Observations From Thailand
Observations From Thailand
Today’s piece is more a series of observations, a sort of diary entry, I suppose.
The first of the observations will be obvious to anyone in Thailand at the moment and that is the heat. The months of March and April are Thailand’s hottest. Even the schools have to shut down. It was 39c at 16:30 today, with a note on the meteorological site that it felt like 44c
I can confirm that it did too.
Still, Songkhran, the ancient Thai New Year, starts on the 14th and the welcome, cooling monsoon should arrive within a month of that, although it has been a month late before now, which is blamed on climate change.
The second of my observations concerns embarrassment. Mild embarrassment of the kind one feels on coming face to face with a stranger unexpectedly. In Thailand, many people will just look straight through you. However, men may nod; older women may smile and younger women may giggle, but none of them (in the villages) do what most Brits would do, which is say ‘Hello’.
They just don’t have the word.
The third of my observations is to do with the meaning of the word ‘paranormal’. I looked it up last night and as far as I remember the definition was: ‘Something not satisfactorily explained by science’. One source offered examples such as telepathy and clairvoyance.
OK, that will do for me.
So, what bothers me is authors labelling their books on vampires, zombies and the like ‘paranormal’. Are they saying that they believe in these creatures? Because if the accept that they don’t exist, then they cannot honestly label their stories as paranormal.
It is just a nagging thought at the moment, but it won’t go away.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not denigrating the stories! I have written a vampire story myself; I am only criticising the sloppy labelling, the nomenclature.
What do you think?
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All the best,
Podcast: Observations from Thailand
