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menaquinone's review
5.0
Just gonna copypaste a livetweet of my train of thought while reading it
Overall
- Writing is very real - the authenticity and believability of the plots/characters renders the stories an unusually visceral quality
- Singaporean version of Jhumpa Lahiri stories. Maybe there’s another author with better fit to the writing style here but I’ve only (partially) read one other short story anthology. Which reminds me I should finish both interpreter and emperor of maladies once I clear my work-reading
Ling Ko Mui
- Reminiscence therapy
- Poetic plot but also believable on biological and historical fronts
- Would’ve could’ve should’ve
- I feel I’ve definitely read it somewhere before but can’t tell where
Carousel & Fort
- Don’t quite get it but maybe the vibe is understandable?
- The burning carousel continuing to spin is a larger form of a common physics mechanics demonstration using candles
- Why did the artist die? Don’t get it. Instant karma?
- Is it supposed to show the curator preferred destructive r/s?
Pawn
- The guy gets played?
- Huh
- Power dynamic in the relationship I guess
- Either promotes blackpilled worldview or ethology
- Reversed traditional gender roles
The King of Caldecott Hill
- Second story addressing a major outstanding neuroethics issue
- Second story with reversal of conventional gender roles
- A veiled commentary on gahmen? See: special mention of demographers in TV shows and polis interrogation
Every Park on This Island
- Hehehehaw Clementi Woods
- Reminds me of a couple I saw on CCL near one-north where the American dude tried proving he knew SG based on his 2 months here and his Singaporean partner tried proving she knew the US and A based on her exchange semester there. Also discomforting sociocultural power gradient that played out during their 30min convo. To be clear I am not a Weird MRT commuter, they were talking Very Loudly.
- Laughed when seeing the unit conversion to American units
- Seeing a veiled jibe at gahmen for the umpteenth time convinces me the NAC funders for this project had a hard time writing progress reports for their bosses
- The American rural-urban divide is indeed quite real. Joke about Car-Centric Infrastructure was hilarious
- Jokes about SG vs US and A have aged like wine
- East Coast Plan!
- This story reminds me of an insufferable postdoc I met who was from Singapore and instead of answering questions constructively or engaging in scientific discussion focused all topics of conversation around 3 things: (i) their Ivy League education (ii) how the sg education system is horrid and the us one is far superior (iii) how all social relations in sg (e.g. family, romantic, friends) suck and the American ones are better. Maybe it’s interesting in moderation. But these were genuinely the only things the person ever talked about. Anything else was met with “I don’t care” or “Boring”. Frankly that person was the most annoying other human being I have ever met and I have had an unironically blackpilled 4channer deskmate for a semester before
Two Ways to Do This Pt I
- MOM rules
- I am confused
- Will need to think about it
Love Is No Big Truth
- Gender roles and power dynamics in conservative asian patriarchy analysed through many facets of a marriage
- I’m beginning to realise a lot of the stories are centered around examining r/s or the institution of marriage in various permutations and combinations
- Loveless marriage? Idk. I thought I’ve seen enough examples to know
- Arranged marriage electric boogaloo?
- Scenes From A Marriage
- Collectivism vs Individualism
Two Ways to Do This Pt II
- I May Destroy You + Louis Sachar’s Holes?
Alice, You Must Be the Fulcrum of Your Own Universe
- The UK Embassy looks less imposing than the US one next to it somehow
- Oxbridge law hehehehaw. I wonder who in our batch will get in. I can think of 2 guys but idk
- Interesting that this is UK vs SG after the earlier story examined US vs SG
- “We let ourselves get into the habit of the grind, we let the grind wear us down”
- Manipulation. Mild signs of other things. Possible NPD?
- Osteosarcoma is actually more common in younger populations. Idk if this is supposed to be a plot point or I’m overreading this
- Hm. The ending. What _was_ the nature of their rs. Hm.
Fourteen Entries From the Diary of Maria Hertogh
- Idk how historically accurate the account is but it makes for good historical fiction regardless
- Interesting but feels a bit on the nose if the fiction wasn’t based in facts
- Is the America part true?
- Still amazed the NAC grant went through
Chick
- “She was also, normatively, a nerd, whatever we make of these terms within a crude, teenaged social prism in which we hope to see ourselves favourably reflected”
- “She and you were in an all girls’ school (the best one in town, too). Everyone who gets deposited in a single sex school is placed there by parents looking to delay sexual maturation and quash emotional distraction, confident as they are of the assumedly more conducive studying environment”
- Normal + Bell Jar?
Laundromat
- Social Commentary. But what is it about?
- “It was difficult for him to relate to people without abstraction”
- Ok so the laundromat owner is a signifier of gahmen
- “Life is a phenomenon”
- MC likes living vicariously because he’s scared of life?
- “Being able to be sad is a form of happiness too”
- MC is depressed, distracts from this by analysing items through a staunchly scientific lens to remove himself from it and lives vicariously to fill the void this leaves behind
Siren
- Hmm why the HCI x NYGH reference
- How did this ever make it past the censors
The Ballad of Arlene & Nelly
- I’m beginning to think the title was a joke aimed at *MDA letting the book get published
Overall
- Writing is very real - the authenticity and believability of the plots/characters renders the stories an unusually visceral quality
- Singaporean version of Jhumpa Lahiri stories. Maybe there’s another author with better fit to the writing style here but I’ve only (partially) read one other short story anthology. Which reminds me I should finish both interpreter and emperor of maladies once I clear my work-reading
Ling Ko Mui
- Reminiscence therapy
- Poetic plot but also believable on biological and historical fronts
- Would’ve could’ve should’ve
- I feel I’ve definitely read it somewhere before but can’t tell where
Carousel & Fort
- Don’t quite get it but maybe the vibe is understandable?
- The burning carousel continuing to spin is a larger form of a common physics mechanics demonstration using candles
- Why did the artist die? Don’t get it. Instant karma?
- Is it supposed to show the curator preferred destructive r/s?
Pawn
- The guy gets played?
- Huh
- Power dynamic in the relationship I guess
- Either promotes blackpilled worldview or ethology
- Reversed traditional gender roles
The King of Caldecott Hill
- Second story addressing a major outstanding neuroethics issue
- Second story with reversal of conventional gender roles
- A veiled commentary on gahmen? See: special mention of demographers in TV shows and polis interrogation
Every Park on This Island
- Hehehehaw Clementi Woods
- Reminds me of a couple I saw on CCL near one-north where the American dude tried proving he knew SG based on his 2 months here and his Singaporean partner tried proving she knew the US and A based on her exchange semester there. Also discomforting sociocultural power gradient that played out during their 30min convo. To be clear I am not a Weird MRT commuter, they were talking Very Loudly.
- Laughed when seeing the unit conversion to American units
- Seeing a veiled jibe at gahmen for the umpteenth time convinces me the NAC funders for this project had a hard time writing progress reports for their bosses
- The American rural-urban divide is indeed quite real. Joke about Car-Centric Infrastructure was hilarious
- Jokes about SG vs US and A have aged like wine
- East Coast Plan!
- This story reminds me of an insufferable postdoc I met who was from Singapore and instead of answering questions constructively or engaging in scientific discussion focused all topics of conversation around 3 things: (i) their Ivy League education (ii) how the sg education system is horrid and the us one is far superior (iii) how all social relations in sg (e.g. family, romantic, friends) suck and the American ones are better. Maybe it’s interesting in moderation. But these were genuinely the only things the person ever talked about. Anything else was met with “I don’t care” or “Boring”. Frankly that person was the most annoying other human being I have ever met and I have had an unironically blackpilled 4channer deskmate for a semester before
Two Ways to Do This Pt I
- MOM rules
- I am confused
- Will need to think about it
Love Is No Big Truth
- Gender roles and power dynamics in conservative asian patriarchy analysed through many facets of a marriage
- I’m beginning to realise a lot of the stories are centered around examining r/s or the institution of marriage in various permutations and combinations
- Loveless marriage? Idk. I thought I’ve seen enough examples to know
- Arranged marriage electric boogaloo?
- Scenes From A Marriage
- Collectivism vs Individualism
Two Ways to Do This Pt II
- I May Destroy You + Louis Sachar’s Holes?
Alice, You Must Be the Fulcrum of Your Own Universe
- The UK Embassy looks less imposing than the US one next to it somehow
- Oxbridge law hehehehaw. I wonder who in our batch will get in. I can think of 2 guys but idk
- Interesting that this is UK vs SG after the earlier story examined US vs SG
- “We let ourselves get into the habit of the grind, we let the grind wear us down”
- Manipulation. Mild signs of other things. Possible NPD?
- Osteosarcoma is actually more common in younger populations. Idk if this is supposed to be a plot point or I’m overreading this
- Hm. The ending. What _was_ the nature of their rs. Hm.
Fourteen Entries From the Diary of Maria Hertogh
- Idk how historically accurate the account is but it makes for good historical fiction regardless
- Interesting but feels a bit on the nose if the fiction wasn’t based in facts
- Is the America part true?
- Still amazed the NAC grant went through
Chick
- “She was also, normatively, a nerd, whatever we make of these terms within a crude, teenaged social prism in which we hope to see ourselves favourably reflected”
- “She and you were in an all girls’ school (the best one in town, too). Everyone who gets deposited in a single sex school is placed there by parents looking to delay sexual maturation and quash emotional distraction, confident as they are of the assumedly more conducive studying environment”
- Normal + Bell Jar?
Laundromat
- Social Commentary. But what is it about?
- “It was difficult for him to relate to people without abstraction”
- Ok so the laundromat owner is a signifier of gahmen
- “Life is a phenomenon”
- MC likes living vicariously because he’s scared of life?
- “Being able to be sad is a form of happiness too”
- MC is depressed, distracts from this by analysing items through a staunchly scientific lens to remove himself from it and lives vicariously to fill the void this leaves behind
Siren
- Hmm why the HCI x NYGH reference
- How did this ever make it past the censors
The Ballad of Arlene & Nelly
- I’m beginning to think the title was a joke aimed at *MDA letting the book get published
indigowolf's review against another edition
dark
funny
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
A very interesting collection of short stories.
purging's review
4.0
Ministry of Moral Panic is a collection of short stories about diversity. The stories served are strange, confusing, and funny. It suits my type.
My favorite story is Love is No Big Truth. The line starts with "There is no such thing in the world, as I cannot live without you; you cannot live without me. The earth spins." and ends with "Loneliness is freedom." and I think it's beautiful.
My favorite story is Love is No Big Truth. The line starts with "There is no such thing in the world, as I cannot live without you; you cannot live without me. The earth spins." and ends with "Loneliness is freedom." and I think it's beautiful.
enteka's review
2.5
Not really a good rating because there were some stories I did like: Alice (I thought this was the standout, really, my girl Jenny was spitting facts and there was some semblance of complexity there... oh, and also, peeing! (What's with this, why the sudden inclusion of this? For the panic, I suppose.)) and Flamingo Valley.
Overall the tone of the narration is very detached, so much that the bluntness the descriptions come across as crude and too artificial, too forced, to me, I think. I'm sure there's supposed to be some uncomfortable truth behind these stories, but it just feels like a forced vomiting, aside from the two stories I mentioned above.
In particular I felt there were missed opportunities for Maria Hertogh, Laundromat, and Caldecott Hill. It's also possible that I'm just not reading deeply enough into the stories so I miss the point of the crudeness. I felt concerned, but mostly it was "Oh vagina, huh. Tits? Eh, okay." at some points but there was nothing strange about the morality of it. The tone paints it somehow black-and-white to me... That's strange, I think.
And this is strange to say but. It's... some of the stories are really.... caricatures of straight people. But instead of highlighting their features I felt their humanity was dimmed instead.
Overall the tone of the narration is very detached, so much that the bluntness the descriptions come across as crude and too artificial, too forced, to me, I think. I'm sure there's supposed to be some uncomfortable truth behind these stories, but it just feels like a forced vomiting, aside from the two stories I mentioned above.
In particular I felt there were missed opportunities for Maria Hertogh, Laundromat, and Caldecott Hill. It's also possible that I'm just not reading deeply enough into the stories so I miss the point of the crudeness. I felt concerned, but mostly it was "Oh vagina, huh. Tits? Eh, okay." at some points but there was nothing strange about the morality of it. The tone paints it somehow black-and-white to me... That's strange, I think.
And this is strange to say but. It's... some of the stories are really.... caricatures of straight people. But instead of highlighting their features I felt their humanity was dimmed instead.
dor_mic's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
jmkaemmerlen's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
moirastone's review against another edition
2.0
Almost unbearably young, these stories. Instead of getting swept away in each, I often felt the need to protect the writer, edit her, guide her to a another draft. Which is absurd of me, of course, and a neat way I ruined my own good time.
Still? And for all that, I can't wait to pick up a newer work of hers, or see one of her plays. 'Cause maybe the reason I reacted so strongly, took her work so personally, is because I recognize something of myself here that I'm eager to explore.
Still? And for all that, I can't wait to pick up a newer work of hers, or see one of her plays. 'Cause maybe the reason I reacted so strongly, took her work so personally, is because I recognize something of myself here that I'm eager to explore.
blau_elmo's review
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of local short stories. It covers many aspects of Singaporean culture in an explosive and unique way. A large theme of this book is the breaking of various taboos in our society. Below are my favourites:
Chick -A woman who grows up without love sexually and emotionally manipulates all the men around her to get what she wants. It is messed up in its cruelty, but that makes it very striking and memorable. It is a story of the necessity of love and compassion, and of the propensity for certain people to be unkind just to be cruel.
Carousel & Fort - A story about the art scene in Singapore. Carousel represents the cyclic failures of love, and fort represents the ire of controversy that is concomitant with producing art.The destruction of both arts at the end, coming together to form a brutal showpiece, that was beautifully put together. Very visceral and raw.
Chick -
Carousel & Fort - A story about the art scene in Singapore. Carousel represents the cyclic failures of love, and fort represents the ire of controversy that is concomitant with producing art.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Self harm and Violence