Writing
Excerpts
Art On
As part of StayLit2020, artist Zu Orzu created an original artwork inspired by The Impermanence of Lilies.
“An imaginative and expressive story that is introspective in its navigation of time and the notion of grief. I was inspired by the lyricism of the author’s prose, and wanted to explore the layers of the main character’s nautical adventures through the use of digital collage and mixed media. I wanted to reflect on how the symbolism of lilies was imbued into the narrative, and the idea of travelling as a passage of time - a fitting meditation during this period of solitude.” - Zu Orzu
Reviews & Features
Letters
Around the time of Valentine’s Day,
I was asked by my publisher to write a letter to readers,
and also for them to gift to whom they may love.
Love is pure..
Because it is useless. Useless like watching a sunset, and knowing it will fade. Like being touched by a snowflake, and knowing it will melt. Like holding a flower, and knowing it will wither. And in a world full of purpose, and purposeful things. When everything else is gone. What remains are the useless things. Like Love. Because it is useless. It is pure. — I wish you the most useless, purest of things. Love.
Dear Reader-I-Might-Never-Know, I was asked to write a letter on Love. To readers I have never met. Whom I might never meet. Which is a shame, to me, because anyone who might be interested in a letter on Love, from one who means nothing, is a person I would love to meet. Not in a group, but one-on-one – because truth is only sent forth, from exactly one heart, straight to exactly one other heart. Which is why a book – with one person directly communing with one other person, is one of the truest ways any two persons can connect. But we make do with what we can. So, I am writing this as though I am writing this exactly to you – for you. With the hope that you might not find my words completely meaningless. That some of my words might find their way from my heart, into yours. I want you to think about someone. Someone you love. And think about why you love this person. Is it the way their hair falls in curls over their forehead? Is it that winsome dimple that appears when they smile? Is it the words they say that make you feel like you are not alone in the world? If you can find the exact reasons why you love them, then you do indeed feel something for them. But it is not Love. It is not Love, when you love them for something. Love is when you love and you do not know why. Love is without meaning. Without purpose. Without use. Because it is without all these other things, it is pure. And when everything else is stripped away, when everything else fades away, Love remains. Love perseveres. Love sustains. Love is the only reason why we live. It is the only reason why we go on, despite knowing we will not last forever. And it is this truest of things that I wish for you – Love. And nothing else. On and with Love, Daniel.
On Reading
Some words on reading, on my publisher’s request.
Us readers are a sadomasochistic bunch. We feel compelled to seek out, and weigh down our souls with the million worries, and cares, and fears, and bad habits, and mistakes, of countless other individuals - most of whom might exist, only within the pages of a book, written by a stranger (at least at first, before you begin reading them). Some may never care beyond their immediate self, or their immediate family, or maybe a few close friends. Inner worlds or other people’s worlds do not exist if you do not engage with them. But I believe readers do not choose to be readers. You do not care because you read. You read because you care. You read, because something tells you that there might exist other worlds besides your own. You read, because something makes you feel that those worlds might be as important as your own. Because you know that all worlds—made up or not—inevitably contain truth, and if you follow them far enough, you will find that their roots stretch back to reality. And even if you could not directly change those worlds for better right now, simply knowing, and understanding, are first steps to possibly make The World - through little but not insignificant increments - a better place.
A Review
Singapore Unbound is a US and Singapore-based organisation that builds connections between the literary scenes of the two countries and runs the Singapore Literature Festival in New York. American writer and activist Priscilla King reviewed The Impermanence of Lilies for Singapore Unbound.
The Japanese chrysanthemum in The Impermanence of Lilies symbolizes courage in battle, manliness, and heroism, whereas white chrysanthemum symbolizes grief, lamentation, and the consequences of battle. Sayuri, who grew up as a painter, painted her first white chrysanthemum in memory of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sayuri’s memory of this event is sketched in beautiful, restrained prose:
“The sun glowed strangely red in that sky, an unusual sun for another day. An answer appeared. A white line of chalk drawing across the board, entering from the edge of the sky beyond my sight. From it, descended two white objects like floating umbrellas, attached to something we could not make out from the distance. […] From it, unsheathed a blade of light that cleaved the sky. A tremendous white, whiter than I ever knew white could be. Whiter than the white of old men, the white of eyeballs, and the white of murdered bones. It sliced from east to west, from the city towards the hills, the sky torn open to unleash the sun.”
Crafted with an eye for color and composition, the tools of her artistic medium, Sayuri’s recollection portrays the sky as a canvas to describe the destruction caused by the atomic bombs, as they “tore open” reality. Likewise, her shades of white gradually move from childlike to eerie: “white line of chalk,” “floating umbrellas,” “old men,” and finally “murdered bones.” The unfolding destruction is as beautifully rendered as it is heartbreaking.
A Reading
The book review No Bull Channel asked me to do a reading. I generally dislike doing readings. Or more specifically, the sound of my own voice when doing readings, because the words spoken sound so different from when my mind reads them to me.
But I liked the name of the channel.
The Impermanence of Lilies
I am working on other projects as well, which will be shared as they come to fruition.