SWF Book Launch: Discussion on Big Mole and Spider Boys

Thu, 22 Oct 2015
1 min read
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I’ll be speaking at this discussion in less than a fortnight!

SWF Book Launch: Discussion on Big Mole and Spider Boys
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2015
Time: 7pm to 8pm
Venue: The Arts House

After making waves in the global literary scene for introducing Singaporean literature to an international audience, the highly anticipated sequel to Ming Cher’s Spider Boys, Big Mole, has finally hit the bookshelves. Initially published in 1995 by Penguin New Zealand, Spider Boys was lauded for its use of vernacular language – and once again, this effective use of local colloquialisms has continued with Big Mole.

From Singlish to local slang words, we speak a language that is unmistakably and uniquely Singaporean. And if this everyday language is what sets the tone and scene for a homegrown story, how does it then affect our understanding of a Singaporean novel?

In this discussion, literary critic and writer Gwee Li Sui, NIE Assistant Professor Angus Whitehead and SOTA’s Subject Head of English Literature Laremy Lee will be sharing their opinions on Ming Cher’s use of language in his work, and in particular, how this feeds into his contribution to local literature.

See you there!

Dreams

Sun, 12 Jul 2015
2 min read
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Nani has begun dreaming again.Since she began recounting her life, she’s been having dreams of her youth.She dreams…

Posted by Laremy Lee on Saturday, 11 July 2015

 
Nani has begun dreaming again.

Since she began recounting her life, she’s been having dreams of her youth.

She dreams about 1930s Sindh, in what was still India, and not yet Pakistan.

In them, she recalls the freedom of childhood and being a child: how she and her friends ran races, played games like dog and bone, how they roamed the streets of Hyderabad – courageously, in all their urchin-like temerity.

She remembers fearlessness: her father never scolded her so she was very brave; her mother would back down whenever Nani stood up to her – which was often.

There were neither borders nor obligations; no boundaries to be afraid of crossing.

Most of all, she remembers the freedom.

Were you happy, Nani, we ask.

“Khush,” she says, spreading her gnarled fingers in an expanse of expression. Happy.

“Ma free has; ma sochandas ma free aayah.”

“I was free,” she said. “I would think then, ‘I am free.'”