“Dewdrop Notes” is a name derived from my novel Like A Dewdrop (1993). The concept of dewdrops is one that fascinates me. They are so beautiful yet so transient. Helpless when the sun rises to burn them off, they reappear the next day. And the same cycle of events follow. What if we humans were like dewdrops? What if we could end this life and start a new life to correct all our mistakes and grasp the wasted opportunities? Will we really be able to lead the perfect life if we could return with full knowledge of the mistakes we’ve made in a previous life? Or will we make a new set of mistakes, or worse, make the same mistakes over and over again? Are we like dewdrops that repeat the same cycle of life and death as if we can never learn any lesson from our previous lives?
“Dewdrop Notes” does not aim to be highbrow literature. It aims to marry the highbrow and the sexy, the poetic and the vulgar to give a mix that approximates real life and interests real people. I’ve divided Dewdrop Notes into several segments. Each is distinct yet related. You’ll find different styles of poems, essays and features. The main theme is “Refuse To Behave”. As a creative writer, I believe that real works of art can only come about when people rebel or “misbehave”. In Dewdrop Notes, I aim to give a different perspective to misunderstood mavericks who are often regarded as troublemakers in a relatively narrow-minded society like ours.
We do/did have talented people. But only when we understand and learn how to accommodate them will we achieve the artistic and even scientific vibrancy that befits our status as a developed nation.
Chan Joon Yee