The Things I Carried
So, I was hoping to go out exploring Cheonsang today, but as it turns out the rain I anticipated yesterday has now arrived. Even though everything is still muggy and sticky, it is a little cooler today. At any rate, it gives me a good excuse to unpack the one bag that did arrive, and to recount here (mostly for my own memory's sake) the books and music that I chose to bring with me.
Choosing which of these items to bring was probably the most difficult part of packing. I mean, these are most likely the only pieces of entertainment I will have with me for an entire year (exempting, of course, anything I may buy here, but that's besides the point), so it was with some amount of forethought that I made my selections.
Books: I couldn't bring much due to weight restrictions, so I limited myself to paperbacks, and then basically to novels (am I really going to break out Distinction on a cold, lonely winter night? I don't think so).
1. Rushdie: Fury, The Moor's Last Sigh and Imaginary Homelands. These are the only Rushdie works that I have in paperback. Fury isn't his best, but not his worst either. Moor's Last Sigh is actually one of my personal favorites, I think it is woefully underrated and his best attempt at writing something like One Hundred Years of Solitude (on another note, I like how it rewards those of us who paid attention to the characters in Midnight's Children). Imaginary Homelands is a must-have in my opinion, a great collection of essays, many of which are chilling in their premonitions.
2. Pramoedya: Child of All Nations and Footsteps, books two and three in the Buru Quartet. I thought I had packed This Earth if Mankind also, but apparently not. I really need to buy House of Glass; anyone who wants to make my day could send me a copy! Pramoedya passed recently. Anyway, these are some of my favorite "colonial" novels, and Pramoedya has the most amazing story of personal/literary hardship I think I've ever heard.
3. Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart. So much has been said about this novel that it's not really worth me adding my insignificant two cents, but basically it's one of the most perfect novels ever written.
4. Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities. See my first post.
5. The Marx-Engels Reader (the Robert C. Tucker edit). How could I live without my Marx? Answer: I couldn't. And yeah, the signs at Incheon warning against bringing seditious literature into Korea made me sweat a little about this one.
Music: These are the actual, physical CDs I brought with me, in addition to a whole slew of music on my laptop (I am still behind the times and do not own an iPod). I was surprised at how many actually fit in the case, so many that I don't anticipate missing anything (but that will probably change). Here are some highlights:
1. Getz/Gilberto. One of you (hopefully) reading this knows why this is the most sentimental album I own.
2. Marvin Gaye: What's Going On. Absolutley beautiful music, even with the heavy Christian overtones.
3. Biggie: Life After Death. It's controversial to say so in certain circles, but this was Christopher Wallace's true opus, not Ready to Die. On a related note...
4. 2Pac: Me Against the World is far and away 'Pac's best album. That's right, I said it.
5. Horace Silver: Doin' the Thing (Live). Along with Getz/Gilberto, one of the only jazz albums I have that survived my collection's decimation from Colombian thievery in Chicago.
6. Otis Redding: Very Best Of... Life without Otis is incomplete. "Try A Little Tenderness" never ceases to make me jump around my room like an idiot.
7. Prince: 3121. A birthday gift, and unfortunately the only Prince I own. It's good though, worth a listen.
8. Various "coke rap" artists and general thuggery including Rick Ross, Da Backwudz, Lloyd Banks, J-Zone's Ign'ant Mix (worth it for Master P's rendition of "Let's Get it On" alone), Mobb Deep (The Infamous and Hell on Earth), CNN, Lil' Wayne (Tha Carter II) and the Clipse/Clinton Sparks mixtapes. Good old-fashioned senseless tales about slangin'. And speaking of senseless tales...
9. DJ Eleven and Matthew Africa: Dirty Raps: The Best of Too $hort. Oak-town's finest, along with Slick Rick the best storyteller ever in the game. Nasty, nasty music.
10. Roots Manuva: Brand New Second Hand, which has it's time and place. If only all British rap sounded like this.
Also, lots of Ghostface, OutKast, early to mid-nineties hip-hop, Redman, Common, and random mixtapes. I'm sure there will be some that I never touch, and some that I play out completely.
Random Korean pop culture note: I saw Yunjin Kim in a Korean music video on my flight to Incheon. I'm sure I'll see her all over the place before too long.
The skies look to be clearing out now, so I might pop out for a spell after all.
Choosing which of these items to bring was probably the most difficult part of packing. I mean, these are most likely the only pieces of entertainment I will have with me for an entire year (exempting, of course, anything I may buy here, but that's besides the point), so it was with some amount of forethought that I made my selections.
Books: I couldn't bring much due to weight restrictions, so I limited myself to paperbacks, and then basically to novels (am I really going to break out Distinction on a cold, lonely winter night? I don't think so).
1. Rushdie: Fury, The Moor's Last Sigh and Imaginary Homelands. These are the only Rushdie works that I have in paperback. Fury isn't his best, but not his worst either. Moor's Last Sigh is actually one of my personal favorites, I think it is woefully underrated and his best attempt at writing something like One Hundred Years of Solitude (on another note, I like how it rewards those of us who paid attention to the characters in Midnight's Children). Imaginary Homelands is a must-have in my opinion, a great collection of essays, many of which are chilling in their premonitions.
2. Pramoedya: Child of All Nations and Footsteps, books two and three in the Buru Quartet. I thought I had packed This Earth if Mankind also, but apparently not. I really need to buy House of Glass; anyone who wants to make my day could send me a copy! Pramoedya passed recently. Anyway, these are some of my favorite "colonial" novels, and Pramoedya has the most amazing story of personal/literary hardship I think I've ever heard.
3. Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart. So much has been said about this novel that it's not really worth me adding my insignificant two cents, but basically it's one of the most perfect novels ever written.
4. Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities. See my first post.
5. The Marx-Engels Reader (the Robert C. Tucker edit). How could I live without my Marx? Answer: I couldn't. And yeah, the signs at Incheon warning against bringing seditious literature into Korea made me sweat a little about this one.
Music: These are the actual, physical CDs I brought with me, in addition to a whole slew of music on my laptop (I am still behind the times and do not own an iPod). I was surprised at how many actually fit in the case, so many that I don't anticipate missing anything (but that will probably change). Here are some highlights:
1. Getz/Gilberto. One of you (hopefully) reading this knows why this is the most sentimental album I own.
2. Marvin Gaye: What's Going On. Absolutley beautiful music, even with the heavy Christian overtones.
3. Biggie: Life After Death. It's controversial to say so in certain circles, but this was Christopher Wallace's true opus, not Ready to Die. On a related note...
4. 2Pac: Me Against the World is far and away 'Pac's best album. That's right, I said it.
5. Horace Silver: Doin' the Thing (Live). Along with Getz/Gilberto, one of the only jazz albums I have that survived my collection's decimation from Colombian thievery in Chicago.
6. Otis Redding: Very Best Of... Life without Otis is incomplete. "Try A Little Tenderness" never ceases to make me jump around my room like an idiot.
7. Prince: 3121. A birthday gift, and unfortunately the only Prince I own. It's good though, worth a listen.
8. Various "coke rap" artists and general thuggery including Rick Ross, Da Backwudz, Lloyd Banks, J-Zone's Ign'ant Mix (worth it for Master P's rendition of "Let's Get it On" alone), Mobb Deep (The Infamous and Hell on Earth), CNN, Lil' Wayne (Tha Carter II) and the Clipse/Clinton Sparks mixtapes. Good old-fashioned senseless tales about slangin'. And speaking of senseless tales...
9. DJ Eleven and Matthew Africa: Dirty Raps: The Best of Too $hort. Oak-town's finest, along with Slick Rick the best storyteller ever in the game. Nasty, nasty music.
10. Roots Manuva: Brand New Second Hand, which has it's time and place. If only all British rap sounded like this.
Also, lots of Ghostface, OutKast, early to mid-nineties hip-hop, Redman, Common, and random mixtapes. I'm sure there will be some that I never touch, and some that I play out completely.
Random Korean pop culture note: I saw Yunjin Kim in a Korean music video on my flight to Incheon. I'm sure I'll see her all over the place before too long.
The skies look to be clearing out now, so I might pop out for a spell after all.
posted by TSF in Ulsan | 11:51 AM
1 Comments:
A fellow Marxist in Korea.. welcome.
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