By The Book

Since September 2019, we've dedicated a book club every three months or so to the adventures and travails of Morpheus, the Prince of Stories... the Sandman. In this episode, we conclude our journey through the Dreaming with Worlds' End, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake, and discuss what this complicated, entrancing story means to us. In Footnotes, we look at the possibility of adaptations and whether we'd welcome seeing Dream and the Endless on screen.

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Two recently published local anthologies - Peluru Aksara and Malaysian Millennial Voices - highlight Malaysian writers and poets to keep an eye on. We speak with a few of them about their works, what drew them to the kind of writing they do, and the value of having platforms that highlight emerging writers.

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Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro's first book after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, sees him returning to some familiar themes: technology, artificial intelligence, what it means to be human, what it means to serve your purpose, and ultimately... how we relate to one another. We discuss this book with first-time Ishiguro reader, Marc De Faoite, and then in Footnotes, discuss gateway books - the books that introduce us to a writer's body of work and why they matter.

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It’s likely that many people have read Hans Christian Andersen’s works without realising it - just think of childhood classics like The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, and The Emperor’s New Clothes. But Andersen’s tales, while meant for children, often feature themes of struggle, sadness, and life’s inequalities - a reflection perhaps of his own tumultuous personal life and career. With April 2 being Andersen’s birthday, we dedicate this month’s Bibliography episode to his life, his works, and his amazing legacy as a writer of stories for children.

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In this lively and humorous collection of stories, VC George recounts his experiences and memories - from growing up in Malaya, to school and work, and from presiding over the Malaysian Bar to after hours spent at the Long Bar. We catch up with him to discuss what it was like to put these stories down on paper, and how his family and friends feel seeing themselves on the page. And then in Footnotes, we review the book!

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In a world of bite-sized news and clickbait headlines, longform articles can often seem like a hard sell - but they are not without their fans, particularly for their ability to bring together writing style and narrative. We look at what it takes to write longform articles, and how they fit into today’s increasingly digital world, by speaking with writer Emily Fishbein. In Footnotes, we close the discussion off by sharing some favourite long reads.

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The first instalment in the Daevabad trilogy, The City of Brass sets up the story of Nahri, a girl with special abilities who may not be what she always thought she was, Ali, a prince chafing against his own ethics and the long-held beliefs of his city, and Dara, a being with a tragic past. And it blends it all up with fantasy, Middle Eastern mythology, and a tightly plotted story. We discuss this book for our March Book Club, and in Footnotes, discuss the joy and anxiety of reading trilogies and series.

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Ask most people what The Great Gatsby is about, and you’re likely to hear of flappers, parties, and Jazz Age-glamour. But eye candy-filled screen adaptations aside, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s treasured classic is actually a dark exploration of relationships and the hollowness of the American dream. Inspired by a BBC article, we discuss why this novel is so prone to being misrepresented, then close the discussion off with a larger conversation on often misunderstood books.

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Poet, recluse, mystery - Emily Dickinson's writing was only discovered after her death, and has been studied for over a century since. With her allusive, unconventional style, singular punctuation, and preoccupation with the themes of death and mortality, her work (and her personal life) has long fascinated readers. In this episode of Bibliography, we talk about the life and work of Emily Dickinson, and try to understand what we can actually learn and understand from a body of work read entirely without its writer to contextualise it.

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What can books and literature contribute towards raising awareness on and eventually ending violence against women? To mark International Women’s Day, we look at The Read For Pixels programme, by The Pixel Project, an online initiative that organises YouTube sessions with authors, to discuss their writing, why they support ending violence against women, and women in the media and popular culture. We find out more from The Pixel Project’s founder, Regina Yau. And then in Footnotes, we each share a woman writer we’ve recently enjoyed reading.

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