Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Book 2 - A Tale for the Time Being

Just finished reading A Tale for the Time Being not long ago. It's written by Ruth Ozeki. The book is about a writer who found a lunchbox that was washed ashore near where the writer lived in Canada. The lunchbox contained a diary of a Japanese girl and some other writings of that girl's great uncle. Like the book I read before this one, the chapters are alternating between two characters - the writer and the entry of the Japanese girl's diary. Overall I thought the book was okay. I didn't really enjoy the science fiction / fantasy part (cannot find a better term) towards the end of the book which actually was pivotal to the whole story. I was super curious on how the Japanese girl came into possession of her great uncle's writings, but the explanation given was not satisfying to me. Between the writer and the Japanese girl, I was definitely more interested in the life of the Japanese girl and like the writer in the story, I was also invested in her well-being. The girl started her diary telling the reader (whoever finds the diary) that she's going to kill herself and then reading her description of the really bad bullying she got, it's just a lot. Bullying is not even the correct word I feel, because she was assaulted and almost raped. The Japanese word used is ijime which translates to bullying. I really wonder if ijime was meant to describe simple bullying or really to the level of bullying as described by this girl where her classmates also staged a mock funeral for her. Really it's a lot and that was on top of her dad's situation. We didn't even hear about her mother who definitely had her own struggle and for sure most probably struggled alone as well. On the other side, the writer chapters are interesting in a way that the writer in the book was also named Ruth and the husband in the book had the same name as this author's real life husband and as Wikipedia told me, seems to also have the same job. I value my privacy a lot so I was just, I guess stunned that she would set a character that shared many similarities with her. It got the nosy me to google around. I guess why give opportunity to people to paste their assumption based on what they read in this fiction to their real life? Like, is the inner thought of Ruth in the book the same as Ruth the author? Maybe other readers don't care. It's just me who's too nosy.

Now, the main thing about the book which I don't think I fully get was this contemplation and reflection that we are time being. What does it mean? As the Japanese girl wrote it, A time being is someone who lives in time. The book has appendices and one of them was about Zen moments. The girl's great grandmother is a Zen nun so the subject of Zen was brought up a lot and I also don't get it. According to the great grandmother, a moment is a very small particle of time. So we at this second are experiencing many moments and each moment I suppose has the possibility to alter things and us. That's a lot and that's also fast. Being aware of it is perhaps key to living in time or truly understanding living with time? I told you I don't get it. The last few pages talk about quantum physics and Schrödinger's cat and the different interpretations and I googled, watched YouTube videos, but I don't get it. According to the writer, quantum physics and Zen do not contradict each other, in fact they may be explaining the same thing in different ways. Some things require time for you to sit with it and ponder about it. I just didn't, so no wonder that I didn't get anything. I think me not fully appreciating the book and enjoying the conclusion is because I couldn't grasp this whole idea of what's being presented here.

I did was curious to try Zazen, the Zen's way of meditating (I'm putting it simply and most probably incorrectly). The Japanese girl desribed it in the book on how to get started. Again the lazy me didn't make time for it, so far I only tried three times for a really short period of time and definitely did it the wrong way. Maybe the key is just to keep on trying no matter how wrong, maybe eventually something right will kick in? That does not sound right. Just living life without the effort to do right feels wrong. I feel I'm in a very wrong state so nothing right could come out of it, but to turn it around to the right state feels like an impossibility because how deep wrong I feel I am in right now, but the Japanese girl and her dad managed to turn it around, so perhaps it's possible? Possibility exists as long as we live? Is that the lesson? I don't know.

Moving on to TV, finally I finished watching Pachinko season 2. I have to say I didn't like it much. I think my expectation was way too high. After reading the book, I thought the story could end with season 2 but they chose to change a lot of things from the book and added more things and that's where it became a bit of a turn off for me. The characters already suffered a lot and they had to suffer more - they couldn't even complete the cremation of Sunja's husband (how then they're going to rationalize that his grave exists? Or this will not happen? Or is it an empty grave?), also their rice storage barn got burned down after all the hard work (please!). I also didn't like that Sunja allowed Hansu to kiss her (don't think it's in the book) or even to get that close. Also the relationship between Kyunghee and Chang-ho was way closer than I wanted it to be. One thing I kinda hope for is for Yoseb to actually redeem himself a bit more and be more present, though it's not looking likely. The last thing that bothered me a lot was when Noa left. Noa seemed to leave in peace, especially with his mother, so I couldn't see the TV series Noa doing what the book Noa ended up doing, unless he'll be doing it out of shame? It's a point of discussion actually why the book Noa did what he did - unfortunately I had no one to discuss it with. My only assumption when reading the book was Noa did what he did because he realized he couldn't run away from who he is no matter how much he changed and he's unable or unwilling to reconcile all parts of him. TV Noa is different though, the last thing his dad showed was forgiveness so after all that how could Noa end up the same? Unless he didn't. I guess I look forward to season 3 to find out about this.

The last thing I want to write is what I'm also watching now, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol. When Daryl finally met Carol, not gonna lie, I think I had a tear :D It got me thinking, it's rare to feel this strongly about characters who are not even boyfriend and girlfriend. They're the ride or die friend and that kind of bond is really the kind we dream of right? Truly, I think this kind of friendship bond being front and center being shown is rare I think. I wonder how the season is gonna end - they will stay in France forever? Of the current The Walking Dead iterations, I do have to say I look forward to Daryl and Carol's story the most. One last note, the local TV been showing Audrey Hepburn's movies and recently Sabrina was shown. The line, the moon's reaching for me, got me laughing and since I'm also delusional at times, I get it :D In the movie, I have to say, Humphrey Bogart was really captivating. He did not seem to be very tall, but there's just a different kind of handsome with him. I really like these old movies being shown and hope they would do more of this. Alright, so that's about it about books and TV.

:) eKa @ 11:08:00 AM •