Findings, vol. 5
Impressions from Kuala Lumpur + letters new and old + readings + joy, wherever it is found. (Plus: a companion letter for paid subscribers.)
Hello, I’m Emily, and this is a newsletter about how we seek and tell stories to make sense of a rapidly changing world & our personal and collective place in it.
Driving in KL one late afternoon, weaving around doubled-parked streets flanked by malls and restaurants and bars, I took a wrong turn and surfaced onto this hushed road crowded in by trees and bushes made iridescent by the sun. It felt like I had suddenly been transported to the country. We slowed right down, pausing to ooh and ahh and try to capture the same light in different pictures, before finding our way back onto the grid...
1/ In January, I joined a coffee tasting and brewing workshop by Jeffrey Lim, who documents old trades in Malaysia that have been overlooked, in part because they have been so much a part of our everyday. He is interested in the heritage of our local kopi across peninsular Malaysia—how we make it, how we drink it, with what tools. He gets right down to the most granular details, but it’s the little insights into the history, such as that of the traditional ceramic cups kopi is still being served in across the country’s kopitiams, that feel most resonant. Follow @kopilau for a project still in progress.
2/ The Russian dissident Alexey Navalny died in prison recently—widely believed, by Putin’s hand. I don’t doubt that Putin is capable of murder, but because of what’s happening in Palestine, I cannot help but see Joe Biden’s publicized sitdown with Navalny’s wife and daughter as a PR move that fits into the United States’ seemingly binary view of the world, of good guys vs. bad guys. As we have seen in recent months, there are no good guys and bad guys, just good and bad deeds any government, any people, are capable of. Still, I found Navalny’s story quite inspiring—that he still returned to Russia after being poisoned by Novichok, when he must have known he would be jailed or that another attempt would be made on his life. It’s not a choice most of us would ever make if we had a family, but to “figure” in this world I think you do have to be at least a little bit self-aggrandizing, and the man certainly had charisma and had already amassed a following with his YouTube channel exposing corruption in Russia. My partner W.C. is always slightly suspicious of leaders who are popular because they are “cool”; what matters is what they actually do. But it does feel, especially these days, like it’s star power that most effectively boosts popular attention to the nitty gritty of political issues. And Daniel Roher’s documentary Navalny, which couldn’t have been produced without Navalny’s own sleuthing, does lionize him some. It sometimes feels like Navalny, a kind of journalist himself (albeit one transparently motivated by political self-interest: to unseat Putin), is steering the camera’s gaze when he’s ostensibly the subject. The documentary is worth a watch to appreciate that tension as well as the gleeful chutzpah with which he succeeded in pranking one of his poisoners into a confession.
3/ We finally watched A Haunting in Venice, the third film with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot—W.C. read a lot of Agatha Christie as a child. I read a few of her books when I was younger, but much of her narrative universe is new to me. It’s not necessarily a film I would rush anyone to watch, but I do enjoy whodunnits that have the sense of a fable or fairytale about them. (Enjoyed Knives Out and Glass Onion too, for instance—though the first one was better.) Having got ourselves into the mood, we also turned to the old Poirot series, which ran from 1989 in which Poirot is played by David Suchet, and I’m finding it quite charming despite some of the expected anachronisms. It’s campier and funnier and fifty minutes seems a good amount of time to spend on each case. Aren’t you intrigued by the title of the first episode? “The Adventure of the Clapham Cook”!
4/ Honestly, I have a harder time listening to texts; I read them much better. Sometimes when I don’t have subtitles on a film I have to rewind parts to better absorb what was said. I can’t get the most out of a podcast or audiobook unless I’m intentionally training my focus on it—or driving on long trips. But I’m trying to listen better. These days I try to get through a chapter before bed, though I’m usually out before my sleep timer is up 😅 Still, I love listening to a story, especially a story that has an aura of mystery (though a voice narrator that doesn’t jive at all with the voice I imagine can be jarring, or if an unsympathetic character sounds as grating as they come across on the page), so dystopian, fantasy, or detective stories work really well for me. Currently, I’m alternating between John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes (there’s also a dramatized version but I think I prefer non-dramatized ones) and Agatha Christie’s Passenger to Frankfurt.
5/ Went to cheer on a lawyer-turned-author friend, Kimberly Lee, as she celebrated the publication of her first book of fiction for kids—illustrated by Charlene Chua—with an engaging reading+singing session. Boys Don’t Fry challenges gender norms and celebrates her family’s Peranakan culture 🩵
6/ Harper’s is a magazine I subscribe to in print. I usually find it thought-provoking and love being able to read it from cover to cover—a more coherent act than jumping from tab to tab. I particularly like the regular Easy Chair column—by Lionel Shriver for a time (“Semantic Drifts” was one of my favorites), then more recently Rachel Kushner (“The Palm at the End of the Mind”). There’s also a fascinating essay on the climate case against children by Elizabeth Barber, of which, in the end, she is skeptical: “people would rather be enthusiastic collaborators in a global project than be skeptics of its fundamental integrity.”
I’m trying to reorient my reading around deeper troves of things, to wrest back control over my attention. I don’t generally curate shorter standalone pieces here anymore (as in Landmarkings), and now share them instead on Instagram Stories @emilydingwrites - especially on Palestine.
Went lindy hop-ping again recently! I love dancing and I love to watch people dance! I used to go for lessons and socials when I was still in London, but I haven’t done that for years, and this was my first time back at it in a long time. Here’s one of my favorite songs to dance to. It’s cheeky and funny, listen:
I'm decluttering and letting some books go. For now, this is only for readers based in Malaysia as I’ll be mailing it out. Whoever first replies to this email to claim this book, will have it.
That’s how the big one siestas 😆 It’s disarming, how trusting she looks in her sleep, and I can’t help thinking: That’s something strays can’t afford to be…
Until the next,
E.
In a companion letter (for paid subscribers):
When I was in Singapore last month, I visited an art exhibition that teases out the synergies between sci-fi and Asian mythologies and philosophies and came away with a handful of recommended sci-fi reads by Asian authors dating from the 1880s to the present. Click to read.
Emily- Thanks for sharing these. KL is so beautiful. I particularly love how morning/afternoon lights hit. The colors are slightly different aren't they in that neck of the woods? Hope you're well, Emily-
That wasn't a wrong turn. :-)