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[ red_a02 ] Shuzhen – The first episode was a lot of fun, cos it had an interesting cocktail of sexual tension and smooth fight choreography. This episode is like the awkward aftermath...
27 Aquarius 13 18:13
[ vermilion_2 ] YAPX – I understand that most of your stories are dialogue-based and heavy on retorts and counter-retorts. This one felt unnecessarily circular. It starts with a cool premise: a killer/villain/vigilante uses Lent to swear off something that should be second nature to him (I suppose), and then talks about a story. The link between the two (giving up killing & the story) isn’t a 100% fit. Maybe instead of “let me tell you a story”, it could be “hey, you see I even passed a guy up for death today!” or equivalent. Something to drag Lorelei into the banter and the premise. // That’s my only complaint. I’m not a big fan of dialogue-based stories, but I can make a exception for this.
14 Aquarius 13 08:03
[ 130204 ] YAPX – Good pace, good characters, great dialogue. The thing I like best is a combination of the three: how you build up their pseudo-relationship through all that back-and-forth exchange. Somehow, you craft a unique, strange relationship: from any one point in the story, both of them are manipulative, victimised and hypocrites - though not all at once. // On word choices, I felt you could change the word “janitor” (“cleaner” or “uncle” would’ve given a different, but more acute local flavour to it). Mostly because, it’s connotes an added level of difference through: class. Whether or not you intended it, by portraying the “janitor” and “student” you bring out the fact that he’s stuck there socially in all sense of the word. It made the part where he says he reads books during weekends completely out-of-context and weird. // Also, there’s too much “sliding” in and out of the room. Not sure if that’s intentional repetition, or just a lack of other words. // I thought that the girl’s own background is pretty compelling. Even after everything, I can’t tell if she’s speaking the truth. Because I’m all for unreliable narrators and characters, I can still find her well-thought out. But other readers might lose patience or wonder at her sudden change of heart at the final moment.
04 Aquarius 13 08:48
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The Classical Novels ♠ 26 Ge♊ini 2k8, Thor’s Day ♣ |  |
And, finally, we come to the exciting conclusion to my epic three-part post on two books I bought – Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In this thrilling finale, I actually talk about boobs books.
For those who don’t know, “books” are what happens to trees when they die, much like animals, when they die, become “meals” (the lucky ones become “happy meals”). Books are consumed in a process which is similar to how you are “reading” this right now, except without the part where you stare at a light-source, barely blinking, for long hours. Reading books qualifies you as a vegetarian.
These are
(Turns out, finding a picture to go with this caption was harder than I expected.)
Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, along with Water Margin (Outlaws of the Marsh) and Dream of the Red Chamber, make up the Chinese Four Great Classical Novels.
I’ve read all the Western Classics that I care to, except for the dystopias (1984, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies – someday, someday. Do Ann Rynd and Gore Vidal fit in there? I haven’t read them too).
I really adore Don Quixote de La Mancha, Candide and Catch 22 (Yossarian Lives!). I’ve read most of and adore Dumas, Fitzgerald, Hardy, Christie, Fleming and probably a few more. I love Shakespeare, Wilde and Stevenson, but only read a few works. I’m alright with Hesse. I’ve read the most important Kafka, which I can declare, as an authority in the emerging field of Applied Literature, is the literary equivalent of cutting yourself.
But if you truly want to go for emo literacy, I recommend The Brothers Karamazov, which is like reading Kafka, only with more, much more, PAIN (in easy-to-connect flavours such as Ennui, Isolation, Loathing (Self and Others) and “No One Understands What I Am Going Through. No One Possibly Can.”). I’ve met the grand total of one (1) person who loved The Brothers Karamazov, and she graduated valedictorian before moving on to Wellesley, so it’s possible you have to be really smart to appreciate the nuances of Russian suffering. Or, possibly, a sadist.
Speaking of which, I’ve even read the 120 Days of Sodom, which seems the kind of book that’d make a good conversation point. Except, in over a decade since I read it, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it at all.
Of the classic sci-fi and fantasy, I’ve read most of and adore Heinlein, Wilson (The Illuminatus! Trilogy blew my mind), Dick and Vonnegut. I’m alright with The Lord of the Rings and Earthsea. Wilson and Vonnegut died this year, which means Pratchett is the only living author whose works I truly enjoy. While The Sandman was great, I’m not all that fond of Gaiman as a novelist. In writing this, I realise I may not actually have read any of his novels, so I’m not sure why.
I’ve even read the classic children’s books, which, yes, I do adore; the two Alices (my favourite books ever), The Little Prince, Totto-chan, Mister God, This is Anna and Animal Farm.
Of the non-Western, non-Chinese Classics, I adore One Thousand and One Nights, The Prophet and The Pillow Book (the original blog).
I’ve also read The Vagina Monologues, which, it turns out, isn’t a horror story. I had expected something akin to –
Finally, she removed her skirt. She worked her black panties downwards, smiling at me all the while. I was amazed that such a quiet girl would be so open with her sexuality, so at ease with herself.
She lay back, beckoning me with her hands to come between her legs, spread widely open before me. She had barely spoken all night. My eyes travelled down her lithe body, coming to rest at her slit. It was moist, and, as I stared, it parted slightly…
“We need to talk,” it said.
All of which is to say, I feel I’m sort of overdue in reading the Chinese classics, though I don’t intend to read Dream of the Red Chamber.
Besides some Pratchett and Alice, the only books I’ve read more than twice is Water Margin. I really enjoyed Monkey, which is abridged.
And now I’ve started on Journey to the West, which is rather slow going. The pacing in Monkey is far better. The translation has too much poetry, which, I’m sure, sounds a lot better in Mandarin than florid, descriptive English.
I think I wrote a list like this somewhen ago. mmm.
Anyways, every once in a while someone will ask me how I can write the way I do, and this is the answer. It’s not 10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will. It’s just who I am, what I do (also, pollinating flowers).
On a related note to the very beginning of this epic series, read this –
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“All human actions are equivalent… and… all are on principle doomed to failure.”
