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larryhammerWhat I've recently finished since my last post:
"Sword of the Yueh Maiden," by Jin Yong/Louis Cha, a wuxia short story by one of the modern masters of the genre. It's the last new thing he wrote (he's spent the last 40 years publishing revisions to his older books) and set in the earliest historical period, in either the Spring and Autumn or the Warring States era -- I honestly can't tell the difference. An okay story, regardless, though it felt like it could have fruitfully been developed into something more novella length.
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou volumes 8-10 by Hitoshi Ashinano (reread). The first two are the wanderjahr-and-return volumes -- which are cool and world-expanding and character-defining, but I still like better the stories with Alpha in the last lonely cafe at the end of the road.
Poems of Places volume 22, covering the rest of the Near East. Orientalism A-hoy! picks up in full earnest with Arabia and Persia. I am pleasantly surprised by the number of poems, some of them translated, that are straight-up sympathetic to Islam -- especially after the notable lack of same for post-Biblical Judaism in the Levantine volume or elsewhere. (BTW, In case I haven't made it clear through my intermittent sniping, I've very much been enjoying this anthology: it has introduced me to a large body of perfectly competent but otherwise forgotten poetry, and Longfellow had a good eye for the evocative, if not always for what it's evoking.)
What I'm reading now:
Story of the Eagle-Shooting Hero aka Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong/Louis Cha, the first of the Condor trilogy. Wuxia set at the end of the Southern Song/Jin dynasties, with Mongols gathering strength on the northern horizon (several early chapters take place in the camp of the khan who becomes known as Genghis). And oh yeah, it's wuxia -- a sprawling story of wandering martial artists, sworn brothers, battle couples, honor above reason, wagers and grudges that span decades, treachery, and frequent encounters with someone whose kung fu is stronger than yours. Unless, of course, it isn't. Just don't ever mess with any passing Taoist priests. It is strikingly easy to visualize the fights scenes in the conventions of wuxia movies, making it clear the two formats developed together. I am amused that the main hero is, to put it mildly, not the sharpest arrow on the steppes and more determined than talented, as well as by how many laugh-out-loud moments there are. Am at the start of volume 4 (of 4 -- Chinese novels: not short). (The historical events behind "Sword of the Yueh Maiden" are, heh, referred to several times in this one.) (Eventually I'll do the obligatory comparison to Red Mansions.)
(Speaking of which,) am up to chapter 10 (I think?) of A Dream of Red Mansions, with the main storyline finally fully under way. The approach to the first scene with all parties of the primary romantic triangle (if a structure this complicated can be said to have a primary entanglement) was surprisingly understated but resulted in a remarkably vivid scene. By the time it's done, you know to pay attention to the two women who each share with the hero a character of his personal name.
Cycling back to Poems of Places, have started volume 23, being almost entirely India -- with Orientalism A-hoy! even more thickly laid on. Thick enough to be pretty painful in parts. I suppose 1879 was too soon after the so-called Sepoy Mutiny to expect anything remotely sympathetic to it.
Also, am still stuck in 45 of Orlando Furioso by Ariosto (Rose), though I still made some progress. I don't know whether it's this translation or my age, but I have less patience with this denouement than in past readings. I should just sit down and bull through the rest. That or write the fanfic in which some wuxia knights-errant wander through wrecking merry havoc with the plot.
What I might read next:
After Eagle-Shooting Hero, before continuing the Condor trilogy I may try either Liang Yusheng's White-Haired Demoness (the source novel for The Bride with White Hair) or something by Gu Long. Just to triangulate wuxia voices. I also have an incomplete translation of Wang Dulu's The Crane Startles Kunlun, the first of the pentalogy that includes Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but having read the manhua adaptation, that's less pressing.
---L.
"Sword of the Yueh Maiden," by Jin Yong/Louis Cha, a wuxia short story by one of the modern masters of the genre. It's the last new thing he wrote (he's spent the last 40 years publishing revisions to his older books) and set in the earliest historical period, in either the Spring and Autumn or the Warring States era -- I honestly can't tell the difference. An okay story, regardless, though it felt like it could have fruitfully been developed into something more novella length.
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou volumes 8-10 by Hitoshi Ashinano (reread). The first two are the wanderjahr-and-return volumes -- which are cool and world-expanding and character-defining, but I still like better the stories with Alpha in the last lonely cafe at the end of the road.
Poems of Places volume 22, covering the rest of the Near East. Orientalism A-hoy! picks up in full earnest with Arabia and Persia. I am pleasantly surprised by the number of poems, some of them translated, that are straight-up sympathetic to Islam -- especially after the notable lack of same for post-Biblical Judaism in the Levantine volume or elsewhere. (BTW, In case I haven't made it clear through my intermittent sniping, I've very much been enjoying this anthology: it has introduced me to a large body of perfectly competent but otherwise forgotten poetry, and Longfellow had a good eye for the evocative, if not always for what it's evoking.)
What I'm reading now:
Story of the Eagle-Shooting Hero aka Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong/Louis Cha, the first of the Condor trilogy. Wuxia set at the end of the Southern Song/Jin dynasties, with Mongols gathering strength on the northern horizon (several early chapters take place in the camp of the khan who becomes known as Genghis). And oh yeah, it's wuxia -- a sprawling story of wandering martial artists, sworn brothers, battle couples, honor above reason, wagers and grudges that span decades, treachery, and frequent encounters with someone whose kung fu is stronger than yours. Unless, of course, it isn't. Just don't ever mess with any passing Taoist priests. It is strikingly easy to visualize the fights scenes in the conventions of wuxia movies, making it clear the two formats developed together. I am amused that the main hero is, to put it mildly, not the sharpest arrow on the steppes and more determined than talented, as well as by how many laugh-out-loud moments there are. Am at the start of volume 4 (of 4 -- Chinese novels: not short). (The historical events behind "Sword of the Yueh Maiden" are, heh, referred to several times in this one.) (Eventually I'll do the obligatory comparison to Red Mansions.)
(Speaking of which,) am up to chapter 10 (I think?) of A Dream of Red Mansions, with the main storyline finally fully under way. The approach to the first scene with all parties of the primary romantic triangle (if a structure this complicated can be said to have a primary entanglement) was surprisingly understated but resulted in a remarkably vivid scene. By the time it's done, you know to pay attention to the two women who each share with the hero a character of his personal name.
Cycling back to Poems of Places, have started volume 23, being almost entirely India -- with Orientalism A-hoy! even more thickly laid on. Thick enough to be pretty painful in parts. I suppose 1879 was too soon after the so-called Sepoy Mutiny to expect anything remotely sympathetic to it.
Also, am still stuck in 45 of Orlando Furioso by Ariosto (Rose), though I still made some progress. I don't know whether it's this translation or my age, but I have less patience with this denouement than in past readings. I should just sit down and bull through the rest. That or write the fanfic in which some wuxia knights-errant wander through wrecking merry havoc with the plot.
What I might read next:
After Eagle-Shooting Hero, before continuing the Condor trilogy I may try either Liang Yusheng's White-Haired Demoness (the source novel for The Bride with White Hair) or something by Gu Long. Just to triangulate wuxia voices. I also have an incomplete translation of Wang Dulu's The Crane Startles Kunlun, the first of the pentalogy that includes Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but having read the manhua adaptation, that's less pressing.
---L.
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Date: 4 September 2013 03:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 September 2013 04:25 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 4 September 2013 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 September 2013 10:22 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 5 September 2013 02:03 am (UTC)For better effect or worse?
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Date: 5 September 2013 04:49 am (UTC)---L.