Maybe that's why poets have such a great time in VN - because it runs
on magic principles.
Steve KK
At 8:49 PM +1200 05/6/2001, Joseph Duemer wrote:
>I've just been reading Linh Dinh's "Magic Realist Country" & am not sure
>what it is supposed to add up to, though it suggests that to Linh the
>Vietnamese (except for him) are a silly & unscientific bunch. But having
>lived in Viet Nam about a quarter of the time since 1997, I can tell you
>that all the things he says are literally true. The Vietnamese, with a
>few exceptions, are deeply unscientific & what you might think of as
>magic is simply the facts here. It's a sweet relief, I can tell you,
>after New York.
>
>The 21st c. is an odd phenomenon in VN--the country was busy resisting
>the French & then the Americans during the West's period of High
>Modernism & has perhaps skipped irony entirely & moved into something
>that doesn't feel quite like "post-modernism," but which can
>nevertheless absorb & transform Taoist magic, television & the
>teleological myths of Marxism. Go figure.
>
>jd
>________________________
>Joseph Duemer
>School of Liberal Arts-5750
>Clarkson University
>(On leave 2000 - 2001)
>Doan Thi Hanh Guesthouse
>172 Pho Ngoc Ha So cu 4
>Ba Dinh - Hanoi, Viet Nam
>[log in to unmask]
>________________________
--
|