2007 books

101) Eileen Chang, Lust, Caution, 1979
This short novel was begun in the early 1950s but not completed and published until 1979, and Ang Lee's film version (trailer) has just won several trophies at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards. Set in occupied Shanghai during the Second World War it's the story of a young student's role in the entrapment of a Chinese minister who is a sympathiser of the occupying Japanese. The turbulent Chinese politics of the time always formed the backdrop to Chang's novels and was never usually the story itself, so the political theme makes Lust, Caution an unusual story for her. It's a convincingly told tale, and one in which the motives of all the characters are morally dubious. Chang was one of the most popular writers in China during her life but is largely out of print now in the English-speaking world, though Penguin are soon releasing a few titles in their Modern Classics series which I'll certainly check out on the strength of this.

Life imitates SF

PKD Dept.: Hypersonic sound beams used for outdoor advertising: they make you hear voices in your head.   (via supergee)

Don't Panic: a group in Portland, Oregon, is campaigning to rename Portland's 42nd Avenue 'Douglas Adams Boulevard'.

Lives of Photographs, 13

This photo of Sydney Opera House was to be included in a book called Treasures of the Dragon, published by the Hong Kong creative studio China Stylus. Despite initial hints of hard cash, I was later informed that payment was only to be a copy of the book, while they went off making money out of my work. I don't need vanity publishing so I pulled my permission.