Lazy not busy

I wish I can say that I have been too busy to update this blog, but really, most of the time I’m just too lazy.

The routineness of my life (not that it’s exactly a bad thing) is making me feel less motivated to think beyond what I need to. I feel less inclined to reflect, to think, to write and to seek new challenges. 

I’ll write half a post (or even a full one) and end up deleting them or abandoning them when my thoughts can’t link up. 

I’ve been reading voraciously (since when have I not…) and the list of Chinese novels I’ve read have grown and I need to update it. I have a soft spot for 穿越 (time travel) novels since young and I guess if you wanna attribute a psychological trait to everything, this indicates my perpetual desire to not live in the present circumstances ?. Maybe? 

Got my hands on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child! Part of the fun of HP books is the scramble to get my hands on one asap on the release date but this time I reasoned that there wasn’t a point to tire myself out with all the queuing / preordering etc. Being a rational adult. But that kinda took out the fun ): and the excitement. Which I regretted. 

In any case, I spent a couple of hours one afternoon to finish the book and omggg I’m reminded all over again how much I love the series. It’s a play script so it’s just dialogues and some stage directions. At first I was skeptical, I mean the play can be awesome etc, but how much of that can be conveyed by a bare script?

I was wrong. 

I found myself wishing desperately that it’s a full novel. Because if a script can be THAT good, how awesome would a novel be?!

(Some spoilers ahead)

As the series progress, it deals with heavier and more mature themes about life and I particularly enjoy how the 8th book deals with the theme of parent-child relationships, of parental expectations, being different, misfits, loneliness etc. 

I felt that it was the most humane and realistic of all the HP books so far and it really speaks to most of us at a very intimate level. 

It totally went against my expectations and yet delivered beyond my expectations. I went into it expecting to relieve some great scenes in Hogwarts lessons, excited to see the friendships made and the adventures that they would have together.

Basically I expected to see Harry Potter all over again. Well, James had Sirius and the rest too. 

So I was quite surprised to see how different this is. I got so used to the idea that everyone loves Hogwarts (even Voldemort) that it made me sad to see how Albus viewed the school. No mention of the lessons, the fun adventures. Zero mention about school life. 

I liked the contrast and the idea that not all people would have the same perspective. 

There was a period where I really didn’t enjoy school unlike most of my peers (some would say “what’s not to like, I would have loved to be here!”) and I can imagine how a genuine friend would have meant the world in that circumstance. It made the friendship between Albus and Scorpious all the more precious, given how it seems unexpected. But I love how in the end, it teaches us what we should be looking at is the individual’s character, and not let our perspective of a person be coloured by  external factors or the opinion of others. 

The whole parent-child relationship theme was also interesting. We all go through the same process of growing up but somehow we can never seem to understand a child. The decisions that we would have made as a child, the same decisions that we would advise our children against. We may be able to see things from a more all-rounded perspective, but who is to say that the child can / should see it from the same way. We have learnt, but we seem to be taking away the learning process from the child when we tell them what to do. 

All in all, it was an amazing story. One that is somewhat close to my heart and definitely one that I’ll read over, and over again.