Thursday, March 09, 2006
Don't be cruel - Cheap Trick
Finally! i finished my first book since i got here! Yup, took me almost 5 months!!!!!!
My faithful meal-time companion
Gone are the days when i finish books by the week! I only allow meself the pleasure of reading when i eat my dinner. So yeah, it was slow moving.
Still, slow and steady wins the race! Hahaha. To be honest, i "sprinted" the last lap of the book. Yeah, last nite, i just decided to sit down after my meal and finish it off once and for all!
It was an excellent book (Note: i only read The Chamber cuz i've read The Rainmaker in the past). Me a big fan of Grisham. But i always find that his books loses momentum close to the end. Not all, but most. I remember my first Grisham was The Street Lawyer. I went up to Penang for a case and then stayed on wif a fren. I found the book in the guest room where i slept and i finished it before i left Penang! Incidentally - for me mates back home in the drama team wif me, that book was the inspiration behind the script for Someone has gotta die!!!
But The Chamber is simply brilliant! It's basically about a young lawyer who decides to represent his grandfather whom he has never met before and who is on death row.
I've always been against Capital Punishment - even if my Church's stand was that CP is allowed as God allowed it after the flood (Genesis 9:5-6). I dun agree wif such an interpretation but i shall not go into it here.
Even as i study here, most if not all of us are against CP - and we find it to be a "cruel and unusual punishment". We'd argue that CP is in violation of The Convention Against Torture.
A lot of proponents of CP would argue in return that the modern methods of execution are fast and cause minimal pain.
Even if such an allegation is true (rather, there has been a lot of material saying that the methods used does in fact cause great pain), the "torture" part is not so much the execution but the sentence itself. Imagine being sentenced to death - having to sit in prison, counting down the days to your execution, having to decide on yr last meal, saying goodbye to your family and frens.
This torture was depicted really well by Grisham. By the way, a lot of people have said that Grisham is a Christian. I won't be surprised after reading all his books.
Back to the torture - when we are first introduced to Sam Cayhill, we see a cold-blooded killer. A racist. Not a very nice guy.
But at the end, dun be surprised if you find yrself shedding tears for him. I did. I had to stop reading in the kitchen and move into me room in case some of me flatmates enter the kitchen to find me in tears!
Sure, you still hate the crime he has committed. But still, it is cruel to subject anyone to such a fate. What made it worse was that Sam was not directly guilty for the murders in question. Still, he admitted that he had been guilty of other murders and this all kinda just adds up.
No, it doesn't! Killing is wrong - and you are wrong if you kill the killer, even if you are the State. What can you achieve by taking his life? As Ghandhi once said, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind".
I look at my own country and i've seen people sentenced to death for drug offences in the past 2 decades. Yet, can we say that such death sentences are a deterrent factor? People are still traficking drugs and Courts are still sending people to the gallows as the law leaves the judges with no other choice.
Reading the book only strengthened my resolve to speak out against death penalties. I've known it in my mind - and now, i've felt it even stronger. Yeah, even tho it's just a novel, yet it is prolly wat people on death row had to go thru.
It has been a while since i've cried over a book!
Now i must try to watch the movie - altho i read that the movie is a pale shadow of the book.
On a happier note, i got meself a new meal-time companion:-
I found it in the library yesterday! I'm a cheapskate, i know - i resisted buying it when i saw it being sold for 1.25 in London. hehehe. Why buy when you can borrow? I seldom re-read books!
Just 2 things after reading the first 3 chapters - i've READ IT BEFORE!!!!!!!! But i doubt i finished it. It was prolly another victim of my really bad habit of reading 4 - 5 books at any one point of time but only finshing 1 or 2!
The other thing? I can't stop smiling as i read it! :-)
My faithful meal-time companion
Gone are the days when i finish books by the week! I only allow meself the pleasure of reading when i eat my dinner. So yeah, it was slow moving.
Still, slow and steady wins the race! Hahaha. To be honest, i "sprinted" the last lap of the book. Yeah, last nite, i just decided to sit down after my meal and finish it off once and for all!
It was an excellent book (Note: i only read The Chamber cuz i've read The Rainmaker in the past). Me a big fan of Grisham. But i always find that his books loses momentum close to the end. Not all, but most. I remember my first Grisham was The Street Lawyer. I went up to Penang for a case and then stayed on wif a fren. I found the book in the guest room where i slept and i finished it before i left Penang! Incidentally - for me mates back home in the drama team wif me, that book was the inspiration behind the script for Someone has gotta die!!!
But The Chamber is simply brilliant! It's basically about a young lawyer who decides to represent his grandfather whom he has never met before and who is on death row.
I've always been against Capital Punishment - even if my Church's stand was that CP is allowed as God allowed it after the flood (Genesis 9:5-6). I dun agree wif such an interpretation but i shall not go into it here.
Even as i study here, most if not all of us are against CP - and we find it to be a "cruel and unusual punishment". We'd argue that CP is in violation of The Convention Against Torture.
A lot of proponents of CP would argue in return that the modern methods of execution are fast and cause minimal pain.
Even if such an allegation is true (rather, there has been a lot of material saying that the methods used does in fact cause great pain), the "torture" part is not so much the execution but the sentence itself. Imagine being sentenced to death - having to sit in prison, counting down the days to your execution, having to decide on yr last meal, saying goodbye to your family and frens.
***********Spoiler warning**************
This torture was depicted really well by Grisham. By the way, a lot of people have said that Grisham is a Christian. I won't be surprised after reading all his books.
Back to the torture - when we are first introduced to Sam Cayhill, we see a cold-blooded killer. A racist. Not a very nice guy.
But at the end, dun be surprised if you find yrself shedding tears for him. I did. I had to stop reading in the kitchen and move into me room in case some of me flatmates enter the kitchen to find me in tears!
Sure, you still hate the crime he has committed. But still, it is cruel to subject anyone to such a fate. What made it worse was that Sam was not directly guilty for the murders in question. Still, he admitted that he had been guilty of other murders and this all kinda just adds up.
No, it doesn't! Killing is wrong - and you are wrong if you kill the killer, even if you are the State. What can you achieve by taking his life? As Ghandhi once said, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind".
I look at my own country and i've seen people sentenced to death for drug offences in the past 2 decades. Yet, can we say that such death sentences are a deterrent factor? People are still traficking drugs and Courts are still sending people to the gallows as the law leaves the judges with no other choice.
Reading the book only strengthened my resolve to speak out against death penalties. I've known it in my mind - and now, i've felt it even stronger. Yeah, even tho it's just a novel, yet it is prolly wat people on death row had to go thru.
It has been a while since i've cried over a book!
Now i must try to watch the movie - altho i read that the movie is a pale shadow of the book.
**********End of spoiler*************
On a happier note, i got meself a new meal-time companion:-
Just 2 things after reading the first 3 chapters - i've READ IT BEFORE!!!!!!!! But i doubt i finished it. It was prolly another victim of my really bad habit of reading 4 - 5 books at any one point of time but only finshing 1 or 2!
The other thing? I can't stop smiling as i read it! :-)
# posted by imissw : 12:27:00 am
Comments:
<< Home
Whoa! A guy bought Pride and Prejudice! Hah, now there's something rare.
Forgive me, it's just that guys usually don't buy a copy and they don't usually smile as they read it. Most my male friends could hardly stay awake...
Forgive me, it's just that guys usually don't buy a copy and they don't usually smile as they read it. Most my male friends could hardly stay awake...
Well, maybe i'm just in touch wif my feminine side! ;-P
just kidding. i just appreciate good works of literature!
oso, i am curious about all the fuss that me female mates have made over it! a good way to understand girls - and impress them too! hahaha!
and for the record, i borrowed the book from the library!
Post a Comment
just kidding. i just appreciate good works of literature!
oso, i am curious about all the fuss that me female mates have made over it! a good way to understand girls - and impress them too! hahaha!
and for the record, i borrowed the book from the library!
<< Home
