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Written by Erik
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Tuesday, 09 February 2010 14:19 |
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 We're in Langkawi, the new vacation paradise the Europeans have discovered in the very north of Malaysia, towards the border with Thailand. Yes, the beaches are gorgeous, the water is pleasant, and the temperature is 28 degrees in the shade. But our hotel is pretty terrible, and food is about 25% more expensive and 25% less palatable than in other parts of Malaysia. And there are lots of jelly-fish in the water. Three of us got stung and Saga pretty badly. Rima screamed bloody murder when the creature got to her, and immediately a bunch of handsome, tanned, lifeguards came running up to save her. My girls liked that (and one older English lady immediately went into the water hoping to be rescued in a similar manner).
Half of the people here are Swedes. Very strange. I guess all the millions of Swedes who used to go to Thailand now have moved on to Malaysia. Swedes too do everything in groups. I hate to be mistaken for a Swede on vacation, sitting baking in the sun, going on excursions to assorted "sights" -- but here I have no way out. I don't know the country and I don't speak Malay. I can't uphold any claims to insider status. Very annoying!
Much as we have good reasons to complain about our hotel, at least we aren't in one of those "all-inclusive" resorts, places hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world where all food and services are provided by the hotel itself. All resorts like that are the same around the world, and the whole point is to isolate the tourists from the country they are in (and the other way around). Places like that are offensive -- obstacles to encounters between people and cultures.
Langkawi is not Malaysia. Malaysia is a lot nicer than this, cheaper and better tasting. We're off to Kuala Lumpur tonight and it will be a great relief. I guess paradise really isn't for us.
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current online writing
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Written by Erik
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Thursday, 04 February 2010 11:26 |
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 The Indians in Penang are celebrating Thaipusam, the cult of the goddess Mariamman, popular in particular with oversea Tamils. It'a three day celebration, when devotees carry a shrine through the streets, smash coconuts on the pavement, shave their heads and make a pilgrimage to a temple on a hillside outside of town. We joined the celebrations on the second day, for the pilgrimage.
The most remarkable feature of the day are the feats of asceticism some of the participants engage in. They go into trance and stick big, fat, needles through their cheeks; then they put large metal hooks into the skin of their backs and on the hooks they hang milk bottles which they, amid chanting, music and incense fumes, carry up to the temple. It is just as exotic and gruesome as it sounds, and Rima really really hated it.
We all walked up to the foot of the temple, but only I and Saga continued up the hill. It was remarkable to stand sweating in the sun, shoulder to shoulder, together with these guys with their needles and their hooks. Through their remarkable feats the power of the gods was demonstrated to all participants. Gratefully reinforced in our metaphysical beliefs we all burned some incense and went home.
Some people, when confronted with Indian culture, are overwhelmed and a bit worried; others feel that they finally have come home. For the first time I really understood how Indic culture could have such swift and permanent influence over Southeast Asia in the 14th century.
Saga, btw, seems to belong to the second category. In the course of the day she turned more and more Indian. That some Indian guys are really attractive is certainly part of it, but the culture as a whole attracts her at least as powerfully. She is now mainly dressing in Indian clothes and insists on curries for lunch and dinner. Her new goal in life is to go to theater school in Bombay. A far better plan, in my opinion, than going to Harvard. She'd make a great Bollywood star!
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current online writing
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Written by Erik
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Thursday, 04 February 2010 11:21 |
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We're in Penang! An amazing combination of Malay, Chinese and Indian culture, with the best food in the world and great beaches. I mistakenly believed Malaysia to be a poor country, but just looking at houses, people and cars, it seems at least as economically successful as Taiwan. But everything is much more beautiful. The Malaysians paint their buildings in amazing colors and they look after their gardens and their streets.
I gave a talk at USM, University Sains Malaysia. It went really well. There were some 50 people in the audience, everyone perfectly English speaking, and lots of hard, smart, questions afterwards. Meanwhile Diane and the kids were hanging out in the university's museum, which contained a really exciting exhibit of contemporary art. I never imagined any of this -- Penang has one of East Asia's best universities! I'd love to come back.
Strangely enough, Malaysia reminds us of the best parts of London -- the curries, the multicultural mix. There are about the same combinations of head-scarf clad women and Indian men as on our part of Green Lanes (fewer Cypriots though). Malay women have the greatest smiles. You walk up to a woman to ask something and when she beams back at you, you completely forget what you were trying to say.
We're swimming in the pool and the sea in the mornings; taking it easy in our rooms during the hottest part of the day; and going somewhere exciting in the early afternoon. Truth be told, we spend most of our time eating -- the kids love biryanis, nan bread and dhosa, and Indian sweets of course. We'll be back again next summer. For sure.
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current online writing
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Written by Erik
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Friday, 22 January 2010 12:51 |
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This is unbelievable, but true: my friend Bob is coming to Taipei! On April 2, in just a bit over two months. Athough he has been to Japan numerous times, Dylan has never played in China before, and never in Taiwan. But I guess, given his very hectic schedule, playing 100 concerts per year for the last 30 years, it was bound to happen at some point.
Bob is the only superstar I know who comes to visit his fans rather than the other way around. The weirdest time was when we heard someone play outside our window in our house in North London. "It sounds like a Dylan impersonator," said Diane, but it was the real thing. Bob was playing an outdoor concert in neighboring Finsbury Park.
We had tickets to go to a Dylan concert in New York last summer, but things came up and we couldn't go. This time, damn it, we're going. All the six of us. (Rima, my 6 year old, likes "Everything is Broken").
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primary sources, news
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Written by Erik
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Tuesday, 19 January 2010 08:45 |
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K eiserens nye klæder. I was reading about the British diplomats who showed up in Beijing in 1793. Strangely, they were thoroughly unimpressed with the splendour of the imperial palace. They compared it to a gaudily painted barn, and said it was dirty. "Just like the Emperor's new clothes," I thought to myself, I wonder if H.C. Andersen actually could have had the British diplomats in mind when he wrote the story? After all, their accounts were very widely disseminated across Europe in the first decades of the 19th century. Andersen wrote the story in 1837, and which other "emperor" could he have had in mind?
I thought about this again when I read another H.C. Andersen story, "The Nightingale." This story is explicitly set in China and there are obvious references to the Yuanmingyuan, the imperial pleasure garden north-west of Beijing.
The emperor’s palace was the most beautiful in the world. It was built entirely of porcelain, and very costly, but so delicate and brittle that whoever touched it was obliged to be careful. In the garden could be seen the most singular flowers, with pretty silver bells tied to them, which tinkled so that every one who passed could not help noticing the flowers. Indeed, everything in the emperor’s garden was remarkable, and it extended so far that the gardener himself did not know where it ended. Those who travelled beyond its limits knew that there was a noble forest, with lofty trees, sloping down to the deep blue sea, and the great ships sailed under the shadow of its branches.
H.C. Andersen had clearly read accounts from European travels to the East.
I wrote to Maria Tatar to ask about this. She is a professor of Germanic literature at Harvard and has published the most recent edition of H.C. Andersen's tales. I haven't heard back from her yet. Maybe she thinks I'm a bit crazy. |
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the paperback edition is out! |
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Mechanics of Modernity
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Written by Erik
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Friday, 22 January 2010 04:24 |
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Routledge has finally decided to bring out my book The Mechanics of Modernity in a paperback edition. Yippie! The hardback was just far, far too expensive (180 dollars US). The paperback is expensive too, but at least it's a price -- 45 dollars -- someone but a library conceivably could be imagined to pay.
Btw, Ulrike Schuerkens at Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris has written a review of the book in Anthropos. She says "Ringmars approach is historical, the book is a pleasant and exciting reading for those interested in modernization and development." Apparently she's using the book in her classes. How nice of her! The whole review is here.
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