extemporally

I spoke to my mum on the phone yesterday about where I should live next year and ended up with a rage headache and also chose East Oxford out of spite (except not really - it is a lovely college annex, and I do love the neighbourhood) and also had the worst essay due for today, and didn't sleep at all last night, gave up trying at about 3 AM, was at the library at 5.30 AM and basically hated life until I finished my essay and watched the new episode of Skins (o Season 6, why???). It's been a tough weekend.

On the bright side: my college will be flying the rainbow flag at the boat race this Saturday for LGBT History Month, I discussed poetry with a friend, there are no more two tute weeks for the next two weeks, tutorials with ♥Liz Fisher♥ always buoy me up no matter how difficult I find the reading, and I have Edward Said's Orientalism out of the library and also my copy of Dionne Brand's Thirsty arrived in the mail today. AND, when this afternoon is over I will have 100 times more clean clothes than I currently have. PARTY HARD!!!

Also, reviewing this book means I get to dwell on H.L.A Hart and his intellectual achievements and ambivalent sexuality and inferiority complex and complicated sense of ethnic identity and amazing wife and liberal humanism and Oxford in the 50s/60s, all over again:

A Life of H.L.A. Hart: The Nightmare and the Noble Dream, by Nicola Lacey.

( Biography of the 20th century's most influential legal philosopher. Stunning, stunning, stunning. Shoddily written review, too much effusion, etc. )

Hahahaha you guys I am so bad at getting up early and getting work done instead of reading Dworkin (♥DWORKIN♥) I am reblogging stuff to Tumblr and bemoaning the fact that I didn't apply to this legal aid placement in the DRC (o well it's not like my parents would have been ok with it anyway) in time. ANYWAY OVER EASTER I AM GOING TO READ ALL THE BOOKS here is a to-read list:

- Mine-haha, by Frank Wedekind
- Culture & Imperialism, by Edward Said
- Orientalism, by Edward Said
- Nicola Lacey's biography of H.L.A. Hart
- Unspeakable Subjects, by Nicola Lacey
- Haile Selassie's autobiography

I've just read Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black and have some real complicated feelings about that, be talking about it soon. Meanwhile can we get some discourse up in here about Haile Selassie's legacy I'm just saying

Boston

I’ve been meaning to tell
you how the sky is pink
here sometimes like the roof
of a mouth that’s about to chomp
down on the crooked steel teeth
of the city,

I remember the desperate
things we did
and that I stumble
down sidewalks listening
to the buzz of street lamps
at dusk and the crush
of leaves on the pavement,

Without you here I’m viciously lonely

and I can’t remember
the last time I felt holy,
the last time I offered
myself as sanctuary

*

I watched two men
press hard into
each other, their bodies
caught in the club’s
bass drum swell,
and I couldn’t remember
when I knew I’d never
be beautiful, but it must
have been quick
and subtle, the way
the holy ghost can pass
in and out of a room.
I want so desperately
to be finished with desire,
the rushing wind, the still
small voice.

- Aaron Smith

These will be so short as to bring the lie to the term 'book review'. Apologies!

Bad Girls In Love, by Cynthia Voigt.

Good, but not her best. Idk - maybe it's just the kind of person I am, but I really really prefer Cynthia Voigt's Super Earnest Novels on Deep, Important Social Issues to her other ones - which is not to say that Mikey & Margalo weren't delightful, it just wasn't quite funny enough to make up for what I'd really prefer to read in a ♥Cynthia Voigt♥ novel?

Go Jump In The Pool,
Beware The Fish,
The War With Mr Wizzle,
The Zucchini Warriors,
Macdonald Hall Goes Hollywood,
Something Fishy At Macdonald Hall
A Semester In The Life of A Garbage Bag,
Don't Care High,
I Want To Go Home,
Son of Interflux, &
Who Is Bugs Potter?, by Gordon Korman.

( A list of things I have to say about the Korman novels: )

Izzy, Willy-Nilly, by Cynthia Voigt.

"Izzy's life had been colorful as a pretty, popular cheerleader, but grayness swallows her up after a car accident results in the amputation of her leg. Her trio of girlfriends are too uncomfortable to be around her, but the void of their friendship is filled by unattractive, blunt Rosamunde, who bounds into her life, providing bolstering support. It's Rosamunde's persistence that helps Izzy over the hurdle of returning to school."

AWESOME. Rosamunde = my favourite, Cynthia Voigt's worldview = the very definition of empathy and intersectionality. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Sometimes all I want from life is to talk about Velvet Goldmine with someone, okay.

I have been watching fanvideos set to Shudder to Think for the past hour, it is all very dire. /o\

even the stars hide away, Community (Troy/Abed).

AJD;LJFL;DSJFDLKJFDKLFJDKLJF, you guys. THIS FIC. THIS GODDAMN FIC. *bites fist*

If you celebrate it: Merry Christmas! If you don't, have a good day anyway. My family half-celebrates it and half doesn't, so here's to the halves as well. ♥

I woke up at 4.30 AM, because my body is still - after a whole week of being at home, urgh - still fucked from the jet lag. At this point I am just about ready to give up on life, but I think what I'll do is go for a walk instead.

Have some books:

Pomes All Sizes, by Jack Kerouac.

( good. mostly. )

You Cannot Count Smoke, by Cyril Wong.

( a tiny pamphlet of poetry. after the disappointment of oneiros, this represented a return to form imho. )

Just Kids, by Patti Smith.

( Memoir about her & Robert Mapplethorpe's relationship in the 60s and 70s. Kind of brilliant. )

In the Company of Women, by Verena Tay | Oneiros, by Cyril Wong | The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga | How to Be A Woman, by Caitlin Moran | American Pastoral, by Phillip Roth | Amulet, by Roberto Bolano | Who Runs This Place?: The Anatomy of Britain in the 21st Century, by Anthony Sampson | The Lives of the Muses, by Francine Prose | I Left My Grandfather's House, by Denton Welch | Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens | Kaddish & other poems, by Allen Ginsberg | Sappho: A New Translation, by Mary Barnard | The Lives of Animals, by J.M. Coetzee | Women & Violence, by Barrie Levy | Half + Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial + Bicultural, edited by Claudine Chiawei O'Hearn | Nazi Literature in the Americas, by Roberto Bolano | Corridor, by Alfian Sa'at | Collected Plays One, by Alfian Sa'at | Trilogy, by Haresh Sharma | Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys, Missing Angel Juan, & Baby Be-Bop, by Francesca Lia Block | Bloomability, by Sharon Creech | Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall In Love, by Maryrose Wood | High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby | Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, by Leslie T. Chang | The Boy Next Door, by Irene Sabatini | Singapore Shifting Boundaries: Social Change in the 21st Century, edited by William S.W. Lim, Sharon Siddique, & Tan Dan Feng | The Frenzy, by Francesca Lia Block | Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian | The Spirit Catches You And Then You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman | Saraswati Park, by Anjali Joseph | Eston, by Stella Kon | Rape: A Love Story, by Joyce Carol Oates | Rice Bowl, by Suchen Christine Lim | The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell | Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture, and Politics, edited by Kenneth Paul Tan | Miss Seetoh in the World, by Catherine Lim | Free Food for Millionaires, by Min Jin Lee | Jointly & Severably, by Eleanor Wong | Wills & Secession, by Eleanor Wong | Mergers & Accusations, by Eleanor Wong | GASPP: A Gay Anthology of Singaporean Poetry & Prose, edited by Ng Yi-Sheng | Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier | Gone Case, by Dave Chua | Sex and the City, by Candace Bushnell | The Waters & the Wild, by Francesca Lia Block | Growing Up: Getting Along in the Sixties, by Tisa Ng | Oreo, by Fran Ross | Caucasia, by Danzy Senna | Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class, by Owen Jones | Racism: A Very Short Introduction | Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, by Rana Mitter | Feminism: A Very Short Introduction, by Margaret Waters | A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin | Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean | Sons of the Yellow Emperor, by Lynn Pan | Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People, by Katharine Quarmby | Tipping The Velvet, by Sarah Waters | Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro | The Lantern Bearers, by Rosemary Sutcliff | The Silver Branch, by Rosemary Sutcliff | The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff | The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli | Brick Lane, by Monica Ali | The Savage Detectives, by Robert Bolano | Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell | Cat On A Hot-Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams | Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern, by Joshua Zeitz | Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson | The Moon By Night, by Madeleine L'Engle | To Live, by Yu Hua | Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer | The Next Competitor, by K.P. Kincaid | Raffles Place Ragtime, by Phillip Jeyaretnam | Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy, by Frances Mayes | Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin | Marie, Dancing, by Carolyn Meyer | Man Walks Into A Room, by Nicole Krauss | How To Be Good, by Nick Hornby

(But no seriously, LJ, what the fuck. I hate your shitty font and your shitty lack of subject lines. What were you thinking?)

Oneiros, by Cyril Wong.

( poetry. underwhelming. )

In the Company of Women, by Verena Tay.

( collection of plays. hated this. )

The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga | How to Be A Woman, by Caitlin Moran | American Pastoral, by Phillip Roth | Amulet, by Roberto Bolano | Who Runs This Place?: The Anatomy of Britain in the 21st Century, by Anthony Sampson | The Lives of the Muses, by Francine Prose | I Left My Grandfather's House, by Denton Welch | Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens | Kaddish & other poems, by Allen Ginsberg | Sappho: A New Translation, by Mary Barnard | The Lives of Animals, by J.M. Coetzee | Women & Violence, by Barrie Levy | Half + Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial + Bicultural, edited by Claudine Chiawei O'Hearn | Nazi Literature in the Americas, by Roberto Bolano | Corridor, by Alfian Sa'at | Collected Plays One, by Alfian Sa'at | Trilogy, by Haresh Sharma | Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys, Missing Angel Juan, & Baby Be-Bop, by Francesca Lia Block | Bloomability, by Sharon Creech | Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall In Love, by Maryrose Wood | High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby | Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, by Leslie T. Chang | The Boy Next Door, by Irene Sabatini | Singapore Shifting Boundaries: Social Change in the 21st Century, edited by William S.W. Lim, Sharon Siddique, & Tan Dan Feng | The Frenzy, by Francesca Lia Block | Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian | The Spirit Catches You And Then You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman | Saraswati Park, by Anjali Joseph | Eston, by Stella Kon | Rape: A Love Story, by Joyce Carol Oates | Rice Bowl, by Suchen Christine Lim | The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell | Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture, and Politics, edited by Kenneth Paul Tan | Miss Seetoh in the World, by Catherine Lim | Free Food for Millionaires, by Min Jin Lee | Jointly & Severably, by Eleanor Wong | Wills & Secession, by Eleanor Wong | Mergers & Accusations, by Eleanor Wong | GASPP: A Gay Anthology of Singaporean Poetry & Prose, edited by Ng Yi-Sheng | Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier | Gone Case, by Dave Chua | Sex and the City, by Candace Bushnell | The Waters & the Wild, by Francesca Lia Block | Growing Up: Getting Along in the Sixties, by Tisa Ng | Oreo, by Fran Ross | Caucasia, by Danzy Senna | Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class, by Owen Jones | Racism: A Very Short Introduction | Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, by Rana Mitter | Feminism: A Very Short Introduction, by Margaret Waters | A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin | Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean | Sons of the Yellow Emperor, by Lynn Pan | Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People, by Katharine Quarmby | Tipping The Velvet, by Sarah Waters | Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro | The Lantern Bearers, by Rosemary Sutcliff | The Silver Branch, by Rosemary Sutcliff | The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff | The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli | Brick Lane, by Monica Ali | The Savage Detectives, by Robert Bolano | Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell | Cat On A Hot-Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams | Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern, by Joshua Zeitz | Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson | The Moon By Night, by Madeleine L'Engle | To Live, by Yu Hua | Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer | The Next Competitor, by K.P. Kincaid | Raffles Place Ragtime, by Phillip Jeyaretnam | Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy, by Frances Mayes | Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin | Marie, Dancing, by Carolyn Meyer | Man Walks Into A Room, by Nicole Krauss | How To Be Good, by Nick Hornby

Man, I don't even care what anyone says* about Baroness Hale any more haters to the left:

"I asked our judicial assistants about this and they all agreed that the highlight was the JFS case [R (on the application of E) v Governing Body of JFS and the Admissions Appeal Panel of JFS and others [2009] UKSC 15].

They said that the case "hit a lot of buttons". One such "button" was that they thought the result was right and that it reaffirmed important principles about discrimination law, which might have been in danger because of the peculiar facts of the case. Another was that the case attracted a huge amount of public interest and we had a large and loyal audience who stayed throughout (which is very unusual with supreme court cases)."

She came to Oxford once to give a speech, but instead I went to the talk by Maryam al Khawaja (who was also brilliant), sadly. :(

Also, Lord Bingham is pretty great too: "Which of these rights, I ask, would we wish to discard? Are any of them trivial, superfluous, unnecessary? Are any of them un-British? There may be those who would like to live in a country where these rights are not protected but I am not of their number." This book review made me laugh out loud several times and I should try getting my hands on that I guess.

Yesterday I came to the end of a Law Commission report on reforming the doctrine of privity to enforce the rights of third parties (Law Com No 242!!! man, I am so fond of their reports) and was not at all surprised to find that Lady Arden had led it. She's the best. ♥♥♥


* usually that she's a bad judge, who makes policy judgments and then attempts to justify them through poor law - which, firstly there is the deep ~~epistemological~~ objection about how do you even separate law and politics, don't most judges do that anyway (I'm looking at you Lord Atkin - "The consideration that really obtains for them is that natural love and affection which counts for so little in these cold Courts" fuck you fuck you fuck you), and secondly isn't that what Lord Denning did? And everyone loved him for it. Whoo, double standards!

oh my gosh you guys I'm reading this blog and being hit in the chest by this tsunami wave of love and nostalgia

(Especially this. Tiong Bahru isn't where I was born - before I turned fourteen, my family moved houses three or four times, and another seven times before I was born - and I don't even live in the neighbourhood proper, just kind of near it, so I don't know it very well and still get lost on the walk from the train station there to my house. But in some mysterious, unknown way, they remind me of my childhood, still. Maybe it's the way the flats look like building blocks. "The buildings at Tiong Bahru, mostly not more than five storeys high, are designed with a mixture of Nanyang style and Art Moderne, a popular architectural design of the 1930s that emphasises on long horizontal lines with rounded ends. Thus, most blocks in this area are light in colour, and equipped with spiral staircases, flat rooftops and underground shelters." ♥♥♥ oh my gosh!)

Today I completely forgot about this class I had at 9.30 am, which was... embarrassing, and then I spent the rest of the day getting increasingly freaked out about internship applications, which is always fun. Mrrrrh, eight days and two essays left to the end of term. I won't be leaving immediately for Singapore, though, I'll be staying on at uni for a week to apply for jobs/write papers/use the library, then I'm buggering off to The Hague! to visit goshemily ♥♥♥

Mostly, though, what I'm trying to say is, there is no clear end in sight. It doesn't feel like Christmas yet.