Kathryn Tse-Durham: Think writers and artists are useless? Try to spend lockdown and quarantine without books, movies, music, poems and video games.
“Lawyer. Banker. Doctor. Only the smartest get into these three fields, right?”
These all-too-familiar words were casually uttered by an acquaintance years ago at a gathering with other ABCs – the Chinese diaspora who, like me, had been born in and/or spent the majority of their youth in places like America, Australia, and the UK. The Chanel-clad woman hailed from old family money and struck me as a character you might encounter in Crazy Rich Asians. I hid a smile when she blinked in confusion after a young woman shared how ghastly difficult it was to save up for a thirty percent downpayment to get a modest, two-bedroom flat in Sai Wan. “Oh, I’m sure you could manage that,” she admonished with polite disbelief, probably thinking about her 3000 square-feet duplex in Tai Tam, unable to comprehend and empathize with the plight of the average wage earner. That was before she made the comment about lawyers and bankers and doctors being the torch-bearers of human achievement. As though everyone else who chooses to work in a lab or counsel traumatized children or write or paint or create music for a living only do so because they have no other options.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I think law, banking, and medicine are perfectly respectable (I have great respect for the health-care frontliners battling this pandemic), and I understand why many parents hope that their children would embark on one of these career paths. In fact, my eldest brother is a lawyer, and my other brother is a banker. In my family, I’m the oddball who loves to write and draw and regards her books like friends. The Ellanor Chronicles would not exist if I hadn’t pulled on my wingtips to chase that elusive dream.
However, life has a funny way of putting things into perspective. During this pandemic, certain things have become crystal-clear. For one, those who can afford to do social distancing and work from home do not die of boredom, and it is possible to exercise indoors. And without the arts, life during this pandemic would be that much more drab. Truth is, whether or not we are big readers, nearly every single person craves a good story. We drink up engaging, entertaining stories like we binge on scrumptious, hearty food. Good stories nourish our souls and keep us somewhat anchored and connected in some inexplicable way to each other; because, in reality, you and I are as vulnerable as everyone else in many ways, but we hide behind things like social status and money and false bravado. In the end, we all share commonalities that make us human. We all want to be loved, we all get hurt and rejected, we all grieve when we lose loved ones, we crave newness and adventure and success, and we all fall sick, grow old, and die. In the end, when stripped bare of our armour and jewels, we all leave the world behind. Many wonderful, timeless stories remind us of this commonality, whether we like it or not.
I know many bankers and lawyers and doctors who stumble home after a mind-numbing day at work and feast on a good film or TV series or a book to wind down, to briefly escape from the hardness of life and to recharge their beaten, jaded souls. I know a high-flying banker who loves reading Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings and to this day still watches classic Japanese anime like Dragon Ball after another stressful day at work discussing numbers and money and investments. Good stories inspire us to keep hoping and instill in us courage and heart to see what another new day brings in a life that sometimes feels too draining and repetitive. Fiction is based on real life, yet the best stories are those that enthrall and inspire us to transcend our circumstances. Because at the end of the day, many writers also want to do their part in uplifting the human spirit in a world that can be awful and bleak but still worth fighting for, because there is still much that is good and beautiful to celebrate.
Since late January, I have been staying home as much as I can, doing the social-distancing thing with my 4 year-old boy who, thankfully, is still at that innocent and absolutely adorable age when he still loves being with mommy and daddy at home twenty-four hours a day without an eye-roll in sight. My husband and I have managed to savour some wonderful films in the past couple of months, and this has inspired me to write about the significance of films and stories.
A great film is the result of an arduous journey that stems from excellent story-telling, a great screen-play, sensitive directing, and talented acting. I believe that the biggest denominator of all great films is creativity and good writing, without which films would not have come into being to make our lives all the richer, brighter, and ultimately more bearable.
Below I have come up with a list of some films I love. This is an eclectic selection of various genres. And these great films originated from great books or screenplays by writers who poured their heart and soul into their work. Which of these movies did you watch and like?
- The Shawshank Redemption (based on the book by Stephen King)
- Forrest Gump (based on the novel by Winston Groom)
- The Pianist (based on the Holocaust memoir by Wladyslaw Szpilman)
- Contact (based on the book by Carl Sagan)
- Arrival (based on the short story by Ted Chiang)
- Dr Sleep (sequel to ‘The Shining’ by Stephen King)
- Pan’s Labyrinth (based on the original screenplay by Guillermo del Toro)
- Dead Poets’ Society (based on the Best Original Screenplay by Tom Schulman)
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy (based on the books by J.R.R Tolkien)
- Parasite (Korean film that won Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards by the director Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won)
This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to my love for films and how they relate back to the importance of stories and ultimately good writing. Let’s play a quick game: comment on this post by listing your top three favourite films. Hedgehog Publishing will send the lucky-draw winner free author-signed copies of the first two books in The Ellanor Chronicles.
Kathryn Tse-Durham
Author of The Ellanor Chronicles
12th April 2020
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