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Aug. 14th, 2009 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsWhen ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
genarti was here a few weeks ago, we spent some time taking over each other's library recommendation lists; one of the things that she put on mine was Pascal Khoo Thwe's autobiography, From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey.
Pascal Khoo Thwe is a member of the minority Padaung people in Burma who joined the 1988 student protests against the military regime. The book covers his childhood in a relatively isolated village, his time in the revolutionary movement and as a member of the Karen rebels fighting against the Burmese army in the zone between Burma and Thailand, and his escape to England to study English at Cambridge in 1989. It's pretty gorgeously written, with a kind of lyrical matter-of-factness that is both refreshing (when he's talking about his own people and their culture) and chilling and heartbreaking (once he starts to write about the regime and the horrors of 1988.) I would definitely recommend it as a read.
That being said . . . man, there are days that I really miss my access to academic journals (yes, I am a hopeless dork, I know!) and this is one of them, because it means that I can't read this article and I DESPERATELY want to. The article looks like it is talking about something I have noticed in the reviews and marketing of the book as well - the "jungle tribesman comes to Cambridge and WRITES! Incredible! Unbelievable! Whowouldathunk!" thing. I don't think I have read a single review that did not mention the "giraffe women" of the Padaung people - and by mentioning that I have just added this review to the number - pretty much to play up the exoticism and contrast of Thwe's background, as far as I can tell. The introduction (by John Casey, who essentially single-handedly arranged for Thwe to get out of Burma and whom Thwe defends several times in the book) also is not free of this. So - that's something to pay attention to.
(Gen? You don't have academic clearance to go read the article, by any chance . . . :D?)
genarti was here a few weeks ago, we spent some time taking over each other's library recommendation lists; one of the things that she put on mine was Pascal Khoo Thwe's autobiography, From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey. Pascal Khoo Thwe is a member of the minority Padaung people in Burma who joined the 1988 student protests against the military regime. The book covers his childhood in a relatively isolated village, his time in the revolutionary movement and as a member of the Karen rebels fighting against the Burmese army in the zone between Burma and Thailand, and his escape to England to study English at Cambridge in 1989. It's pretty gorgeously written, with a kind of lyrical matter-of-factness that is both refreshing (when he's talking about his own people and their culture) and chilling and heartbreaking (once he starts to write about the regime and the horrors of 1988.) I would definitely recommend it as a read.
That being said . . . man, there are days that I really miss my access to academic journals (yes, I am a hopeless dork, I know!) and this is one of them, because it means that I can't read this article and I DESPERATELY want to. The article looks like it is talking about something I have noticed in the reviews and marketing of the book as well - the "jungle tribesman comes to Cambridge and WRITES! Incredible! Unbelievable! Whowouldathunk!" thing. I don't think I have read a single review that did not mention the "giraffe women" of the Padaung people - and by mentioning that I have just added this review to the number - pretty much to play up the exoticism and contrast of Thwe's background, as far as I can tell. The introduction (by John Casey, who essentially single-handedly arranged for Thwe to get out of Burma and whom Thwe defends several times in the book) also is not free of this. So - that's something to pay attention to.
(Gen? You don't have academic clearance to go read the article, by any chance . . . :D?)
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 03:52 pm (UTC)Tell me when you have read! There's things in there I want to talk about but feel so unqualified to discuss in a general review . . .
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Date: 2009-08-14 03:58 pm (UTC)Maybe it is time to read Orientalism? It might give you some names for things that would be helpful.
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Date: 2009-08-14 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:06 pm (UTC)I'm reading The White Castle! WHEN WILL THEY HAVE SEX
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Date: 2009-08-14 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:11 pm (UTC)BUT WAIT TILL YOU GET TO THE PLAGUE so much manhandling :O :O :O
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:13 pm (UTC)EEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEE
(
Hahaha, I am making it sound cute and it is really so fucked up D:)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:18 pm (UTC)(UM WELL YES. But it is okay, I fully remember I am talking to 1/2 the originator of the Thomasine Mystique. Standards of cute are different!)
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Date: 2009-08-14 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 08:45 pm (UTC)POSSIBLY . . . THE WORST TOUCH
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Date: 2009-08-15 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 03:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:02 pm (UTC)Ugh, to the reviews. I haven't read any -- this book is one I picked off the library stacks pretty much at random, just because it caught my eye -- but I did catch those moments in John Casey's introduction. Anyway, I will definitely be reading this article too.
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Date: 2009-08-14 04:06 pm (UTC)Yeah, I have this addiction to going and reading all the reviews on Amazon and elsewhere once I finish a book to try to help me clarify my thoughts. Sometimes this works out well! Sometimes it makes me sad. Today is apparently Bitch About Reviews booklogging week. *sheepish*
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:43 pm (UTC)Also, now I really want to go home and sit around reading memoirs and watching documentaries* and stuff instead of staying at work. Alas! (Speaking of, I finished Rebuilt! It is fascinating and I very much rec it to you.)
*This is my new genius plan for combining researchiness and sewing projects! So far I have only come up with the plan, not actually acquired any, but still. *reminded, sidles towards library website*
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Date: 2009-08-14 06:15 pm (UTC)*pats* A few more hours and you are freeeee to go be productive! With, you know, the fun kind of productivity. (Oooh, excellent! You will have to remind me when I am in front of my library rec list. :D)
Aha! A CUNNING PLAN, in truth.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-15 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-15 05:13 am (UTC)