Solomon Wakeling
@solomonwakeling.bsky.social
Scholar of dream worlds.
Western Sydney University Doctor of Creative Arts
Western Sydney University Doctor of Creative Arts
Raise the Red Lantern has a fantastic location. What is this place? I saw this on the big screen once and it was astonishing.
November 17, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Raise the Red Lantern has a fantastic location. What is this place? I saw this on the big screen once and it was astonishing.
Subtitles really aren’t a direct transcription. You can’t put on French subtitles on a French film as an aid to pronunciation because they will say the same thing in different words. I used to try and do this and pick things up but it really doesn’t work.
November 17, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Subtitles really aren’t a direct transcription. You can’t put on French subtitles on a French film as an aid to pronunciation because they will say the same thing in different words. I used to try and do this and pick things up but it really doesn’t work.
Subtitles on Raise the Red Lantern are a bit sketchy. Lots of spelling and grammar errors. The third mistress just said to Songlian (Gong Li) “Don’t be so groovy”. This isn’t really a movie where anyone says groovy. I think they meant gloomy.
November 17, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Subtitles on Raise the Red Lantern are a bit sketchy. Lots of spelling and grammar errors. The third mistress just said to Songlian (Gong Li) “Don’t be so groovy”. This isn’t really a movie where anyone says groovy. I think they meant gloomy.
Part of writing being spiritual practice is being accepting of impermanence. It’s not a way of gaining immortality.
November 17, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Part of writing being spiritual practice is being accepting of impermanence. It’s not a way of gaining immortality.
I’d like to publish a novel and have people read it but I don’t really want the notoriety and loss of privacy you need to make that happen. I’m not an attention-seeker. My writing is usually well-received when people read it but quality isn’t what motivates sales anyway.
November 17, 2025 at 3:07 AM
I’d like to publish a novel and have people read it but I don’t really want the notoriety and loss of privacy you need to make that happen. I’m not an attention-seeker. My writing is usually well-received when people read it but quality isn’t what motivates sales anyway.
Yeah you can abandon a book if you aren’t enjoying it but also being able to direct your attention to something whether or not you like it is a good skill to have and one you’re going to lose if you always tap out the moment you lose interest.
November 16, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Yeah you can abandon a book if you aren’t enjoying it but also being able to direct your attention to something whether or not you like it is a good skill to have and one you’re going to lose if you always tap out the moment you lose interest.
I don’t really like stories where a group of people who are all as bad as each other fight for supremacy. I make an exception for Raise the Red Lantern. Watching this now after a Cantonese film to see if I can hear the difference with Mandarin. I thought I could but I am not sure anymore that I can.
November 16, 2025 at 8:41 AM
I don’t really like stories where a group of people who are all as bad as each other fight for supremacy. I make an exception for Raise the Red Lantern. Watching this now after a Cantonese film to see if I can hear the difference with Mandarin. I thought I could but I am not sure anymore that I can.
The Way of the Dragon kind of sucks I’m afraid.
November 15, 2025 at 9:20 AM
The Way of the Dragon kind of sucks I’m afraid.
The Way of the Dragon is filmed in Italy but they make out like the local language is English. I guess who cares?
November 15, 2025 at 6:33 AM
The Way of the Dragon is filmed in Italy but they make out like the local language is English. I guess who cares?
I don’t know what people are talking about but I don’t have time for this.
November 15, 2025 at 5:10 AM
I don’t know what people are talking about but I don’t have time for this.
Been reading The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. I’m up to F. It’s nice it’s like these little snapshots of history. Sometimes I find there’s already a term for a concept I’d talked about before. Lots of poetic terms. It’s about 50% of all the terms.
November 15, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Been reading The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. I’m up to F. It’s nice it’s like these little snapshots of history. Sometimes I find there’s already a term for a concept I’d talked about before. Lots of poetic terms. It’s about 50% of all the terms.
Gonna watch The Way of the Dragon in Cantonese and see if I can tell it apart from Mandarin. I have seen some Mandarin films many times and I feel like I know what that sounds like. Just going to listen for differences.
November 15, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Gonna watch The Way of the Dragon in Cantonese and see if I can tell it apart from Mandarin. I have seen some Mandarin films many times and I feel like I know what that sounds like. Just going to listen for differences.
Pan’s Labyrinth is brutal at the same time as it is sentimental. The Lovely Bones arse ending. It lifts imagery from Schindler’s List, the Godfather and The Shining. The role of the faun is confusing as he seems to demand obedience like the fascists but is still there as friendly figure in paradise.
November 15, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Pan’s Labyrinth is brutal at the same time as it is sentimental. The Lovely Bones arse ending. It lifts imagery from Schindler’s List, the Godfather and The Shining. The role of the faun is confusing as he seems to demand obedience like the fascists but is still there as friendly figure in paradise.
Been translating poetry at the word level and comparing this to the professional English translation. I have Spanish/English versions of Lorca and French/English of Baudelaire. Translating word by word produces a clunky literal translation and sometimes it’s a jumble…
November 15, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Been translating poetry at the word level and comparing this to the professional English translation. I have Spanish/English versions of Lorca and French/English of Baudelaire. Translating word by word produces a clunky literal translation and sometimes it’s a jumble…
I used to buy secondhand cds of anyone Kurt Cobain mentioned. Mudhoney. The Jesus Lizard. The Pixies. And of course Leonard Cohen. Nirvana introduced me to Leonard Cohen.
November 14, 2025 at 11:56 PM
I used to buy secondhand cds of anyone Kurt Cobain mentioned. Mudhoney. The Jesus Lizard. The Pixies. And of course Leonard Cohen. Nirvana introduced me to Leonard Cohen.
I like Kirk more than Picard because Kirk says things like “May fortune favour the foolish” and Picard says things like “Make it so” and “engage”.
November 14, 2025 at 10:08 PM
I like Kirk more than Picard because Kirk says things like “May fortune favour the foolish” and Picard says things like “Make it so” and “engage”.
The wiki for Hail Mary (1985) said it’s James Gunn’s least favourite movie. This was puzzling to me unless he is Catholic but I looked it up and he was raised Catholic so maybe he has strong feelings about Mary.
November 14, 2025 at 7:32 PM
The wiki for Hail Mary (1985) said it’s James Gunn’s least favourite movie. This was puzzling to me unless he is Catholic but I looked it up and he was raised Catholic so maybe he has strong feelings about Mary.
Nature doesn’t do that much for my mental health. This keeps getting put to me. I like cities.
November 14, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Nature doesn’t do that much for my mental health. This keeps getting put to me. I like cities.
I must be feeling better because read some more of Finnegan’s Wake out loud.
November 14, 2025 at 8:35 AM
I must be feeling better because read some more of Finnegan’s Wake out loud.
Gonna watch Pan’s Labyrinth next as I am trying to shuffle the languages of films I’m watching. This film was laser-targeted to me as a 23 year old. I still like it but I have some criticisms now; Ofelia is too old to be this credulous, the violence doesn’t work well with the sentimental fantasy.
November 14, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Gonna watch Pan’s Labyrinth next as I am trying to shuffle the languages of films I’m watching. This film was laser-targeted to me as a 23 year old. I still like it but I have some criticisms now; Ofelia is too old to be this credulous, the violence doesn’t work well with the sentimental fantasy.
I love Hail Mary (1985). I think it’s because my sense of spirituality does not include blasphemy, so it just comes across as very tender.
November 14, 2025 at 6:15 AM
I love Hail Mary (1985). I think it’s because my sense of spirituality does not include blasphemy, so it just comes across as very tender.
I think I will get better at listening to the spoken language in films and reading the subtitles at the same time. After four foreign language films I think I am already starting to get better at it. This has always been a jumble for me, I essentially “hear” it in English from reading the subtitles.
November 13, 2025 at 11:00 PM
I think I will get better at listening to the spoken language in films and reading the subtitles at the same time. After four foreign language films I think I am already starting to get better at it. This has always been a jumble for me, I essentially “hear” it in English from reading the subtitles.
I don’t like benign childhood thing entering public domain and being made into a horror movie as a thing. But I could probably deal with Nancy Drew meets Seven. It could be something like Mulholland Drive, with Nancy Drew’s starry eyes contrasting with the hard world.
November 13, 2025 at 8:27 PM
I don’t like benign childhood thing entering public domain and being made into a horror movie as a thing. But I could probably deal with Nancy Drew meets Seven. It could be something like Mulholland Drive, with Nancy Drew’s starry eyes contrasting with the hard world.
It was interesting to see openly gay and crossdressing characters at the end of La Dolce Vita (1960). I have seen this before but I didn’t remember that part.
November 13, 2025 at 10:23 AM
It was interesting to see openly gay and crossdressing characters at the end of La Dolce Vita (1960). I have seen this before but I didn’t remember that part.
The Nazis were the government of Germany. These neo-Nazi protestors are a gang. I think it’s better not to aggrandise them, it just feeds into their bullshit.
November 13, 2025 at 10:18 AM
The Nazis were the government of Germany. These neo-Nazi protestors are a gang. I think it’s better not to aggrandise them, it just feeds into their bullshit.