Little Mushroom: Chapters 1-3 (EN) or 1-4 (CH)

[x_los]

Welcome to week 1's "Little Mushroom" (小蘑菇) discussion for English chapters 1-3 of Book 1 and Chinese chapters 1-4 (inclusive). This spreadsheet contains the schedule and concordances of the chapter endings across the Chinese and English versions. There's an associated Discord server (ask superborb for an invite if you'd like one), and we'll be running comment posts here.

This discussion will wrap up and next week's will begin on April 17th.

Chinese text
English text

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.

Comments

Chapter 1, EN

[x_los]

This doesn't sound as though decomposition is proceeding at the normal speed. This flora is working overtime.

The time jump is very rough. I expect this now with translated Chinese prose, but it's still a wincer.

It's interesting that the proximity of this piece (in terms of its initial posting/production conditions and reception space) to xuanhuan, et al., gives the premise a shape and the story a choice of POV character that analogous Western texts don't readily arrive at. This set up is reminiscent of fantasy scenarios wherein a plant cultivates and, en route, develops a human form.