![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
larryhammerReading Wednesday? So it is. And I've gotten absolutely nowhere on anything in progress two weeks ago because I started:
Outlaws of the Marsh aka Water Margin by Shi Nai'an and/or Luo Guanzhong, in Shapiro's translation of a 100-chapter edition -- I bounced hard, a few years ago, off an abridged version, but this is snorking down nicely. It doesn't hurt that I've read enough wuxia I can recognize this for an ur-text (one even more important than Journey to the West), but the better translation is probably more relevant. I did initially worry about how coherent a story with a main cast of 108 could be, but part of that was lingering effects of that abridgement, which was egregiously episodic -- and this version isn't. Having the Wikipedia plot summary with its links out to major characters has also helped (ditto being able to look up locations).
I'm up to chapter 39, and while so far it's all been multiple characters weaving in and out of each others' stories as we set up the Liangshan Marsh bandits, given a very low Ninja Replacement Score I'm good with that. Which is not to say I like any of these guys -- with hardened bandits as nominal heroes, we're firmly in the realm of Black and Grey Morality. Also, it's misogynistic as fuck -- I'm hoping that when one of handful of Action Girls finally show up, they'll help moderate things. Every time a woman appears, my enthusiasm dims a little more.
But despite that, he picked up the book. As a result, the pages were turned like a river in flood, minor characters died like a clear-cut forest. What happened next in the story? Read our next post if you would know.
Officially DNF: Eon, Freedom's Landing.
Subject quote from "She Knows," Shino Lin.
Outlaws of the Marsh aka Water Margin by Shi Nai'an and/or Luo Guanzhong, in Shapiro's translation of a 100-chapter edition -- I bounced hard, a few years ago, off an abridged version, but this is snorking down nicely. It doesn't hurt that I've read enough wuxia I can recognize this for an ur-text (one even more important than Journey to the West), but the better translation is probably more relevant. I did initially worry about how coherent a story with a main cast of 108 could be, but part of that was lingering effects of that abridgement, which was egregiously episodic -- and this version isn't. Having the Wikipedia plot summary with its links out to major characters has also helped (ditto being able to look up locations).
I'm up to chapter 39, and while so far it's all been multiple characters weaving in and out of each others' stories as we set up the Liangshan Marsh bandits, given a very low Ninja Replacement Score I'm good with that. Which is not to say I like any of these guys -- with hardened bandits as nominal heroes, we're firmly in the realm of Black and Grey Morality. Also, it's misogynistic as fuck -- I'm hoping that when one of handful of Action Girls finally show up, they'll help moderate things. Every time a woman appears, my enthusiasm dims a little more.
But despite that, he picked up the book. As a result, the pages were turned like a river in flood, minor characters died like a clear-cut forest. What happened next in the story? Read our next post if you would know.
Officially DNF: Eon, Freedom's Landing.
Subject quote from "She Knows," Shino Lin.