"Nirvana in Fire"/"Lang Ya Bang" Group Read: Discussion Post for Chapters 82 - 86

[x_los]

Week 20 of the "Lang Ya Bang" book club, chapters 82 - 86. This discussion will draw to a close, and the next session will open, on September 26th.

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 83

[x_los]

- I can see why they cut this Princess Jingling plot line from the drama, because while it makes sense it’s not sympathetic (especially considering the ahistorical emotional logic and emotive narrative demands of television period drama).

- The lives of these royal family members are so restricted. Prince Jing can’t even visit his mother or sister as he likes; his sister can’t send so much as a fucking letter. What’s the point of being royal? It’s a shit deal, versus being Some Noble and less constantly monitored. Western princes and princesses have to put up with a lot less bullshit.

- We never hear about the Crown Prince having any wives, do we? That’s a bit odd.

- Prince Yu is well-cast in the drama; he really does have the confident bearing described here (which makes his eventual breakdown all the starker, in contrast).

- At last Concubine Jing, one of my favourite drama characters, enters the scene.

- I think one thing all these court shenanigans!! scheming plots can take too lightly (admittedly less so here than in a lot of cdrama) is how fucking hard it is to run any large organisation. In Chinese period drama, I feel as though problems are almost always dramatic interpersonal shit and rarely the much greater irl issue: sheer logistics. You can say 'well logistics aren't interesting', but there's nothing intrinsically interesting about the third prince in Who Rules the World?'s millionth tedious, repetitive and frustrating attempt to frame his brother for horse-embezzling or what have you.