Book of the month in April 2006?

[rose~]

What is the book of the month now?

How about 兄弟,(下)?

[wushijiao]

I'm reading it, so I'd be happy to discuss this as book of the month. Although, I'm fairly busy right now, so I doubt I will be able to post much about it until the end of April/ early May.

[semantic nuance]

I find 陳希我's <抓癢> is incredibly too close to the bone. When I read it, I feel like vomiting,a purgation to some degree. It's an echo to the very bottom of one's soul. Personally, I love his way of narration, his exposure of human nature, and his repugance against deeply traditionally rooted thoughts. The raison d'etre is bleak and hopelessly void. It's really worth reading.It's once a banned book. The following is its link:

陳希我--抓癢

Hope you enjoy it.

[rose~]

Yes, actually I am still plouging my way through it, not finished yet. I wish there was a large-print version, I really do. I get such a headache reading books in Chinese, my eyesight has gone to pot as well.

Anyway, I can see in the index that there have been nine threads about "book of the month" but why can I only see two?

Thanks for the link, Semantic Nuance, sounds like that book might suit a rainy day in Shanghai very well~

[wushijiao]

Anyway, I can see in the index that there have been nine threads about "book of the month" but why can I only see two?

Not sure why that is, but you can see the posts for two of the other books here:

我本英雄 by 周梅森

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/5884-book-of-the-month-club-%e6%88%91%e6%9c%ac%e8%8b%b1%e9%9b%84-by-%e5%91%a8%e6%a2%85%e6%a3%ae&highlight=%E6%88%91%E6%9C%AC%E8%8B%B1%E9%9B%84

Zhou Meisen, by the way, has got a lot of media attention lately for fighting for the rights of stock holders.

家 by 巴金

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/6442-selection-for-november-%e5%ae%b6-family-by-%e5%b7%b4%e9%87%91-ba-jin&highlight=ba+jin

I would strongly recommend both books. Rose, is your native language Chinese? If it is, then there might be other books that are much more interesting for you than there two above, or the two 兄弟's. But, based on my own experience, I think the above books are interesting and also not too difficult for the laowai looking to read Chinese books for the first time.

[roddy]

Fixed - back-end was set to only display the last months posts.

[wushijiao]

Just wondering, is anyone reading 兄弟　下? I think it's pretty good so far, still fairly crude.

Anyway, I'll do a more detailed write up in a day or two.

[wushijiao]

Well, I finished this today. All I can say is, on a personal level, I liked 兄弟 下 quite a bit, but it seems to be getting fairly negative reviews elsewhere.

Part of the problem might be that the book exaggerates everything to enormous proportions. For example, Li Guangtou (one of the main characters) decides to put on a beauty completion for virgins. Thousands of virgins come to the the town, Liu Zhen, but it turns out many of them aren’t virgins, and many sleep with the judges to get a better score.

So, this type of exaggeration and crudeness, and sometimes pure stupidity, will certainly put many people off. Nonetheless, I think the book has some strong aspects. I think Yu Hua is able to capture the zeitgeist of the post- “Reform and Opening” times pretty well. If 兄弟 上’s main goal was to portray the violence of the Mao era, 兄弟 下’s main goal is to show how materialism and consumerism have caused a complete breakdown in the system of morals. At one point, Song Gang, a typical, loyal, semi-stupid Lei Fengish 土包子, becomes a despicable con man (at least in my opinion) in order to make money for his wife. And yet Yu Hua is never an overt moralist, putting any judgment on characters’ actions, so it is possible that some of the intended moral judgments might go unnoticed. They might go unnoticed because the book is basically sarcastic in tone, a bit like a Chinese “Simpsons”. I think for many of Yu Hua’s reader’s this transition from historical, tear-jerking dramas to satirical, macro-novel might too big of a shock.

Anyway, as long as you don’t mind dozens of sex jokes, redneck jokes, and other crude jokes, then this isn’t a bad book to read.　In fact, it's pretty hilarious and entertaining, although it may not be upper crust literature.

I'd be interested to see any other opinions of this book.

[wushijiao]

Here's a bit from an interview of Yu Hua by Nanfang Zhoumo. The goal of the interview seems to be to provoke Yu Hua’s anger so that he’ll say something quotable. I sometimes get the impression, based on the public’s reaction to Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige’s recent movies and on the public’s reaction to Yu Hua’s 兄弟, that people would rather have a great time destructively shooting down the most famous artist in a particular genre than they would spending time trying to find other young talents.

Reading 兄弟 I often felt Yu Hua was trying to use exaggeration (similar to magical realism) as a way to critique a deeper reality. This quote hints at that.

记者：你说“我深感幸运，总是有一些人在理解我”，但现在更多的是大量的人不理解你。谁对你影响更大？

余华：有多少人在理解我，又有多少人不能理解我，这是无法计算的。《兄弟》下部出版才只有一个月的时间，虽然有着很好的销售业绩，但是这还不能说明一本书的真正价值，在那些刚出版就畅销的文学作品里，有些与世长存了，比如《百年孤独》；另一些销声匿迹了，也就没有比如了。

Also, while its easy for everybody to see the errors of the Cultural Revolution era, the errors of modern Chinese society are less easy to pinpoint. I think that Yu Hua’s criticism will become clearer over time.

同样的道理，一部文学作品刚出版时得到的评价也不能证明其真正价值，有些作品开始时好评如潮，可是最终被人遗忘，另一些充满了争议，可是最后成为了经典，比如纳博科夫的《洛丽塔》。对一部文学作品的价值判断，我只相信时间，50年以后是否还有人在阅读《兄弟》，现在谁也不知道。

Yu Hua also broaches that subject by saying that although he has been labeled as a “best seller”, he really doesn’t sell all that much by international standards, especially in light of the fact that China has 1.3 billion people.

在13亿人口的中国，《兄弟》的上部和下部仅仅只是分别接近了50万册，就已经如此议论纷纷了，我想这是我们共同的悲哀。不要说美国和欧洲的那些大作家了，就是韩国和日本的那些严肃作家，一部新书销售超过100万册根本不是新闻。

Clearly, any “high brow” literature, like the eye of a pyramid, can only exist when there is a large base of books for entertainment below it, prompting enough readers to want more challenging works, forcing a market of well-read people to develop. Structurally, it seems like there is still a way to go for that to happen. Getting strict on piracy would be a big help, too. Who knows.

http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/zm/20060427/wh/whxw/200604270036.asp

[rose~]

Umm, having not yet finished 兄弟 I am wondering whether "Book of the Year" would be a more realistic proposition for people like me...

[wushijiao]

Umm, having not yet finished 兄弟 I am wondering whether "Book of the Year" would be a more realistic proposition for people like me...

Haha...are you still reading the book, or did you lose interest?

It actually might not be a bad idea to think about doing a "book of the quarter" or "book of the year". I don't know.

[xianu]

I know you all are on the 下部, but I thought, I would start with the beginning and see if I could catch up. is anyone still reading/discussing this book?

[wushijiao]

is anyone still reading/discussing this book?

No, I don't think anyone is still reading this. But if you are, feel free to post any thoughts. I still kind of like this book.

[xianu]

Well then what are people reading? I just went through the first few pages of Xiongdi and had to laugh at the lewdness- very villagey - of the pigu exposition.