RKS British Literature: The Brigadier and His Dutiful Wife (John Fowles)

I had long before made the discovery that I lacked the parents and ancestors I needed. My father was, through being the right age at the right time rather than through any great professional talent, a brigadier; and my mother was the very model of a would-be major-general’s wife. That is, she never argued with him and always behaved as if he were listening in the next room, even when he was thousands of miles away. I saw very little of my father during the war, and in his long absences I used to build up a more or less immaculate conception of him, which he generally- a bad but appropriate pun – shattered within the first forty-eight hours of his leave.

John Fowles, “The Magus”, 1977.

RKS CHINESE FILM: “Dear You”: Many Stories Behind the Story

“Dear You” is an epic familial tale focusing on love, friendship, compassion and loss but there are many stories hovering around the apparent simplistic plot. And the film is a solid hit in China being the second highest grossing film there in 2026 and attracting audiences throughout Southeast Asia. It also has sparked controversy in Singapore.

A financially improvident grandson pursued by creditors relies on family history to pursue his supposedly wealthy grandfather Den Bhagseng thought to be residing in Thailand in hopes of securing funds to liquidate his debts.

The mystery of Den Bhagseng deepens as the grandson attempts to locate his grandfather in Thailand. His search ends with confirmation of his death in 1960 but why were qiaopi letters from him still being sent to his wife Sogriu until 1978? Qiaopi letters were sent by overseas workers from China in Southeast Asia and North America including important remittances back to China. In modern day parlance think of Pilipino domestics sending vast sums of money to support families in the Philippines.

It is a fascinating mystery including cultural and linguistic suppression of the Chinese workers and the Chinese language, poverty, love, compassion, deception, friendship, misunderstanding, arson and murder all presented in a wholesome manner with an abundance of sappy music and tears with a slight comedic touch.

It resonates with Chinese audiences including the Chinese diaspora throughout the world as it encompasses Chinese emigration and oppression.

The Chinese dialect of the movie was Teochew but the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore which regulates films distributed in Singapore required Mandarin dubbing in line with Singapore’s Speak Mandarin Campaign in force since 1979 in an attempt to establish a common language amongst Singapore’s majority Chinese population where there are at least five Chinese dialects spoken. The film’s distributor managed to obtain permission to release the film in its original Teochew dialect for numerous showings.

When Rod Stewart sings, “Every picture tells a story don’t it” the picture in the film tells a devastatingly wrong story to some and a true story to others when it’s too late!

The film is directed by Lan Hongchun.

It opens in North American theatres on 4September2026.

RKS Chinese Film Rating 82/100.

RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Insult Islam: You Die (Orhan Pamuk)

There was, for example, the poet Nurettin, who admired all things European but took little interest in politics until the day a radical Islamist news paper unearthed something he’d written years earlier-an essay on art and religion-and distorted it to charge that he’d insulted our faith”; afraid of looking frightened, Nurettin dusted off his old ideas and passionately reasserted them; the army-backed secular press warmed to his fine Kemalist words and inflated their importance to make him seem the lifelong hero. Then one morning a device in a plastic bag hanging from the front tire of his car blew him into so many bits that his ostentatious throng of mourners had to march behind an empty coffin.

Orhan Pamuk, “Snow”, 2002

RKS American Literature: Wait for the End of Segregation? (Martin Luther King Jr.)

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait.’ But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters: when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society….then you will find it difficult to wait.

Martin Luther King Jr., “Letters from Birmingham Jail”, 1963.

BEYOND PUPPYDOM: INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, EXPLORATIONS AND MAYHEM: RORY DYLAN STEPHEN TELLS IT LIKE IT IS: ONCE STUNG ALWAYS SHY

I can scarcely believe I am in Switzerland undergoing “medical treatment” but then again after my Southeast Asian abduction adventures my life seems destined to be one of a rapid maturity. My philosophy is roll with the punches. Playing along with my abductors in New Jersey, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia saw me through safely so “playing along” with medical treatment may see me through that. And feeling so crappy upon my return to Toronto when I should be the happiest pup in town means to all reasonable people something may not be copasetic “upstairs”.

I enjoyed my breakfast of oatmeal and poached chicken the latter being no decent substitute for the Singaporean chicken I devoured in great quantities in Singapore. And I’d prefer a congee over oatmeal! I am getting along so well with Giak my roommate. Poor fellow had a leg blasted off just outside of Siem Reap while sniffing for landmines. He cries in his sleep and for some reason I do as well. A big part of my heart is in Southeast Asia perhaps this is why I enjoy Giak’s company. He’s big mutt of God knows what lineage.

We started my first day with a one-hour Alpine walk in the fresh air. I am feeling like Hans Castorp in Thomas Mann’s “Magic Mountain” breathing in this clean mountain air and then it happened. I was stung in my nose by an alpine bee I was chasing and it hurt like hell. I started shaking and our guide, Fritz, was about ready to call an air ambulance fearing a severe allergic reaction but as there was no swelling, shortness of breath or drooling we continued on our way. Chasing stinging insects was fun once upon a time but once stung always shy!

RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Turkish “Religious School” Students Wouldn’t Hesitate to Chop You to Pieces for “Offending” Islam (Orhan Pamuk)

“Those religious high school boys you saw in the cells today have your face permanently etched in their memories. They’ll throw bombs at anyone and anything; they don’t care as long as they are heard. No one who’s even slightly westernized can breathe free in this country unless they have a secular army protecting them, and no one needs this protection more than intellectuals who think they’re better than everyone else and look down on other people. If it weren’t for the army, the fanatics would be turning their rusty knives on the lot of them and their painted women and chopping them all into little pieces. When the day comes, they’ll kill you for just being a little westernized, for being frightened and forgetting the Arabic words of a simple prayer….”

Orhan Pamuk, “Snow”, 2002

RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Turkish “Religious School” Students Berate Europe (Orhan Pamuk)

But now, no one could hear anything above the booing and catcalls and angry whistles from the religious school boys. Despite the guilty, fearful silence at the front of the auditorium, few could hear what Funda Eser was saying that when the angry girl tore the scarf off her head, she was not just making a statement about people or about national dress, she was talking about our souls, because the scarf, the fez, the turban, and the headdress were symbols of the reactionary darkness in our souls, from which we should liberate ourselves and run to join the modern nations of the West. This provoked a taunt from the back rows that the entire auditorium heard very clearly.,

‘So why not take everything off and run to Europe stark naked.’

Orhan Pamuk, “Snow”, 2002

RKS CANADIAN WINE: PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY CHEATERS?

Approximately 220 kilometres from Toronto and 370 kilometres from Montreal lies Prince Edward County or “the County” as it is affectionately known as. It has its own geographical designation as some of it wines are “VQA Prince Edward County” but many of the wines bottled in the County are made from grapes trucked in from Niagara. So if you are looking to discover the terroir of Prince Edward County in your glass you may be “cheated”. Many tourists “discovering” the wines of Prince Edward County are drinking wine made from Niagara grapes! Many, I suspect, have no idea of the trucked in grapes and many wouldn’t care.

One example is Three Dog Winery’s Dog House Red which is a generic VQA Ontario made from Niagara grapes specifically 44% Merlot, 32 % Cabernet Franc and 24% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Aroma: Black cherry, raspberry, wet stone and milk chocolate.

Palate: Mild tannins and restrained acids. Balanced as they say. Cherry, milk chocolate and a tad of rhubarb. Short finish.

Cellarbility:  I wouldn’t push my luck beyond 2027.

Food Match: Minced pork pappardelle. Or perhaps a pizza from a wood burning oven like they have at the winery.

Price: $18CDN.

RKS CANADIAN WINE Rating 89/100.

(Three Dog Winery 2023 Dog House Red, VQA Ontario, Three Dog Winery, Picton, Ontario, 750 mL, 12.5%)

RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: The One by One Islamist Clean Up in Turkey (Orhan Pamuk)

The Islamists have embarked in a clean up operation. They’re taking care of us one by one. If you want to save your skin. I would advise you to increase your faith in God at the earliest opportunity. It won’t be long. I fear, before a moderate belief in God will be insufficient to save the skin of an old atheist.

Orhan Pamuk, “Snow”, 2002

RKS Literature: Easy American Victims: Inept and Unflappable Delhi Pickpocket (Salman Rushdie)

India can be a tough country for Americans, who are seen as walking dollar signs and, what as innocents abroad: legitimate targets, easy meat. Within hours of checking in at their five-star South Delhi hotel, they had been importuned, without ,leaving the grounds, by money changers offering them the best black rate in town for their greenbacks, vendors of semi-precious stones which could have been polished pebbles, taxi drivers whose cousins ran a marble factory nearby, by hotel lobby palmists, young men of and women of quality offering serious negotiable currency for their cameras and clothes, older men inquiring of Marco whether Madonna was, in the first place, educated, and in the second place, available, and if so, for what fee; and an elevator pickpocket who was at once incompetent and unflappable, so that when Marco pointed out his hand was in the wrong pocket, the fellow simply extracted the offending limb, smiled broadly and said with a disarming shrug. It is an overcrowded country. What to do, we are used to treating our neighbour’s pocket as our own.

Salman Rushdie, “The Ground Beneath Her Feet”, 1999