"Nirvana in Fire"/"Lang Ya Bang" Group Read: Discussion Post for Chapters 5-8

[x_los]

Week 2 of the "Lang Ya Bang" book club, chapters 5-8. This discussion will draw to a close, and the next session will open, on May 16th.

I'll be doing a weekly post with thoughts on this community. Feel free to join in/discuss. If you'd like to join the Discord, contact superborb for an invite.

Chinese text: https://sj.uukanshu.com/book.aspx?id=17338
English translation: https://merelhyn.tumblr.com/post/641747965727358976/the-langya-list-epubpdf

SPOILER POLICY: I personally don't give a fuck or even like to give unearned credence to the concept, so since I'm writing the post, anything's fair game.

(If anyone is interested in dankodes running further poetry content during or after NiF, please let me know what you'd be keen to discuss. I'm happy to work with you on that. I'll probably ask this again once NiF draws to a close.)

Comments

Chapter 8

[x_los]

- Okay, I now get the nature of the power play involved in re Prince Yu, but that was confusingly stated.
- MCS is very into Yujin's Principled Stand, and to me it doesn't register as a moral action really, just practical.

Re: Chapter 8

[superborb]

XJR's principled stand? I read it more (with the benefit of hindsight) as being about how his predictions are a decade out of date, with XJR being nearly an adult now and all. But perhaps I am reading what I want out of it.

Re: Chapter 8

[x_los]

Yeah, I did mean Jingrui. And I do think there’s an element of—‘I forgot people would change’, but also he says things about how impressive Jingrui’s response is like it’s a matter of morality not to impose on your guest, where I’d class it more as a lesser question of social norms.