Plato's illusion : republic of Singapore

This essay attempts to explain and justify the style and structure of the novel within the traditions of contemporary literary writing. It will discuss realist conventions and devices applied in the novel, such as plot and character, and examine their effectiveness, or limits, in telling a story. The writing of this novel was prompted by the relentless stream of political events that has flowed through the recent history of Singapore. Since the island's independence from British colonial rule in 1965, a small ruling elite embarked on a ferocious nation-building programme that has not always recognised its citizens as individuals, but rather more collectively as workers, managers, professionals, housewives and students: each group expected to perform a specific role in society. State apparatuses such as law enforcement, the civil service and the mass media are engineered to direct the conduct of citizens from cradle to grave. This instigated, and provided the background to, the writing of Plato's Illusion. An objective of this novel is to document as well as imaginatively capture life in Singapore under its prevailing authoritarian rule. The writing strategy adopted is to represent politics in terms of individual 'common' experience, for almost every aspect of the private citizen's life has been politicised in Singapore. Government intervention and manipulation are situated in the personal affairs of attending university, getting a job, finding a husband and having children. In other words, by portraying the process and effects of those interventions on the characters in the novel, the body politics will simultaneously take on a more concrete shape with a face and an attitude. This strategy, used in the development of plot and characters, would be a good representation of life in Singapore, if the effects of government policies and the personal psyche were thoroughly explored and articulated