Wednesday, December 26, 2007

second thoughts

1. ... about the "hot rod" photo
I suddenly remembered that joke about two dudes with tattooed dicks taking a piss next to each other, where one had his girlfriend's name tattooed on it, and asked whether the other person's "wendy" was *his* girlfriend, but no, it actually was all that showed in flaccid form of the greeting "welcome to jamaica have a nice day!" ... and so I got to wondering how "readable" "hot rod" actually was, and whether that doctor had, ummm, manhandled a sedated patient in order to get a good pic of the dick. Yikes!

2. ... about The Name of the Wind
I've been reading books with a more critical eye lately, probably the result of my intention of getting a novel out sometime in the next millennium :p I forgot to add in my gushing review of this book that I caught two errors that really shouldn't exist in a book that should have gone through numerous stages of editing. Can you believe the it's vs its mistake is in there??? Just once, but that's once to many!! And the other was something that sounds right in American, but is wrong if written, no matter what version of English you speak: there was one passage where the characters "made due with what they had" ... ummm, it's make DO, people!! gaarrrrhhhhh! Does finding errors like this annoy you?

... and on a totally different note - I am currently reading a book from Kosh's Asian Mythology class he'd taken way back when as an undergrad. So it's a "proper" book and all, published by a division of Simon&Schuster, but iccck, its quality is like that of a photo shop reproduction - only the cover gives it a published legitimacy. And I've discovered so many typos already, ugh! :p

But...

... trudging through the pages, I've had one eye-opening tidbit jump out at me: did you know that Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was an incarnation/avatar of Vishnu (according to Hindu beliefs)? And that Vishnu had reincarnated in this person in order to lead disbelievers of Hinduism into destruction? Yes, those who reject the caste system, the Hindu system of gods, etc, are on a path to destruction, courtesy of Vishnu.

There's something totally wrong about that.

... and on another note: I attended a function yesterday that involved exposure to some sanskrit and hindi... and was amused at a few more words I recognised from Malay, AND rituals I think were (are?) used to "worship" the Sultans/royalty... as much as today's politicians and narrow-minded religious people don't want to admit, Malays were Hindus well before they were Muslims, and the language (and culture!) shows this history. Recently, over the past 10 - 15 years, there's been a movement to use Arabic words because they are "Islamic". How short-sighted. Never any pride in history, only shame. What a shame.

Again, there's something very wrong with this.

It's the same mentality that had the centuries-old statues of Buddha in Afghanistan destroyed, ainnit?

*sigh!*

Anyways. So, I wanted to list some Malay words I recently rediscovered as being of sanskrit origin, unfortunately my memory is failing me right now, so all I can share is this:
gajah = elephant


I still think it's cool.

5 comments:

  1. I hate finding errors in ANY publication. It just drives me nuts. Don't these people have editors?!

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  2. I won't go as far as saying that all Malays were Hindus before Islam came to the region since I can't be sure of that and there were also Pagans as well way before that. But back in history classes in high school, I did learn some influences of Indian cultures into our own, like those in wedding ceremonies, vocabs, and all, thanks to the Indian merchants coming to the good old glorious Malacca.

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  3. fir> well,,, I'll concede that not *all* malays were hindus,,, but at the same time, i wouldn't give much credence to what was "taught" in school, especially when in comes to "national identity" and religion... for example, ever wondered about that great hero who founded melaka? Parameswara? We were taught that he was a prince from palembang,,, but that he was a Hindu was not mentioned. Small matter? Not exactly... glossing over details like that makes the whole syllabus suspect (to me, anyway!)

    Kim> zigackly! how much are these people being paid? Because I'd like ot think I can do a better job! :D btw - you've been a great commented recently, thank you!! hugggzzzzz!! Once I shake off this fog of passivity (and it is on its way off, I'm sure of it!) I'll do more than lurk at yr place, k? :-)

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  4. p/s... typos galore - how ironic... LoL!

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  5. Finding such errors greatly annoys me! I recently read an article in the paper about book publication and how the priority these days is to get books out and make money, not to put out quality publications. Sad. We need an editorial uprising, or something. Maybe if we all return books with typos? (I couldn't though - the book I'm currently reading has a stupid mistake but I love the book!) ^__^

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about two months later...

 ... hi again. This return to blogging is really not working out, is it? Actually, I am writing, three pages of mind vomit and affirmations ...