JUNE 26th
I should stop calling this my diary, because it's just not daily; it's becoming more and more like a personal essay.
(days after, I found out that it don't need to write everyday down and a diary can still be called a diary haha.)
Recently, struck by a kind of nostalgia, I have been repeatedly playing the song "monster" by Meg&Dia on Youtube, with the audio ridiculously loud. In the 2010s, I used to borrow ipods from my sister pretty often. This song was on that beautiful playlist, but I had totally forgotten it until somehow the 240p MV showed up on my recommended page🤣
What I want to bring up is while I was searching for the lyrics, I found out that the song is talking about a character from John Steinbeck's novel "East of Eden". WOW, how long has it been since last time I picked up "The Grapes of Wrath", of even a Social Realism novel? I read much more Queer fiction, Romance, and Existentialist fiction/essays lately.
But to be honest, Social Realism has always been my favorite genre. The urge to pick up a good classic made me rush to the school library. I was trying to find "East of Eden", wouldn't it be nice if I could read the book itself while listening to Monster XD
A day later, I started harassing my friends about how good is "Of Mice And Man". You might want to ask "I thought you were reading East of Eden", Yes, I "AM" now reading East of Eden so stop questioning me XD
I never Knew that Steinbeck was this good at describing mentally ill humans. I can't call them madmen or maniacs, because the characters are still pretty functional on the outside... Their personalities are really vivid, I can imagine the traumas they've been through...Candy, Crooks, George and others(except for Curley's wife) all have a vibe of loneliness, or shall I say, some experience that others could never understand. And therefore it creates the feeling that every character is truly an "individual".
And what interested me the most was how S wrote female characters, or more accurately, woman who have the potential of becoming a love interest...Enn... I don't have a degree in literature, and only finished his The Grapes of Wrath and Of mice and man(East of Eden is still ongoing). But I felt that S has a very Mystical perspective on woman. Like Curley's wife, she really is just a phenomenon, she doesn't even have a name. Though the story gives her a motive as to why she likes to wander around the farm and flirts with the staff. Everyone can tell that the motive —loneliness— is just pale...compared to the other characters. And Cathy in East of Eden, too, is a incomprehensible character. I think in the preface, or some page in S's diary, he said:
"Just as there are physical monsters born into the world, given each a star in is own right, so there are mental or psychic monsters born into the world."
It's like he doesn't know how to write a woman, except for mother figures. It made me think about the book "Misogyny" , by Chizuko Ueno. She writes that men in the patriarchal society used to view women as "the strange Other", and state that Toshio Shimao is a pretty unique writer. Because unlike other writers of that period, liked to brag about how they knew everything about woman , and of course had a lot of experience. He directly admitted his wife is "incomprehensible". Chizuko-san considers him" more honest and authentic".
Haha, to be honest, I only brought up all this crap because I just want to talk about her. Recently, I kind of got much closer with one of my friends/seniors, King, may I call her. She's really a lovely and cute girl, filled with curiosity and energy. In the last few months, every time I met her at classroom 307, her eyes always reminded me of the famous sentence "白水銀裡頭養著兩丸黑水銀", in "The Travels of Lao Can". I think they're the most vivid words to describe her two big and lively eyes. It's Hard to imagine what kind of soul living deep in that pair of pupils...
(JULY 7th)
Can't remember since when we've become friends, maybe It was because we both use FRP as our main material to make art? It's really joyful to have her as friend, easygoing and fun to have some pointless small talk with. Though she doesn't really read much what I read...(that's probably a good thing, in my opinion), her nuanced sensations and compassionate personality are still well-noticed by her works and talks. Haha, she recently bought an E-book reader, so maybe I should say it's a still-developing hobby🤣
(claim again, there's noting bad about not reading that much. Kinda the opposite, I think it's 10 times more healthier not to devour books, just go get a life bro XD)
I truly enjoy chatting with her, maybe I enjoy it a bit too much🤣 My addiction to Instagram has become worse and worse. Checking every few minutes if there's any new text from her whenever I have free time XD. I think I just need to be more patient, and isn't there a proverb that says that chatting is all about the pacing? Just act natural bro🤣 It's definitely better for both you and her XD
And I kind of accidentally leaked too much of myself to her by sending her my Tumblr. I didn't think too much and sent her one of my diaries, to emphasize some of my points while we were chatting. And too I think it's nothing too secret to show. For real, I post this on social media! But I never thought it might be too much personal information and a bit heavy for someone who knows you in RL. You wouldn't want to know every conflict in even your BFF's brain, so it's kind of like that. Ehh, I should be more considerate, I feel kinda sorry for her. But deep in my heart, it's given me quite a sense of happiness. Why? go read"All Men Are Mortal", by Simone de Beauvoir XD
So, after mentioning this bunch of things about her, as a man who view authenticity as the most important virtue, I just want to say, girls are really incomprehensible creatures👻















