Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh

Tag: article

  • Prompt 111 on TV Series

    What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?

    I like movies or TV dramas with interesting characters known and unknown, modern and classic, and stories with universal themes that citizens of the world can associate with. That said, these are my all-time TV dramas I have watched more than 5 times:

    1. Jane Eyre (1983 BBC Miniseries) – This 1983 BBC miniseries of Jane Eyre always arrests my full attention to every scene of the episodes without the infelicity and pomposity that classical period dramas sometimes tend to produce on account of obsolete diction and rude gestures that look incongruously emphatic to our modern senses and sensibilities. It is a quaintly gorgeous drama without the ostentatious glamor of television drama exhibiting luminous Vanity Fair; it shows that just simple good scripts based on the loyal adaptation of the original novel and excellent performance of the fine cast that seems to be destined for the roles can translate the imaginative world of the author into the visual firmament of television drama this beautifully and realistically.

    Mosss (L) and Lewis (R)

    2. Inspector Moss – I first came to know Moss when I lived in a dorm during my college years. Inspector Moss is cranky, uptight, and stubborn, but he is wonderfully intelligent and surprisingly good-hearted when you come to know him. His sidekick, Sergent Lewis, is a perfect partner for his boss because of his mild manner and street-smart sense that complements Moss’s lack of touch with the real world. Each episode has characters we can see every day, and the stories are connected with dots and lines like a tessera put together by Moss aided by Lewis.

    My favorite travel show and dream destination

    3. Other travel-related YouTube programs – I love watching travel shows or travel stories on YouTube when I work from home or do not feel well to clear away the clouds in my mind. As John Steinbeck said, sometimes it’s better to experience the joy of seeing the world by book or any other visual aids than actual traveling because of the hectic schedules and pesky arrangements of lodging. I agree with him.

    For someone who gets easily bored with repeition, the aforesaid television dramas are worth watching repeats because they do not present overtly paid celebrities with freakilsy good looks or presposterous story lines that many people do not feel related.

  • prompt 110 on question

    What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.

    A seemingly innocent question can be out of the question depending upon time and place. I have two such questions I hate being asked:

    1. How old are you? – I don’t see the importance of knowing one’s age unless I am in a doctor’s office. Oscar Wilde said a woman revealing her age will tell almost everything. I am not that woman, and I think age should not matter, especially for a woman’s nature to be beautiful.

    2. Can you do me a [big] favor? – The question itself is arbitrarily imposed upon the asked. How dare the other be! Why do I have to perform something that satisfies the id or ego of the other? It is a blatant expression of a market bargaining of human relationships.

    I am easily moved into tears when I see a person in need or watch sad movies. I also forgive people who broke my heart if they apologize to me or treat me nicely later – without asking for a [big] favor. So, the questions mentioned above trouble me extensively with pain, knowing that I have to answer them reluctantly against my true self.

  • prompt 109 from my autobiography

    You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

    It could have been better. They should have known better. God should have been kinder. All this could have happened if I knew how to stop the wheel of fortune played blindfolded by the Sisters of the Fates, cheered and hooted by the spirits wandering between the worlds, not knowing they are long dead. So, how can it be solely my fault for the life I have lived without knowing about my life? How can you be so quick to label me as a negative loser harping on the unseen that no one wants to hear? My name is written on the water, and my spirit is flitting on the clouds in the azure sky, still longing for life because living is far better than dying. It could have been a beautiful life.

  • Hidden secrets of houses

    Being a homeowner is being a master or mistress of your castle. You can fashion it in whatever style you prefer without thinking about posterior owners who would be new rulers. What if the previous owners of your houses were occultists, Satanists, spiritualists, or criminals of the worst kind? – I mean psychotic murderers who kill people for pleasure or displeasure. Some of them build secret passages or rooms that homeowners accidentally discover, as seen on some YouTube programs filmed mainly by the owners. Naturally, they piqued my curiosity for all things uncanny.

    Imagine there is a hidden basement with a single bed (yes, really so!) whose purpose is terrifyingly mysterious with sinister presumptions. There is also a hidden room in the basement, assumingly a panic room. But these are not figments of imagination but truth. People find them within their houses while renovating the interiors or cleaning them. Because homes were built hundreds of years ago, there have been many homeowners in many cases, and you never know who they were or what they did behind the doors. One spectacular example is an Ohio couple in a relatively recent year who discovered millions of dollars in suitcases hidden in different places and one full of VHS tapes. When the couple reported such findings to the FBI, they must have watched the contents of the recordings because they made sure that the couple would not say a word about their existence as if they never existed. I would not watch them, although I am a curious person by nature, because I feel that they contain abominable acts of unspeakable nature. Even an old convent is not an exception in harboring such a secret place because, in England, the maintenance specialists working on a derelict convent found it, which is quite eerily inquisitive. Why did the religious sisters have it concealed? For what purpose? Did the demons collectively possess the nuns?

    I have always known that these things are possible because old houses have unknown histories with place memories that still linger in the places and are kept in there. Besides, unlike apartments, homes have accessible entrances from downstairs to upstairs. It is said that most psychotic killers reveal that they randomly go about houses, and if the doors are unlocked, they go in and commit atrocious murders or rapes. Apartments are not always wholly safe but comparatively safe and relatively secure. If I had a choice of being the owner of the two premises, it would be an apartment with a nice view, needless to say.

  • prompt 107 on word

    If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?

    It’s Passive or Aggressive.

    Passive-aggressive. There is no such thing as being passive-aggressive. One can be one or another, but not both. It’s a fad psychoanalytical term that profilers, shrinks, and mobs like to call neurodivergent persons for convenience as a thoughtless, careless invective.

    The term passive-aggressive refers to a timidly introverted or neurodivergent person who is prone to a frenzy of ire or anxiousness. But who isn’t? One cannot be always happy, pleasant, and smiling in public, which I find creepy, reminding me of the clown from the movie “IT.” Introverts and Neurodivergent people are not accustomed to voicing out their feelings and emotions, such as disappointment, frustration, grief, or angst, in the way neurotypical persons do, so they tend to suppress them while also needing to make their voices heard in a way that is communicated less diplomatically or effectively than their counterparts.

    Mob psychology corrupts words because it is not the words that are harmful but the user of the words who breathes the evil spirit into them. People also like to label those different or distanced from them with malicious epithets. Also, the words like positive and negative are overtly used, and the meanings are bastardized. There are no negative people but disappointed, ignored, and misunderstood people. Do not use it for people just because you don’t bother to know or are not interested in learning. Therefore, Passive-aggressive is a gaslighting word, and it must be banned. If not, then separate them.

  • The Ghost Generation

    Flashback to 1974 – Celebrating the pop culture, people, politics, and places.: From the original Time-Traveler Flashback Series of Yearbooks ― news … 1974. (A Time-Traveler’s Guide - Flashback)

    Flashback to 1974 – Celebrating the pop culture, people, politics, and places.: From the original Time-Traveler Flashback Series of Yearbooks ― news … 1974. by B. Bradforsand-Tyler

    My rating: 5 of 5 stars

    I always think that people born in the 1970s are in-betweeners. Visible, yes, but not conspicuous. It’s the transitional generation, crossing over the boundaries of the 21st and 20th centuries like faerie children, hybrids of yesterday and today. The last generation of the 20th century fully lived and ended in the new era. And it’s hard to encounter them in reality for some mysterious reasons. It makes one feel like a changeling among new and newer waves of generations.

    The choice of this book is, therefore, something akin to encountering an acquaintance among total strangers in a strange land, even if such excitement is not reciprocated. The 1970s was when the world we know now began to form its familiar landscape with the birth of new words as society became more technologically advanced and culturally enhanced. Here is a list of the terms we use, like commodities born in 1974: Touchscreen, telecommute, supermom, CT Scan, memory card, transgender, wake-up call and GOTCHA.

    It’s not about being proud of my generation or criticizing their generations. It’s about the generation I see as half visible and half invisible, especially in the current workforce, from law firms to the entertainment industry dominated by millennial babies. Of course, Watergate and the inflations from the oil shock imprinted on the generational pictures, but those born in the 70s grew up to enjoy the privilege of fully appreciating the digital age and its conveniences in every aspect of life. The Who’s “My Generation” should be the soundtrack of my generation.

    People try to put us down (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
    Just because we get around (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
    Things they do look awful cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
    This is my generation
    This is my generation, baby

    GOTCHA.



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