Different cultures have different ways of treating weapons and martial arts. Bound up in historical, legal and cultural cornerstones, a society’s relationship with weapons speaks to deeper underlying norms. To reach a higher level of worldbuilding in the art of writing, think about how your culture views weapons and warfare. Here are some real-world examples […]
Become Unemployable
Every unvaccinated and non-exempted worker in Singapore is barred from returning to the workplace. Two weeks from now, every partially-unvaccinated worker who refuses to take the second shot will be barred from returning to the workplace. Employers are supposed to redeploy these workers to remote positions wherever possible, or allow them to work from home. […]
Speak with the Weight of Three Thousand Years
While watching the Chinese animated film Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification, a thought struck me: The Chinese language is uniquely suited for epic fantasy. An epic is set in a time before living memory, celebrating the accomplishments of heroes, whose dealings with gods and demons and spirits profoundly shape the mortal world for succeeding generations. […]
Equal Opportunity Villainy
When Mediacorp aired a television drama featuring a pedophile who spread a sexually transmitted disease to a child, Teo Yu Sheng took offense. Teo, a ‘queer designer’ who sells LGBTQ-themed accessories under the brand Heckin’ Unicorn, took to the Internet and demanded an apology. Mediacorp issued an apology. Chase Tan, the actor who portrayed the […]
A Tale of Two Aesthetics
On Monday I visited an exhibition at Parkview Museum with my fiancee. Titled Challenging Beauty, it is features Italian contemporary art pieces taken from the private collection of the late George Wong, founder of the Museum. True to its name, the exhibition challenged beauty by presenting its exact opposite. The fancy verbiage is merely obfuscation. The […]
Between Pulp Wonders and Light Novel Trash
In his last podcast, JimFear138 sat down with Rawle Nyanzi to discuss the concept of genres in a freewheeling discussion that spanned, among other things, My Hero Academia, the blurry line between science fiction and fantasy, and, at the 40:15 mark, Japanese light novels. Rawle didn’t have a high opinion of most light novels. I share the […]
The Bedrock of a Nation
Two days ago Alex Au wrote a post about cultural conflict stemming from immigration. In it, he recounts the story of a neighbour from India whose wife steadfastly refuses to return his greetings. Au believes that this may be due to cultural considerations, and asks: But then it raises the question: If we want to integrate […]