Chinese name, which is exactly what this author did. And it must be a Chinese name because only then will the book overflow with local flavour.
I think issues like homosexuality are becoming safe, I mean, I would like to see someone write a book with its plot revolving around a protagonist who is a pedophile, or a necrophiliac.
“The Lies that Build a Marriage” *jaw dropping fabulous book*
2 Responses to “Creative Writing”
eeee fistful of colours, a crappy book too.. Got a lot of “local flavour” or whatever.
Oh I could give you the book if you wanna save some money, it’s just sitting on the shelf and it has my sis’s notes inside 
Oh yah Dendrophilia is a good one, haha
omg so hilarious but true. especially your story line..omg ur so jaded. anyway you know im doing one of suchen christine lim’s texts for lit..fistful of colors i think. or something else.
BUT I WANT TO SEE DENDROPHILIA!!