The Novels of E.M. Forster

I recently read seven works by E.M. Forster in order of publication:

  • Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905)
  • The Longest Journey (1907)
  • A Room with a View (1908)
  • Howards End (1910)
  • A Passage to India (1924)
  • Maurice (written in 1913–14, published posthumously in 1971)
  • Aspects of the Novel (1927)

Forster is known for the mantra “Only connect,” a quote from Howard’s End. Perhaps his best-known novel, which I read previously, is A Passage To India. My favorite of the novels is A Room with a View, which I read and posted about previously.

See below for some thoughts on Forster’s writing.

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Gray ceramic donkey

Item description / significance
The seller labeled this as a horse, one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals, but this is obviously a donkey. Approx. 13 cm tall, 24 cm long.

I say “obviously”, but why, exactly? Upon consideration, I can say: It’s a donkey first and foremost because the ears are long. Moreover, the face is short, and the tail is rope-like, like a lion’s tail. Also, there’s not much mane, and although many donkeys are brown, gray is possibly the most typical donkey color. I rest my case.

I have named him Eyeore, because he seems a bit downcast.

Bought where
on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app

Age and origin
like new, age and origin unknown

What I like about it

The realism. He looks like he could get up and walk away, but doesn’t want to. His form and coloring are natural. He isn’t cartoony or cutesey or anthropomorphized. He isn’t decorated with colorful abstract patterns.

The lack of accessories. He’s not wearing a halter, saddle, or saddlebags. He’s not pulling a cart. He’s at rest. Perhaps he belongs in a nativity scene…

See below for something surprising I learned, plus photos from the seller.

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“English” on signs (January 2025)

I understand almost no written Chinese. But my eyes and brain still pay attention to text in my environment in China. The result is that English text jumps out at me wherever there is any. English text appears even in places where there are few if any people who might be expected to read it. And since there are few if any people who do read it, getting it exactly correct is not a priority; thus it doesn’t tend to turn out exactly correct, though usually it’s clear what was meant, just from the context.

The fun is spotting surprises.

Surprises include signs that give instructions that I usually don’t see on signs; signs that are so badly translated that the meaning is totally lost; signs from The Department Of Signs That Say The Opposite Of What They Mean; signs that display lorem ipsum or other placeholder text; strange ways of writing familiar ideas; spellings that reveal how people write or pronounce English words when they don’t really know which letters and sounds should be there; and grammar, capitalization, and punctuation mistakes that highlight how difficult English is from the perspective of someone whose language follows different principles altogether.

(As you can see, much fun is also in the analysis!)

Meanwhile, English words on clothing can be surprising because they aren’t necessarily expected to mean anything at all! In the English-speaking world, my impression is, the people who create or wear clothing decorated with Asian writing are mainly anime/manga geeks who’d be likely to know what it says—although, to be fair, there are amusing corners of the internet dedicated to photos of mirrored, error-ridden, insulting, or nonsensical Asian-language tattoos, which you’d think people would be more careful with than clothing! But in Asia, many people wear stuff with English words on it, and even if they can read it, maybe they don’t always bother to: the English is just decoration.

Below are three samples of weird English: two safety stickers (those are almost always good for a laugh) and a garment featuring decorative (rather than correct) English.

Continue reading “English” on signs (January 2025)

Japanese cast iron rabbit

Item description / significance
This is a small Japanese cast iron rabbit. The rabbit is one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. It was the zodiac animal of the year 2023.

Bought where
on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app

Age and origin
new, Japanese

What I like about it

It’s a rabbit. I like all the Chinese zodiac animals… but some animals are more equal than others. In this case, the rabbits come out on top, not the pigs!

The material. Small cast iron objects are satisfyingly dense. There’s a typical “seam” around the middle, a result of the casting process, that gives the object a symmetrical front and back.

The shape and texture. Unlike porcelain, cast iron doesn’t really permit fine detail. The surface is coated with something smooth, but it’s rough underneath.

The color. Something has been added to the surface that sticks in the cracks more than to the other parts of the surface. This highlights the shape of the rabbit more than a uniform dark black would. This bronze green color is typical, but I’ve also seen white/grey, brown, blue, red, and yellow.

See below for information on Japanese cast iron and more photos.

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Purple and white crystal tower

Item description / significance
This is a polished stone tower/obelisk/point. Dimensions: 20.5 cm x 4.5 cm x 3.41 cm. Weight 700 g. The seller labeled it as fluorite; I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty sure it’s agate.

Bought where
on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app

Age and origin
new

What I like about it

The color. Maybe the purple color has been added, but unlike other dyed stones I’ve seen, the purple color has the quality of natural amethyst and doesn’t look tacky. There’s a possibility the stone actually *is* natural amethyst with agate; these minerals do sometimes form together, and that would certainly explain why the purple doesn’t look like purple dye to me. If that’s what this is, this is a real treasure. But in any case, it looks great!

The texture. The white part of the tower has the translucency of milky jelly. Never seen anything like it. So satisfying!

The size. A lot of crystal towers are the size of a finger. This one has a satisfying bulk. Large surfaces permit better appreciation of color and texture.

The metaphysical properties. Just kidding! I don’t believe rocks and minerals “do” anything, except maybe give me a small dopamine boost when I look at them—which is what any decor object does. I wish more crystal websites talked about the scientific properties of crystals instead of the imaginary ones. [Sigh.]

See below for photos from the seller.

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Japanese green glaze dragon

Item description / significance
This is an abstract ceramic dragon with dark green glaze. The dragon is one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. It was the zodiac animal of the year 2024.

Bought where
on Xianyu (Chinese second-hand marketplace app)

Age and origin
Unknown age. Likely Japanese. The seller provided no information, but many of the seller’s other items are from Japan. Also, two similar dragons on Xianyu (one unglazed dark brown and one celadon) are listed as being from Japan. There’s a lot of cool stuff from Japan on Xianyu (including bears like this one).

What I like about it

The color. I like saturated colors, so this deep green is appealing. It’s the same deep green as some Chinese shiwan ceramics, like this rectangular pillow. Green is the color theme in my living room (at least in theory).

The style. Normally I like very realistic looking animals, and this one is not. But there’s something about the minimalist geometry here that I find appealing. Maybe it’s the semicircular snake bends in his body that contrast with the regular square scales.

See below for photos from the seller.

Continue reading Japanese green glaze dragon

Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)

A Christian knight named “Dante”, freshly returned from the Crusades, journeys through Hell looking for the soul of his lover Beatrice after she dies in his arms, the last of his family to be slaughtered by someone unknown. Her soul is snatched away from him by the devil as she screams that he must have betrayed her; he denies this. But at the gates of Hell, his torso is embroidered with a red ribbon cross depicting, like film slides, his sins. He meets Virgil and travels through the circles of Hell, attacking monsters, protesting his innocence, and calling out to Beatrice, whom the devil intends to wed. Can he stop the marriage? And is he worthy of Beatrice’s love? (Or God’s?)

This movie is based on a game that is based on the actual Inferno. The episodes in this Japanese/Korean/American production are animated in slightly different styles, but the plot all hangs together. It’s a clever fantasy/action/horror adaptation.

See below for more details about the plot. SPOILERS.

Continue reading Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

This historic movie was controversial because it featured two cross-dressing male characters; they pose as female musicians because they need to escape the mafia. I didn’t find it entertaining, just awkward and silly.

Your mileage may vary! According to Wikipedia, it “opened to critical and commercial success and is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time.” That’s why it keeps cropping up on lists of “must-watch movies,” and that’s why I watched it.

Colossal (2016)

In this movie, Anne Hathaway plays Gloria, whose boyfriend kicks her out because she’s unemployed, broke, and out drinking with friends all the time. She leaves NYC, moves into the empty house her family owns in her hometown, and gets a job with the grade-school classmate who runs the local bar, which means she gets to keep drinking. Here’s the thing, though: she discovers that whenever she steps into the local playground, Seoul, South Korea gets attacked by a giant monster whose movements exactly match her own.

That’s the premise.

I think they mismarketed this movie as comedy. It’s really dark, actually. Okay, fine, it’s black comedy. I thinnnk I’m glad I watched it… but I wouldn’t watch it again. Yeah, she’s under the spell of alcohol addiction, but it’s actually a lot worse than that. You can shake addiction. What you can’t do is reason with a psychopath who has some sort of hold over you. That’s scary, man.

Anyway, the movie is a clever metaphor, and there are flashbacks that ultimately “explain” (not that it’s really explicable) the origin of the monster. So if you’re not afraid to see Gloria cornered by a violent psychopath in the second half of the movie, and you like black comedy, give Colossal a try, I guess.

Rotten Tomatoes currently says 82%; IMDB says 6.2/10; Google says 53%.