the textual siege.

after not blogging for so long, i only have two questions to ask.

a : how do book critics/reviewers decide which books to laud and which to put down?

i mean, do they go to book reviewer school, cos if they do, where do i sign up? reading books in bed for a livelihood sounds pretty damn good to me. see also, food critic, movie critic.

best seller lists, i understand. they are driven by sales figures. but surely these sales figures were motivated by say, a glowing book review, that if printed in a widely circulated newspaper, will be privy to thousands, if not millions?

what i'm trying to drive at, rather incoherently might i add, is why do we need reviews?

is human curiosity no longer enough for us to find out for ourselves what we like and dislike?

or have we become so harried that we no longer have time to browse in bookshops, read blurbs, admire cover art that we need someone to prod us in one direction like sheep?

i can safely say that my favouritest, favourite and not-so-favourite-but-i-still-love books were not selected and enjoyed by the good graces of someone else's opinion.

b : is same race racism ok?

after reading an acquaintance's blog entry that smacked of rather blatant racism, i got all huffy. oddly, this is the first time i've gotten angsty over someone's mindless, insecure barbs over my race and sex. although it's not our bloody fault that chinese girls are genetically predisposed to be not-fat and fair, it was still quite unlike my alter-ego, that righteous chinawoman with the thicket of growth on her pits to emerge. hell, i didn't even know she existed.

SO ANYWAYS.

after giving the race issue some thought [because i didn't want to be like that eejit blogger], i thought of same race racism.

same race racism means oprah allegedly not supporting rappers of the same colour, chinese putting down bengs/ cheena piangs, malays putting down mats/minahs, indians putting down makkels etc.

i noticed it is the *higher educated ones who are culprits of this discrimination, and me and my friends are guilty as charged. somehow, education [which arguably leads to better formed opinions], oneupmanship and race will never be independant of one another.

*by higher educated i mean, being more educated than people of your race are stereotyped to be.

is it right that just because i'm chinese, i can put down and criticise other chinese people of being 'cheena' and 'mungen' just cos they dont behave/speak like me?

but of course, i'll never stop making jokes at the expense of my race. slitty eyes, less than adequate packages for the boys and arseless girls.