Little Mushroom: Chapters 4-6 (EN) or 5-13 (CH)

[x_los]

Welcome to week 2's "Little Mushroom" (小蘑菇) discussion for English chapters 4-6 of Book 1 and Chinese chapters 5-13 (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 24th.

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 4, EN

[x_los]

Why don’t they genetically examine everyone coming back? Is it too expensive?

‘“We volunteer to bear the cost of genetic examinations.”’ Yep, there we go.

This urban section of the novel feels reminiscent of mid century SF, like Silverberg or Ballard.

Last week I missed that An Ze and An Zhe's names aren’t identical.

Chapter 5, EN

[x_los]

The bullet shell is sort of serving as a replacement for his absent spore.

This book sometimes feels like "Solaris" but from the planet's pov.

It takes three hours to get downtown on the tram? How big is this place? Or how slow is this tram...

Chapter 6, EN

[x_los]

Shaw's wanting an apprentice takes on the narrative shape of a cultivator wanting someone to inherit his legacy in a xianxia story.

“Hubbard said, "You never run a losing business, Scott Shaw.” To make this work in Chinese prose, the author's using Western names in ways that are slightly 'off' for Western conversational norms. Translating the book into English has perhaps made the weirdness a touch starker. Also, what language are these people speaking? If An Ze is ethnically Chinese, 'Shaw' probably isn't.

‘“Captain Hubbard is infinitely resourceful. I’m no good," he said.”’ This translation is good for a danmei, but at times it’s still below the editorial standard I'd hope for from a professional publication.

Why is the arbiter so young?

Why call her ‘Madam D’? That’s only for like, period French novels; this isn’t Balzac. I guess she's technically a 'madame', but that's different.