Perspectives on the year ahead

As I am trying to become more organized and get more things done in 2007, I am already assessing the vista of what's to come. Here now is my previewing of some of the dots on my radar in the fields of literature and film alike. I'll give you the news in all this, undigested and raw as they come, hope you don't mind. So it'd be best if you read this as an update on some of proto-ymagon's most prominent topics as well.

Here goes:

• Pynchon's ATD is still looming large on my current agenda and sure to be around for some time; reading any such work must be a slow process and is such grandiose fun, I'd have to be downright mad to not take my due time for it

• then it is the new novel by Norman Mailer, “The Castle in the Forest”, is scheduled for publication on January 23^rd already (and you can pre-order it here); summary announces it as being a fictional account of Adolf Hitler's boyhood and defining troubles of growing up, which despite the many advance doubts I may entertain and an all but ambiguous gutt-feeling about such an undertaking, quite obviously is a must-read for one as myself

• Yale University Press will publish an anthology of essays by Gao Xingjian, March 5^th (and you can pre-order it here), where I couldn't confirm yet whether this collection, “The Case for Literature”, in fact is the very same project the Nobel Laureate spoke of in September last year; that was supposed to be a reworked edition of a series of lectures he gave on themes of aesthetics at the Collège de France – we'll see

• next in line should be no other but the Great Master's, Don DeLillo's new one, of course, “Falling Man”, set to be out by June 5^th (and you can pre-order this one here); slim sneaks indicate that it is now finally his frontal telling of some unfathomable occurrence not too much unlike those of 9/11, and for any DeLillo cognoscente out there this sure means telling a lot, alright

• last not least amid the persistent literary tide washing the shores of my still-too-narrow mindscape, I shall expect to see Rattawut Lapcharoensap's first novel making landfall, or its highly anticipated debut rather, somewhere in the latter half of 2007; no details yet, but I'll keep you informed.

Japanese films I'm watching out for are:

• the well-hyped and almost inevitable fantasy epic “Dororo”, which already premiered in Tokyo (not exactly my preferred kind of movie, but anyway)

• Kon Satoshi's new anime and said-to-be masterpiece “Paprika”, allegedly venturing deeply into the subconscious (no confirmed release date for Germany, yet)

• Tsukamoto Shinja's “Nightmare Detective”, starring the unlikely pairing of Matsuda Ryuhei and Ando Masanobu (well, the title says it all, and likewise there's been no release date confirmed for Germany so far)

• and of course, the new Miike, “Sukiyaki Western Django” (which I already gave you some details on here), which currently is in post-production.

Further highlights on my watchlist:

• Kim Ki-duk's “Shi gan”/”Time”, which will premiere in Germany... well, when will it, I wonder?

• anything new by Royston Tan, who seems to be up for shooting another short film first, before probably turning the mid-length documentary “Sin Sai Hong” into a full-blown 1hr version and finally setting to begin work on his next feature film, “132”, maybe by the second half of 2007?

• and now, there is (Singapore production company) Originasian's first feature length film, “Becoming Royston”, directed by Nicholas Chee, which I have personally grown very fond of and can't wait to see, but hopefully will, shortly, as it is currently in the very last stages of post production; I will definitely give you more details on this one in not too far a future.

As you can see for yourselves, there is quite a lot in the offing and this should more than likely make for an interesting year, indeed. In addition to this, there is the 57^th Berlinale (International Film Festival Berlin, February 8^th – 18^th), the 6^th Cineasia in Cologne (March 28^th – April 1^st) and the 20^th SIFF (Singapore International Film Festival, April 18^th – April 30^th), which I will report on for you here at proto-ymagon.
And, sure thing, “ymagon” is supposed to make some considerable headway, too. So, stay tuned!