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Jul. 25th, 2009 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
issenlloIt's not really a rec... but a couple of years ago I read a Naruto fic called Spying no Jutsu by Daniel Gudman, which takes place before the timeskip and has Naruto disguising himself as a girl so he can be a spy, and even considering what little I know of Naruto after the timeskip, plenty has been jossed in the curent fic. Still, when I first read the first three chapters, it was enjoyable and though the writing quality has become very weird, it is now completed. So... in case anyone was following it.
***
I was a bit chagrined when I picked up 邊成浪子 last week and realised I was reading it really slowly--my Chinese comprehension clearly diminishes from disuse--but it was heartening to find that by the third and last volume, I had gone up to a volume within four hours. Which is not bad. Gu Long's novels are pretty easy to read; short sentences, brief descriptions and most of the narrative comprises of talking heads.
Title: 邊成浪子 aka Bianchenglangzi
Author: 古龍 aka Gu Long
Anyone remembers that Peanuts strip that went:
It was a dark and stormy night.
Suddenly, a shot rang out!
Then another! And another!
Not to say that Gu Long's prose is entirely like that. But when a novel starts off:
There was no colour inside the house, only blackness!
I couldn't help a giggle, partly for the melodrama and partly out of nostalgia. I think Gu Long's novels were the first to teach me NOT to use gratuitious exclamation marks, back in the day.
The novel does get better (not being sarcastic, really). Basically, the story is about a revenge plot wherein the perpetrators (and survivors) of a family's massacre that occurred 19 years ago are now trying to kill/avoid the illegitimate son of that family head, who has now come seeking revenge.
Problem is, they don't know for sure who that son is, and for much of the novel it is assumed that Fu Hong Xue (am using hanyu pinyin for the names), a taciturn, hostile young man whose hand seems permanently welded to his sabre and who walks with a limp, is he. The other stranger who turns up is Ye Kai, who at first seems to be nothing but a busybody. But then of course the mystery deepens regarding his real identity as more enemies come out of the woodwork, and plotters plot and women scheme. Lots of people die, and finally the truth comes out.
Hate to admit it, but Gu Long is misogynistic, which gets annoying when he brushes off the cavaliar attitudes of the men towards women, describes how passionate and loving and yet how heartless all women are, or takes it for granted that all women throw tantrums and men should indulge them. Or that all a woman needs is a good man. Or a virile one. Or that...
Yeah. I'm remembering just why, despite my love for Ye Kai (and yeah, Fu Hong Xue too), I've not read Gu Long for years.
Mind you, Ye Kai actually seems to be a decent sort to his girlfriend. It's Gu Long's own side commentary that's not really palatable. And the less said about Fu Hong Xue's relationship with the prostitute with the proverbial heart of gold, Cui Nong, the better.
Anyway, being of a slashy persuasion I couldn't help but want to slash Ye Kai with Fu Hong Xue. (Especially as the girlfriend doesn't turn up until the second volume.) They're like... brothers under the skin. (Tho' totally unrelated.) I can just see it: Ye Kai investigating some other weird happenings in another town, Fu Hong Xue turns up and makes "Why did I have to run into you" looks at him, and together they fight crime! 'cos Ye Kai is the only one who understands Fu Hong Xue's angst, besides being the only person Fu Hong Xue can bring himself to trust. Of course it's eternal love.
Um, yeah. Must admit that I'd forgotten much of the plot through the years and it was a lot of fun to re-read the novel and pick up on all the red herrings all over again. I enjoy Gu Long's mysteries a lot, tho' they get a trifle bizarre. And it does have a number of coincidences that would in any other novelist's hand annoy me, but Gu Long sets up how freakily intricate the perpetrators' plotting was, right from the beginning, so it's not too bad. Ending's good too.
Something not-Chinese next time.
***
I was a bit chagrined when I picked up 邊成浪子 last week and realised I was reading it really slowly--my Chinese comprehension clearly diminishes from disuse--but it was heartening to find that by the third and last volume, I had gone up to a volume within four hours. Which is not bad. Gu Long's novels are pretty easy to read; short sentences, brief descriptions and most of the narrative comprises of talking heads.
Title: 邊成浪子 aka Bianchenglangzi
Author: 古龍 aka Gu Long
Anyone remembers that Peanuts strip that went:
It was a dark and stormy night.
Suddenly, a shot rang out!
Then another! And another!
Not to say that Gu Long's prose is entirely like that. But when a novel starts off:
There was no colour inside the house, only blackness!
I couldn't help a giggle, partly for the melodrama and partly out of nostalgia. I think Gu Long's novels were the first to teach me NOT to use gratuitious exclamation marks, back in the day.
The novel does get better (not being sarcastic, really). Basically, the story is about a revenge plot wherein the perpetrators (and survivors) of a family's massacre that occurred 19 years ago are now trying to kill/avoid the illegitimate son of that family head, who has now come seeking revenge.
Problem is, they don't know for sure who that son is, and for much of the novel it is assumed that Fu Hong Xue (am using hanyu pinyin for the names), a taciturn, hostile young man whose hand seems permanently welded to his sabre and who walks with a limp, is he. The other stranger who turns up is Ye Kai, who at first seems to be nothing but a busybody. But then of course the mystery deepens regarding his real identity as more enemies come out of the woodwork, and plotters plot and women scheme. Lots of people die, and finally the truth comes out.
Hate to admit it, but Gu Long is misogynistic, which gets annoying when he brushes off the cavaliar attitudes of the men towards women, describes how passionate and loving and yet how heartless all women are, or takes it for granted that all women throw tantrums and men should indulge them. Or that all a woman needs is a good man. Or a virile one. Or that...
Yeah. I'm remembering just why, despite my love for Ye Kai (and yeah, Fu Hong Xue too), I've not read Gu Long for years.
Mind you, Ye Kai actually seems to be a decent sort to his girlfriend. It's Gu Long's own side commentary that's not really palatable. And the less said about Fu Hong Xue's relationship with the prostitute with the proverbial heart of gold, Cui Nong, the better.
Anyway, being of a slashy persuasion I couldn't help but want to slash Ye Kai with Fu Hong Xue. (Especially as the girlfriend doesn't turn up until the second volume.) They're like... brothers under the skin. (Tho' totally unrelated.) I can just see it: Ye Kai investigating some other weird happenings in another town, Fu Hong Xue turns up and makes "Why did I have to run into you" looks at him, and together they fight crime! 'cos Ye Kai is the only one who understands Fu Hong Xue's angst, besides being the only person Fu Hong Xue can bring himself to trust. Of course it's eternal love.
Um, yeah. Must admit that I'd forgotten much of the plot through the years and it was a lot of fun to re-read the novel and pick up on all the red herrings all over again. I enjoy Gu Long's mysteries a lot, tho' they get a trifle bizarre. And it does have a number of coincidences that would in any other novelist's hand annoy me, but Gu Long sets up how freakily intricate the perpetrators' plotting was, right from the beginning, so it's not too bad. Ending's good too.
Something not-Chinese next time.