2024 Week 42: Another Reading Update

October 20, 2024

2024 Week 42: Another Reading Update

As mentioned in my last book update: after finishing The Penguin History of the World and War & Peace, I've been finding it hard to stick to a book. But the end of the year is approaching and it makes me anxious about tying up loose ends, so this week I made a concerted effort to finish up my half-read books.

I'm really happy I picked this book as an introduction to the classical economists. Apart from writing in an enjoyable style (I learnt the word "pusillanimous", which means cowardly - which made me wonder about the etymology of "pussy") Robert Heilbroner is also a proper old school socialist and I appreciate that perspective. Economics is an attempt to explain capitalism. It's striking that, to date, there still isn't a satisfactory explanation. Like any good introductory text, The Worldly Philosophers points you to plenty of further reading, and my list is now filled with (sociologists, historians and philosophers) Weber, Braudel and Polanyi in addition to (the economists themselves) Veblen, Keynes, Marx, Smith and Mill.

I finished The Old Patagonian Express last night. The premise: starting from the a southbound commuter train in Boston, Paul Theroux travels the length of the Americas and winds up in South Argentina. The way is littered with horrible modern-day white colonists, poverty and squalor, rat-chewed hotels and arduous train rides. Every time I read a Paul Theroux travelogue I feel deeply validated. The way he's attracted and repelled by people in equal measure, how the books he reads are characters in the story, his lack of interest in checking off any sightseeing boxes:

I was more interested in the going and getting there, in the poetry of departures.

More travel inspiration, this time in the form of a self-published travelogue I found in Riwayat Bookstore in KL. Actually, I saw this book before, in George Town, Penang, but I hesitated. I'm glad I got a second chance. The story isn't particularly special but that's why it speaks to me. Wilson spends a couple of weeks in the Philippines visiting and hanging out with his friend Josy, hanging out at her university, trying out Pancit Canton and keso sorbetes (cheese ice cream), taking jeepneys around, writing in cafes, wondering why every fucking thing comes in ube (purple yam) flavour... It could be "just" a blog - and actually, it's right here on the writer's Wordpress - but somehow owning it in book form makes me happy. I was planning to visit Manila on my virgin Philippines trip, but after reading it, I might go to Baguio instead.

After my Tolstoy trauma I haven't been reading much literature. But Bel-Ami was an easy read: the story of a rustic but wealth-maddened country boy clawing his way to the top of society by pretension and seduction. Sounds juicily escapist - for 1885. In 2024, I am sorry to say, Bel-Ami has lost much of its shock value. Such cynical social climbing is merely par for the course in any modern meritocracy.

Finally, I read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to complete my Basic Bronte Sisters collection (in addition to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights). Not sure if it's because I read Anne considerably later in life than Charlotte and Emily, but I think that Anne's the most skilled writer. Part I is epistolary, and through his letters you can tell that Gilbert Markham is your basic big-man-about-town-type idiot - his siblings Fergus and Rose are way smarter.

Part II onwards we move on to the mysterious Helen's backstory, and here's where it gets tedious. Helen is young and dumb, gets seduced by a nogoodnik, marries him, and lives to regret it. It was frustrating (though I guess realistic?) that she stuck around for years trying to cure him of alcoholism and violence, before escaping with her child. But that's modern-day sensibilities speaking. In its time (1848) this turn of events must have been shocking. Not only did Helen run away from her abusive husband, she even turned to trade (painting pictures) to make a living! Unthinkable!

My favourite characters were the uber-bitches Eliza Millward (slutty daughter of the village vicar, gets ignored by Gilbert and decides to take her rival Helen down with vicious gossip) and Annabella Wilmot (Grade A society bitch, makes Helen's life hell, sleeps with her husband under her roof oh my god). More of them, please!

MON: barre (oh god, I died), wash air con, check in Sniffy and Pixie, go for pub quiz (realised everyone leaves Wives & Girlfriends behind so... probably not gonna attend the next one)

TUE: aerial yoga (see below), lunch with dad and popo, send Jill home, e-book, Fulton for dinner

WED: yoga (difficult w/ barre muscle aches), leftovers for lunch, dicking around online before meeting Joel for dinner and ogling planners

THU: writing meetup & lunch at Fortune Centre, housework, then yoga & dinner at Fulton again because we had to help Jon's brother apply for a BTO (results in December)