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

Tag: journalist

  • Movies Digest

    Some indulge in drinking, some gaming, but mine is binge-watching supernatural/suspense movies when I am under dark spells. Hence this past weekend, I wallowed in the below visceral world of make-believe with my cats as guardians perched next to me on both sides like Odin’s two crows, Memory and Thought.

    Vivarium (2019): This is one of the most surreal movies I have seen. Some classify this movie as Si-fi, but it is Horror because it has no hope of escaping from the cycle of repetition with no end to the movie’s end. The young couple’s hopes of finding a new home could be this sinful. I am only asking because the movie’s central theme stems from the globally realistic issue of housing problems in the context of planning and paying. And the question of conformity dominates throughout the movie. Readers familiar with the YouTube sensation of the Backroom series will find a kind of deja vu phenomenon while watching this, but this is scarier because it happens to good people.

    The New Daughter (2009): Kevin Costner plays an affectionate father who wants to bring up his two young children to the best he can as a newly divorced father. It’s refreshing to watch such a movie that portrays a loving single father caring for his children when most movies show only single mothers struggling – of course, loving, with their circumstances. Although the film does not feature my favorite ghostly characters who are purely spiritual, it can be forgiven for the sinister consequences that show no mercy to good people.

    Half Light (2008) – Demi Moore is a novelist in this movie who can’t get over the death of her beloved young son. She blames herself for him to drown to death while she is writing her new novel. The guilt-ridden mother retreats to a coastal village in Scotland, where she experiences supernatural phenomena so tangibly that it all seems too visceral to accept because of the preponderance of the awe. The lighthouse on a deserted island within such a small coastal village serves as a beacon of her spiritual guide, or could it be an alarm for the impending danger? But one thing is confident that the living must let go of the dead because once the soul leaves the body, then the soul belongs to no one, not even in the streams of love’s salty fires. If you really love them, set the departed free.

    Stephen King, whose name befits the sobriquet of King of Horror, once said that fiction is the mirror image of reality, sort of an alter ego of the real world. Horror reflects fear that hopes are only a vanity of imagination or, as Thucydides says, a dangerous daydreaming made of bodacious hubris. What if what we think of or see as real is not real but only the likeness of truth? That is Horror, which is all reflected in these movies.

  • Prompt 91

    What would you do if you won the lottery?

    If I won the lottery, the first thing I would do is pay off all my dues in one fell swoop, just like Alexander the Great cutting the Gordian Knot with his sword in one fell swoop.

    Once debt-free, then I would fix my teeth with braces. Orthodontists and dentists make fortunes because, most of the time, dental insurance does not cover the expenses entirely. That is why people do not visit them as often as they should. The ancestors of the professionals were barbers, butchers, and even cooks before the middle-class professionals replaced the aristocracy and became the new ruling class after the French Revolution. It is not to demean dentistry and its professionals out of malice. Still, the medical professionals, except for physicians who did not deal with the blood and pusses from the fleshes, were not regarded as highly as they are now. Today’s exorbitant medical and dental expenses are the pride and prestige of the coveted class status.

    Finally, with the rest of the money, I will buy either a unit of an apartment with a commanding view or a townhouse with a nice little backyard well guarded by a security system somewhere in northern California, Oxnard, or Northridge. If the money’s still left, then I would use it to keep up my appearance and to go to Capri and Positano in Italy for holidays with my cats, Toro and Camille.

  • prompt 90

    What books do you want to read?

    My choice of books is nonfiction, preferably history, particularly about ancient civilizations. Also, I read books about psychology and memoirs of people selected based on their philosophy and characters I find relatedly interesting. A few fiction may claim the places on my list if they are short stories or stories about relatable characters.

    That said, the following is a list of my immediate books to read:

    • The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose – This is my second book of Prose. Her characters are so down to earth with real jobs. She makes the invisible visible. I mean how many books are written about a hotel maid solving a mystery unexpectedely?
    • The Greeks by Philip Matyszak – I am reading it now.
    • Lost Cities of the Ancient World by Philip Matyszak – I enjoy Matyszak’s history books. He draws on sscholarly knowledge with his trademark witticism, which is very entertaining and informative.
    • The Storyteller by Dave Grohl – When I heard it first, I thought it would be a fashionable memoir of yet another millionaire celebrity. But I changed my mind when I read his letter published elsewhere. He seems like a good writer.

    My first choice is The Mystery Guest, which I borrowed from a public library this week. Then I will finish reading The Greeks, which I am in the middle of reading. I habitually read books from one to another, depending on my mood. I should curtail watching YouTube the so that I can finish my books. But when I am home from work or on weekend, I watch aviation or travel contents from YouTube for refreshment because as I mentioned in my previous prompt, reading is studying using the faculty of mind to chew and digest it to be nourished.

    But this is not to say I am a luddite for YouTube, which is also an effective medium for transmitting knowledge of the world. A balanced acquisition of knowledge via optical illumination and linguistic stimulation is what I should do. I just have to make it a habit, as Artistotle said a repetition can make a strong result.

  • prompt 89

    What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

    When I feel like having a perfect leisure time, wallowing in the luxury of permitted laziness from duties at work and home, I am a willing couch potato with my cats on each side of me, perching luxuriously just like ancient Roman patricians, watching movies I like.

    My choice of movies is preferential to supernatural scares. I will not use the term “Horror Movies” because most are not supernatural but gory and macabre with too much blood. When stressed or annoyed, I watch supernatural movies, preferably based on actual events – or so they say – and willingly lose myself in them. Maybe it’s this temporary forgetfulness of the present worries that act like analgesics to numb my tired nerves. Or perhaps I am just drawn to the netherworld. Who knows, I am a closet sybyil or oracle yet to be awakened? But, no psychic or panaronamal investigator, please.

    My cats seem to have no problems with my predilection for the supernatural because they are not afraid of ghosts, as cats are supernatural by themselves. They protect me from nightmares, goblins, vampires, and all the scary regulars from the dungeons and dunes.

    we ain’t afraid of ghosts.

  • prompt 88

    Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

    It takes about an hour and 30 minutes from Los Angeles to San Diego by drive, so it’s not precisely near one another. Still, I love to visit the San Diego Zoo and Sea World on vacation.

    Disneyland and Universal Studios are the closest attractions, but I want to meet the animals, including Red Pandas, Tigers, Cheetahs, and Orcas, in person! I contemplated bringing my cats to introduce them to one another, but the Zoo and Sea World policies don’t allow it, so that they will stay home. But I turn on the Wildlife videos on YouTube before going to work, so I hope it will be a vicarious encounter. Of all the animal residents at the zoo, my special interests are Cheetahs and Orcas because they are exquisitely beautiful. I heard there is a unique safari program about Cheetahs, so I look forward to it.

    Wild at home: Toro and Camille from L to R

    Since my life with Toro and Camille, animals – Wild or Domestic – have become friends to me, or so I feel. I think animals know and like me better.

  • Prompt 87

    List five things you do for fun.

    First, I will call it a “leisurely” instead of a “fun” thing. Since Virginia Woolf said, “If you are losing your leisure, you will lose your soul,” these are the five leisurely things I do to refresh my fogged brain and stifled spirit at work and home:

    1. Writing prompts – It’s refreshing to unwind a stressed mind when jotting down short flights of thoughts and images captured in daily prompts, such as I am doing now during my lunchtime in the office.

    2. Decorating my diary and notebook – I like my writing accompanied by images, so my notes are filled with words, stickers, stamps, and drawings. I love cute stationery stuff to make my diary and notebook pretty.

    3. Coloring – I like coloring figures, such as fairies, flowers, cats, and other pretty things, using coloring pencils. The coloring activity takes off the worries and other malaise of daily life.

    4. Playing with my cats – Freud says the time spent with cats is never wasted. Indeed so. They are so adorable to play with when I am home. I don’t have to worry about what and how to speak when playing with my cats, unlike when interacting with my fellow humans. And I do believe animals have souls.

    5. Singing – I love singing to my favorite tunes, from hymns to pop songs. My repertoire consists of these songs: “Faith of the Fathers,” all the songs by the Cranberries, and some others that slipped my mind now.

    I didn’t include reading because it’s considered as studying in the sense that I read it with diligence and attention to acquire knowledge and to chew and digest it, just as Francis Bacon once realized it.