Ever heard of Balhae? It was new to me. After Silla takes over the Korean peninsula during the Tang Dynasty period the remnants of Goguryeo kingdom recoup in what is today, northern North Korea and Jilin and Changchun provinces claiming territory all the way to Vladivostok. The word triggers an irrational association with the word “ballyhoo” and I’m suddenly off consider “The Lullaby of Broadway.” I do my best to recall more of their proper distinction as we drive along, for the period of our drive when Korean history discussions are permitted.
I’m now nine books into “Attack on Titan”, my daughter’s manga series. My little one is sixteen. If I hope to be able to move beyond monosyllabic exchanges, I’ve got to take a few steps in her direction. The story is gruesome and implausible. Bits of revealing information are dangled out there. But for the most part a neophyte like me who is only still stumbling around in book eight, is necessarily lost. My daughter is not inclined to explain much. “You don’t want me to ruin it? You need to find out for yourself.”
I called an old friend in Hong Kong on the way home. He’d written and shared a clip that tried to analyze the mounting tension in the Taiwan Straits. He knows China very well. But our opinions on basic matters seem to be veering apart. He seem to me to have lost a sense of nuance as he views what’s happening in the region. He seems to think China’s current bellicose posture is unprecedented, which seems absurd. I remind him of Matsu and Quemoy island bombings, for example. But it’s never satisfying to text message about these matters. You score quick points instead of listening or thinking deeply.
And it’s good to talk. We don’t agree, but I respect the journey he’s made and he does the same for me. Just the other night my daughters and my wife were speaking with my mother-in-law in Shandong, a lovely, intelligent woman, and she cried when they called and she spoke about how she wanted to see them, after the current conflict period, for as you know, she told my daughters, China and America are currently at war. The US is surrounding China, preparing to attack. This made me feel particularly melancholy. My friends distance and dismal resignation concerning China all crescendos into something very somber this morning. I try to talk to my wife about it. It is good to hear her ideas. Good to be reminded of the immediate humanity of a people who are being rebranded, repositioned as other and enemy.
A tonic, presumably, my friend in Hong Kong sent me a clip of the Stones playing at their infamous Rock and Roll Circus performance. I sent him the clip of John Lennon playing “Yer Blues” there that day with Mitch Mitchell and Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. And then I pulled up the magisterial clip of “A Quick One While She’s Away” by the Who. And soon I was revisiting Hendrix rock-porn I’ve feasted on hundreds of times before. A tonic, indeed. “Something to make us all happy.”
Wednesday, 10/21/20
No comments:
Post a Comment