“Neighbours” my short story from Lovers and Strangers Revisited and part of the 6th cycle for SPM Literature in English since 2008, gets another extension and will now be taught through 2014! If you go to Bastian’s Way, Literature in English – 2008-2014 she has posted the 6th cycle, links to four of the stories, to readings of several of the poems, some plots summaries, and a lot of helpful articles on how to write literature essays.
MELTA used to have a thread on my story “Neighbours” on their SPM Literature in English forum that had over 20,500 hits and 30 pages of comments (around 290) before they archived it. But now it has disappeared altogether, which is a shame for teachers and students since there were a lot of insightful views posted there. I had posted several comments of my own, the author’s perspective, plus some background into writing the story such as The Story Behind the Story and an early version of “Neighbours, A Suicide, and Making Choices” from Tropical Affairs
In December 2011, I did come across an extensive “Neighbours” character analysis posted by Speech Bubble. Then there is Denis Harry’s New Strait Times 2010 amusing and insightful comment “Are You Mrs. Koh?”
In other “Neighbours” news, in January 2012, “Neighbours” appeared as one of 18 “pearls”in the pearl tree of American writers compiled by team Short Story Collection This was the first I had heard about the content curators Pearltrees, which is worth checking out. Here is their 40 second video. If you click on the “Neighbours by Robert Raymer” pearl it’ll take you directly to the short story. Plus you can read some of the other short stories posted too, like Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” which I used to teach in my creative writing courses. Unlike in my short story "The Future Barrister" from the same collection, this is a lottery that you don’t want to win!
*Update, the 20th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited
*Update, the 20th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited
Here are links to some
of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:
Golda
Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.
Preeta
Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day.
Chuah
Guat Eng, author of Echoes of Silence and Days
of Change.
Plus:
Five part Maugham
and Me series
Beheaded on
Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part
I
2 comments:
That's the long time! I remember the time I did Neighbours for SPM and was amused you switched the stereotypes associated for each race for that of another race e.g. drunken Chinese, materialist Indian and (OK, I think the Malay characters conformed to the stereotypes.)
Thanks Caroline. It's nice these characters are still around 25 years after I first wrote them; people don't change that much. You find all types in all societies. Not everyone is a stereotype--that would be pretty boring and rather predictable.
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