"Nirvana in Fire"/"Lang Ya Bang" Group Read: Discussion Post for Chapters 38 - 41

[x_los]

Week 10 of the "Lang Ya Bang" book club, chapters 38 - 41. This discussion will draw to a close, and the next session will open, on July 11th.

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 38

[x_los]

The import of this 'choose a dead end' line is a bit obscure to me.

Prince Yu: 'I mean *I* would never rape anyone, but if other guys do, who cares?'

I do kind of like that Prince Yu and Banruo's weird flirty energy is more explicit here than in the book. It’s kind of an unusual dynamic.

'I must have this Mei Changsu’: Prince Yu tries to make this hot, but alas, does not quite succeed.

Re: Chapter 38

[(Anonymous)]

Prince Yu is really a scumbag for all that he thinks he's a better candidate.

Chapter 39

[x_los]

Woah, if this guy really was an innocent bystander then this is the most extreme Changsu's schemes have gotten so far. Enabling a random guy's death and ruining his prospective-consort's prospects? Damn.

Chapter 40

[x_los]

This eighth-rank official is a badass, love to see it.

“Because He Jingzong”: the flow of logic in this sentence, in the final paragraph, doesn’t seem very natural.

Chapter 41

[x_los]

This ’sphere shape object’ joke isn’t really working in English, and is also introducing some confusion. Why does this difficulty—swell the official’s head? The connotations of having a swollen head are very different in English.

What kind of pear-freezing technology are they employing here?

Very glad to see that the ‘he’ll use your secret back passages in the night!!’ joke is original to the book.

Interesting (and, of course, sad) that Changsu has such a clear-sighted understanding of how little the Emperor cares for Prince Jing.