Odds and Sods

The story, "The One Legged Rickshaw Boy" illustrates Gray's view of the absurdities of the film and TV world. Lawrence Gray's short stories and texts were written as the antidote to his screenwriting, and in Odds and Sods he allows himself to have fun with words alone. Characters in this world change their lives as if they are changing their clothes. They view reality as a shifting negotiation between moments of insanity. And when they want to fly like a great crane across the face of the moon, they take flight without reference to budgets. Gray buries the conventions of one form of writing within those of another. French farce clashes with Chinese opera. Science fiction translates into Chinese fairy tales. Sitcom meets Shakespeare. The lyrics of Blues songs create narratives for the lives of those attempting to recreate them musically. Literary greats turn up as bit part players. Samuel Taylor Coleridge mingles with Punjabi Rap artists. Tang Xianzu of the Ming Dynasty bumps into George Feydeau. Antonin Artaud has a walk on part, and if one wants to look, one can find Julian of Norwich, medieval mystic, stealing pencils in the dark. And he makes Hong Kong's chequered history cool!