What??!?...You dont KNOW Hoon??

You dont wanna know whats goes in there

Having had just come back from 301, tired, lethargic, hungry with my stomach still in much pain from Monday’s eating and drinking, I thought writing it down would atleast mitigate the “301 hangover” that almost all engineering students go through.  To be fair, it was by far the best night spent over at the building as I had something to eat and a cozy sofa(credit to halal for locating them) over at the electrical engineering end to get a few hours of sleep.

The article below is a part that got edited out from our March issue of Quill. Having had put a lot of time listening and decrypting it, and convinced Hoon to miss out his date for the interview(hahaha), I thought it would be a better idea to publish them here.

Hoon and I took a course together called “the global issues and ethical values” last year, and oh my, he could really speak. Unlike some students who just bark to impress the Prof irking the people around them, I found him to give genuine views on the topics being discussed. His understanding on almost every aspect of history, philosophy, politics, sociology to psychology is deep much credit to the crazy amount of books that he has managed to gulp down over the years.  While most of us forget what we just read, he seems to have that ability to scratch it down into his memory permanently. Besides, he’s more relaxed to listen to and debate with his peers demonstrating an incredible amount of knowledge.

I remember a time when we had a short talk and how I only said I liked reading Che’s works only to find a shit load of books on Che, Socialism, Communism and Marxism being dumped in front of me the very next day. All he said was,”You can return them whenever you want”. After barely managing to read a quarter of the lot, I gave up.

Now imagine taking my brain out, taking 9 such similar brains, fusing them together in some crazy lab, squeezing them into a size of a normal brain. And still that “brain” wouldn’t be close to his. A Pentium I vs his i7 single brain. If you get what I mean.(I know…. I over did it this time.)

So without further delay, here’s his interview:

For those who have already met Seun Hoon Hahm, Department of Humanities ’10, will know that he has a voluminous amount of information stuck in his brain. He can debate and put aside his perspective with such ease that onlookers can only stare with their mouths open.

I got to have a chat with him one afternoon. When asked to recommend some books to our Quill readers, he said “Maus. Since a lot of students are busy because of the material that’s been given in the course, I think it would be a good idea to give one graphic novel. Its not actually a story but kind of bilography. Its about a guy called Arts Spielman. He is son of a Auswitch (WWII concentration camp) survivor. (its about) how he feels about it and tells about his father story. So technically it’s also a biography about Vladek Spielman (his father). Its non fiction and he went to record his father’s story and interviewed him. It focuses on how he survives the death camp and world war. Turns out he has an amazing story.”

“His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman. It’s a fantasy novel where they have demons and souls and where you actually can see them. But I think that’s a generally very interesting series. It is actually meant to be kind of controversial with religious readers because it deals a lot with those kinds of issues as well. It’s nothing like the movie “Northern Lights” because that was a shocking movie (based on this book).”

“Travel books? It would be Sketch book Series” When asked if they were similar to the one Lonely Planet publishes, he said,” No. Every book is written by a different author and has a different artist. (includes) Watercolors and drawings of every famous monument of that particular city. It has like huge pictures of each of the landmarks and it’s not just the big landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or whatever but it also talks about small boulevards and interesting small places that a lot of tourists don’t know about. They are all named after the cities. Gives you a nice feel and it’s a very beautiful book.”

“50 Great Essays. Covers topics from weasels which kind of become a metaphor for human life and how you live it to old people like Montaigne and Bacon. Some of them aren’t even essays. (there) Is this one letter by a famous Ambassador to his son. What’s great is that they condense a lot of material into a short form. Once you read all of those essays you can start making connections by yourself. It’s like Baskins-Robbins, you know, you just get to taste different flavors. You can just open it randomly and start reading it.”

He will surely kill me
for putting his pic up. 

When asked what he was up for reading these days, he answered,” Lately I have been reading ‘Very Short Introductions (series)’, partly because I am too lazy finish off the big books (smiles) but just because the book is large does not necessarily mean it is going to be enlightening. There are books that condense a lot of things a scholar knows after reading and all of that kind of digests it for you and you read it and then you compare with your own view. For example, Very short introduction to Focault (French Philosopher/ Historian). I don’t actually agree with a lot of what the book says. Nonetheless, its constructive criticism.”

He also pointed out his unorthodox way of reading,” I generally read 3 (books) at a time. I will read one and once I get bored I start reading the other. By this way I force a connection between what this guy said and what the other said.” He adds,” Its also partly to impress the ladies (laughs). Maybe I am just impatient. I find it interesting to make connections between books written by completely different people. It could be random as history and lets say cooking. That’s where the new ideas come from.” No wonder he has an encyclopedic brain.

On a final note, Fuze will be playing today in the Student Center Lounge from 6:30 pm today. Having had attended their past two major gigs, I must say they are very apt at what they do. If you think Fusion Jazz and Funk is your thing, you are in for a treat.

Ok then, i will be heading back to reports and assignments that needs my urgent attention. I am still a long way from getting into my beloved bed so i might as well ignore my back's pleads. Have yourselves a very good day.Until next time.