Literary Magazine (Feb)

English Society

Writer of the Month Gabriel García Má rquez

Gabriel García Márquez is considered as one of the leading Latino writers as he received the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature and many other awards. He is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America.

Gabriel García Márquez was born in Aracataca, Colombia on 6th March 1928. He was raised by his grandparents and he did not come to know his parents until the age of 8. Interestingly, According to García Márquez, this is a common practice in the Caribbean. He published his first story when he was in college and became a journalist after college. Later, he abandoned his law studies and decided to embark on a career as a writer. Although he started as a journalist, he has written many famous non-fiction works and short stories, yet he is best known for his novels like One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. He is considered the master of magical realism – a storytelling strategy in which the language and style of realism are interwoven with elements of fable, fantasy and magic. Some of his works are set in a fictional village and the theme of solitude is predominant amongst his works.

Reference: http://www.themodernword.com/gabo/gabo_biography.html

Quote Sharing

4C Cheryl Chan

Dreams –we all have them. The difference between different people is whether they choose to give up on them easily, or pursue them continuously. Most of the time, it is definitely easier to give up. People often think that their dreams are merely fantasies which will never come true. Many people haven’t got enough perseverance and patience, or perhaps they have failed too many times.

But why should we never stop pursuing our dreams? Having dreams fills us with hope. Moreover, it motivates us to go forward. It gives us purpose and meaning in life. It allows us to live our lives to the fullest.

We can pursue our dreams at any stage in life –even after we have grown old. Colonel Sanders was 65 years old when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken. The oldest Olympic champion, Oscar Swahn, won his first and second gold medal when he was 60 years old in 1908. Even then, he hadn’t finished, and won the silver medal when he was 72 years old. Therefore, it is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old. In fact, dreams keep us young. When reality disheartens us, our dreams enliven us again. If we keep our dreams in our minds and pursue them, we will become strong and fulfilled individuals.

Our dreams do not have to be big. They do not have to cause great changes to the world. They do not even have to come true. The most important thing is that we keep our dreams alive

Book Review Where would any of us be without romantic infrastructure, without a degree of adolescent and hope? Pretty far out on life's limb, to say the least. Suppose, then, it were possible, not only to swear love "forever," but to actually follow through on it -- to live a long and fulfilling life based on such a vow, to put one's allotted stake of precious time where one's heart is? This is the extraordinary premise of Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera, one on which he delivers.

This novel is revolutionary in daring to suggest that vows of love made under the presumption of immortality -- youthful idiocy, to some -- may yet be honored, much later in life when we know better of love.

Through the ever-subversive medium of fiction, García Márquez shows us how it could all plausibly come about, even – outside the covers of a book, even if it is inevitably beaten at, bought or resold.

Here's what happens. The story takes place between about 1880 and 1930, in a Caribbean seaport city. Three major characters form a love triangle whose hypotenuse is Florentino Ariza. As a young apprentice telegrapher he meets and falls hopelessly in love with Fermina Daza. Though they exchange hardly a hundred words face to face, they carry on a passionate and secret affair entirely by way of letters and telegrams, even after the girl's father finds out and takes her away on an extended "journey of forgetting." But when she returns, Fermina rejects the lovesick young man she left behind, and eventually meets and marries instead Dr. Juvenal Urbino who, like any hero of a 19th-century novel, is well-bred, a sharp dresser, somewhat stuck on himself but a terrific catch nonetheless.

For Florentino, this is an agonizing setback, though nothing fatal. Having sworn to love Fermina Daza forever, he settles in to wait for as long as he has to until she's free again. This turns out to be 51 years, 9 months and 4 days later, when suddenly, on a Sunday around 1930, Dr. Juvenal Urbino dies, chasing a parrot upon mango tree. After the funeral, when everyone else has left, Florentino steps forward with his hat over his heart "Fermina," he declares, "I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love." Shocked and furious, Fermina orders him out of the house. "And don't show your face again for the years of life that are left to you . . . I hope there are very few of them." The last chapter takes up again with Florentine, in the face of what many men would consider major rejection, resolutely setting about courting Fermina Daza all over again, doing what he must to win her love.

In their city, throughout a turbulent half-century, death is prolific, both as el c贸lera, the fatal disease that sweeps through in terrible intermittent epidemics, and as la c贸lera, defined as choler or anger, which taken to its extreme becomes warfare. Victims of one, in this book, are more than once mistaken for victims of the other. Dr. Urbino, like his father before him, becomes a leader in the battle against the cholera, promoting public health measures obsessively and heroically. Fermina, more conventionally but with as much courage, soldiers on in her chosen role of wife, mother and household manager, maintaining a safe perimeter for her family.

But the predominant claim on the author's attention and energies comes from what is not so contrary to fact, a human consensus about "reality" in which love and the possibility of love's extinction are the indispensable driving forces, and varieties of magic have become, if not quite peripheral, then at least more thoughtfully deployed in the service of an expanded vision, more matured, darker than before but no less clement.

There is nothing I have read quite like this astonishing final chapter, in its dynamics and tempo, moving like a riverboat too, its author and pilot, with a lifetime's experience steering us unerringly among hazards of skepticism and mercy, on this river we all know, without whose navigation there is no love and against whose flow the effort to return is never worth a less honorable name than remembrance -- at the very best it results in works that can even return our worn souls to us, among which most certainly belongs Love in the Time of Cholera, this shining and heartbreaking novel.

Other Famous Works

Reference:http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cholera.html

Poetry Appreciation

5E Abeeto Ip

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass A narrow fellow in the grass Occasionally rides; You may have met him, - did you not?

His notice sudden is.

The grass divides as with a comb, A spotted shaft is seen; And then it closes at your feet And opens further on.

5

He likes a boggy acre, A floor too cool for corn.

Yet when a child, and barefoot, I more than once, at morn,

10

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash Unbraiding in the sun, When, stooping to secure it, It wrinkled, and was gone.

15

Several of nature's people I know, and they know me; I feel for them a transport Of cordiality;

20

Emily Dickinson

In this poem, Dickinson recalls an encounter with a snake and she vividly describes her own tense and fearful emotions as the snake approaches. Although it is a thrilling experience, she avoids embedding the conventional idea that the snake is evil and she does not use the word “snake” throughout the poem. Instead, she treats the snake as a fellow at first, and after detailed description, she is still unable to overcome the fears. From the depiction of her experience and use of various techniques, she reveals some basic specialties of nature and shows how we should live in harmony with it.

Firstly, Dickinson creates an atmosphere with anxiety, but also, anticipation. At the beginning, she calls the snake “a narrow fellow in the grass” (line 1) and the use of the word “fellow” is rather colloquial, giving us a feeling that she is anticipating to encounter her “fellow”. Consonance is also used where the “s” sound is constantly repeated, “his notice sudden is” (line 4). Moreover, the movement of the snake between the grasses is also carefully described, using “comb” as a simile for the snake. It actually hints that the snake itself is almost invisible as it slithers on the ground, yet the movement of the grass discloses its location. All these pose a threat on the narrator as she reveals her vulnerability towards the snakes as she is “barefoot”. When it gets close enough, she is brave enough to get rid of the fears and attempts “to secure it” (line 15). Ironically, it is the snake that is afraid and gone.

Therefore, the mood of the poem is complex as it changes from stage to stage, mainly involving the narrator’s anticipation of meeting the snake and also the anxiety towards the snake itself. Throughout the narration, it is obvious that Dickinson holds complex feelings towards the snake. Somehow, she is intrigued by the conventional idea that snakes are evil, yet she does not totally trust this rumour and wants to justify it. Her conclusion comes at the last stanza of the poem, “never meet this fellow… without a tighter breathing” as she is overwhelmed by the fear the snake brings at last.

Furthermore, Dickinson also makes use of other literary devices apart from personification and simile to vividly describe the snake. She uses the word “rides” to compare the snake’s movement to horse riders, as horse was a choice of mobility at her times. This metaphor shows how swift the snake’s action is, just like a rider in the grass. This is in line with another metaphor in stanza 4, “I thought, a whip-lash” (line 13), the movement of the snake is again, compared to a whip, revealing how quickly it moves. Not only do these metaphors paint a vivid picture, they also reflect great threats from the snake to the narrator due to their quick movement. The snake is elusive, but not to the narrator. The contrasting abilities create tension and suspense, revealing how dangerous nature can be at times.

Moreover, Dickinson employs personification to give human qualities to the snake, for example, “occasionally riding” (line 2). The use of the pronoun “him” (line 3) and “he” (line 4) are also examples showing that she treats the snake as a person. Giving life to the snake reinforces with the phrase “nature’s people” (line 17). What Dickinson is trying to convey by this is that both human and animals are all “nature’s people”, without much difference, where lives “of cordiality” is essential to both. Yet, it is never possible for the narrator to fully understand the snake, unless she is also a snake. The fluid motion of the snakes often gives us an illusion that they have no bones though they possess a skeleton. Well, she can never slither on the grass, unless she is “zero at the bone”. Her effort is thwarted by this limitation and thus she prefers not to meet this fellow again. From the above relations between human and animals, both are connected by nature, yet one can hardly understand another. The message presented here is that humans should have respect for nature and all living creatures.

Lastly, Dickinson uses simple diction throughout the poem, as it is written from the point of view of a child. Hence, the poem is a reflection of her fascination with nature as a child.

She also used double entendre in the last line of the poem “zero at the bone”. Apart from the interpretation made previously, in which the phrase is making reference towards the snake, it can be also interpreted as the feelings of the narrator. It also means the chill in the bone after confronting with the snake. Both interpretations of the last line are in line with her refusal for another encounter with the snake, either due to the fact that the inability to understand the snake or her overwhelming fears. Since the word “snake” is not used throughout the poem, the first and last lines actually reinforce the identity of the snake, with “narrow” describing the exterior appearance and “zero at the bone” showing its physical movement, cross-checking each characteristics to give the image of the snake. Dickinson arranges the sequence in this way as she wants to avoid the negative connotation of the word “snake”, thus it is implied in the lines. This reflects how she avoids labels given by the society or people and sees things as they are. With pure description, she promotes the idea of sensing nature without and preconceptions. Although the results may be the same, the process is more significant. After all, nature inspires both awe and fear, implying that there is no way to have only awe but without fear or vice versa.

To conclude, Dickinson’s A Narrow Fellow in the Grass showcases characteristics of nature and how humans should cope with it through her own encounter with a snake. With the use of literary devices, changing atmosphere and mood, and language features, it explains why she is overwhelmed by fear at last, yet reiterating the idea that we must experience something before drawing a conclusion.

Interview with Alan Gibbons

5F Hampton Tao

We hope you recognise Alan Gibbons, who was the writer of the month of the previous issue. It is certainly our privilege to have an interview with him. Scroll down and read his sharing below!

What were your favourite books when you were young? What are your favourites now?

There was a number. Treasure Island stands out - absolute classic about boys on adventure. I used to read this colonial British writer called Sir H Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines. There is also a series from America called Bobbsey Twins - It was a little bit like the Famous Five (by Enid Blyton), but set in America with a sets of Twins. Emil and the Detectives, by the German writer Erich Kastner. And of course, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe stands out. Yes, that was the stuff I read when I was young, mostly English I write young adult fiction so I'll mention some from this genre: Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, anything by Marcus Sedgwick, Bali Rai, and Philip Pullman, Looking for JJ by Ann Cassidy....I got a lot of favourite writers. When it comes to adult fiction, the classic writers I read are John Steinback, George Orwell, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. As for living contemporary writers, Stephen King - I like crime fiction, so George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane. So that's some of my favourites, obviously there are millions of there.

Did you want to a writer all along, or was it a gradual decision?

I loved reading as a kid - I read comics, Marvel comics was a big influence, as well as lots and lots of novels, and then probably when I was about 18, when I was student, it was the first time I had the inklings that I wanted to write. I was writing poetry and song lyrics, just bits and pieces. I never plucked up the courage to send them off to anybody. Once I started teaching in my thirties, I started to make little stories for the kids, and that was it. I loved the look on their faces so I told myself I'm going to write a few of these down. And yes, it took a while for me to pluck up my courage to send them off, and I was doing teacher training, so my tutor said, 'That stuff you're writing, it's quite good.

Send it off!' Within five or six months, I got a publisher!

What’s it like being an author?

Most of the time it's solitary! You sit with your computer, and you make up words. Otherwise, I do a lot of travelling. I do 180 school visits a year, and I talk to students - that's where I get the performance element. The two things that are wonderful for author would obviously be shortlisted for any book awards, especially if they're on TV or radio, and travelling. I get invited a lot - I've been to China 4 or 5 times, been to Africa 4 or 5 times, Brazil, and I got invited to speak in educational institutions all over the world. These are the bits that break the isolation of the writer. Most of the time, it's just you and your computer. Occasionally there are these big events when you feel like a big cheese (chuckles), the applause, the recognition you get. So yes, I thoroughly enjoy all aspects of it.

It's hard work, really, but it's very rewarding.

What writing tools do you use? / Do you swear by pen and paper, the computer, or a combination of both?

I never use a pen. The only time I use a pen is maybe if I'm sitting somewhere and I hear something I can use, I'll scribble a few notes, but everything is done on my Mac. Can you describe your ideal writing environment?

It's anywhere, to be honest. Some people need a study, a quiet environment, with their kettle, and a few sweeties, and just write. I have three of my grown up kids still living at home, so there's not much room for me to have a study, even though I've got a reasonably big house. Most of the quiet places I write in are hotel rooms, when I'm visiting schools, because, say in Hong Kong - I have a meal in the evening, and then from 7 to 9 o'clock I'll write. So the ideal environment for me is a hotel room, because there's no distractions.

What gets your creative juices flowing?

Music. I love reading, but actually, for me, writing is cerebral in that it's thinking but it's also emotional. The thing that gets my emotions running is, obviously, real life, the people you love, the friends you have, but actually, music. Very often when I'm writing, I have the earphones in, looping music off YouTube. I'll listen to a lot of classical music, operas - the big arias, like Nimrod by Elgar, pieces by Gustave Holst and soul music, like Fourtops, Aretha Franklin.

What do you think the purpose of fiction is?

One of them is entertainment. Pure entertainment is fine, but I'd want to do something else - I probe the human experience. So when someone reads my books, they're reading the real problems of human life generally. I do write horror, and I do write fantasy, but the heart of my writings lies in war, bullying, racism, intergenerational conflict, generally the problems of life. So what I hope my reader would get out of my books is first of all they'll get a good story that makes them laugh or smile, but they'll also think: why is there so much conflict in this world, what can we do about it. We might not get solutions; all we can do is ask the right questions. It's up to the other people to come up with the solutions - the politicians, the policymakers - but if we can ask the questions accurately, we can just maybe open up people's minds.

What do you see your mission or aim as a writer?

It's dead simple. It is to write the most involving and engaging story I can. Even though I got my own ideas of how I would love to change the world, very few books change the world. Only a handful of books changed the world - 1984 was an example. But actually I don't want to change the world. All I want to do is be of interest and entertainment to a few people. That's a good enough mission in life, just to be on somebody's shelf somewhere.

Do you have any passions apart from writing?

Yes, definitely. Sports - I'm a Manchester United fan, so I love football; music, absolutely fantastic; movies; walking around, in the hills perhaps. I love walking in new places. In Hong Kong, I must have walked 50 miles this week, walking around the city. I prefer walking than to transportation, because

you get to experience the sights, the sounds, the smells, the whole deal. I've walked in some fairly dangerous places like bits of Brazil, where there's very high rate of gun crime, bits of the Middle East, Sudan, where I've walked quite frequently. Well people look at me when I walk around, because I'm the only white guy around, but I love that, though I don't the point of going to places like Baghdad.

There are places which are slightly less stable than Britain, but are interesting, and so it's all those places that get me excited.

Who is your favourite literary villain?

This is an obscure one - I would probably say Cathy Ames, in John Steinbeck's 'East of Eden'. She's basically a sociopath - she doesn't have any warm feelings towards other human beings, including her own family. She burns her parents to death in a house fire, and she means it! She's probably my favourite villain in all novels, not Dracula, not any of the famous villains you normally expect.

Another would be Bill Sykes, from Oliver Twist - incredibly brutal man. But still, Cathy Ames beats him because very rarely do we get a convincing female villain in fiction. She is perfect in that regard.

What do you like most about HK?

What do you dislike the most?

I think it's the eagerness to learn, to succeed in Hong Kong people. In England, we are bedeviled with people who simply don't have the hunger inside them, the willingness to drift through life that the majority lack. In Hong Kong, it's a very focused society - the kids I meet are so keen to learn, so keen to succeed. I like that. I suppose it can get a bit cutthroat, given the prevalence of business and commerce here, but that enthusiasm is terrific. I live in a 2 story house with quite a lot of space, but here, people live in places like rabbit holes, so that's another thing about Hong Kong. It's that vibrancy and urgency of Hong Kong that I like - it's simply brimming with life. Some time it's too much life!

The pollution is the worst thing here. The haze, the traffic, though it's not as bad as Beijing. If I were to live here, I would probably move out to the New Territories!

Another good thing about Hong Kong is the abundance of public toilets. In England, it's really hard to find places for that kind of business, but here, the public services seem to be better than the UK - the streets are swept better, the public services seem to work better. The UK is creaking a bit, I reckon.

Any advice for budding writers?

The key is to read a lot, as well as write a lot. When you read, analyse what you're reading. When you write, try out the favourite tricks of your authors. At first, you'll write like your favourite authors, but slowly, your own style will develop out of that. So the chrysalis out of which you will turn into a butterfly is reading good writers. Your imagination will gestate within the chrysalis. That's what people do - they put a lot of work in, and I've worked, for whatever success I've had, for twenty three years to develop my style. I'm still learning - you never stop learning, and that's the key to that. You never get complacent, because it's so easy to just say, oh, I'll do it online. You got to push yourself all the time, and that's not easy, because you like to live in your comfort zone.

Short Story

In the Wink of an Eye

By Mark J. Howard Chapter 4 One of the technicians tapped Eileen on the shoulder and pointed to a computer terminal at her elbow that he'd managed to get up and running. As Eileen studied the data scrolling down the screen, the technician gave Palmer a self-conscious smile. She smiled back and gave him the thumbs-up sign. She thought his name might be Karl, and was ashamed to realise that she wasn’t sure. When had that happened? When had she stopped caring about the people who worked for her?

Karl, if that was his name, returned the gesture in an all too falsely optimistic way, but couldn’t find it within himself to meet her gaze. That’s when it began to really sink in. They all knew she was dead and, now that the panic was finally over, they were beginning to realise it. The fact that they knew somehow made it real, as if she could will her way out of it if only she alone knew how hopeless her situation was.

“It’s incredible,” Eileen said, still looking at the screen. “There was a power imbalance through the number two feed node, the other nodes tried to compensate but they weren’t able to adapt quickly enough. It looks like the core began to resonate until it shattered, causing a symmetrical temporal explosion. The resulting stress on the localised space-time continuum would've been massive.”

Palmer coughed painfully, spitting up phlegm and dark blood. What had started as a dull headache was climbing to full migraine status and she was feeling weaker by the minute. “Hold on, back up," she said, pulling her coughing back under some measure of control. "Symmetrical temporal explosion? Are you saying the explosion went backwards in time as well as forwards? Is that even possible?”

Reference:http://youwriteon.com/books/samplechapters.aspx?bookguid=decd1e6c-cbc2-4044-b5b9-209e9f07ab 72

Monthly Phrases Denouement (day-noo-mon): literally meaning the action of untying, a denouement is the final outcome of the main complication in a play or story.

Usually the climax (the turning point or "crisis") of the work has already occurred by the time the denouement occurs. It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that reveals all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot.

Examples: In the drama Othello, there is a plot to deceive Othello into believing that his wife, Desdemona, has been unfaithful to him. As a result, Othello kills his wife out of jealousy, the climax of the play. The denouement occurs soon after, when Emilia, who was Desdemona's mistress, proves to Othello that his wife was in fact honest, true, and faithful to him. Emilia reveals to Othello that her husband, Iago, had plotted against Desdemona and tricked Othello into believing that she had been unfaithful. Iago kills Emilia in front of Othello, and she dies telling Othello his wife was innocent. As a result of being mad with grief, Othello plunges a dagger into his own heart.

Understanding the denouement helps the reader to see how the final end of a story unfolds, and how the structure of stories works to affect our emotions.

Didactic (di-DAK-tik): refers to literature or other types of art that are instructional or informative.

Example: The Bible is didactic because it offers guidance in moral, religious, and ethical matters. It tells stories of the lives of people that followed Christian teachings, and stories of people that decided to go against God and the consequences that they faced. The term "didactic" also refers to texts that are overburdened with instructive and factual information, sometimes to the detriment of a reader's enjoyment. The opposite of "didactic" is "nondidactic." If a writer is more concerned with artistic qualities and techniques than with conveying a message, then that piece of work is considered to be nondidactic, even if it is instructive.