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So I had two wisdom teeth removed yesterday, and they're supposedly healing just fine today. I went in for 4.30, the doctor had me do an X-Ray which seemed quite a fuss, then extracted the top one, but spent some time on the bottom one.
The teeth had been chomping on the inside of my cheek a lot lately, with really painful results. I'd gone to a different dentist on Monday for some cleaning, and was told about needing surgery. I'd also booked an appointment with the first dentist for August 5 and was told they'd call if something opened up, and lo, something did, the next day.
There's still some swelling, but the sutures are holding and I seem to be fine. We had a blackout yesterday too, and I think I'm running a slight fever from that.
I got really mad though, because my dad made Nyonya inchi kabin last night and I couldn't eat it >:{ I couldn't eat all night! And I won't be able to eat much for the next few days. I'm going to bug someone to take me out for ice cream.
That said, I did get to read IBAN JOURNEY (which is actually a sequel to a previous book called IBAN DREAM) by a local writer. It has proofreading issues, a lot of very awkward language. Quite a bit of repetitiveness and wording that doesn't have to be there, so the editor did a really poor job, and these are micro issues.
There's a great deal of detail, mostly going in so that you understand this is an IBAN STORY about IBAN PEOPLE and look at all these IBAN THINGS THAT IBAN FOLK DO. Structurally, it resembles more of an origin myth, and is probably better suited as an oral performance than a written novel. The long drawn-out details aren't really terrible; it's a plus or a minus depending on what you're expecting out of a novel that's supposed to take you into a world that's rarely written about in fantasy--at the same time, it doesn't have the feel of a genre novel, more of a literary feel, and even so, like I said, the awkward language really takes away from it. There're a lot of words which feel too clinical for the story ("banana inflouresence"? do we call it that in regular language? IDK), which really jar me out of the story.
The character motivations are very simplistic, and clearly we're dealing with archetypes--so, great as an origin myth, not so great as an actual story. There are just some things which I know are supposed to be based on myth, but make no sense even within the setting. For example, apparently the protagonist was supposed to Do An Important Thing and he wasted time not Doing The Thing, and gets scolded by a spirit-god for it. But... there're no clues that he was supposed to Do Said Thing (he gets the Thing he Was Supposed To Get by sheer luck). So it's unclear to me, as the reader, why I'm supposed to think that the protagonist was making stupid decisions, when he was making perfectly fine decisions with all the integrity he can muster at the time.
The denouement was also not very satisfying--a bit too reliant on ex machina, so to speak, which allows Our Hero to live the rest of his life without complication. It kind of bugs me that it's quite unsatisfying because halfway through the novel, it changes premise from "plucky cursed hero sets off to find his place in the world" to "group of variously cursed people decide to start a community together", which is the sort of thing I like to see! But there's something about the structure of the novel that makes it feel too pat.
I can see why this is being lauded as a "unique novel" because of the Iban angle, and it certainly is a clunky first try at introducing lesser-seen cultural elements into a genre that isn't used to it. However, there is a definite lack of craft overall.
The teeth had been chomping on the inside of my cheek a lot lately, with really painful results. I'd gone to a different dentist on Monday for some cleaning, and was told about needing surgery. I'd also booked an appointment with the first dentist for August 5 and was told they'd call if something opened up, and lo, something did, the next day.
There's still some swelling, but the sutures are holding and I seem to be fine. We had a blackout yesterday too, and I think I'm running a slight fever from that.
I got really mad though, because my dad made Nyonya inchi kabin last night and I couldn't eat it >:{ I couldn't eat all night! And I won't be able to eat much for the next few days. I'm going to bug someone to take me out for ice cream.
That said, I did get to read IBAN JOURNEY (which is actually a sequel to a previous book called IBAN DREAM) by a local writer. It has proofreading issues, a lot of very awkward language. Quite a bit of repetitiveness and wording that doesn't have to be there, so the editor did a really poor job, and these are micro issues.
There's a great deal of detail, mostly going in so that you understand this is an IBAN STORY about IBAN PEOPLE and look at all these IBAN THINGS THAT IBAN FOLK DO. Structurally, it resembles more of an origin myth, and is probably better suited as an oral performance than a written novel. The long drawn-out details aren't really terrible; it's a plus or a minus depending on what you're expecting out of a novel that's supposed to take you into a world that's rarely written about in fantasy--at the same time, it doesn't have the feel of a genre novel, more of a literary feel, and even so, like I said, the awkward language really takes away from it. There're a lot of words which feel too clinical for the story ("banana inflouresence"? do we call it that in regular language? IDK), which really jar me out of the story.
The character motivations are very simplistic, and clearly we're dealing with archetypes--so, great as an origin myth, not so great as an actual story. There are just some things which I know are supposed to be based on myth, but make no sense even within the setting. For example, apparently the protagonist was supposed to Do An Important Thing and he wasted time not Doing The Thing, and gets scolded by a spirit-god for it. But... there're no clues that he was supposed to Do Said Thing (he gets the Thing he Was Supposed To Get by sheer luck). So it's unclear to me, as the reader, why I'm supposed to think that the protagonist was making stupid decisions, when he was making perfectly fine decisions with all the integrity he can muster at the time.
The denouement was also not very satisfying--a bit too reliant on ex machina, so to speak, which allows Our Hero to live the rest of his life without complication. It kind of bugs me that it's quite unsatisfying because halfway through the novel, it changes premise from "plucky cursed hero sets off to find his place in the world" to "group of variously cursed people decide to start a community together", which is the sort of thing I like to see! But there's something about the structure of the novel that makes it feel too pat.
I can see why this is being lauded as a "unique novel" because of the Iban angle, and it certainly is a clunky first try at introducing lesser-seen cultural elements into a genre that isn't used to it. However, there is a definite lack of craft overall.
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