After some cajoling from Lynnette, I decided very late - at 2pm, in fact - to go for the Singapore Writers Festival to attend a panel discussion called Dreaming Singapore.
I was quite reluctant to go at first, because I thought I wouldn’t have been able to finish studying for the EN3269: Southeast Asian Lit in English paper, but I somehow managed to finish Kuo Pao Kun at 2pm on the dot.
The panel featured Goh Poh Seng, Philip Jeyaretnam and Daren Shiau, and was moderated by Philip Holden, my supervisor for my Singapore Lit ISM.
Truth be told, I didn’t feel it was as enriching as the previous seminar/panel discussion I attended at ISEAS but there was a cool moment out of it though.
We managed to snag a photo with Goh Poh Seng at the end of it.
Anti-Clockwise from L-R: Me, Goh Poh Seng, Lynnette Kang, Kelly Tay, Christine Chong Bee Mei and Philip Holden.
I felt quite bad to be badgering him for a photo actually, cos Goh Poh Seng has Parkinson’s disease and it feels to me like even though he was really fatigued, he was pushing himself to accommodate all his fans.
We shook his hand at the end of it all, and as I clasped his hand, I tried to will some youth and strength back into him.
It’s really sad to see him in this state, and I hope he gets better, if a cure can be found for the disease. Somehow.
I read Goh Poh Seng’s 12 best short stories, yes, that’s the title of the book, when I was a boy. I liked it a lot but I don’t know if I’ll still like it now.
Comment by hansel — Wed, 05 December 2007 @ 9:27 pm
Maybe you’ll look at it in a different light?
That’s what happened for me after I re-read Flowers for Algernon - read it in Secondary School and again in Uni and I had very different kicks from the experiences.
Comment by Laremy — Fri, 07 December 2007 @ 1:19 pm