Singapore is a great country for individuals with IBS; there are free public toilets – most of which are clean and functioning – within a short distance of each other. The lavatorial services on offer far surpass advanced economies in the west in accessibility and just sheer logistical convenience. Nearly all of which do not… Continue reading ‘Go toilet’: notes on Singaporean virtues
Category: The writing self
New publication in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing
One thing I’ve accepted about myself somewhat recently is that I am a slow writer. Of course “slowness” is relative. I know many who are even slower than me, those of whom who would consider me a “fast” writer. That slowness, however, is not necessarily in the act of drafting itself, which in my case… Continue reading New publication in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing
A golden year in Leiden
There’s nothing like being high above a colony of water lilies floating across the Rapenburg on a bright summer’s day. The buildings that flank the canal cast languid shadows over the water and passers-by on foot and bicycles. After taking a picture of this scene on my phone, I told myself: I want to remember… Continue reading A golden year in Leiden
Grey hell
Luis Buñuel once noted (half jokingly) that the universality of faith had disappeared in the twentieth century because the church had so exaggerated the supposed horrors of hell that no one could take it seriously anymore. If now, at the beginning of the third millennium, we take a look back at the twentieth century, perhaps… Continue reading Grey hell
Madrid
When I visited Madrid for the first time last December, I was spellbound by the city. It seemed like a good time to visit. December is gentler in Spain than in northwestern Europe and I was rewarding myself for having completed a major project. With A in tow, we inhaled what Madrid had to offer… Continue reading Madrid
Spirals and labyrinths
A mysterious manuscript by an unknown author, a found object, is duly published by one Peter Cornell who claims authorship and gives it the title Ways of Paradise (2024, translated by Saskia Vogel). It is a work of Casaubonian ambition, but with more success and humility, gaining cult status when it was first published in… Continue reading Spirals and labyrinths
Lady-in-Waiting
Maybe I am destined for the shit life. Despite attempts to escape, I am back here again. When will this shittiness end? Do I just wait around for this slow bleak season to pass? If I wait too long, would I have wasted my life? While I wait, I find myself slowly sinking into a… Continue reading Lady-in-Waiting
Just two foreign single women getting drunk in Paris: femininity adrift in Good Morning, Midnight (1939) and The Dud Avocado (1958)
Sasha Jansen and Sally Jay Gorce are the quintessential flâneuse in the birth city of the flânerie, Paris. They represent two sides of the flâneuse’s emotional inner landscape; aimless, lonely, and morally suspect on the one hand, freewheeling and liberated on the other. As single women, they defy the expectations of women in the city… Continue reading Just two foreign single women getting drunk in Paris: femininity adrift in Good Morning, Midnight (1939) and The Dud Avocado (1958)
2013: Let’s celebrate the banal
In the last three years, this blog served mainly as a repository of my writings. But this year, I’m going to attempt something different; I’ll begin to post photos of my cooking and the less than artful snapshots of my life on this blog. Perhaps at times, if I am feeling reckless, I may even… Continue reading 2013: Let’s celebrate the banal
Will be back very shortly!
It’s a been an experientially short week (you realise there are too few hours in a day when you have tons to do!): started my job lecturing sexuality in Southeast Asian cinema last week, insisted on having a social life however sad, and curating Feminist Week on Loyar Burok this week. I noticed that I… Continue reading Will be back very shortly!
Alicia Izharuddin 