Life in a Non-Literary World

Let me just update you guys on how i view life in the army, at least on the literary side. Having finished A levels last year (in other words, exposed to all possible kinds of heavy readings in GP and such), and the long break of no-studies for a good 5 months, the supreme lack of any literary devices in the far secluded end of the military life is simply intoxicating for a person like me. I just recently realised the impact this has on my writing, for i can no longer write as fluently as before!

Upon the move to this new blog, i actually have difficulty expressing myself, needless to say the numerous grammatical errors i made in the wide web. Any creative juices seemed to have dried up, desperately in need of an oasis for a kindling of intellectual hope. In terms of speech too, i feel as though i'm not making sense half the time! Those who had met me in the recent months must have also noticed that i cant seem to express myself as well as before, 'talking in a funny way', pulling off a weird accent and yes, full of vulgarities as interjections.

I guess for a full Arts student like me who's A levels totally comprised of 3 hr essays (English Literature, Malay Literature, History, GP), the side of my brains that determines my intellectual persona needs a constant exposure to literary works. Being at a place where eveyone speaks in the way they are most comfortable in (not that i'm complaining), it creates this void which truly separates the self from intellectuality, and the only access we possess must be of our own initiative. I mean for crying out loud, most of the time we don't really even need to crack our brains in the army, soldiers follow orders. Such dangers they pose to future undergraduates, I must save myself from this literary void if i am to survive NTU English and Communication Studies!

So i've taken steps to ensure i'm constantly in touch with the Romanized text of Humankind. As the self-appointed Newspaper IC of my platoon, the burden falls upon my shoulders to collect the Straits Times daily (each platoon of around 50 men is provided with 1 pathetic newspaper). Given that there are 6 bunks in my platoon, i simply could not think of a way to ensure everyone gets to read it. Call me irresponsible, but i guess my bunkmates benefit in my scheme to putting that newspaper in my bunk only. The rest can go there and read. They however can take back past newpapers, after my bunk has read it. :)

And yes i subscribed to TIME magazine! Can you believe that. They have this offer for NS people and it was a rather attractive one, paying around 50 cents for each copy but with a 1 year subscription. Well obviously the picture does not depict me, but i'd imagine myself looking like that, reading TIME in Full Battle Order, with weapon ready to be fired at Iraqi insurgents. Yes..

Oh and while waiting for the first issue to be sent to me, i've made it a habit, like many others to also bring along magazines to camp, especially FIRST magazine, an ardent buyer like me. I must get in touch with the latest movie and DVD reviews! The picture shows some of the magazines. And strangely but true, i continually bring the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers book to camp, even though i'm still stuck at the part where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli is seraching for the Haflings. Though i do possess the entire LOTR trilogy, i had only finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring, and that was like, in sec 3?

Given that a particular someone has deprived me of my birth rights to borrow books from the library, i am unable to do so for the longest of time (since before A levels! damn) . And you expect me to have coffee with you?? Well magazines and newspapers can only do much to keep one literarily company, books will ultimately do the trick. I developed a new interest in non-ficiton, documentary-like books on real issues - gonna purchase me some Fiasco: The American Adventure in Iraq, a good book about the Iraq War, and why is was such a miscarriage. Though i still wanna get my hands on the novelisation of the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith book and erm, the Penguin English translation of the Koran.

And yeah at home me reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows y'all! Me and my siblings shared money to buy it thus the ownership falls on all of us, thus i obviously can't bring it to camp. Not that i want to of course. A platoon-mate of mine did, and he was harrassed with spoilers everywhere he goes. Don't bother to spoil it for me, to me a book is not about what happened, but how it happened - that's why i happily read the Life! section of the Straits Times that happily more or less congested the book into an article, which happily announced Harry as "The Boy Who Lived", but still had the cheek to say, 'WARNING: Spoilers ahead'.