7.1.14

SINGAPORE

I have the impression that Singapore doesn't really exists as an entity in itself, that is more of an invention, a fiction made of money and colonialism, but a sort of fiction nonetheless. I'm not discarding the hard facts about the river and the traders, and the chinese, the malay and the english history (even the japanese), but there's something like a fictional narrative going on about the place. All places have one, that's true, but maybe it's the fact that 30 years might not be enough time to settle down that fiction.  

And funnily enough it's for fictional reasons that I mostly remember the city: I remember seeing the second movie of The Hobbit, I remember inventing some amazing story about how the Cloud Forest of Gardens by the Bay was actually an experimental ship ready to launch to space with specimens from a few of the different habitats of the world, and I remember Books Actually and reading, reading, making up tons of stories in my head, like it was about to burst. I guess that's why I tend to forget I was actually there. 

Dreamlike and fictional, not really 'there' or 'here' in the same sense (or intensity) that the rest of places in Asia felt like. My own little rabbit hole, but on a direct line to my head.




7 comentarios:

  1. Still, I find these photographs so bright and colourful - it just makes me want to fly there!

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    1. It is worth a visit, no doubt, it's a very interesting city and the weather amazing, even in rainy season, but everything is so *new* that compared with the rest of the trip I don't know how to deal... hence, story-making

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    2. I know what you mean, Nit, every time I visit Singapore (I have family there so I go there quite a bit) I scour for remnants of the old which oddly, like something freshly discovered by its locals, is packaged as a concept with a hint of newness to it anyway... if you know what I mean!

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    3. Yes, it feels like anything that has some kind of history has to be packaged and sold, like everything needs to have a monetary value, and I don't know how to deal with that after the rest of Malaysia, where you don't throw anything away...

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  2. I love the idea of it being a place to create your own stories within, maybe thats why its so exciting and colourful :)

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    1. maybe!! I love making up stories about places, thank you!

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