Is Xuanji being called a Prince despite being a woman for any particular reason? The next page uses Princess again, so I'm inclined to attribute the discrepancy to uneven editing rather than a textual gendered or role-based marker.
We're nearly done with the book now, and sadly I don’t feel like the novel is as successful as the show. I’m sure the meh translation is running interference, but the key issue seems to be that the novel just isn’t terribly invested in the emotional tensions/payoffs that make the show work for me. The issue might be that the show allows for a redrafting of the novel, another stage of editing. The medium change absolutely affords new resonance and perspective, but there again, the novel should have its own affordances. The novel's habit of limiting readers' access to information characters possess and holding you at a distance from their decision-making processes results in a curtailed, cool emotional register. Also, I think my coming to the show first has done the novel no favours. The plot developments have been deprived of novelty, and the ensemble is, comparatively, a bit lifeless on the page (again, that’s in part due to the translation). The show is about characters, and the novel isn't, really.
(Also the ‘no sex please, we’re Confucian’ vibe is way more palpable in the book. In the show, it was kind of deniable. In the book, anyone who ever wanted to fuck is a fool at best, and very likely an out-and-out reprobate. A whole series of Consequences befalls he who would fuck.)
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Chapter 161
Date: 2023-01-29 01:57 pm (UTC)We're nearly done with the book now, and sadly I don’t feel like the novel is as successful as the show. I’m sure the meh translation is running interference, but the key issue seems to be that the novel just isn’t terribly invested in the emotional tensions/payoffs that make the show work for me. The issue might be that the show allows for a redrafting of the novel, another stage of editing. The medium change absolutely affords new resonance and perspective, but there again, the novel should have its own affordances. The novel's habit of limiting readers' access to information characters possess and holding you at a distance from their decision-making processes results in a curtailed, cool emotional register. Also, I think my coming to the show first has done the novel no favours. The plot developments have been deprived of novelty, and the ensemble is, comparatively, a bit lifeless on the page (again, that’s in part due to the translation). The show is about characters, and the novel isn't, really.
(Also the ‘no sex please, we’re Confucian’ vibe is way more palpable in the book. In the show, it was kind of deniable. In the book, anyone who ever wanted to fuck is a fool at best, and very likely an out-and-out reprobate. A whole series of Consequences befalls he who would fuck.)