Capt. John Yossarian of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. The only sane response to an insane world is to be insane.
PROMPT: Fictional Character
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Tag Archives: fiction
PROMPT: Inspired
I would say it’s much more common for travel to inspire me to read a particular book than the other way about. I can’t think of a case in which reading a book was the prime mover in a decision to travel to a given place. But I do try to read some literature from every country or literarily active city that I visit.
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PROMPT: Sequel
I think sequelization is a pox upon the literary world. I would hazard to say that anything good I’ve ever read was a standalone work. Seldom does the “resolution-to-hook” ratio lead to a satisfying, let alone illuminating, reading experience. A popular book series is far more likely to end like the television series Lost than to pull all its outstanding narrative strings together coherently.
Unless you’re talking nonfiction, in which case I would be open to another volume of The Complete History of the World at some point.
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PROMPT: Nominate
Daily writing prompt
Emperor Palpatine has announced open elections for a new Emperor — and he’s nominated Darth Vader. You get to nominate one challenger.
Let’s see. Someone fictional and from the future. I nominate Arthur Dent. #ArthurDentforEmperor
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PROMPT: Changed
Daily writing prompt
What’s a piece of media (book, movie, song) that changed how you see the world?
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.
Also: Quiet by Susan Cain; Water Margin by Shī Nài’ān; and Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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BOOK: 齐天大圣 by Yinuo Wang
齐天大圣 Monkey King: A Bilingual Chinese Storybook (Pinyin & English) with HSK Vocabulary by Yinuo WangMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon Page
This book collects episodes from the classic Chinese novel, Journey to the West, and condenses each into a page or two. Specifically, these are episodes from early in the story of Journey to the West, before the protagonist (a.k.a. Sun Wu Kong / the Monkey King / the Great Sage Equal to Heaven) actually departs on his journey to the west with a monk to get Buddhist scriptures. It is Sun Wu Kong’s origin story in a highly condensed form.
The illustrations of the book are aesthetically pleasing and are colorful and non-threatening (i.e. suitable for young readers.) Also, the book has quizzes and vocabulary building exercises at the back.
My biggest criticism of the book would be that it bites off more than it can chew. With single pages for major events and no room for transitions, the plates are a bit incongruous and don’t feel like a story as much as like viewing someone’s scrapbook. A lesser criticism would be that with a loose translation style (which is fine,) it sometimes translates the same characters in two different ways. (As it does with the title card which it translates quite literally as “The Great Sage Equal to Heaven” and the opening page where it translates the same four-character phrase quite loosely as “The Great Monkey King.”) This would not be an issue if the book were not a book for learning to read.
As I said, this is more like Sun Wu Kong’s scrapbook than his life story, but it is a nice way to practice beginner level reading. I’d recommend it for those beginning to read Chinese, particularly if one already knows the Journey to the West story.
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BOOK: “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk
Fight Club by Chuck PalahniukMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – W.W. Norton
Through a weird and wild storyline, Palahniuk offers insight into two (intertwined) crises of identity that have only grown more prominent since the book (and the David Fincher film adapted from it) came out in the late 90’s. First and foremost, there is a craving for, yet confusion about the nature of, masculinity. As men raised by women struggle to ape masculine behavior only to over-emphasize conspicuous features such as violence and aggression while missing more subtle aspects such as the instinct to protect and a grasp of responsibility, self-empowerment, and fortitude. The second identity crisis is self as consumer, wherein people start linking who they are to their consumption, and this becomes demoralizing because it’s such a hallow way of seeing oneself. (I say the crises are “intertwined” because it’s a long and painful fall to go from “protector” to “consumer-” the latter having nothing at all to feel good about.)
This is one of those books that people either find illuminating or unreadable. There is a lot in the book that is stomach-turning. For many, this will be the violence, but — for me, and I suspect many others, — it’s the “mischievous” pranks that Tyler Durden and the unnamed lead “play” as they work as waiters. Upton Sinclair once said of The Jungle that he aimed for the reader’s heart (i.e. to bring awareness to labor issues in the meat packing industry) and hit them square in the stomach (i.e. people’s main takeaway was that how their food was made was gross and needed to be corrected.) This may be a similar situation. Palahniuk, I suspect, is trying to show how these full-grown men in some ways haven’t escaped the grossest era of boyhood as they attempt to find their power in the world, but it mostly reminded me to not eat at banquets or other gatherings of rich people.
I found this to be an insightful book and would highly recommend it for anyone trying to figure out some of the oddities of the world in which we find ourselves living.
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BOOKS: “Know Yourself and Your Enemy” by Qixia Yu
Know Yourself and Your Enemy 知己知彼百战不殆 by Qixia YuMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Author Amazon Site
This illustrated bilingual book tells a story out of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It’s a popular tale of strategy in which the renowned strategist (and then Prime Minister) Zhuge Liang outfoxed the (also) renowned General Sima Yi as the latter brought a large army to the walls of the capital where Zhuge Liang was residing. The city was only weakly guarded because the bulk of forces were on campaign and they could not be recalled in time to be of service. Were it not for Zhuge Liang’s insightful stratagem, the capital would have been lost.
This is a great book for those learning Chinese for a few reasons. First, it contains pinyin and English translation. Secondly, it’s illustrated in a way that is not only aesthetically pleasing but which also helps a learner follow events – despite gaps in language understanding. Third, it’s an interesting story, and a nice break from the usual (re: dreadfully boring) beginner level reading fare. Finally, it’s a nice bite-sized chunk of writing for someone who still has to think out words and sentences. I don’t know that the author restricted themselves to any particular HSK level. It seemed to have some language beyond what was in HSK 3 / 4 readers I’ve read but is still relatively simple and straightforward in its language. Restricting to a simple level might be an issue with any historical work because there are going to be terms that are important but certainly aren’t among the most common words today (e.g. halberd.)
If you’re learning Chinese and are interested in strategy, martial arts, history, or Chinese literary classics, I’d highly recommend reading this book.
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BOOKS: “The Romance of Lust” by Anonymous
The Romance of Lust by William LazenbyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Public Domain — Wikisource
This book is classed as a “Victorian Erotic Novel,” but I’d call it pornography rather than erotica. I don’t mean that as condemnation, but as an application of the criteria “without the sex scenes, is there anything left?” In this case, without the sex, there isn’t really a story. If one took the sex scenes out of any erotica it wouldn’t be erotic anymore (and would probably be much less interesting,) but it could still have character development, a discernable plot in non-sex events, or an overarching moral. This book doesn’t really have any of that beyond some expository mentions of life events outside the sack.
This novel tells the story of a well-hung fictional character named Charlie Roberts through his myriad sexual adventures, which stretch from schoolboy / adolescent sex acts with his governess and his sisters to his wife-swapping adult years. The approach reminded me of the Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom The book under review has none of the Sado-Masochism (beyond the odd spanking or consensual flagellation) of Sade’s work, but it is a series of episodes that try to gradually one up each other in terms of their perceived level of perversity. Unlike The 120 Days of Sodom’s dark cruelty, The Romance of Lust reaches its extremes by way of incest, bisexual [omni-sexual?] orgies, and sex involving youths of ages that are undefined but clearly under our current conception of age of consent — but consent / amicability is present throughout.
Not long ago, I reviewed Venus in India. This work has some things in common with that one. For example, both books are set in the same era defined by a highly repressive culture that spurred a covert highly perverse counterculture, and both books were anonymously published. [FYI: It is known that The Romance of Lust was published by William Lazenby, but the author is unknown — though William Simpson Potter and Edward Sellon are among subjects of speculation.] However, in other ways, I think the books were quite different. I would say that Venus in India is to The Romance of Lust as Justine is to The 120 Days of Sodom, which is to say that former titles had something going on besides the sex scenes, while the latter titles really didn’t.
If you’re looking for an erotic novel that would stand without detailed descriptions of one sex scene after the next, this probably isn’t for you. However, if you like porn pacing and the lack of intrusions by non-arousing happenings, you may find this book compelling.
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BOOK: “Venus in India” by Charles Devereaux
Venus in India or Love Adventures in Hindustan by Charles DevereauxMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Available online – Wikisource
This novel is presented as the erotically-charged memoir of a British military officer stationed in India. While separated from his wife by his assignment, he has a couple major (and many minor) dalliances with other women, one with the loose wife of another officer and the other the daughter of his commanding officer — who he is charged with mentoring.
Compared with other Victorian erotica, this book does have more story and character development than other books with which I’m familiar. In other words, what goes on between the sheets (or in the grass or on a table) is not the sum total of the book. Interesting events happen outside the sex and there is at least the pretense of emotional arcs for important characters. This makes the book feel more like a true memoir rather than a collection of “Dear Penthouse” tales.
If you like stories of the historic ex-pat life and / or Victorian erotica, you’ll likely enjoy this book.
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Tiger Riding for Beginners 